St. Barnabas
Today we celebrate the feast of St. Barnabas. Our knowledge of him is derived from both the Acts of the Apostles and St. Paul’s epistles. He was of the tribe of Levi and was born in Cyprus. His name was originally Joseph, but the apostles changed it to Barnabas, which St. Luke interprets to mean the son of encouragement. He was one of those who sold his estate and gave the proceeds to the apostles for distribution. When St. Paul later came to Jerusalem three years after his conversion the faithful were suspicious of him, and it was St. Barnabas who persuaded them of his integrity.
St. Barnabas was later sent to Antioch to guide the development of the Church there. He went to Tarsus to enlist the co-operation of St. Paul and they successfully ministered in Antioch for a year. Some time later the Church in Antioch raised money for the relief of the poor brethren in Judea during a famine. They sent this to the Church in Jerusalem by the hands of St. Barnabas and St. Paul and they returned accompanied by John Mark. There were many teachers and prophets in the Church in Antioch and they commissioned St. Paul and St. Barnabas for their first missionary journey. They took John Mark with them and went first to Seleucia and then Salamis in Cyprus. They preached in the synagogues and then proceeded to Paphos, where they converted Sergius Paulus, the Roman proconsul. They sailed to Perga and Pamphylia, but John Mark left them to return by himself to Jerusalem. They travelled to Antioch in Pisidia, where they initially preached to the Jews, but encountered such hostility that they turned to the Gentiles. At Iconium, the capital of Lycaonia, they narrowly escaped stoning at the hands of the mob that the rulers had stirred up against them. A miraculous cure wrought by St. Paul on a crippled man at Lystra led the people to conclude that the gods had come among them. They acclaimed St. Paul as Hermes or Mercury because he was the chief speaker and St. Barnabas as Zeus or Jupiter. But they soon turned against them and stoned St. Paul, severely wounding him. They made many converts at Derbe and then retraced their steps through the places where they had evangelised, strengthening the churches and ordaining presbyters. They then returned to Antioch in Syria.
A serious dispute arose in the Church at Antioch because some maintained that pagan converts should become circumcised Jews as well as baptised. This led to a council of the Church at Jerusalem, where St. Paul and St. Barnabas were commended for their mission among the Gentiles. It was decided that there was no need for Gentile converts to become circumcised Jews. It was only necessary for them to be baptised and renounce idolatry. While this settled the fundamental issue, there continued to be some conflict on the matter, as is shown by St. Paul’s epistle to the Galatians, where he records that he rebuked St. Peter for refraining from eating with Gentiles out of deference to Jewish susceptibilities and said that St. Barnabas was also led astray by the same actions. A serious dispute arose between St. Paul and St. Barnabas when they determined to conduct a further visitation of the churches they had founded. St. Barnabas wished to take with them John Mark, but St. Paul disagreed because of his previous defection. The contention between them became so sharp that they went their separate ways. St. Paul took Silas as his missionary companion, while St. Barnabas sailed to Cyprus with John Mark. There is no further mention of him in the Acts of the Apostles, but St. Paul later refers to him in his first letter to the Corinthians as still active in the mission field.
It is always difficult to achieve the right balance between having clear principles and being pragmatic about what is realistically possible in a given situation. St. Paul was the greatest missionary the early Church produced and a man of clear principles which gave him the necessary energy and vision to accomplish his work. He may have written that charity suffereth long and is kind, but it seems clear that he was not himself of a very long suffering disposition. He sometimes caused unnecessary conflict by being too aggressive in his dealings with others. By contrast, it seems that St. Barnabas was as clear in his fundamental principles as St. Paul, but was of a more conciliatory nature and consequently more willing to be pragmatic in dealing with situations. Whereas St. Paul took things very personally and felt betrayed by John Mark’s defection from his first missionary journey, St. Barnabas was willing to give him a second chance. It was this that led to his clash with St. Paul, who was totally unwilling to compromise and led to them going their separate ways. It would seem that St. Barnabas had the stronger case in this dispute because he was more willing than St. Paul to exercise charity towards John Mark and give him a second chance. A gentler approach is often a better way of dealing with potential conflict situations where there is no fundamental principle at stake.
It is interesting also to observe in this context that Tertullian later referred to St. Barnabas as the author of the epistle to the Hebrews. It is difficult to see why Tertullian should have made this statement without good authority. Authorship of the epistle to the Hebrews would certainly fit with what is known about St. Barnabas’ character. It clearly belongs to St. Paul’s circle, and is written by a man of authority in the early church, but who makes no claim to be St. Paul himself. It is devoted to explaining how Christ is the true high priest who accomplished through his own blood the remission of sins that had not been possible under the Jewish priesthood. This would fit with a man of St. Barnabas’ background as belonging to the tribe of Levi. It contains solemn warnings of the danger of the faithful in falling back into their former ways under the old covenant, but is also an eirenicon designed to encourage. It is less vigorous in style than St. Paul’s epistles, but remains firm in the central argument. Perhaps it was written by St. Barnabas to some Jewish Christians in Rome shortly after St. Paul’s death, who needed to be warned of the dangers of falling away. At any rate, there can have been few in the early Church other than St. Barnabas who would have the credentials to write such an authoritative epistle.
Let us pray that we too may follow the example of St. Barnabas in having clear principles that guide us, but also the necessary pragmatism to be realistic about what is possible in our own time and place.
by the Revd Dr Robert Wilson PhD (Cantab), Old Roman Apostolate UK
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