The parable of Jesus involves the Pharisee and the Publican. Each went to the Tempe to pray – only one walked away justified.
Jesus gives an interesting parable in the Gospel of Barnabas concerning the two men who went to the Temple to pray. To many scholars and theologians who examined the parable for its hidden meaning – this is the only example in the Gospel of a pathway to forgiveness of sin:
“There were two men who came up here into the Temple to pray: the one was a Pharisee and the other a publican. The
Pharisee drew near to the sanctuary, and praying with his face uplifted said: “I give you thanks, O Lord my God, because I am not as other men, sinners, who do every wickedness, and particularly as this publican; for I fast twice in the week and give tithes of all I possess.’The publican remained afar off, bowed down to the earth, and beating his breast he said with bent head: ‘Lord, I am not worthy to look upon the heaven nor upon your sanctuary, for I have sinned much; have mercy upon me!’ Truly I say to you, the publican went down from the Temple in better case than the Pharisee, for that our God justified him, forgiving him his sin. But the Pharisee went down in worse case than the publican, because our God rejected him, having his works in abomination.” Chapter 128, paragraph 2
Source: Gospel of Barnabas Edited and translated from the Italian MS. In the Imperial Library of Vienna by Lonsdale and Laura Ragg.
See also Luke chapter 18