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The author of the Epistle of Barnabas was Marcion's diametric opposite. Probably written in Alexandria, Egypt, ca. 135, this pamphlet is also deeply concerned with the interpretation of the Old Testament in the church. But if Marcion took the Old Testament only literally and threw it out of the church, Barnabas took it exclusively as figurative.

In Marcion's mind, the Jews interpreted the Scriptures correctly and worshiped the inferior god of justice. In Barnabas's mind, the Jews failed to understand their own Scriptures, and they interpreted them incorrectly—that is, literally.

Barnabas worked out an extensive explanation. Moses, he wrote, received the covenant on Sinai. But, when the Jews worshiped the golden calf, the covenant was broken and never restored. The Jews then listened to a wicked angel, who told them to interpret their Scriptures literally. In fact, though, the whole Old Testament is an enormous Christian allegory.

Barnabas gives several examples. The prohibition against eating pork really means avoiding men who pray only when they are needy, for swine bellow only when they are hungry. The prohibition against eating rabbits, hyenas, and weasels really warns against deviant sexual sins (from the nature of these animals). The law of kosher, eating only animals with cloven hooves that chew the cud, means associating only with people who meditate on the Lord and have one foot on earth, one in heaven.

In his pièce de résistance, Barnabas writes that when Scripture attests that Abraham circumcised 318 men, it really teaches the redemptive work of Jesus Christ, for the number 318 in Greek (which used letters for numbers) is the first two letters of Jesus' name (iota and eta, IH = 18) and tau (T = 300), which represents the cross.

In rejecting Marcion and not following Barnabas, the church began to define its own position. Against Marcion, the church asserted that the God of the Old Testament and the Father of Jesus Christ are one God. The Old Testament was and remains the Word of God, to be interpreted in light of Christ. Against Barnabas, the Old Testament had a true literal sense. God did make a covenant with Abraham and gave the Law to Moses.

A few decades after Marcion, a Gnostic teacher named Ptolemy wrote a letter to a woman, Flora, who had asked him how to understand the Law of Moses. Ptolemy undertook what modern scholars call a "source-critical" approach—using the supposed literary sources of Bible books to throw light on their meaning. The Old Testament represents not one lawgiver, but three: God himself, Moses, and the Elders. Ptolemy could quote the Gospel according to Matthew to prove his point: God made marriage indissoluble (Matt. 19:6), Moses granted divorce as an exception (Matt. 19:8), and the Elders invented corban (Matt. 15:2).

Thus there are three levels in the Old Testament: God's law, which Christ fulfills (such as the Ten Commandments); the law of Moses, which Christ abolished (such as "an eye for an eye"); and symbolic legislation (like unleavened bread, circumcision, and animal sacrifice), which provided images of higher realities; with Christ, the practices were abolished but the higher truth remained.

Thus Ptolemy accepted some Old Testament texts literally, understood others figuratively, and rejected still others as invalid. Modern Christians should not rush to reject Ptolemy, for he saw a real problem. One might consider two verses from the King James Bible: Exodus 20:14, "Thou shalt not commit adultery," and Exodus 22:18, "Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live." Both are Holy Scripture, God's Word. Must both be interpreted today in the same way?

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