214 Dimensions of Baptism
selves' (aAA' eauxois oiKo5o|jnriaouGi v) as a reference to another kind of
baptism. If correct, that might seem to rule out ritual baptism, for it was
commanded in the Law of Moses, but Barnabas consistently understands
the Jews' literal application of the institutions in the Law as their own
misinterpretations.^28 'For themselves' might only serve to reinforce the
distinctions between what the Jews did and what Christians did and not
point to a later institution like proselyte baptism. The literal meaning of
oiKoSopeco, 'build', might suggest another meaning, not referring to bap-
tism but to the building of the temple.^29 That has some plausibility,
because the temple was the place for atoning sacrifices, and Barnabas
maintains a recurring interest in the temple and its sacrificial system. He
might be contrasting baptism with expiation at the temple even if there is
not an allusion to the temple in the word 'build'. A Jewish-Christian source
preserved in the Pseudo-Clementines (Recog. 1.48) says that the baptism
instituted by Jesus 'extinguishes the fire that the high priest kindled for
sins'.
The collection of quotations in Barn. 11.2-11 is part of the evidence for
collections of testimonia in early Christianity. But is the author making his
own catena or is he drawing on pre-existing collections? The presence of
the same texts, sometimes in the same sequence, in other authors (appar-
ently independent of Barnabas) supports the view that there were previous
collections.^30 The passages cited seem an unlikely collection of proof texts
on baptism, even on the principle represented in other early Christian writ-
ers that every reference to water was a reference to baptism.^31 Anti-Judaism- See Hvalvik, Struggle, pp. 153-54, that 'for themselves' is part of Barnabas's
charge of 'man made' ordinances in contrast to what is ordained by God (cf. 14.3) and
that the discussion of baptism continues the theme of the 'two peoples'. Prostmeier,
Der Barnabasbrief, p. 420, refers also to 2.6 as a connection of 'for themselves' with
Barnabas's stricture against what is made by human beings. - Suggested by Paget, The Epistle of Barnabas, pp. 154,157. He rejects (pp. 155-
56), however, the further development of the idea that makes the 'cistern of death'
(11.2) the temple advanced by M.B. Shukster and P. Richardson, 'Temple and Bet-ha-
Midrash in the Epistle of Barnabas', in S.G. Wilson (ed.), Anti-Judaism in Early Chris-
tianity (2 vols.; Toronto: Wilfred Laurier University Press, 1986), pp. 17-31 (26). - The fullest study is Prigent, Les testimonia, who describes Barnabas's treat-
ment in ch. 11 as 'midrashic' (pp. 90-99). For Barnabas's interpretation of these Old
Testament texts, see also Per Lundberg, La typologie baptismale dans I 'ancienne eglise
(ASNU; Uppsala: A.-B. Lundequistska, 1942), pp. 178-84, and Skarsaune, The Proof
from Prophecy, pp. 378-79. - So stated by Cyprian, Ep. 63[62].8.