Carmelite Influence
in the Medieval Gospel of BarnabasThere are signs, throughout the Gospel of Barnabas, of the influence of Carmelite thinking on the work. Ragg and other commentators invariably remark that the work seems to have been written by a medieval monk but do not comment on what type of monk. There is no doubt that the work shows the imprint of a writer with a monkish background, but from what Order of monks, what type of monastic spirituality? John Bowman identified a pronounced strain of Carmelite thinking in the work. This is an important aspect of the work that has yet to be explored in subsequent scholarship.
The Carmelite influence is evident in the text in the following ways, among others:
*Jesus is conflated with John the Baptist. John has a special place in Carmelite thinking. According to Carmelite traditions he refounded the Sons of the Prophets and re-established the followers of Elijah on Carmel in the New Testament. The Barnabas conception of a very John-like Jesus is significant in a work under Carmelite influence.
*Related to the above point, Barnabas' Jesus/John is shown as Elijah reborn. Elijah is, of course, the spiritual founder of the Carmelites. The Elijah material in the GoB is extensive.
*Jesus uses the formula "As God lives, in whose presence my soul stands..." throughout the work. This formula comes from the Book of Kings, i.e. it is an Elijah motif. The God of Carmel is the Living God. The God of Barnabas' Jesus/John is the Living God.
*The later sections of the Ministry Narrative speak of the 'True Pharisees' as opposed to the 'False Pharisees'. The True Pharisees are clearly identified as the primitive monks of Carmel, as Bowman points out.
*Jesus at one point confounds the 'False Pharisees' by revealing a 'Little Book of Elijah'. This is a type of primitive monastic rule. Evidently the author has strong sympathies with the early Carmelite monks.
*The Story of the Two Hermit Pharisees is evidently a story about two monks on Mount Carmel. The fountain referred to in the story is the fountain of Elijah. Reverence for the Psalms of David in this story is also a mark of Carmelite spirituality. David is an important figure throughout the GoB.
*Mount Carmel is explicitly mentioned in the story of the Ransom of the Widow's Son, chpt. 188. "Now the Syrian robbers, having raided the land of Judea, seized the son of a poor widow, who dwelt hard by Mount Carmel where the prophets and Pharisees abode." The "Pharisees" here are clearly the 'True Pharisees' mentioned elsewhere in the text.
*Jesus quotes the motto of the Carmelite Order in chpt. 208. "The zeal of your honour, O God, enflames me...".
This amounts to a wealth of evidence. There is, undeniably, a strong strain of Carmelite ideas in the Gospel of Barnabas. This is in contrast, it should be noted, to the Spanish Preface which points to Pope Sixtus V. and his circle of Franciscans. That is, while the Spanish Preface implicates Franciscans the evidence of the text of the gospel itself points to Carmelite involvement. How do we explain these Carmelite elements?
In the characterization of the primitive Carmelites as the 'True Pharisees' we can perhaps detect a reflection of contemporary medieval tensions within the Carmelite Order. The primitive eremetic ideals of the monks of Carmel were undermined when the monks migrated to Europe en mass at the end of the Crusades. St. Simon Stock, the Englishman, transformed the monks into city-dwelling mendicants. The primitive rule was progressively mitigated, the monk's prohibition on wine was over-ruled by a Dominican inquiry and the whole nature of the Order was radically altered. The author of the Gospel of Barnabas champions the primitive hermits and there is an implicit criticism of the later Carmelites as the 'False Pharisees'. To what extent does the GoB reflect these tensions among the Carmelites? There was strong resistance to these changes and later movements calling for a return to the primitive ideal. Moreover, the legitimacy of the Carmelite Order as a whole was, for many centuries, in question. Throughout the 14th C. in particular Carmelites indulged in forging early Carmelite works designed to demonstrate their early roots. To what extent is the Carmelite material in the GoB, such as the Little Book of Elijah, related to other Carmelite productions?
Notes ©Copyright R.Blackhirst, 1999-2005 Back to Main Index A Comprehensive Solution to the Mysteries of the Gospel of Barnabas - R. Blackhirst Comments and discussion are invited. Email at: r. blackhirst@latrobe.edu.au.