'The Epistle of Barnabas' is a Greek epistle written between AD 70 and 132. The complete text is preserved in the 4th-century Codex Sinaiticus, where it appears immediately after the New Testament and before the Shepherd of Hermas. The main message of the Epistle of Barnabas is that the Jewish scriptures — what would become the Old Testament in Christianity — were actually Christian documents from the beginning. According to the epistle, the Jews had misinterpreted their own law by applying it literally; the true meaning was symbolic prophecies foreshadowing the coming of Jesus. The Jews broke their covenant from the very beginning, and are misled by an evil angel. After explaining its Christian interpretations of the Jewish scriptures, the epistle concludes by discussing “The Two Ways”, also seen in the Didache: a Way of Light and a Way of Darkness.
