The Divine Allegorist

In Barn. 2.6, the new νόμος of our Lord Jesus Christ is best understood as Christian allegorical exegesis of the Torah – accessed, according to the author, through Christian perception, gnosis, and insight, regarded as a divine gift (Barn. 1.2). This exegetical strategy usurps all other forms of theological reflection and provides a divine, eternal, and secure salvific understanding of who God is and what God requires. It also rescues ethical mandates of the law from Pauls apparent blanket rejections (e. g., Gal 3:10–14, 23–26). Aspects of this new law correspond in part to the social justice message of the Jewish prophets, suggesting that (according to Barnabas) past prophets accessed some aspects of the interpretations traceable to this strategy perhaps through spiritual inspiration, a focus on the intention of the laws, on ethics rather than cultus, or a combination of the three. To the extent that others – both Jews and Christians – do not interpret the scriptures in this way, their νόμος (3.6) falls perilously short. Since both Jews and Christians are targets of the critique, it may be necessary to rethink the nature of Barnabas as exemplifying Adversus Judaeos literature.