Almost in the New Testament

#44: “Almost in the New Testament” by Brendon Wahlberg
Recently, an ancient copy of the New Testament was put online for the first time. You can now see every page of the famous Codex Sinaiticus (found on Mt. Sinai), which may have been one of the copies commissioned by the Emperor Constantine in the year 331. This copy shows how the canon of the New Testament was not yet finalized at the time, because although it contains all of the books we are familiar with now, it also contains two books which were later rejected from the final New Testament collection. These books, which were “almost in the New Testament”, were the “Letter of Barnabas” and “The Shepherd of Hermas”. What were these books about? And why were they kicked out of the canon in the end?
“The Shepherd” was a very popular book during the first four centuries of Christianity. It was probably written between 140 and 170CE by a man named Hermas, the brother of Pius, the Bishop of Rome. Many churches regarded it as holy scripture, which explains why it was included in the Codex found on Mt. Sinai. Basically, “The Shepherd” is about an angel who appears to Hermas in the form of a shepherd and shows him five visions, twelve commandments, and ten parables. These revelations are symbolic and hard to understand, so Hermas begs the angel to explain each one. The reader is expected to glean valuable Christian lessons from each explanation. Most of these lessons are about repentance.
The most important of these lessons concerns the question of what happens to baptized people who join the Church and are saved, but later return to a life of sin. “The Shepherd” claims to be a new divine revelation that such people get one, and only one, second chance. In “The Shepherd” (Fourth Commandment Chapter Three) Hermas is talking to the angel, and they have the following conversation.
“And I said, "I heard, sir, some teachers maintain that there is no other repentance than that which takes place, when we descended into the water and received remission of our former sins." He said to me, "That was sound doctrine which you heard; for that is really the case. For he who has received remission of his sins ought not to sin any more, but to live in purity. […] For the Lord, knowing the heart, and foreknowing all things, knew the weakness of men and the manifold wiles of the devil, that he would inflict some evil on the servants of God, and would act wickedly towards them. The Lord, therefore, being merciful, has had mercy on the work of His hand, and has set repentance for them; and He has entrusted to me power over this repentance. And therefore I say to you, that if any one is tempted by the devil, and sins after that great and holy calling in which the Lord has called His people to everlasting life, he has opportunity to repent but once. But if he should sin frequently after this, and then repent, to such a man his repentance will be of no avail…"”
Why did “The Shepherd” get rejected from the final canon? Part of the reason was that it had been written too recently. It did not go back to the Apostolic times. It was known exactly who wrote it, and Hermas was not connected to the Apostles. So, the book was not old enough or authoritative enough. But on top of those reasons, there was a problem with the way the book discussed Jesus. In Parable 9, “The Shepherd” suggests that Jesus was a normal person who became a host for the Holy Spirit. “The holy, pre-existent Spirit, that created every creature, God made to dwell in flesh, which He chose. This flesh, accordingly, in which the Holy Spirit dwelt, was nobly subject to that Spirit, walking religiously and chastely, in no respect defiling the Spirit; and accordingly, after living excellently and purely, and after laboring and co-operating with the Spirit, and having in everything acted vigorously and courageously along with the Holy Spirit, He assumed it as a partner with it. For this conduct of the flesh pleased Him, because it was not defiled on the earth while having the Holy Spirit.” This view of Jesus was rejected by the Church, and that may have banished “The Shepherd” from the canon. But before it was rejected, “The Shepherd” was almost part of the New Testament. It is precisely because it was once so popular that we still have the complete text of this long book.
The other book which was almost in the New Testament, and which can be found in the Codex of Mt. Sinai, is called the “Letter of Barnabas.” We don’t really know who wrote this epistle, but tradition associates it with either Barnabas, the companion of Paul, or someone named Barnabas of Alexandria. It was written around 130CE, for Christian Gentiles to read. The letter takes a very strong anti-Jewish position, and basically, it says that the Jewish understanding of the Old Testament, and the Jewish religion, are completely wrong. The letter says that Judaism is a false religion. Jews have never been part of a Covenant with God. Only Christians have a Covenant with God. Jews have never understood their own scriptures. An evil angel has led Jews to take their scriptures literally, when they were always meant to be taken figuratively. In fact, everything in the Old Testament is a really only a symbolic way to foreshadow the future Jesus.
For example, “Barnabas” says that circumcision was really only a symbol of Jesus on the cross. To make this point, he notes that Abraham circumcised 18 and 300 men in his household. Then Barnabas converts numbers to letters and makes the number 18 into Jesus, and the number 300 into the cross. The point is that the Jews were never supposed to take circumcision literally and actually go and do it, but that the circumcision story was really meant to point to the future event of Jesus’ death.
Likewise, Barnabas says that keeping Kosher was not to be taken literally either. “Now when Moses said, “Eat neither pig, nor eagle, nor hawk, nor crow, nor any fish that is without scales […] it is not God’s commandment that they literally should not eat, but Moses spoke in the spirit. For this reason, then, he mentions the pig: Do not associate, he is saying, with such people – people who are like pigs. That is, people who forget their Lord when they are well off, but when they are in need, they acknowledge the Lord; just as when the pig is feeding it ignores its keeper, but when it is hungry it makes a din.” (Barnabas 10:1-3)
It may be a blessing that “Barnabas” was excluded from the canon. Anti-Semites have used certain New Testament passages to justify their hatred through the ages. The “Letter of Barnabas” would have been the kind of material that they would have loved to use, if it had been ranked with Holy Scripture.
So there you have it, a brief introduction to two books that were almost Scripture. John Greenleaf Whittier wrote, "For of all sad words of tongue or pen, the saddest are these: 'It might have been!'" It might have been that our New Testament was two books longer than it is today. Instead, “The Shepherd” and “Barnabas” were tossed on the discard pile of history. But perhaps such things are part of God’s plan and for the best after all.