Saint Barnabas

Life events

1. Born — 1

   Born in Cyprus as Joseph (Ἰωσήφ) — or Joses (Ἰωσής) in the Byzantine text-type — a Levite of Hellenic Jewish background. The apostolic community renamed him Barnabas, which Acts 4:36 glosses as 'son of encouragement' (υἱὸς παρακλήσεως, hyios paraklēseōs), a wordplay the author of Acts extends through Acts 11:22–24.

2. Other — 37

   As an early member of the Jerusalem church, he sold a field and laid the proceeds at the apostles' feet. When the newly converted Paul returned to Jerusalem and others were wary of him, Barnabas introduced him to the apostles — an act Easton's Bible Dictionary associates with the possibility that the two had been fellow students at the school of Gamaliel.

3. Pilgrimage — 44

   Sent by the Jerusalem church to oversee the Gentile-Christian community at Antioch — then the third-most important city of the Roman Empire and the place where followers were first called Christians — he traveled to Tarsus to recruit Paul, worked with him in Antioch for a year, and then carried famine-relief funds to Jerusalem in 44 AD.

4. Pilgrimage — 46

   On the first missionary journey with Paul, Barnabas traveled through Cyprus — where proconsul Sergius Paulus accepted the faith — then through the cities of Pamphylia, Pisidia, and Lycaonia in Anatolia. The Lystrans regarded Paul as Hermes and Barnabas as Zeus; Acts 14:14 is the sole biblical verse naming Barnabas explicitly as an apostle.

5. Council — 49

   At the Council of Jerusalem (c. 49 AD), Barnabas and Paul reached an agreement with James, Peter, and John that they would preach to Gentiles without requiring adoption of Jewish practices. Afterward at Antioch, when Peter withdrew from table fellowship with Gentiles under pressure from disciples of James, Barnabas followed — an incident Paul labels 'hypocrisy' in Galatians 2:11–13.

6. Other — 49

   A dispute with Paul over whether John Mark — who had left the earlier journey prematurely — should accompany them on the next mission led to a permanent parting: Paul departed with Silas through Syria and Cilicia, while Barnabas took John Mark to Cyprus. Paul's later reference in 1 Corinthians 9:5–6 (c. 56–57 AD) indicates the friendship remained unimpaired.

7. Martyred — 61

   Church tradition, developed no earlier than the 3rd century, holds that opponents dragged him from a synagogue at Salamis, Cyprus and stoned him to death; the apocryphal Acts of Barnabas describes burning instead. His kinsman John Mark is said to have buried him privately. The historicity of any martyrdom is unverifiable.

8. Translated — 478

   Archbishop Anthemios of Cyprus, guided by a dream, reportedly discovered the tomb of Barnabas near Salamis in 478, finding remains with a manuscript of Matthew's Gospel. Anthemios presented the gospel to Emperor Zeno at Constantinople and received in exchange formal privileges for the autocephalous Greek Orthodox Church of Cyprus: the purple cloak, imperial sceptre, and the right to sign documents in red ink.

Relationships

Documented claims

• His birth name was Joseph (Ἰωσήφ) or Joses (Ἰωσής) in the Byzantine text-type; the apostolic community renamed him Barnabas, glossed in Acts 4:36 as 'son of encouragement' and in the Syriac Bible as 'son of consolation' (bara dbuya'a). (certain)
• The Epistle of Barnabas, included under his name in Codex Sinaiticus (the earliest extant complete New Testament manuscript), was attributed to him by Clement of Alexandria; modern scholarship more commonly dates it to Alexandria c. 130s, though a minority of scholars affirm the traditional attribution. (disputed)
• Barnabas is identified as a cousin of Mark the Evangelist on the basis of the Greek term ἀνεψιός (anepsios) in Colossians 4:10. Orthodox tradition additionally holds that Aristobulus of Britannia, one of the Seventy Disciples, was the brother of Barnabas. (likely)
• In 1538, the Catholic religious order Clerici Regulares Sancti Pauli acquired the monastery of Saint Barnabas by the city wall of Milan as their main seat and became popularly known as the Barnabites — reflecting the older tradition crediting Barnabas with founding the See of Milan. (likely)
• Clement of Alexandria and Pseudo-Hippolytus' On the Seventy Apostles of Christ both include Barnabas among the Seventy Disciples mentioned in the Gospel of Luke; Pseudo-Hippolytus lists two individuals named Barnabas, one identified as bishop of Milan (#13) and one as bishop of Heraclea (#25). (plausible)