The List of Sixty Books (7th Century)
The Gospel of Barnabas appears at number 24 in the apocryphal section of this catalogue, whose early form is usually placed around the seventh century.
The value of the list is not only that it gives a second catalogue witness, independent of the Decretum Gelasianum. It also belongs to a copied list tradition. Oxford, Paris, Vatican, and British Museum/British Library manuscript witnesses show that the name of a Gospel according to Barnabas was carried forward in catalogues of disputed or rejected writings, rather than appearing once and disappearing.
Catalogue of the Sixty Canonical Books (7th Century) [=LX][1]
This list, most likely originating in the seventh century and preserved across several manuscript reports, reflects the later Greek catalogue tradition regarding the canon of sixty books (thirty-four from the Old Testament and twenty-six from the New). Only twenty-six New Testament books are enumerated, as the Revelation of John is omitted. After the canonical books, the catalogue lists the writings classified as outside the sixty,
together with those designated as apocrypha.
The Apocryphal Writings
[LX]1. Adam
[LX]2. Enoch
[LX]3. Lamech
[LX]4. The Patriarchs
[LX]5. The Prayer of Joseph
[LX]6. Eldad and Modad
[LX]7. The Testament of Moses
[LX]8. The Assumption of Moses
[LX]9. The Psalms of Solomon
[LX]10. The Revelation of Elias
[LX]11. The Vision of Isaiah
[LX]12. The Revelation of Zephaniah
[LX]13. The Revelation of Zechariah
[LX]14. The Revelation of Ezra
[LX]15. The History of James
[LX]16. The Revelation of Peter
[LX]17. The Circuits and Teachings of the Apostles
[LX]18. The Epistle of Barnabas
[LX]19. The Acts of Paul
[LX]20. The Revelation of Paul
[LX]21. The Teaching of Clement
[LX]22. The Teaching of Ignatius
[LX]23. The Teaching of Polycarp
[LX]24. The Gospel according to Barnabas
[LX]25. The Gospel according to Matthias
Note: This document is significant because it confirms — alongside the Decretum Gelasianum (496 AD) — that a text bearing the name of Barnabas was remembered in early catalogue tradition and then carried through later copies.
Manuscript witnesses and catalogue references
The catalogue is not represented here as a single floating quotation. The named witnesses below are the manuscript and catalogue controls most relevant for readers who want to verify where the list was reported. Their dates refer to the surviving manuscripts or codex layers, not to the first composition of the catalogue.
Oxford, Bodleian Library — MS Barocci 206
Baroccianus 206 · Zahn's B · composite codex
Date: 9th century, with possible 8th-century and 13th-century layers
The main Oxford witness used in the Hody/Westcott line; the catalogue is reported as attached to the Questions and Answers tradition attributed to Anastasius of Sinai.
Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France — old Regius 1789
Zahn's R · Paris royal/BnF Greek line
Date: medieval Greek witness; used through Cotelier's edition
Shows that the list was not confined to the Oxford witness but circulated in a Paris manuscript line.
Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France — old Regius 1607
partial Paris witness
Date: medieval Greek witness; no firm date assigned by Zahn in this discussion
Contains only the first half of the list, so it is useful as a partial witness rather than as a complete copy of the apocryphal section.
Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France — Coislinianus 200
Fonds Coislin 200
Date: early 10th century (saec. X ineuntis)
One of the earliest dated copied witnesses in the trail; the list is reported in a miscellaneous codex between canon material and the Vitae prophetarum tradition.
Vatican, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana — Vat. gr. 423, fol. 415
Zahn's V · Vatican witness
Date: 10th century according to Pitra as cited by Zahn
Important because Zahn treats the Vatican witness as a significant line, not merely another Oxford/Regius copy.
London, British Library — Add. MS 17,469, fol. 1v
formerly British Museum Additional 17,469
Date: probably 14th century (saec. XIV? in Gregory's note)
A divergent medieval recension that confirms the catalogue's wider transmission, though it is not the main base of Zahn's printed text.
These references strengthen the page while also setting its limit. They show that a Gospel according to Barnabas title belonged to a copied Greek catalogue tradition. They do not by themselves prove that the catalogue's Barnabas title is identical with the surviving Italian/Vienna text of the Gospel of Barnabas.
Next stop · Step 3 of 3Return to the Historical Documents hub →Browse the remaining archive essays and primary-source pages.[1] The Greek text of the Catalogue of the Sixty Canonical Books is treated in Theodor Zahn, Geschichte des neutestamentlichen Kanons, vol. 2, part 1 (Erlangen: Deichert, 1890), pp. 289–293. Zahn discusses the Oxford Baroccianus 206 witness, Paris Regius 1789, Paris Regius 1607, Paris Coislinianus 200, Vaticanus Graecus 423 fol. 415, and British Museum/British Library Add. MS 17,469 fol. 1v; the list is sometimes designated Anonymi Catalogus LX Librorum Canonicorum. See also Henry Barclay Swete, An Introduction to the Old Testament in Greek (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1902), appendix, and M. R. James, The Apocryphal New Testament, for an accessible English presentation of the catalogue.