Msg Base:  AREA 5  - ASK FATHER            CIN ECHO   AMDG
  Msg No: 201.  Fri 11-29-91 13:25  (NO KILL)  (MAILED)
    From: Father Mateo
      To: Paul Meiners
 Subject: Mary, Barnabas

+-
| Hello Father:
|  
| I was very pleased with your explanation about the cousins of Jesus.  It
| is quite likely that is what they were.
|  
| On the explanation for the Assumption, I already knew the dogma and the
| dates it was established.  The Britannica gives all that information.
| What I was after was the basis for it.  I assume you simply attribute it
| to Oral Tradition... but usually that becomes written at some point.  Do
| you know the first written account of Mary's Assumption?  I would be
| interested in reading it.
|  
| A new question.  Recently I have heard of "The Lost Books Of The Bible".
| Among which is "The Book Of Barnabas".  Have you heard of this?  Is it
| considered part of the tradition of the church?  Does it contain anything
| I should worry about?  I believe it was published by the Oxford Press, but
| I cannot find a copy.  I have heard several people quoting Barnabas
| concerning the end times... and my curiosity has been peaked.
|  
| Regards,
| Paul
|  
| PS: I believe Barnabas was a diciple of St. Paul... but I am unsure.
|  
 
Dear Paul,
 
I do not translate the ADELPH- stem words in the NT as 'cousins'. As
you read in my 13th November message, I call them relatives or near
relations.  "Cousins" is needlessly precise and may not be strictly
true.  Not all relatives are cousins, though cousins are relatives.
 
The apocrypha of Mary's death a/o assumption are historically worthless,
although they have some theological value in that they reflect the belief
of the faithful of that era.  Bypassing those, you will find the earliest
homilies on the Assumption in the works of Theotoknos of Livia in the 6th
century, first published in 1955.  These are not yet available in English.
 
However, Christopher O'Donnell ("At Worship with Mary", p. 136)
translates a bit of Theotoknos, which provides his theological basis
for the Assumption:
 
"It was fitting that the most-holy body of Mary, the God-bearing body,
the receptacle of God, which was divinized, incorruptible, illumined by
divine grace and full of glory ... should be entrusted to the earth for
a short while and be raised up in glory to heaven, with her soul
pleasing to God."
 
After Theotoknos came Modestus, Germanus, and John Damascene.  You will
find these quoted in Pius XII's "Munificentissimus Deus".
 
The "lost books of the Bible" were never lost, nor were they ever
considered books of the Bible.  Yet the Epistle of Barnabas (written
sometime between 70 and 79 A.D.) was held in high regard in the early
Church and certainly reflects Catholic oral tradition.  Baker Book
House publishes it in a collection entitled "The Apostolic Fathers" by
J.B. Lightfoot, edited and completed by J.R. Harmer.  This book does
not seem to have an ISBN number.  Your local bookseller can track it
down for you.
 
It is scarcely possible that the author of this epistle was Paul's
co-worker, mentioned in the Book of Acts.  Lightfoot says: "The writer
nowhere claims to be the apostle Barnabas; indeed his language is such
as to suggest that he was wholly unconnected with the Apostles."
 
Thanks for writing.  Please come again!
 
                        Sincerely in Christ,
 
                        Father Mateo