# The Gospel of Barnabas

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The Gospel of Barnabas is a book depicting the life of Jesus, which claims to be by the biblical Barnabas who in this work is one of the twelve apostles. Two manuscripts are known to have existed, both dated to the late 16th or early 17th centuries.
FACSIMILE OF PAGES 1 AND 734 OF THE VIENNA MS.
THE
GOSPEL OF BARNABAS
EDITED AND TRANSLATED FROM
THE ITALIAN MS. IN THE IMPERIAL
LIBRARY AT VIENNA
BY
LONSDALE and LAURA RAGG
WITH A FACSIMILE
OXFORD
AT THE CLARENDON PRESS
1907
HENRY FROWDE, M.A. PUBLISHER TO THE UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD LONDON, EDINBURGH NEW YORK AND TORONTO
PREFACE
Two articles in the Journal of Theological Studies may be said to have paved the way for the present publication. The first of these, by Dr. William Axon, appeared in April, 1902; the second, by one of the present editors, exactly three years later.
The translation of the Arabic glosses was begun by Major Marriott, D.S.O., and has been completed by Professor Margoliouth (to whose valuable Note on p. xlviii we desire here to call attention): that of the Italian text, together with the general editing of the MS., is the work of Lonsdale and Laura Ragg. The translators have endeavoured to preserve the archaic form and something even of the crudeness of the original. Where the text follows that of the Bible exactly, they have adopted the language of the Revised Version, from which also has been adapted, with slight modifications, the form into which the Scripture references are cast. The more obvious important parallels from the Qorân will be found either cited or referred to in the footnotes, which, for the rest, have been reduced perforce to the smallest possible dimensions.
Appended to the Introduction will be found the most important passages bearing on the 'Barnabas ​controversy' from the eighteenth-century writers, while the text itself is followed by a full (and, it is hoped, accurate) index of Scripture references, with such subject-index as was practicable.
The translators have encountered many unforeseen difficulties during the four years in which the work has been in their hands; much of the translation has been hewn out on pilgrimage, or in small hotel rooms, and far from books of reference.
But the hindrances have been more than matched by the generous and ungrudging help that they have received, especially from Italian savants, whose courtesy is, indeed, proverbial throughout Europe. Among those to whom they desire to acknowledge their debt are Padre Minocchi of Florence, Professors Guidi and Monaci of Rome, Professors Nallino and Cesareo of Palermo, Professor Crescini of Padua, and Commendatore Malagola of the Venetian Archivio.
Outside Italy their acknowledgements are due first and foremost to Prof. J. Hitter von Karabacek, Director of the Imperial Library at Vienna, and to his learned and amiable colleague Dr. Rudolph Beer, whose kindness has not limited itself to a laborious collation of the entire MS. To M. Briquet of Geneva thanks are due for an opinion on the subject which he has made his own.
Among English friends they would recognize with gratitude the services rendered by Dr. Paget Toynbee, whose friendly criticism of their earlier ​chapters was of no small value; by the Rev. H. G. Grey, of whose learning they would fain have made a fuller use; and by Prof. F. C. Burkitt, to whom they owe several valuable suggestions. The authorities of the Clarendon Press have shown no small kindness and patience; and to Dr. Sanday the editors are particularly grateful, since to him they owe their connexion with a task which, whatever the character of its results, has been to them one of remarkable interest. The long period over which the work has been spread and the difficulties under which it has been carried out must be held responsible for some of the anomalies and inequalities which disfigure it; but the editors are all too conscious of many blemishes and shortcomings in a task which none but an expert in two or three different lines could hope to achieve to perfection.
L. R.
Venice,
All Saints' Day, 1906.
CONTENTS
ADDENDA ET CORRIGENDA
CONSEQUENT ON A COLLATION OF THE TEXT BY L. R.
Oct. 3, 1906.
P. 46 (22$^a$) expunge note: translate looketh towards Tyre. P. 56 (27$^a$) note reading transf. to text: note expunged.
P. 80 (36$^b$) expunge note.
P. 82 (38$^a$) reading transf. to text; notes expunged.
P. 82 (38$^a$) readingP. 96 (43$^b$) transf. to text;„ notes expunged.„ P. 82 (38$^a$) readingP. 176 (79$^a$) [note 2] transf. to text;„ notes expunged.„ P. 82 (38$^a$) readingP. 264 (123$^a$) transf. to text;„ notes expunged.„ P. 82 (38$^a$) readingP. 268 (125$^a$) transf. to text;„ notes expunged.„ P. 286 (134$^a$) for quella in text read quelle.
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