The Promised Land and Creation

τί λέγει ὁ ἄλλος προφήτης Μωϋσῆς αὐτοῖς; Ἰδού, τάδε λέγει κύριος ὁ θεός· Ἐισέλθατε εἰς τὴν γῆν τὴν ἀγαθήν, ἣν ὤμοσεν κύριος τῷ Ἀβραὰμ καὶ Ἰσαὰκ καὶ Ἰακώβ, καὶ κατακληρονομήσατε αὐτήν, γῆν ῥέουσαν γάλα καὶ μέλι.  τί δὲ λέγει ἡ γνῶσις; μάθετε. ἐλπίσατε, φησίν, ἐπὶ τὸν ἐν σαρκὶ μέλλοντα φανεροῦσθαι ὑμῖν Ἰησοῦν. ἄνθρωπος γὰρ γῆς ἐστιν πάσχοῦσα· ἀπὸ προσώπου γὰρ τῆς γ͂ς ἡ πλάσις τοῦ Ἀδὰμ ἐγένετο. τί οὖν λέγει Εἰς τὴν γῆν τὴν ἀγαθήν, γῆν ῥέουσαν γάλα καὶ μέλι; εὐλογητὸς ὁ κύριος ἡμῶν, ἀδελφοί, ὁ σοφίαν καὶ νοῦν θέμενος ἐν ἡμῖν τῶν κρυφίων αὐτοῦ· λέγει γὰρ ὁ προφήτης παραβολὴν κυρίου· τίς νοήσει, εἰ μὴ σοφὸς καὶ ἐπιστήμων καὶ ἀγαπῶν τὸν κύριον αὐτοῦ; ἐπεὶ οὖν ἀνακαινίσας ἡμᾶς ἄλλον τύπον, ὡς παιδίων ἔχειν τὴν ψυχήν, ὡς ἂν δὴ ἀναπλάσσοντος αὐτοῦ ἡμᾶς. λέγει γὰρ ἡ γραφὴ περί ἡμῶν, ὡς λέγει τῷ υἱῷ· Ποιήσωμεν κατ’ εἰκόνα καὶ καθ’ ὁμοίσιν ἡμῶν τὸν ἄνθρωπον, καὶ ἀρχέτωσαν τῶν θηρίων τῆς γῆς καὶ τῶν πετεινῶν τοῦ οὐρανοῦ καὶ τῶν ἰχθύων τῆς θαλάσσης. καὶ εἶπεν κύριος, ἰδὼν τὸ καλὸν πλάσμα ἡμῶν· Αὐξάνεσθε καὶ πληθυνέσθε καὶ πληρώσατε τὴν γῆν. ταῦτα πρὸς τὸν υἱόν. πάλιν σοι ἐπιδειξω, πῶς πρὸς ἡμᾶς λέγει. δευτέραν πλάσιν ἐπ’ ἐσχάτων ἐποίησεν. λέγει δὲ κύριος· Ἰδού, ποιῶ τὰ ἔσχατα ὡς τὰ πρῶτα. εἰς τοῦτο οὖν ἐκήρυξεν ὁ προφήτης· Εἰσέλθατε εἰς γῆν ῥέουσαν γάλα καὶ μέλι καὶ κατακυριεύσατε αὐτῆς. ἴδε οὖν, ἡμεῖς ἀναπεπλάσμεθα, καθὼς πάλιν ἐν ἑτέρῳ προφήτῃ λέγει· Ἰδού, λέγει κύριος, ἐξελῶ τούτων, τουτέστιν ὧν προέβλεπεν τὸ πνεῦμα κυρίου, τὰς λιθίνας καρδίας καὶ ἐμβαλῶ σαρκίνας· ὅτι αὐτὸς ἐν σαρκὶ ἔμελλεν φανεροῦσθαι καὶ ἐν ἡμῖν κατοικεῖν. ναὸς γὰρ ἅγιος, ἀδελφοί μου, τῷ κυρίῳ τὸ κατοικητήριον ἡμῶν τῆς καρδίας. βαρναβα Ἐπιστολή

What does the other prophet Moses say to them? 'Behold, this is what the Lord God says, Enter into the good land, which the Lord vowed to Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, and take your inheritance, a land flowing with milk and honey.' And what does knowledge say? Learn. Put your hope, it says, in the Jesus who shall be shown to you in the flesh. For the suffering man is the land, Adam being shaped from the face of the earth. What then is the good land, the land flowing with milk and honey? Blessed be our Lord, brothers, for granting us wisdom and mind for hidden things. For the prophet speaks a parable of the Lord, but who would know it unless he were a wise and learned lover of his Lord? He renewed us, turning us into a different type, as ones having the souls of children as if we were refashioned. He says in Scripture, as he says to his Son, 'Let us make man in our own image and likeness and let him rule over the beasts of the earth and the birds of heaven and the fish of the sea.' And the Lord says, seeing the beauty of our fashioning, 'Increase and multiply and fill the earth.' These things he says to his Son and again I shall show you how he speaks it to us. A second creation he has made in these last times. The Lord says, 'Behold, I make the last things as the first.' About this then the prophet was speaking when he said, 'Enter a land flowing with milk and honey and take your inheritance.' See, then, that you have been refashioned, as again he says in another prophet: ' Behold, says the Lord, I will take from them,' that is those foreseen by the Spirit, 'hearts of stone and put in them hearts of flesh'. For he was to appear in the flesh and dwell among us. For it is now a holy temple, my brothers, these lowly dwelling places of our hearts. The Letter of Barnabas