et alia plura quae in Catholicam ecclesiam recipi non potest) although it might be described as directed to meet (
pro;" th;n ai{resin
) the teaching of Marcion. (Comp.
Hist. of N. T. Canon
, p. 537.)
The identification of the Epistle of Barnabas of the Claromontane Stichometry with the Epistle to the Hebrews was first suggested by Martianay (Jerome, Bibl. Div. Proleg. iv: Migne P. L. 28.124), and maintained by Credner. Two books only can come into consideration, the Apocryphal Letter of Barnabas and the Epistle to the Hebrews. These are so different in length that when the question is one of measurement it is practically impossible to confuse them. In
Cod. Sin. a , which contains both, the Epistle to the Hebrews
occupies 40 1/2 columns and
the Epistle of Barnabas
53 1/2 columns; and, to take another equivalent of the Epistle to the Hebrews, the Epistle to the Galatians, the Ephesians, and Titus together occupy 41 columns. It may then be fairly concluded that in any scheme of reckoning the Epistle to the Hebrews will give a number of lines (
stivcoi
) approximately equal to the combined numbers of the lines in these three Epistles, and that the lines in the Letter of Barnabas will be about a third more. Thus in the Greek numeration given by Martianay (
l.c.
), which is found in several MSS., the three Epistles give a total of 702 (293 + 312 + 97) and the number assigned to Hebrews is 703. The numeration in the Claromontane list is different, but it leads to the same result: the three Epistles have a total sum of 865 (350 + 375 + 140), and the number assigned to the Epistle of Barnabas is 850. It would be difficult to add anything to the force of this correspondence.
There is however another independent testimony to the relative length of the (apocryphal) Letter of Barnabas in the Stichometry of Nicephorus. In this the lines of the fourteen Epistles of St Paul are given only in a total sum: then the lines of Barnabas are reckoned as 1360, and the lines of the Apocalypse at
1400. In other words, according to this calculation, which represents a different numeration from that given in the Claromontane Stichometry, the length in lines of the Epistle of Barnabas is a little less than that of the Apocalypse. Now in the Claromontane list the lines of the Apocalypse are reckoned as 1200, and the lines of the Epistle of Barnabas are 850. Taking then the proportion of the Hebrews to the apocryphal Barnabas in
Cod. Sin.
, and assuming that the Claromontane Barnabas is the Epistle to the Hebrews, the lines of the apocryphal Barnabas on this scale would be 1150. Again the coincidence is practically complete.
The position of the Book in the Stichometry, after the Catholic Epistles and before the Revelation, the Acts of the Apostles and the Shepherd, points to the same conclusion; nor would it be necessary in the case of the single letter of the supposed author to identify it further by the addition of the address.