Helmut Koester considers the Epistle to be earlier than the Gospel of Matthew: in his "Introduction to the New Testament" he says of the author of the Epistle: "It cannot be shown that he knew and used the Gospels of the New Testament. On the contrary, what "Barnabas" presents here is from 'the school of the evangelists'. This demonstrates how the early Christian communities paid special attention to the exploration of Scripture in order to understand and tell the suffering of Jesus. "Barnabas" still represents the initial stages of the process that is continued in the "Gospel of Peter", later in Matthew, and is completed in Justin Martyr."