Barnabas

About the year of J.C. 42. Acts ix. 22, 24.BARNABAS, a Disciple of Jesus Christ¹, and S. Paul’s companion in apostolical labours. He was a native of the Isle of Cyprus, and of the Tribe of Levi. His name signifies the Son of Consolation or Prophecy. He had farther the name of Joseph or Joses; and some Greek Copies instead of Barnabas call him Barsabas, who drew lots with S. Matthias to fill the place, which Judas had in the Apostolical College. It is believed that he renounced all his temporal fortune, sold what he had, and laid the price of it at the Apostles feet. It is said likewise, that he was brought up with S. Paul at the feet of Gamaliel. When the Apostle came to Jerusalem three years after his Conversion, S. Barnabas introduced him to the other Apostles, and made him acquainted with them. 27.— ix. 26,

About the year 37 of Ærathe vulgar

v. 15.— xii. 1, 2, 3, &c.Five years after, the church of Jerusalem understanding the progress, which the Gospel made at Antioch, sent S. Barnabas thither, who beheld with great joy the wonders, which the Grace of God had wrought there. He exhorted the faithful to persevere in the service of the Lord, and some time after went to Tarsus, to enquire after S. Paul, and bring him to Antioch. In this City they dwelt together for two years, where they converted great numbers, and there the Disciples began first to be called Christians. These two Saints left Antioch in the year of J. C. 44 to convey the Alms which were sent by the believers of this Church to that of Jerusalem. After their return they brought with them John Mark, Barnabas’s Cousin.

— xiii. 50, 51, 52. — xiv.While they were in this City, the Holy Ghost ordained, that they should be separated and consecrated to him, in order to be imployed in those offices, for which he had appointed them. After prayer therefore and fasting they received imposition of hands, and departed from Antioch to go to Seleucia. From thence they passed into the Isle of Cyprus, and being at Salamis, they there preached the Gospel, and converted Paulus Sergius the Pro-consul. There S. Paul struck Bar-Jesus the Sorcerer with blindness, as we have before observed in the Article relating to him. From Salamis they went to Paphos, where they imbarked for Pamphilia. In the mean while John Mark, Barnabas’s Cousin separated from them, and returned to Jerusalem.

They preached at Perga in Pamphylia without much success, by reason of the obstinacy and malice of the Jews. They left this place, shaking off the dust of their feet against them, and came to Iconium, where they made many converts. But the Jews, on whom no impression could be made, stirr’d up a sedition against them, and obliged them to retire to Derbe and Lystra in Lycaonia. Here S. Paul having cured one Æneas, who had been lame from his birth, the people of Lystra took them to be Gods, and would have offered Sacrifices to them, calling Barnabas Jupiter, and Paul Mercury. The two Apostles hereupon tearing their cloaths, and running into the midst of the crowd, with with a great deal of difficulty hindered them from sacrificing.

In some little time after, several Jews came to Lystra from Antioch in Pisidia and Iconium, and having informed those of Lystra who Paul and Barnabas were, and representing them as disturbers of the publick peace, they dragg’d Paul out of the City and stoned him, and having left him there for dead, the Disciples took Acts xv.him up, and carried back into the City. The next day he departed with Barnabas, and went to Derbe. At length having visited once more all the Cities through which they had passed, and where they had preached the Gospel, they returned to Antioch in Syria, from whence they set out.

In the year of J. C. 51. S. Barnabas was sent with S. Paul from Antioch to Jerusalem, upon the occasion of some disputes, which had arisen concerning the observation of the legal Ceremonies, to which the Jews had an inclination to subject the Gentile Converts. Paul and Barnabas were present in the Council of Jerusalem, where they were acknowledged for Apostles of the Gentiles, and the poor of Judæa were recommended to their care. They returned immediately to Antioch, where S. Peter arriving soon after, and being prevailed with to authorize in some sort the observation of the Mosaick Ceremonies by his example, Barnabas too was ingaged to use the like dissimulation. But S. Paul reproved S. Peter with great freedom, insomuch that he and Barnabas were made sensible of their mistake, and others who in this particular had followed them.

