Acts 11 · Story · Goodness
Barnabas, a Good Man
The Berean text names Barnabas in 35 verses, 30 of them in Acts 4 to 15 and five in three of Paul's letters.
When the crowds at Lystra took him for Zeus, Barnabas tore his clothes and told them that he was only a man.
Barnabas was a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and faith, and a great number of people were brought to the Lord.
- Where
- Jerusalem, Antioch, Cyprus, Lystra
- Who
- Barnabas, Paul, John Mark
Summary
One verse of Acts calls a person a good man, and the person is Barnabas. Luke joins the word to the Holy Spirit and faith. He sets it among the deeds that show it, so one life shows what goodness asks of a believer. The same record keeps his failures, and Scripture's praise of him stands beside them.
- The apostles gave Joseph the name Barnabas, which Luke explains as Son of Encouragement (Acts 4:36). The first deed Acts tells of him is the gift of a field's price to the church.
- The disciples in Jerusalem did not believe that Saul was one of them. Barnabas brought him to the apostles (Acts 9:26 to 27). Later he fetched Saul from Tarsus to teach at Antioch (Acts 11:25 to 26).
- At Antioch Barnabas saw the grace of God among new believers and "encouraged them all to abide in the Lord". Luke sets his word good beside that scene (Acts 11:23 to 24).
- Paul says that Barnabas was led astray at Antioch (Galatians 2:13). Acts tells that the two men parted in a sharp disagreement over Mark (Acts 15:37 to 39).
- Later Paul names Barnabas as an apostle like himself. He also asks the Colossians to welcome Mark, Barnabas's cousin (1 Corinthians 9:6 and Colossians 4:10).
A Good Man in the Book of Acts
The story follows one believer of the first church through Jerusalem, Antioch, Cyprus and Lystra.
This is the story of Barnabas, told from the first time Acts names him to the last time Paul's letters do. It belongs to goodness, the value Scripture first names in God and then asks of His people. Luke gives Barnabas the word good and shows what it meant in money, in trust, in welcome and in a second chance.
The question it answers is what goodness looked like in one early believer. It also asks how Scripture can praise a man who was led astray and who quarrelled with Paul. A reader who wants to do good meets it here in a life with its costs and its faults. The story sets his life on a timeline and tells each scene with its verses. It reads the word Luke chose, sets the later traditions apart from Scripture and gives three readings of the parting from Paul.
Barnabas in Ten Events
Eight of the ten events come from Acts and two from Paul's letters to the Galatians and the Colossians.
Barnabas's life in Scripture runs from the field he sold at Jerusalem to Paul's letter to Colossae, where Mark sends greetings beside Paul.
- Joseph the Levite sells a field and gives the money to the apostles"sold a field he owned, brought the money, and laid it at the apostles’ feet."Acts 4:36 to 37
- Barnabas brings the converted Saul to the apostles in Jerusalem"Then Barnabas brought him to the apostles"Acts 9:26 to 27
- The church in Jerusalem sends Barnabas to Antioch, and he brings Saul from Tarsus"So for a full year they met together with the church and taught large numbers of people."Acts 11:22 to 26
- Barnabas and Saul carry the famine gift to the elders in Judea"This they did, sending their gifts to the elders with Barnabas and Saul."Acts 11:29 to 30
- The Holy Spirit sets Barnabas and Saul apart, and they sail to Cyprus"Set apart for Me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them."Acts 13:2 to 4
- At Lystra Barnabas and Paul refuse the sacrifice the crowd brings them"Yet He has not left Himself without testimony to His goodness"Acts 14:11 to 18
- Barnabas and Paul tell the assembly at Jerusalem what God did among the Gentiles"The whole assembly fell silent as they listened to Barnabas and Paul"Acts 15:12
- At Antioch Barnabas joins Cephas in drawing back from eating with the Gentiles"even Barnabas was led astray."Galatians 2:11 to 13
- Barnabas and Paul part over John Mark"Their disagreement was so sharp that they parted company."Acts 15:36 to 41
- Mark sends greetings with Paul to the church at Colossae"If he comes to you, welcome him."Colossians 4:10
A timeline of ten events, each card carrying words of its verse from the Berean text.
Barnabas and Paul tell the assembly at Jerusalem what God did among the Gentiles, At Antioch Barnabas joins Cephas in drawing back from eating with the Gentiles, Barnabas and Paul part over John Mark, Mark sends greetings with Paul to the church at Colossae
The Life Told in Order
Luke and Paul tell each scene briefly, and its verses give what was said and done.
Barnabas gave the price of a field, and Ananias kept part of hisActs 4:34 to 5:2
The next scene sets another sale beside his. Ananias and his wife Sapphira also sold property, but they kept back part of the price for themselves and brought only a portion to the apostles (Acts 5:1 to 2).
