Barnabas 1 Barnabas For other uses, see Barnabas (disambiguation). "Barnabus" redirects here. For other uses, see Barnabus (disambiguation). Barnabas Icon of Saint Barnabas Prophet, Disciple, Apostle to Antioch and Cyprus, Missionary, and Martyr Born Cyprus Died reputedly 61 AD Salamis, Cyprus Honored in Roman Catholic Church, Eastern Orthodox Churches, Oriental Orthodox Churches, Anglican Communion, Lutheran Church Canonized Pre-Congregation [1] Major shrine Monastery of St Barnabas in Famagusta, Cyprus Feast June 11 Attributes Pilgrim's staff; olive branch; holding the Gospel of St Matthew Patronage Cyprus, Antioch, against hailstorms, invoked as peacemaker Barnabas (Greek: Βαρνάβας), born Joseph, was an early Christian, one of the earliest Christian disciples in Jerusalem.[2] According to Acts 4:36 [3] Barnabas was a Cypriot Jew. Named an apostle in Acts 14:14 [4], he and Paul the Apostle undertook missionary journeys together and defended Gentile converts against the Judaizers. They traveled together making more converts (c 45-47), and participated in the Council of Jerusalem (c 50).[5] Barnabas and Paul successfully evangelized among the "God-fearing" Gentiles who attended synagogues in various Hellenized cities of Anatolia.[6] Barnabas' story appears in the Acts of the Apostles, and Paul mentions him in some of his epistles.[] Tertullian named him as the author of the Epistle to the Hebrews, but this and other attributions are conjecture.[7] Clement of Alexandria ascribed the Epistle of Barnabas to him, but that is highly improbable.[8] Although the date, place, and circumstances of his death are historically unverifiable, Christian tradition holds that Barnabas was martyred at Salamis, Cyprus, in 61 AD. He is traditionally identified as the founder of the Cypriot Orthodox Church. The feast day of Barnabas is celebrated on June 11. Barnabas is usually identified as the cousin of Mark the Evangelist on the basis of Colossians 4.[9] Some traditions hold that Aristobulus of Britannia, one of the Seventy Disciples, was the brother of Barnabas. Barnabas 2 Name and etymologies His Hellenic Jewish parents called him Joseph (although the Byzantine text-type calls him Ιὠσης, Iōsēs, 'Joses', a Greek variant of 'Joseph'), but when he sold all his goods and gave the money to the apostles in Jerusalem, they gave (bar naḇyā, meaning 'the son (of the ,בר נביא him a new name: Barnabas. This name appears to be from the Aramaic prophet'. However, the Greek text of the Acts 4:36 [10] explains the name as υἱός παρακλήσεως, hyios paraklēseōs, meaning "son of consolation" or "son of encouragement". A similar link between ”prophecy” and ”encouragement” is found in Paul’s letter to the Corinthians (1 Corinthians 14:3 [11]). Biblical narrative Barnabas appears mainly in Acts, a Christian history of the early Christian church. He also appears in several of Paul's epistles. Barnabas, a native of Cyprus and a Levite, is first mentioned in the Acts of the Apostles as a member of the early Christian community in Jerusalem who sold some land that he owned and gave the proceeds to the community (Acts 4:36-37). When the future Apostle Paul returned to Jerusalem after his conversion, Barnabas took him and introduced him to the apostles (9:27). Easton, in his Bible Dictionary, supposes that they had been fellow students in the school of Rabbi Gamaliel.[12] The successful preaching of Christianity at Antioch to non-Jews led the church at Jerusalem to send Barnabas there to oversee the movement (Acts 11:20–22). He found the work so extensive and weighty that he went to Tarsus in search of Paul (still referred to as Saul), "an admirable colleague", to assist him.[13] Paul returned with him to Antioch and labored with him for a whole year (Acts 11:25–26). At the end of this period, the two were sent up to Jerusalem (AD 44) with Barnabas curing the sick by Paolo Veronese, Musée des Beaux-Arts de Rouen. contributions from the church at Antioch for the relief of the poorer Christians in Judea. Later, they were appointed missionaries and, taking John Mark with them, went to Cyprus and some of the principal cities of Pamphylia, Pisidia, and Lycaonia (Acts 13:14). After recounting that the governor of Cyprus Sergius Paulus believed, the Acts of the Apostles 13:9 speaks of Barnabas's companion no longer as Saul, but as Paul, his Roman name, and generally refers to the two no longer as "Barnabas and Saul" as heretofore (11:30; 12:25; 13:2, 7), but as "Paul and Barnabas" (13:43, 46, 50; 14:20; 15:2, 22, 35); only in 14:14 and 15:12, 25 does Barnabas again occupy the first place, in the first passage with recollection of 14:12, in the last two, because Barnabas stood in closer relation to the Jerusalem