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Perhaps nothing is more revealing than the following:
"Thou shalt remember the day of judgment, night and day . . . . . and by meditating
how to save a soul by the word, or by the hands thou shalt labour for the redemption of
thy sins" (19:10).
No one with the most elementary understanding of the basic doctrines of grace, apart
from merit of works, revealed through the Apostle Paul, could ever give expression to
such ideas. Moreover Barnabas could not have believed that nothing "shall be able to
separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord" (Rom. 8: 39), for
he writes:
"Let us never . . . . . fall asleep over our sins, and so the evil ruler will get control of
us, and thrust us out of the kingdom of the Lord" (4:13).
We find with this writer what is perhaps the first treatise in post-apostolic times on the
allegorical method of treating Scripture. This is a pernicious system of interpretation
which is destructive of true understanding of the Word. It has done so much to veil the
truth over the centuries, and is seen today in amillennialism and kindred doctrines, and
much of the teaching emanating from the Roman Catholic church. Those who hold such
ideas never seem to grasp the true position of the people of Israel in the redemptive plan
of God, and in missing this, they lose the key that opens so much of Bible teaching. If we
err here, it is more than likely we shall err everywhere else in our conception of the
Divine plan of the ages centred in Christ Jesus.
Barnabas is strongly anti-Judaistic; in fact he goes so far as to assert that the people of
Israel were never in real covenant relationship with God. He even goes so far as to state
that circumcision was practiced by them because they were deceived by an evil angel:
"He (God) has commanded that there should be a circumcision not of the flesh but
they (Israel) disobeyed, for an evil angel deluded them . . . . ." (9:4).
He takes all the literal commands of the Lord and spiritualizes them. Commenting on
the Divine regulations of diet he says:
"This then is why he (Moses) mentioned the swine; `You shall not associated', he
means, `with men who are like swine' . . . . ."
"Neither shall you eat the eagle or the hawk, or the kite, or the crow. You shall not,
he means, associate with or come to resemble such men as do not know how to provide
their food by toil and sweat, but lawlessly seize what belongs to others."
"You shall not eat, he goes on, sea eel or polyp or cuttlefish. You shall not, he means,
associate with such men . . . . . who are utterly ungodly and already condemned to death."
"Moses received three decrees about food and uttered them in the Spirit, but they
(Israel) in their fleshly desire, received them as having to do with eating" (10:3-9).
This is typical of the way this writer handles the O.T. Nothing means exactly what it
says; some so-called spiritual interpretation must be found. What he did not realize, nor
those who follow in his footsteps, that by so doing they are opening the door wide to
error as there are as many different ideas as there are spiritualizers! If God does not
mean what He says we might as well close the Book for all serious and practical