"And when in the same chapter xii. it is shown how Moses in the brazen serpent made a type of Jesus 'who should suffer (die) and yet himself make alive,' the natural inference is that Barnabas connected therewith John iii. 14, f. even if the use of this passage in particular cannot be proved. Although this connection cannot be affirmed, since the author of the Epistle, in this passage as in many others, may be independent, yet it is justifiable to ascribe the greatest probability to its dependence on the passage in John, as the tendency of the Epistle in no way required a particular leaning to the expression of John. The disproportionately more abundant use of express quotations from the Old Testament in Barnabas is, on the contrary, connected most intimately with the tendency of his whole composition."(1)
It will be observed that the suggestion of reference to the fourth Gospel is here advanced in a very hesitating way, and does not indeed go beyond an assertion of probability. We might, therefore, well leave the matter without further notice, as the reference in no case could be of any weight as evidence. On examination of the context, however, we find that there is every reason to conclude that the reference to the brazen serpent is made direct to the Old Testament. The author who delights in typology is bent upon showing that the cross is prefigured in the Old Testament. He gives a number of instances, involving the necessity for a display of ridiculous ingenuity of explanation, which should prepare us to find the comparatively simple type of the brazen serpent naturally selected. After pointing out that Moses, with his arms stretched out in prayer that the Israelites might prevail in the fight, was a type of the
cross, he goes on to say: "Again Moses makes a type of Jesus, that he must suffer and himself make alive [———], whom they will appear to have destroyed, in a figure, while Israel was falling;"(l) and connecting the circumstance that the people were bit by serpents and died with the transgression of Eve by means of the serpent, he goes on to narrate minutely the story of Moses and the brazen serpent, and then winds up with the words: "Thou hast in this the glory of Jesus; that in him are all things and for him."(2) No one can read the whole passage carefully without seeing that the reference is direct to the Old Testament.(3) There is no ground for supposing that the author was acquainted with the fourth Gospel.
To the Pastor of Hermas Tischendorf devotes only two lines, in which he states that "it has neither quotations from the Old nor from the New Testament."(4) Canon
Westcott makes the same statement,(1) but, unlike the German apologist, he proceeds subsequently to affirm that Hermas makes "clear allusions to St. John;" which few or no apologists support. This assertion he elaborates and illustrates as follows:—
"The view which Hermas gives of Christ's nature and work is no less harmonious with apostolic doctrine, and it offers striking analogies to the Gospel of St. John. Not only did the Son 'appoint angels to preserve each of those whom the Father gave to him;' but 'He himself toiled very much and suffered very much to cleanse our sins.... And so when he himself had cleansed the sins of the people, he showed them the paths of life by giving them the Law which he received from his. Father.'(2) He is 'a Rock higher than the mountains, able to hold the whole world, ancient, and yet having a new gate.'(3) 'His name is great and infinite, and the whole world is supported by him.'(4) 'He is older than Creation, so that he took counsel with the Father about the