The disciples feared Saul until Barnabas spoke for himActs 9:26 to 30
When Saul arrived in Jerusalem, he tried to join the disciples, but they were all afraid of him, not believing that he was a disciple.The verse records the fear Barnabas stepped into, since every disciple in Jerusalem was afraid of the man who had persecuted them.
Barnabas told the apostles how the Lord had spoken to Saul on the road to Damascus and how Saul had preached in that city. Saul then went in and out among them until the Grecian Jews tried to kill him and the brothers sent him to Tarsus (Acts 9:27 to 30).
Jerusalem sent a man of Cyprus to the new church at AntiochActs 11:19 to 26
Believers scattered by the persecution that began with Stephen had preached at Antioch, and some men from Cyprus and Cyrene spoke to the Greeks as well (Acts 11:19 to 20). Many turned to the Lord, and when the church in Jerusalem heard of it, it sent Barnabas there (Acts 11:21 to 22).
When he arrived and saw the grace of God, he rejoiced and encouraged them all to abide in the Lord with all their hearts.This is the deed beside which Luke sets his description of Barnabas in the next verse, for he saw God's grace in a church he had not planted and was glad of it.
Saul came back from Tarsus with Barnabas, and for a year the two taught at Antioch, the city where the disciples were first called Christians (Acts 11:25 to 26).
Antioch sent famine relief to Judea by Barnabas and SaulActs 11:27 to 30 and Acts 12:25
When the prophet Agabus foretold a great famine, the disciples at Antioch gave, each according to his ability, for the brothers living in Judea (Acts 11:27 to 30). On their way back from that errand Barnabas and Saul brought John, also called Mark, with them (Acts 12:25).
The Spirit sent Barnabas out, and Mark turned back at PergaActs 13:1 to 13
Barnabas stands first in Luke's list of the prophets and teachers of the church at Antioch, and Saul stands last (Acts 13:1). Mark went with the two men as their helper when they set out (Acts 13:5).
After setting sail from Paphos, Paul and his companions came to Perga in Pamphylia, where John left them to return to Jerusalem.The verse records the departure that later divided Barnabas and Paul, when Paul would not take Mark a second time.
Paul healed a lame man, and the city called its visitors godsActs 14:8 to 15
After Paul healed a man lame from birth, the crowds of Lystra cried out in the Lycaonian language that the gods had come down to them. The priest of Zeus brought bulls and wreaths to the city gates (Acts 14:8 to 13).
But when the apostles Barnabas and Paul found out about this, they tore their clothes and rushed into the crowd, shouting, “Men, why are you doing this? We too are only men, human like you. We are bringing you good news that you should turn from these worthless things to the living God, who made heaven and earth and sea and everything in them.The scene tests the good man of Acts 11:24 with honour, and he gives that honour back to God.
The question of circumcision took the two men to JerusalemActs 15:1 to 25 and Galatians 2:1 to 9
Men from Judea taught at Antioch that the Gentile believers could not be saved unless they were circumcised. After sharp debate with them, Paul and Barnabas were sent with others to put the question to the apostles and elders at Jerusalem (Acts 15:1 to 2). The letter the council sent back calls them "our beloved Barnabas and Paul" (Acts 15:25).
Paul's letter to the Galatians tells of a visit to Jerusalem with Barnabas fourteen years after an earlier one (Galatians 2:1), and it does not say which visit of Acts it was.
And recognizing the grace that I had been given, James, Cephas, and John—those reputed to be pillars—gave me and Barnabas the right hand of fellowship, so that we should go to the Gentiles, and they to the circumcised.Paul's own account shows the leaders at Jerusalem receiving Barnabas with him as a partner in the work among the Gentiles.
Cephas withdrew from the Gentiles' table, and Barnabas followedGalatians 2:11 to 13
Cephas had been eating with the Gentiles at Antioch, but when men came from James he drew back for fear of the circumcision group, and the other Jews joined him (Galatians 2:11 to 13). Paul calls it hypocrisy and names Barnabas among those it carried along.
The man who had trusted Saul and rejoiced over the Greek believers of Antioch gave way here to the pressure of the men around him.
The two partners went separate ways over a helper who had turned backActs 15:36 to 41
Some time later Paul proposed that they go back and visit the brothers in every town where they had preached, and Barnabas wanted to take Mark with them (Acts 15:36 to 37).
But Paul thought it best not to take him, because he had deserted them in Pamphylia and had not accompanied them in the work.This is Paul's side of the disagreement, and it points back to Perga in Acts 13:13.
The two men went separate ways, Barnabas with Mark and Paul with Silas, and Paul travelled through Syria and Cilicia strengthening the churches (Acts 15:39 to 41).
First Corinthians, written at Ephesus, names him again1 Corinthians 9:6 and 16:8
Or are Barnabas and I the only apostles who must work for a living?The verse shows Paul still counting Barnabas as a fellow apostle in a letter written after the two had parted.
