Epistle of Barnabas 8

1But what do you think the type means, where the commandment is given to Israel that those men whose sins are full grown must offer a heifer, slaughter it, and burn it; and then that the children must take up the ashes and cast them into vessels, and twist the scarlet wool on a tree—see, here again is the type of the cross and the scarlet wool—and the hyssop; and that, this done, the children should sprinkle the people one by one, that they may be purified from their sins? Understand how plainly it is spoken to you: the calf is Jesus; the men who offer it, being sinners, are those who offered him for slaughter. After this it is no more men (who offer); the glory is no more for sinners. The children who sprinkle are those who preached to us the forgiveness of sins and the purification of our hearts, those to whom, being twelve in number for a testimony to the tribes—for there are twelve tribes of Israel—he gave authority over the Gospel, that they should preach it. But why are the children who sprinkle three in number? For a testimony to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, because these are mighty before God. Then there is the placing of the wool on the tree. This means that the kingdom of Jesus is on the cross, and that those who set their hope on him shall live forever. And why are the wool and the hyssop at the same time? Because in his kingdom there shall be evil and foul days, in which we shall be saved; for he who suffers pain in the flesh is healed through the foulness of the hyssop. Now to us indeed it is manifest that these things so befell for this reason, but to them they were dark, because they did not hear the voice of the Lord.