church than Paul. Paul appears as the more eloquent missionary (13:16; 14:8-9, 19-20), whence the Lystrans regarded him as Hermes, Barnabas as Zeus[14][15] (14:12). Returning from this first missionary journey to Antioch, they were again sent up to Jerusalem to consult with the church there regarding the relation of Gentiles to the church (Acts 15:2; Galatians 2:1 [16]). According to Gal. 2:9-10, Barnabas was included with Paul in the agreement made between them, on the one hand, and James, Peter, and John, on the other, that the two former should in the future preach to the pagans, not forgetting the poor at Jerusalem. This matter having been settled, they returned again to Antioch, bringing the agreement of the council that Gentiles were to be admitted into the church without taking on Jewish practices. After they had returned to Antioch from the Jerusalem council and after spending some time there (15:35), Paul asked Barnabas to accompany him on another journey (15:36). Barnabas wished to take John Mark along, but Paul did not, as he had left them on the former journey (15:37-38). The dispute ended by Paul and Barnabas taking Barnabas 3 separate routes. Paul took Silas as his companion, and journeyed through Syria and Cilicia; while Barnabas took John Mark to visit Cyprus (15:36-41). According to Hippolytus of Rome, John Mark is not Mark the Cousin of Barnabas, and Barnabas did not dispute with Paul because of personal favor to a blood relative, but due to his character as his nickname Barnabas ("Son of Encouragement") indicates.Wikipedia:Citation needed Barnabas is not mentioned again in the Acts of the Apostles. However, Gal. 2:11-13 says, "And when Kephas came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face because he clearly was wrong. For, until some people came from James, he used to eat with the Gentiles; but when they came, he began to draw back and separated himself, because he was afraid of the circumcised. And the rest of the Jews (also) acted hypocritically along with him, with the result that even Barnabas was carried away by their hypocrisy." Barnabas is also mentioned in the First Epistle to the Corinthians, in which it is mentioned that he and Paul funded their missions by working side jobs and (it is implied) went without some of the benefits other apostles received, such as female companionship or food and drink (1 Cor. 9:6); Paul states that he and Barnabas forsook those benefits "that we may cause no hindrance to the Good News of Christ" (1 Cor. 9:12). Barnabas and Antioch Antioch, the third-most important city of the Roman Empire,[17] then the capital city of Syria province, today Antakya, Turkey, was where Christians were first called thus. It was indeed the site of an early Christian community, traditionally said to be founded by Peter .Wikipedia:Citation needed A considerable minority of the Antioch church of Barnabas's time belonged to the merchant class, and they provided support to the poorer Jerusalem church. Council of Jerusalem Main article: Council of Jerusalem Barnabas participated in the Council of Jerusalem, which dealt with the admission of gentiles into the Christian community, a crucial problem in early Christianity. Paul and Barnabas proposed that gentiles be allowed into the community without being circumcised. Martyrdom Main article: Christian martyrs Church tradition developed outside of the canon of the New Testament describes the martyrdom of many saints, including the legend of the martyrdom of Barnabas. It relates that certain Jews coming to Syria and Salamis, where Barnabas was then preaching the gospel, being highly exasperated at his extraordinary success, fell upon him as he was disputing in the synagogue, dragged him out, and, after the most inhumane tortures, stoned him to death. His kinsman, John Mark, who was a spectator of this barbarous action, privately interred his body.[18] Although it is believed he was martyred of faith by being stoned, the Catholic-Apocryphal Acts of Barnabas states that he was bounded with a rope by the neck, and then being dragged only to the site where he would be burned to death. This is highly unlikely since the apocryphal Acts states that his bones were burnt to dust and that relics of some of his bones are stored in a church today; on the other hand, the fire in the apocryphal Acts could have cremated only some of his bones. According to the History of the Cyprus Church,[19] in 478 Barnabas appeared in a dream to the Archbishop of Constantia (Salamis, Cyprus) Anthemios and revealed to him the place of his sepulchre beneath a carob-tree. The following day Anthemios found the tomb and inside it the remains of Barnabas with a manuscript of Matthew's Gospel on his breast.