Barnabas
The son of encouragement who sold his field, vouched for a feared convert, and launched the mission that would carry the gospel across the known world.
A New Name
His given name was Joseph. He was a Levite, born in Cyprus — a Greek-speaking Jewish man connected to the priestly tribe. But the apostles in Jerusalem gave him a different name: Barnabas. Luke explains the meaning: son of encouragement, or son of consolation. The name tells us everything we need to know about how those who knew him best saw him.
His first appearance in Acts is an act of extraordinary generosity. The early Jerusalem community held all things in common, and those with property sold it and laid the proceeds at the apostles’ feet. Barnabas sold a field and brought the money. Luke records this a few verses before the story of Ananias and Sapphira, who also claimed to sell property for the community but secretly kept part of the price. The contrast is deliberate: Barnabas’s generosity is the genuine article against which the deception is measured.
What Barnabas had, he gave. This pattern runs through his entire story. He gave property. He gave reputation. He gave time, travel, and risk. He was a man who held things loosely because he held the mission tightly.
The Man Who Vouched for Saul
When Saul of Tarsus came to Jerusalem after his conversion on the Damascus road, the disciples were afraid of him. And reasonably so — he had presided over Stephen’s stoning, had persecuted the Jerusalem church, and had been sent to Damascus specifically to arrest believers. His reported conversion was not easily believed. The disciples would not receive him.
Acts 9:27
“But Barnabas took him, and brought him to the apostles, and declared unto them how he had seen the Lord in the way, and that he had spoken to him, and how he had preached boldly at Damascus in the name of Jesus.”
Barnabas took him. He placed his own standing and credibility behind a man everyone else was afraid of. He told the apostles what Saul had done: seen the Lord, preached boldly. He vouched for him personally. Because Barnabas believed in Saul, the apostles received him.
It is impossible to overstate what this moment meant for the early Church and for the history of Christianity. Saul of Tarsus would become Paul the Apostle, author of half the New Testament and the great theologian of grace. But in Acts 9, he was a feared and suspect newcomer whom the community was ready to reject. Barnabas changed that. One man’s willingness to see past fear and stand behind a difficult person shaped the entire subsequent history.
Sent to Antioch
When the Jerusalem church heard that Greeks in Antioch were coming to faith in great numbers — a remarkable development, since the gospel had to that point been preached almost exclusively to Jews — they sent Barnabas to investigate. Luke records what he found and how he responded:
Acts 11:23–24
“Who, when he came, and had seen the grace of God, was glad, and exhorted them all, that with purpose of heart they would cleave unto the Lord. For he was a good man, and full of the Holy Ghost and of faith: and much people was added unto the Lord.”
Luke’s description of Barnabas is as warm as any character note in Acts: a good man, full of the Holy Ghost and of faith. He arrived in Antioch, saw the grace of God at work among Gentiles, and rejoiced. He did not restrict it, question it, or report back with concerns. He was glad — and he exhorted them to hold on.
He then went to Tarsus to find Saul and bring him to Antioch. The two men labored together in Antioch for a full year, teaching great numbers. It was in Antioch that the disciples were first called Christians. Barnabas’s decision to find Paul and bring him in was what made the Antioch church what it became.
The First Missionary Journey
The Holy Spirit directed the Antioch church to separate Barnabas and Saul for a specific work. They were sent out, accompanied by John Mark, on what became the first deliberate missionary expedition in Christian history. They traveled through Cyprus — Barnabas’s home island — and then through Asia Minor (modern Turkey), preaching in synagogues and to Gentiles, planting churches in Antioch of Pisidia, Iconium, Lystra, and Derbe.
In Lystra, Paul healed a lame man, and the crowd immediately concluded that the gods had come in human form. They called Barnabas Zeus and Paul Hermes. It is a small detail, but suggestive: Barnabas was the senior figure, at least in appearance — Zeus, the chief god. The crowd saw something of gravity and presence in him. The two men tore their garments and pushed through the crowd to stop the offerings, crying out that they were only men. Shortly afterward, the same crowd stoned Paul and dragged him out of the city.
The Sharp Contention
Before the second missionary journey, a conflict broke between Paul and Barnabas that was unresolved. John Mark had left the first journey early and returned to Jerusalem. Paul refused to take him again — he had proven unreliable in the field. Barnabas wanted to take his nephew. The text says the contention was sharp — the same word as a sharp paroxysm or provocation. These two close colleagues, who had traveled together, suffered together, and built together, could not agree.
They separated. Barnabas took Mark and sailed to Cyprus. Paul took Silas and went through Syria and Cilicia. Two missions instead of one. Luke does not declare a winner. He does not say Paul was right or Barnabas was wrong. He simply records what happened.
Years later, Paul writing from prison asked for Mark to be sent to him: “for he is profitable to me for the ministry.” Barnabas had been right about Mark. The one whom Paul judged unreliable became, under Barnabas’s patient encouragement, the author of the Gospel of Mark and a valued colleague of Paul in the end. The son of encouragement had seen what Paul could not yet see.
Key Scriptures
Key Scriptures
- Acts 4:36–37 — Barnabas introduced; sells his field; lays money at the apostles’ feet
- Acts 9:26–27 — Barnabas vouches for Saul to the fearful Jerusalem church
- Acts 11:22–26 — Barnabas sent to Antioch; finds Paul in Tarsus; a year of teaching together; “Christians”
- Acts 13:1–3 — The Spirit separates Barnabas and Saul for the first missionary journey
- Acts 15:36–40 — The sharp contention over John Mark; Paul and Barnabas part ways
- 2 Timothy 4:11 — Paul asks for Mark: “he is profitable to me for the ministry” — Barnabas was right