Latin · De pudicitia
A rigorist treatise denying that the church can forgive adultery and fornication after baptism. It rejects the Shepherd of Hermas as the 'shepherd of adulterers' and cites Hebrews as a letter of Barnabas.
Dating
A Montanist-period work attacking a bishop's edict on forgiveness of sexual sins; the bishop was once assumed to be Callistus of Rome (217-222), but most now think Agrippinus of Carthage. Dated c. 210-220.Books it uses
De pud. 20: 'an Epistle to the Hebrews under the name of Barnabas', quoted (Heb 6:4–8) as the work of a companion of the apostles, not Paul, and ranked below apostolic writings.
De pud. 19 argues at length from 'the First Epistle of St. John'.
De pud. 19 argues from the Revelation of John.
Quotations
For there is extant withal an Epistle to the Hebrews under the name of Barnabas—a man sufficiently accredited by God, as being one whom Paul has stationed next to himself in the uninterrupted observance of abstinence: “Or else, I alone and Barnabas, have not we the power of working?” And, of course, the Epistle of Barnabas is more generally received among the Churches than that apocryphal “Shepherd” of adulterers.
De pud. 20.2Names the book
ANF vol. 4 (1885), tr. S. Thelwall, ed. A. C. Coxe · Source (opens in a new tab)
Hebrews attributed to Barnabas, not Paul; the Montanist Tertullian now calls Hermas 'apocryphal'. Quotes Heb 6:4–8 immediately after.
1 Corinthians 9:6 BSB
6Or are Barnabas and I the only apostles who must work for a living?