Paul wrote 1 Corinthians from Ephesus (1 Corinthians 16:8), a city Acts first brings him to after he and Barnabas had gone their separate ways (Acts 18:19).
What Luke Meant by a Good Man
Luke's word for good is agathos, and Chrysostom and Theophylact of Ohrid read it in different ways.
The STEP Bible tagging from Tyndale House finds agathos in three verses of Acts. One is Tabitha's works, which the Berean text renders as works of kindness and charity (Acts 9:36). Another is Paul's good conscience before the Sanhedrin (Acts 23:1). The third names Barnabas, the one person whom Acts calls good.
Luke gives the same word to Joseph of Arimathea, "a good and righteous man" (Luke 23:50). Joseph had not consented to the council's decision against Jesus (Luke 23:51).
Luke adds that Barnabas was full of the Holy Spirit and faith, so the goodness he names comes with the Spirit's filling. Paul lists goodness among the fruit of the Spirit, next to kindness, in Galatians 5:22.
John Chrysostom preached on these verses in his Homilies on Acts. He read the word as kindness: "By good man, I take it, he means one that is kind" (Homily 25). The translation prints his Greek word chreston beside kind, a word that belongs to kindness, the value Paul names beside goodness.
“Why do you call Me good?” Jesus replied. “No one is good except God alone.In this answer Jesus reserves the word good in its full sense for God. That raises the question of how Luke can call a man good.
Theophylact of Ohrid takes up the question in his Commentary on Acts. He answers, "It is not the same thing to say that God is good and that a man is good. The former is good by essence, being the beginning and source of all good".
A Levite From Cyprus
Acts gives Barnabas's tribe, his home island and the name the apostles gave him.
Joseph, a Levite from Cyprus, whom the apostles called Barnabas (meaning Son of Encouragement),The verse holds what Acts records of his birth, his tribe of Levi and his home on Cyprus, beside his new name and its meaning.
In the Greek of the verse the name is explained by paraklesis. In Acts 11:23 Luke says that Barnabas encouraged the believers at Antioch, with the verb parakaleo. The Berean text renders the noun as Encouragement and the verb as encouraged, so the name and the deed share one English word.
Cyprus stands at three turns of the story. Men of Cyprus were among the first to preach to Greeks at Antioch (Acts 11:20). It was the first place Barnabas and Saul sailed to when the Spirit sent them out (Acts 13:4). Barnabas sailed there again with Mark after the parting.
Jerome listed the meanings given to the name in his dayJerome, Book on Hebrew Names
“Barnabas means, 'Son of a prophet', or 'son of one coming', or, as many think, son of consolation. All the derivations, as 'Bar' (son of) either 'Nabi' (a prophet), or a derivative from 'Bo' (to come) or from 'Bee' (to console), as by the Syriac interpreter it is also rendered, 'Son of consolation.'”
Jerome · Book on Hebrew Names, On the Acts of the Apostles, B · on Acts 4:36Patristic
Barnabas in Later Tradition
Writers after the New Testament linked Barnabas to Hebrews, to a letter that bears his name and to churches far from Cyprus.
Tertullian, in his work On Modesty, names "an Epistle to the Hebrews under the name of Barnabas" (chapter 20). It is one writer's report of the tradition.
A later letter, the Epistle of Barnabas, carries his name and is a different work. The Catholic Encyclopedia's article on it dates it to about AD 130, long after the Barnabas of Acts. The article bases the date on what the letter says of the temple at Jerusalem.
The Catholic Encyclopedia of 1907 reports later traditions in its article on Saint Barnabas. They make him the first bishop of Milan, a preacher at Rome and at Alexandria and a martyr in Cyprus. The article judges that these traditions "are all late and untrustworthy".
Two early writers placed Barnabas among the SeventyThe Catholic Encyclopedia, reporting Clement of Alexandria and Eusebius
The same article reports that Clement of Alexandria (Stromata 2.20) and Eusebius (Church History 2.1) give the tradition that he was one of the Seventy. These are the disciples Jesus sent out in Luke 10, whom the Berean text numbers as seventy-two (Luke 10:1).
What the Text Leaves Unsaid
Four things a reader may want to know about Barnabas are left untold in Scripture.
Acts gives no year for any event in Barnabas's life. The nearest it comes is the famine Agabus foretold, which it places in the reign of Claudius (Acts 11:28).
Paul does not say when Cephas came to Antioch. The timeline sets that event in the time Acts 15:35 gives to Paul and Barnabas at Antioch, and the text itself does not fix it there.
Scripture tells of no meeting at which Barnabas and Paul made peace after their parting.
Acts last names Barnabas as he sails for Cyprus (Acts 15:39) and records nothing of his later work or his death.
