The text presented here is the
full text of the Italian manuscript of the Gospel of
Barnabas translated into English. The translation is that of
Canon L. Ragg 1907. Ragg's translation is very faithful to
the original Italian and is widely respected.He and Laura
Ragg, Dante scholars, laboured for many years on the work.
The Ragg translation, however, was rendered into the archaic
English of the King James. The present version has been
revised into a slightly more modern idiom; thus "thou" has
been changed to "you" throughout, and so on. These changes
are usually of a minor nature and in no way impact upon the
meaning of the text. Occasionally it has been necessary to
alter archaic grammar and to add words to render a clearer
modern expression or to make it clear who the speaker is.
Where this has occured, additional words are indicated in
the text in square brackets, eg. [Jesus]. This should be
seen as a provisional working rendering, a useful tool. For
detailed work it is obviously necessary to refer to the
manuscripts and original languages.
The Italian manuscript is divided into 222 short
chapters. They are clearly marked in the manuscript by ruled
lines. These chapter breaks are indicated in the present
version by large numbers, eg. 70.
For the purposes of referencing the chapters have also
been divided into sections. Thus, for example, the text of
chapter 70 has been divided into three smaller sections.
These breaks, indicated by lower case numbers, eg. 1., 2.
3., have been made at convenient places such as the
beginning of speeches or changes of speaker and are roughly
equal length . They are NOT PART OF THE ORIGINAL TEXT; they
have been made by the present editor to assist students.
Geographical locations are marked in the centre of pages
in bold upper case, eg. NAZARETH. These are NOT PART
OF THE ORIGINAL TEXT; they have been added to assist
students.
Episode rubrics have been labelled in the centre of pages
in bold lower case, eg. Healing of the Rich Man with
Palsy. In large part these follow the headings added by
Ragg but they are NOT PART OF THE ORIGINAL TEXT. The Italian
manuscript includes some chapter rubrics in Arabic margin
notes. The headings used here are NOT based on the Arabic
rubrics.
The words of Jesus are indicated in red type, eg:
Then Jesus said: "As God lives, it is a greater sin to forget
the word of God, wherewith he made all things, whereby he
offers you eternal life."
The movements of Jesus and other geographical indicators
are indicated in blue text, eg:
Early on the morning of a certain
day, Jesus arrived near the well which
Jacob made and gave to Joseph his son.
Quotations from the Old Testament are indicated in bold
type, eg:
And why
does God cry by his prophet Isaiah, saying: Take away your evil thoughts from my
eyes?
Instances of authorial intrusion where "Barnabas" refers
to himself (usually as "he who writes") or to himself among
the disciples as "we" are indicated by underlined text, eg:
Then said he who writes this:
"Now, how ought judgment to be given, condemning and
pardoning?"