Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 1.djvu/482

Rh 464 BARNABAS. cient evidence is ably shewn by the candid Tille- mont. {Memoires, &c. vol. i. p. 657, &c.) Some other fabulous stories concerning Barnabas are re- lated by Alexander, a monk of Cyprus, whose age is doubtful ; by Theodorus Lector ; and in the Cle- mentina, the Recognitions of Clemens, and the spurious Passio BarnaJxie in Cijpro^ forged in the name of Mark. Tertullian, in his treatise "de Pudicitia," ascribes the Epistle to the Hebrews to Barnabas ; but this opinion, though probably shared by some of his contemporaries, is destitute of all probability. A gospel ascribed to Barnabas is held in great reverence among the Turks, and has been translated into Italian, Spanish, and English. It seems to be the production of a Gnostic, disfigured by the interpo- lations of some Mohammedan writer. (Fabric. Co- dex Apocryphits Novi Testamenii, Pars Tertia, pp. 373-394 ; White's Bampton Lectures.) Respecting the epistle attributed to Barnabas great diversity of opinion has prevailed from the date of its publication by Hugh Menard, in 1645, down to the present day. The external evidence is decidedly in favour of its genuineness ; for the epistle is ascribed to Barnabas, the coadjutor of Paul, no fewer than seven times by Clemens Alex- andrinus, and twice by Origen. Eusebius and Je- rome, however, though they held the epistle to be a genuine production of Barnabas, yet did not ad- mit it into the canon. When we come to examine the contents of the epistle, we are at a loss to con- ceive how any serious believer in divine revelation could ever think of ascribing a work full of such gross absurdities and blunders to a teacher endowed with the gifts of the Spirit. It is not improbable that the author's name was Barnabas, and that the Alexandrian fathers, finding its contents so accord- ant with their system of allegorical interpretation, came very gladly to the precipitate conclusion that it was composed by the associate of Paul. This epistle is found in several Greek manu- scripts appended to Polycarp's Epistle to the Phi- lippians. An old Latin translation of the epistle of Barnabas was found in the abbey of Corbey ; and, on comparing it with the Greek manuscripts, it was discovered that they all of them want the first four chapters and part of the fifth. The Latin transla- tion, on the other hand, is destitute of the last four chapters contained in the Greek codices. An edi- tion of this epistle was prepared by Usher, and printed at Oxford ; but it perished, with the excep- tion of a few pages, in the great fire at Oxford in 1 644. The following are the principal editions : in 1645, 4to. at Paris; this edition was prepared by Menard, and brought out after his death by Luke d'Acherry ; in 1646, by Isaac Vossius, ap- pended to his edition of the epistles of Ignatius ; in 1655, 4to. at Helmstadt, edited by Mader; in 1672, with valuable notes by the editor, in Cotele- rius's edition of the Apostolic Fathers : it is includ- ed in both of Le Clerc's republications of this work; in 1680, Isaac Vossius's edition was republished; in 1685, r2mo. at Oxford, an edition superintended by Bishop Fell, and containing the few surviving fragments of Usher's notes ; in the same year, in the Varia Sacra of Stephen Le Moyne ; the first volume containing long prolegomena, and the second pro- lix but very learned annotations to this epistle ; in 1746, 8vo. in Russel's edition of the Apostolic Fathers; in 1788, in the first volume of Gallandi's BMotheca Patrum : in 1839, Bvo. bv Hefcle, m BARSUMAS. his first, and, in 184*2, in his second edition of the Patres Apostolici. In English we have one transla- tion of this epistle by Archbishop Wake, originally published in 1693 and often reprinted. Amone the German translations of it, the best are by Rossler, in the first volume of his Bibliothek der Kirclmivater^ and by Hefele, in his Das Sendschreiben des Apos- tels Barnabas anfs Neue untersucht^ Ytbersetzt, and erklart, Tubingen, 1840. [J.M.M.] BARRUS, T. BETU'CIUS, of Asculum, a town in Picenum, is described by Cicero {Brui. 46), as the most eloquent of all orators out of Rome. In Cicero's time several of his orations delivered at Asculum were extant, and also one against Caepio, which was spoken at Rome. This Caepio was Q. Servilius Caepio, who perished in the social war, b. c. 90. [Caepio.] BARSANU'PHIUS {"Rapaavoixpios), a monk of Gaza, about 548 a. d., was the author of some works on aceticism, which are preserved in MS. in the imperial library at Vienna and the royal librarv at Paris. (Cave, Hist. Lit. sub. ann.) [P.S.] BARSINE (Baptrt'j/Tj). 1. Daughter of Arta- bazus, the satrap of Bithynia, and wife of Memnon the Rhodian. In b.c. 334, the year of Alexander's invasion of Asia, she and her children were sent by Memnon to Dareius III. as hostages for his fidelity ; and in the ensuing year, when Damascus was betrayed to the Macedonians, she fell into the hands of Alexander, by whom she became the mo- ther of a son named Hercules. On Alexander's death, B.c. 323, a claim to the throne on this boy's behalf was unsuccessfully urged by Nearchus. From a comparison of the accounts of Diodorus and Justin, it appears that he was brought up at Pergamus under his mother's care, and that she shared his fate when (b. c. 309) Polysperchon was induced by Cassander to murder him. (Plut. Alex. 21, Bum. 1; Died. xvii. 23, xx. 20, 28; Curt, iii. 13. § 14, X. 6. § 10 ; Just. xi. 10, xiii. 2, xv.2; Pans. ix. 7.) Plutarch {Eiim. I.e.) mentions a sister* of hers, of the same name, whom Alexan- der gave in marriage to Eumenes at the grand nuptials at Susa in b. c. 324 ; but see Arrian, Anab. vii. p. 148, e. 2. Known also by the name of Stateira, was the elder daughter of Dareius III., and became the bride of Alexander at Susa, b. c. 324. AVithin a year after Alexander's death she Avas treacherously murdered by Roxana, acting in concert with the regent Perdiccas, through fear of Barsine's giving birth to a son whose claims might interfere with those of her own. (Plat. Alea: 70, 77; Arr. Ajiab. vii. p. 148, d. ; Diod. xvii. 107.) Justin (xi. 10) seems to confound this Barsine with the one men- tioned above. [E. E.] BARSUMAS or BARSAUMAS, bishop of Nisibis (435-485 a. n.), was one of the most emi- nent leaders of the Nestorians. His efforts gained for Nestorianism in Persia numerous adherents, and the patronage of the king, Pherozes, who, at the instigation of Barsumas, expelled from his kingdom the opponents of the Nestorians, and al- lowed the latter to erect Seleuceia and Ctesiphon into a patriarchal see. He was the author of some polemical works, which are lost. He must not be confounded with Barsumas, an abbot, who was condemned for Eutychianisra by the council ct bv the sister of Memnon and Mentor.
 * Perhaps a half-sister, a daughter of Artabazua