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Barsabas of Jerusalem, On Christ and the Churches:

Its Genre and Liturgical Contents

The early Christian text On Christ and the Chrurches (late 2^nd or early3^rd cent.) attributed to some Barsabas of Jerusalem is known only in Georgian translation, in the only manuscript Iviron 11 (10^thcent., going back to an earlier asomtavruli model; translation can be dated to the second half of the 5^th cent.). The first study of this text together with the editio princeps was presented in 1982 by Michel van Esbroeck.Since then, only two particular topics of this work were studied: exegesis of Josephus (F. Manns, 1984) and anti-Jewish polemics (D. Bumazhnov, 2009). The peculiar composition of the work and its genre remain unexplained.

In the present study I propose an interpretation of the text as a Christian reworking of a Jewish Second Temple apocalyptic frame especially close to that of 2 Baruch and 4 Ezra. The liturgical calendars implied in the latter help to understand the composition of Barsabas’ work. However, unlike the Jewish apocalypses, Barsabas explains each prophesy as fulfilled in Christ.