Barnabas, Epistle of Barnabas 6

When he carried out the command, what does he say? "Who is the one judging me? Let him stand against me. Who is the one justifying me? Let him draw near to the Lord's child." Woe to you, because you will all wear out like a garment, and a moth will consume you. The prophet speaks again, because he was set as a strong stone for crushing: "See, I am laying in Zion's foundations a precious, chosen, honored cornerstone" (Isaiah 28:16). Then what does he say? "The one who hopes in him will live forever." Is our hope therefore in a stone? Absolutely not; rather, because the Lord placed his flesh in strength. For he says, "He set me like a solid rock." And the prophet says again: "The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone" (Psalm 118:22). And again: "This is the great and wonderful day the Lord has made." I am writing more plainly so you can understand: I am the remnant of your love. What does the prophet say once more? "A gang of evildoers hemmed me in; they swarmed around me like bees around a honeycomb, and they cast lots for my clothing." Because he was about to appear and suffer in the flesh, his passion was foretold. The prophet says concerning Israel: "Woe to their souls, for they have plotted a wicked scheme against themselves, saying, 'Let us bind the righteous one, because he is troublesome to us.'" What does the other prophet Moses say to them? "This is what the Lord God says: 'Enter the good land the Lord swore to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and take possession of it — a land flowing with milk and honey.'" What does knowledge say? "Learn. Hope, he says, in the one about to be revealed to you in the flesh — Jesus." For a human being is suffering earth; from the face of the earth the formation of Adam came about. So what does "Enter the good land, a land flowing with milk and honey" mean? Blessed is our Lord, brothers, who puts wisdom and understanding of his secrets within us. The prophet speaks a parable of the Lord: "Who will understand, if not the wise, the knowledgeable, and the one who loves his Lord?" Since he has renewed us through the forgiveness of sins, he has made us a new kind of people — having the souls of children, as if he were reshaping us. Scripture says about us, as he says to the Son: "Let us make humanity in our image and likeness, and let them rule over the beasts of the earth, the birds of the sky, and the fish of the sea" (Genesis 1:26-28). And the Lord said, seeing his good creation: "Increase, multiply, and fill the earth." These words are addressed to the Son. I will show you again how he speaks to us. He made a second creation in the last days. And the Lord says: "See, I make the last things like the first." That is why the prophet proclaimed: "Enter the land flowing with milk and honey and take possession of it." See, then, we have been reshaped, just as another prophet says: "See, says the Lord, I will remove from these — that is, from those the Spirit of the Lord foresaw — the stony hearts and put in hearts of flesh, because he himself was about to appear in the flesh and dwell in us." For the holy temple, brothers, is the dwelling place of our heart for the Lord. The Lord says again: "In what will I appear to the Lord my God and be glorified?" He says: "I will confess you in the assembly of my brothers, and sing to you in the midst of the assembly of the holy ones." Therefore we are the ones he led into the good land. What, then, are the milk and honey? Because first a child is nourished with honey, then with milk; so also we, being nourished by the faith of the promise and the word, will live ruling over the earth. We said this above: "And let them increase, multiply, and rule over the fish." Who, then, is able now to rule over beasts, fish, or birds of the sky? We must recognize that ruling is a matter of authority, so that someone, having commanded, may rule. If this does not happen now, then he told us when: when we too have been perfected to become heirs of the Lord's covenant.