Frauds and Follies of the Fathers: A Review of the Worth of Their Testimony to the Four GospelsWheeler, J. M. (Joseph Mazzini)
Religion
Frauds and Follies of the Fathers: A Review of the Worth of Their Testimony to the Four Gospels
Wheeler, J. M. (Joseph Mazzini)
Christianity -- Controversial literature; Fathers of the church
Some have supposed these spurious regulations were taken from
traditions, but the Rev. J. Jones says: "I rather look upon it as _a
pious forgery and fraud_, there being nothing of the sort known to have
been among the Jewish customs, and this book having several such frauds
in it" ("A New and Full Method of Settling the Canonical Authority of
the New Testament," vol. ii., p. 377, 1827). If it is not either of
these it is very clear that we have lost some important portions of
God's inspired word in the Pentateuch. Barnabas also has a chapter on
the red-heifer, which was sacred to Typhon among the Egyptians, as a
type of Christ, and says (chap, viii., p. 115) "The calf is Jesus."
It appears, too, that Abraham was a Greek scholar some time before the
Greek language was known, and that he circumcised his servants as a
type of Christianity. Barnabas knew, probably by inspiration, the exact
number who were circumcised, and tells us (chap, ix., p. 116): "Learn,
then, my children, concerning all things richly, that Abraham, the first
who enjoined circumcision, looking forward in spirit to Jesus, practised
that rite, having received the mysteries of the three letters. For [the
Scriptures] saith, 'And Abraham circumcised ten, and eight, and three
hundred men of his household." "What, then, was the knowledge given to
him in this? Learn the eighteen first, and then the three hundred. The
ten and eight are thus denoted--Ten by I, and Eight by H, you have [the
initials of the name of] Jesus. And because the cross was to express the
grace [of our redemption] by the letter T, he says also 'Three Hundred.'
He signifies, therefore, Jesus by two letters, and the cross by one. He
knows this, who has put within us the engrafted gift of His doctrine. No
one has been admitted by me to a more excellent piece of knowledge than
this, but I know that ye are worthy."
Verily Barnabas must have been full of faith and of the Holy Ghost.
No wonder he was "expressly set apart and sent forth to the work of
an apostle by the order of the Holy Ghost" (Acts xiii., 2--4). The
importance which he places upon numbers may be compared with that
assigned by the author of the book of Revelation. Barney tells us that
the world will last 6,000 years because it was made in six days, and the
inference is doubtless as true as the fact (?) on which it is based. His
system of finding types in the Old Testament has lasted in the Christian
Church to our own time, and derives countenance from several passages
of Paul. This most excellent piece of knowledge concerning Abraham
is hardly more far-fetched than saying that Levi paid tithes to
Mel-chisedek because he was potentially in the loins of his forefather
Abraham when he met him (Heb. vii., 9,10), or that Agar was a type of
Jerusalem (Gal. iv., 25).
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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