What Goodness Looked Like in Barnabas
Barnabas's deeds show goodness given away to others, under the goodness of God that he preached at Lystra.
Each scene shows goodness spent on someone else. Barnabas gave land to the church and gave his word for a man the church feared. He gave a young church his encouragement and gave Saul a place to teach. He gave Mark a second place on the road when Paul would not.
His goodness also made room for another man to lead. Up to Cyprus Luke writes "Barnabas and Saul" (Acts 13:2 and Acts 13:7). From the synagogue at Pisidian Antioch he writes "Paul and Barnabas" (Acts 13:43 and Acts 13:46). Barnabas comes first again at Lystra (Acts 14:14) and in the hearing and the letter of the council at Jerusalem (Acts 15:12 and Acts 15:25).
The goodness Luke names in Barnabas rests on God's own. At Lystra the two men pointed the crowd to the rain and fruitful seasons by which God bears witness to Himself (Acts 14:17). The word Luke uses there for God's goodness is agathoergeo, to do good. Paul uses the same word when he tells Timothy, "Instruct them to do good" (1 Timothy 6:18).
Teachers on Barnabas
Two commentators read two of Barnabas's deeds as marks of his character.
died 1107 · Theophylact of Ohrid
Commentary on Acts
Theophylact saw gentleness in the welcome Barnabas gave Saul
The quotation1 quotation
“That Barnabas was a gentle and condescending man is evident both from this and from what was done by him after this. Perhaps he had known Paul even before, being his friend. To which apostles did he bring Paul? Perhaps to Peter and James, of …”
Theophylact of Ohrid · Commentary on Acts · on Acts 9:27Patristic
1662 to 1714 · Matthew Henry
Commentary on the Whole Bible
The quotation1 quotation
“Barnabas brought Saul to Antioch, though it might be the lessening of himself, to teach us to seek the things of Christ more than our own things. We are here further told, (1.) What service was now done to the church at Antioch. Paul and Barnabas continued there a whole year, presiding in their religious assemblies, and preaching the gospel,”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible · on Acts 11:25 to 26Puritan
Three Readings of the Parting
Luke records the disagreement and does not say which man was right, and three commentaries read it three ways.
Paul did well to refuse MarkBede, Commentary on Acts, on Acts 15:38
“But Paul insisted that he should not be received. Because, standing on the very forefront of the line, he had stood too tepidly, and rightly, Paul rejected him, lest others be corrupted by his influence as though it were contagion.”
Bede · Commentary on Acts · on Acts 15:38Patristic
Paul's own later words about Mark stand on the other side of the scale.
Only Luke is with me. Get Mark and bring him with you, because he is useful to me in the ministry.Near the end of his life Paul asks for the man he once refused, which bears on how the refusal of Acts 15:38 is weighed.
The two men divided the work by agreementOecumenius, Commentary on Acts, on Acts 15:39
“It seems reasonable that the separation arose from mutual understanding, and to say to one another that ‘Since I wish it and you do not, so that we do not quarrel, let us divide the regions.’ Therefore they entirely yielded to one another in this. …”
Oecumenius · Commentary on Acts · on Acts 15:39Patristic
Each man may have been partly rightJamieson, Fausset and Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible, on Acts 15:39
“How watchful does all this teach Christians, and especially Christian ministers and missionaries, to be against giving way to rash judgment and hot temper towards each other, especially where on both sides the glory of Christ is the ground of difference! How possible is it that in such cases both parties may, on the question at issue, be more or less in the right!”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible · on Acts 15:39Reformed
Son of Encouragement
Barnabas's new name and Luke's word for him point to one way of life.
The apostles called Joseph Son of Encouragement, and Acts shows him living up to the name in deeds that put other believers first. Luke's word good gathers those deeds into one description.
And do not neglect to do good and to share with others, for with such sacrifices God is pleased.Barnabas did both with his field and with the famine gift.
Sources
Scripture is the Berean Standard Bible.
- STEP Bible TBESG, Tyndale House, CC BY 4.0, the Brief lexicon based on Abbott-Smith (1922)
- John Chrysostom, Homilies on the Acts of the Apostles, Homily 25, translated by Walker, Sheppard and Browne, revised by Stevens, Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, first series, volume 11.
- Tertullian, On Modesty, chapter 20, translated by Thelwall, Ante-Nicene Fathers, volume 4.
- The Catholic Encyclopedia (1907), the article on Saint Barnabas, by Fenlon.
- The Catholic Encyclopedia, the article Epistle of Barnabas.
- Theophylact of Ohrid, Commentary on Acts.
- Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible (1710)
- Jerome, Book on Hebrew Names, On the Acts of the Apostles.
- Bede, Commentary on Acts.
- Oecumenius, Commentary on Acts.
- Jamieson, Fausset and Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)
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