S. Paul having afterwards determined to visit these Churches which he had founded in the Isle of Cyprus, and in Asia Minor, Barnabas desired John, whose firname was Mark, to bear them company in this journey, as he had done in the former. But S. Paul would by no means consent to this, because Mark had deserted them the first time; whereupon the two Apostles separated. Paul took his way towards Asia, and Barnabas with Mark went to Cyprus. This is all that we know certainly concerning Barnabas; for we can scarce rely upon the supposed Acts which go under the name of Mark, nor upon his life written by a Monk of Alexandria. It is said, that he was stoned to death at Salamis by the Jews of Cyprus; and so much is true, that his body was discovered in this Island in the reign of the Emperor Zeno². His grave being opened, his body was found in it; and upon his breast the Gospel of S. Matthew, written in Greek with his own hand. This discovery was made about the year of J. C. 488. The Greeks and Latins observe his Festival upon the 11th of June.

We have an Epistle³ under the name of Barnabas which has been cited by several of the Ancients⁴, and by some of them has been ranked among the canonical Scriptures. And it is certainly very inconvenient to own it for S. Barnabas’s without believing likewise that it is Canonical. But as the Church never has received it as an inspired Book, we have good reason to question whether it be the genuine work of this Apostle. It is certainly very ancient, and was written in the times of the Apostles. The principal design of it is to prove, that the Law is abolished by the Gospel, that the legal Ceremonies are useless, and that the Incarnation and Death of Jesus Christ were necessary. Some impostors have composed a spurious Gospel under the name of Barnabas, which was condemned by Pope Gelasius.

The modern Greeks⁵ tell us of one Aristobulus, Brother, as they call him, to S. Barnabas, of whom they relate many wonders. Rom. xvi. 10.They pretend that S. Paul speaks of him to the Romans, Salute them which are of Aristobulus’s houshold. But we have nothing very certain concerning this Aristobulus, who was not known to the Ancients as the Brother of Barnabas.

Some have reputed S. Barnabas to be the Author of a spurious Gospel, mentioned by Pope Gelasius in his Decree against apocryphal Books. This work is lost, and we know of no manuscript or printed copy of it: but the Turks have maliciously composed a counterfeit Gospel, under the name of S. Barnabas⁶, wherein they have crowded in abundance of things injurious to Jesus Christ, and honourable to their false Prophet. The manuscript of this work is in Prince Eugene’s Library. It was composed in Arabick, as M. de la Crose thinks, in the reign of the Emperor Frederick II. who wore the Imperial Crown from the year 1211 to 1245, and was afterwards translated into Italian about the middle of the fifteenth Century: it is to be met with only in this last language, and was never printed; nay some believe, that Prince Eugene’s is the only Manuscript of it in being.

Barnabas, who says he was particularly commissioned to write it, sets himself out there for an Apostle, who lived in great familiarity with Jesus Christ, and the Blessed Virgin, better instructed than S. Paul in the merit of Circumcision, and the use which should be made of such meats as were allowed or prohibited the Faithful: there we find, that the infernal torments of the Mahometans will not be eternal; Jesus Christ is called no more than plainly a Prophet, is said not to have been crucified, but that having been transported to the third Heaven, Judas suffered in his stead; that the very Virgin Mary and the Apostles believed Jesus to have been nailed upon the Cross, so much he resembled Judas; that Jesus had obtain’d permission to come and comfort his Mother and his Apostles; that God to punish him for the liberty which men had taken, in giving him the name of God has suffered him, and still will suffer him to the end of the world to be the Sport of mankind, who continue persuaded that it was he who died upon the Cross. Such is the Work whereof the Mahometans will have this holy Disciple to be the Author, a person doubtless very different from him who was proscribed by Gelasius.

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