Letter of Barnabas

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The Letter of Barnabas is a short apologetic and catechetical treatise in the form of a letter by an anonymous author, probably of Jewish origin, written in the Syrian-Palestinian environment. Clement of Alexandria and Origen attributed the authorship to Saint Paul’s companion – Barnabas. Eusebius and Jerome classified it as apocryphal. The letter was a reaction to threats from Judaizers who called for keeping the commandments of the Mosaic Law. The author justifies the superiority of the Christian cult over the Jewish one.