Let us examine the teaching of Barnabas:
It is written concerning the Sabbath in the Decalogue which [the Lord] spoke, face to face, to Moses on Mount Sinai, "And sanctify ye the Sabbath of the Lord with clean hands and a pure heart.” And He says in another place, "If my sons keep the Sabbath, then will I cause my mercy to rest upon them.” The Sabbath is mentioned at the beginning of the creation [thus]: "And God made in six days the works of His hands, and made an end on the seventh day, and rested on it, and sanctified it.” Attend, my children, to the meaning of this expression, “He finished in six days.” This implieth that the Lord will finish all things in six thousand years, for a day is with Him a thousand years. And He Himself testifieth, saying, “Behold, to-day will be as a thousand years.” Therefore, my children, in six days, that is, in six thousand years, all things will be finished.
Now let us establish, before we go any further, there is no mention of some supposed future millennium here. There is nothing. Barnabas could hardly have made this clearer: “the Lord will finish all things in six thousand years.” He then reinforces this thought by saying: “in six days, that is, in six thousand years, all things will be finished.” There is no way of misunderstanding his point. Premillenialists cannot change the unambiguous language of this ancient father. It is climatic! It is all-consummating! This is unambiguously classic Amillennialism.
Barnabas continues, as if to cement his climactic beliefs:
“And He rested on the seventh day.” This meaneth: when His Son, coming [again], shall destroy the time of the wicked man, and judge the ungodly, and change the-sun, and the moon, and the stars, then shall He truly rest on the seventh day.
Just as if to remove any ambiguity of his climactic beliefs, Barnabas fortifies his opinion that the 6000 years ushers in the end of time. He highlights how this event will see the destruction of the time of the wicked and will witness their final judgment. This is the opposite of the Premillennial position that locates the elimination of the wicked after Satan’s little season, and the mass uprising of the wicked 1,000 years+ after the second coming. The same applies to the judgment of the wicked. He also shows that the ending of the 6000 years will coincide with the physical change that comes to the starry universe at the conflagration. The heavenly planets will be changed at the same time as the earth is renewed: “and change the-sun, and the moon, and the stars.” The ancient writer then adds the postscript: “then shall He truly rest on the seventh day.”
Please see: he believes that the wicked are judged and wiped out before the introduction of the 7th day. The 7th day is therefore considered as a perfect paradise, free of any sin or sinners, death or disease, devil or demon. All rebellion is finally put down here. Whatever way you look at it, this fits the classic Amillennial paradigm, and contradicts the Millennialist one. What is more, the 7th day here is deemed the sabbath rest of God. Barnabas sees it as the believer’s eternal rest.
He continues:
Moreover, He says, “Thou shalt sanctify it with pure hands and a pure heart.” If, therefore, any one can now sanctify the day which God hath sanctified, except he is pure in heart in all things, we are deceived. Behold, therefore: certainly then one properly resting sanctifies it, when we ourselves, having received the promise, wickedness no longer existing, and all things having been made new by the Lord, shall be able to work righteousness. Then we shall be able to sanctify it, having been first sanctified ourselves.
Barnabas actually uses Genesis 2:1–3 to support his argument. The future age that was to be introduced when Jesus comes was expected to be perfect, righteous, incorrupt, eternal, wicked-free, Satan-free, wicked-free, curse-free, sin-free, death-free and decay-free. Resting every seven days was said to sanctify the Sunday as the Lords Day. It became the Sabbath day for the redeemed. But this only served to point believers to the sanctified existence for the sanctified saints on a sanctified new earth. This is a far cry from the Premillennial position which depicts the future earth as being saturated with sin, death, corruption, war, Satan and wicked phonies feigning worship to Christ, when they are in fact, closet Satanists.
Barnabas then exposes the impotence of the Jewish Saturday sabbath, reminding them of the true Christian sabbath on the Sunday (the 8th day according to early Christian tradition):
"Your new moons and your Sabbath I cannot endure." Ye perceive how He speaks: Your present Sabbaths are not acceptable to Me, but that is which I have made, [namely this,] when, giving rest to all things, I shall make a beginning of the eighth day, that is, a beginning of another world. Wherefore, also, we keep the eighth day with joyfulness [namely Sunday worship – the early Christian Sabbath], the day also on which Jesus rose again from the dead [speaking about Sunday]. And when He had manifested Himself, He ascended into the heavens.”
This is the controversial quotations that Premillennialists wrongly interpret. They look at it in isolation to the prevailing beliefs of the day and the fail to see the import of the teaching. Here, Barnabas alludes to the ancient belief that viewed every Sunday as the 8th day. His intent is to discredit the weekly Jewish Sabbath (or 7th day) and promotes the Christian Sunday Sabbath that was widely known as the 8th day. He then likens the Christian Sabbath (or 8th day) to the eternal state that ushers in the new perfect world. The wording fits in with the idea that Sunday was both the 7th day of the Jewish religious week but also the 8th in Roman terms.
We need to remember here, Barnabas is not here speaking to a 21st century audience, with all their established eschatological concepts. He is speaking to his own generation, and one that was perfectly familiar with the 8th day theory. Premillennialist Samuele Bacchiocchi explains in his exhaustive work From Sabbath to Sunday: “The polemic arguments presented by Barnabas both to invalidate the Sabbath and to justify the eighth as the continuation and replacement of the seventh, reveal how strong anti-Judaic feelings motivated the adoption of Sunday as a new day of worship.”
Barnabas’ thesis surrounds repudiating the Jewish Sabbath (on Saturday) and elevating the Christian Sabbath (Sunday – which the early Church fathers considered the 8th day) as the true day of rest. The fact that the phrase “the eighth day” was so widely used in early Church writings and was widely related to a Sunday Sabbath (every 7 days) reinforces the fact it was extensively accepted in early Church circles and it was similarly broadly understood. We should not forget, despite the existence of this unusual and innovative theory, there were only 7 days to a week.
No one can surely question that Barnabas was intent on debunking the whole viability of the Jewish Sabbath, which was held on a Saturday. The aim of his teaching was to advance the idea of the superseding of the Jewish Sabbath (the 7th day) under the new covenant with the Christian Sabbath (the 8th day). He believed the Jewish Sabbath had been disposed and had been replaced by a Sabbath rest on the Lord’s Day (resurrection day). According to this early Christian writer, the Jewish Saturday worship did not constitute the true Sabbath. Their Sabbath was rejected by God and because it only served as a symbol of Israel’s rebellion it was unsanctified.
While his mingling of an early Church rebuttal of the Jewish Sabbath and his advocating of its replacement with a far-superior Christian 8th day Sabbath (Sunday, with an end-time scenario may be a tad bit confusing for the average Christian today, it would have been clearer to the ancient mind.
Barnabas simply articulates the popular early Church conviction that Sunday was the eight day (and the true Sabbath). He obviously took that from the widespread prevailing thought within the Church of his day. He highlights: because Sunday was the day that “Jesus rose again from the dead” it was a day to be celebrated by believers “with joyfulness.” This was indeed the Christian Sabbath. This was their day of rest.
