Barnabas — Epistle 6
When he renewed us in the forgiveness of sins, he made us another kind of thing, so that we have a child’s soul, as if he were forming us again.
For the Scripture speaks about us when he says to the Son: “Let us make the human according to our image and according to our likeness, and let them rule the beasts of the earth and the birds of the heaven and the fish of the sea.”
And the Lord said, seeing our good formation: “Grow and multiply and fill the earth.”
He said these things to the Son. I will show you again how he speaks to us: he made a second formation in the last times.
And the Lord says: “See, I make the last things like the first.”
Greek
ἀνακαινίσας ἡμᾶς ἐν τῇ ἀφέσει τῶν ἁμαρτιῶν, ἐποίησεν ἡμᾶς ἄλλον τύπον, ὡς παιδίων ἔχειν τὴν ψυχήν, ὡς ἂν δὴ ἀναπλάσσοντος αὐτοῦ ἡμᾶς. λέγει γὰρ ἡ γραφὴ περὶ ἡμῶν, ὡς λέγει τῷ υἱῷ· Ποιήσωμεν κατ᾽ εἰκόνα καὶ καθ᾽ ὁμοίωσιν ἡμῶν τὸν ἄνθρωπον, καὶ ἀρχέτωσαν τῶν θηρίων τῆς γῆς καὶ τῶν πετεινῶν τοῦ οὐρανοῦ καὶ τῶν ἰχθύων τῆς θαλάσσης. καὶ εἶπεν κύριος, ἰδὼν τὸ καλὸν πλάσμα ἡμῶν· Αὐξάνεσθε καὶ πληθύνεσθε καὶ πληρώσατε τὴν γῆν. ταῦτα πρὸς τὸν υἱόν. πάλιν σοι ἐπιδείξω, πῶς πρὸς ἡμᾶς λέγει δευτέραν πλάσιν ἐπ᾽ ἐσχάτων ἐποίησεν. λέγει δὲ κύριος· Ἰδού, ποιῶ τὰ ἔσχατα ὡς τὰ πρῶτα.