220 Dimensions of Baptism
paradise have become again the Christians of 11.8, whose leaves are the
words that bring conversion. The 'hope in Jesus' in 11.11 is the equivalent
of 'hope in the cross' in 11.8. Baptized persons are cleansed of their sins,picking up the connection with forgiveness of sins announced in 11.1, and
as newly planted trees they produce fruit in their heart.
As already noted, Barn. 6.7-19^62 permits an elaboration of what is said
more briefly in 11.9-10 about the 'land praised above every land'. Baptis-
mal motifs permit other connections to be made between Barn. 6 and Barn.- These motifs occur in a context that emphasizes Jesus' passion (6.7),
his suffering in the flesh (6.9). The discussion of the land begins with the
promised inheritance of a good land 'flowing with milk and honey' (6.8, a
composite quotation). Milk and honey were given to the newly baptized in
the baptismal eucharist.^63 Barnabas relates the milk and honey both to the
eschatological promised land (6.13) and the food of children (6.17), and so
to the new creation and the new birth,^64 both of which are connected with
baptism. He identifies the new creation, being remade (6.11,14), with the
forgiveness of sins by which one receives the soul of a child.^65 To enter
the promised land implies a new creation based on forgiveness of sins
(11.1,11), and the new creation consists in a change of heart.^66 The Lord's
incarnation made possible the change of the stony heart into a heart of
flesh (6.14), which then becomes a fit dwelling place for the Spirit of God
and so his temple (6.15), with perhaps the added overtone that the temple
of stone is replaced by the temple of the heart. The collective hearts of
those transformed by the Holy Spirit are a Church, where God is wor- - Jn 6.35, 45-58. The wider relations of Barnabas and John are discussed by
Paget, The Epistle of Barnabas, pp. 225-30. - Nils A. Dahl, 'La terre ou coulent le lait et le miel selon Barnabe 6.8-19', in Aux
sources de la tradition chretienne: Melanges offers a M. Maurice Goguel (Neuchatel:
Delachaux & Niestle, 1950), pp. 62-70, defends the unity of the passage. Prigent, Les
Testimonia, pp. 84-90, discusses the passage, describing it as a midrash. - Tertullian, De cor. 3, which associates this with the food of newborn children;
Hippolytus, Ap. Trad. 23.2, which connects the practice, as does Barnabas, with both
the food of children and with the promised land. Od. Sol. 4.10 is often taken as
baptismal. - Prostmeier, Der Barnabasbrief, pp. 278-79.
- Baptism as a rebirth is common in early Christian literature: Justin, 1 Apol. 61;
Theophilus,^c?^wto/. 2.16; Irenaeus, Adv. haer. 3.17.1-2; Irenaeus, Dem. 3; Clement
of Alexandria, Strom 4.25; Tertullian, De bapt. 13. - Prigent, Les Testimonia, pp. 85,89. For baptism as a new creation in Barnabas,
see also Wengst, Tradition und Theologie, p. 86.