(Mis)translations - St Barnabas
Lytton Strachey:
In another passage, Keble deals with an even more recondite question. He quotes the teaching of St. Barnabas that “Abraham, who first gave men circumcision, did thereby perform a spiritual and typical action, looking forward to the Son.” St. Barnabas’s argument is as follows: Abraham circumcised of his house men to the number of 318. Why 318? Observe first the 18, then the 300. Of the two letters which stand for 18, 10 is represented by I, 8 by H. “Thou hast here,” says St. Barnabas, “the word of Jesus.” As for the 300, “the Cross is represented by Tau, and the letter Tau represents that number.” Unfortunately, however, St. Barnabas’s premise was of doubtful validity, as the Rev. Mr. Maitland pointed out, in a pamphlet impugning the conclusions of the Tract.
The simple fact is [he wrote] that when Abraham pursued Chedorlaomer “he armed his trained servants, born in his own house, three hundred and eighteen.” When, more than thirteen (according to the common chronology, fifteen) years after, he circumcised “all the men of his house, born in the house, and bought with money of the stranger,” and, in fact, every male who was as much as eight days old, we are not told what the number amounted to. Shall we suppose (just for the sake of the interpretation) that Abraham’s family had so dwindled in the interval as that now all the males of his household, trained men, slaves, and children, equalled only and exactly the number of his warriors 15 years before?
The question seems difficult to answer, but Keble had, as a matter of fact, forestalled the argument in the following passage, which had apparently escaped the notice of the Rev. Mr. Maitland.
Now whether the facts were really so or not (if it were, it was surely by special providence), that Abraham’s household at the time of the circumcision was exactly the same number as before; still the argument of St. Barnabas will stand. As thus: circumcision had from the beginning a reference to our SAVIOUR, as in other respects, so in this; that the mystical number, which is the cypher of Jesus crucified, was the number of the first circumcised household in the strength of which Abraham prevailed against the powers of the world. So St. Clement of Alexandria, as cited by Fell.
And Keble supports his contention through ten pages of close print, with references to Aristeas, St. Augustin, St. Jerome, and Dr. Whitby.
St Barnabas:
μάθετε οὖν, τέκνα ἀγάπης, περὶ πάντων πλουσίως, ὅτι Ἀβραάμ, πρῶτος περιτομὴν δούς, ἐν πνεύματι προβλέψας εἰς τὸν Ἰησοῦν περιέτεμεν, λαβὼν τριῶν γραμμάτων δόγματα. λέγει γάρ· Καὶ περιέτεμεν Ἀβραὰμ ἐκ τοῦ οἴκου αὐτοῦ ἄνδρας δεκαοκτὼ καὶ τριακοσίους. τίς οὖν ἡ δοθεῖσα αὐτῷ γνῶσις; μάθετε, ὅτι τοὺς δεκαοκτὼ πρώτους, καὶ διάστημα ποιήσας λέγει τριακοσίους. τὸ δεκαοκτὼ ι’ δέκα, η’ ὀκτώ· ἔχεις Ἰησοῦν. ὅτι δὲ ὁ σταυρὸς ἐν τῷ ταῦ ἤμελλεν ἔχειν τὴν χάριν, λέγει καὶ τοὺς τριακοσίους. δηλοῖ οὖν τὸν μὲν Ἰησοῦν ἐν τοῖς δυσὶν γράμμασιν, καὶ ἐν τῷ ἑνὶ τὸν σταυρόν.
Joseph Lienhard:
Barnabas then goes on to give examples of the true interpretation of the Scriptures. As few examples should suffice. When Scripture says that Abraham circumscribed 318 members of his household, it was really making a prophecy of Christ, for the Greek number 18 is the first two letters of the name “Jesus,” and 300 is the letter tau (Τ), a picture of the cross. (The fact that the Scriptures were written in Hebrew, not Greek, does not slow Barnabas down for a moment.)
