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St. Barnabas
00:16:22
In the city of Lystra, they thought he was the god Zeus, but we know him today as the "Son of Encouragement." He offers us a great example of how to lead by lovingly highlighting other people's gifts. Join Dr. James Prothro and Dr. Elizabeth Klein to learn more about the life and legacy of Saint Barnabas. Dr. James Prothro is an associate professor of Theology at the Augustine Institute Graduate School of Theology. Learn more at Augustine.edu.
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- [00:02]
A
You're listening to a podcast on Catholic Saints. This podcast is produced by the Augustine Institute, an apostolate helping Catholics understand, live, and share their faith.
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B
Hello and welcome to Catholic Saints, the podcast about the lives of the saints and their legacy for the church and for us. Hello, I'm Dr. Elizabeth Klein, and I'm joined today by my colleague, Dr. James Prothero to talk about St. Barnabas. Welcome to the show, Jim.
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A
Hi. Thank you so much, Liz.
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B
Dr. Prothero is a biblical scholar, and we are talking today about a biblical saint. In fact, there's more about Barnabas than there is about some of the twelve apostles of Christ, which is kind of interesting. There's quite a bit of information there. So I'll be looking forward to hearing what Dr. Prothero has to say about him. But before we jump right into it, I thought I would ask Dr. Prothro, what have you been reading lately? You've been reading any good books about the Bible or theology books?
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A
Yeah, so I've been reading lately. Most of my reading has actually just. Just been the Bible the last. The last couple of months. So I've been. I'm working on a book about Jude, the little letter of Jude at the end of the New Testament, which I love so much, and, and everybody always passes over. But lately I've been reading Acts and have been thinking and kind of reading about Acts a whole lot. So it was great today to get to come in and talk about Barnabas.
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B
Yeah, that's perfect timing. So Barnabas feast day is June 11th for those keeping track. So take it away. Tell me a little bit about where we find Barnabas mentioned in the Scriptures and what we kind of know about him through that.
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A
Yeah, absolutely. So he gets mentioned once or twice in Paul's letters, but most of what we know about Barnabas comes from the book of Acts. And we actually meet him in Acts chapter 4. He's not one of the 12 apostles, but he joins the apostolic group in Jerusalem really soon after Pentecost. And we actually meet him. We learn that his name actually isn't Barnabas. That's his nickname.
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B
Okay, got it.
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A
His real name is Joseph. So this is from Acts 4. 36. It says Joseph, who was called by the apostles Barnabas, which means son of encouragement. He was a Levite and a native of Cyprus. So he's a Levite. He's from the tribe of Levi, which is the tribe from which the priests came and also the Levites who helped with the tabernacle and service. And Barnabas really shows Himself over and over again to be a servant and to be one who is kind and charitable. So like the first time we meet him in Acts chapter four, it sort of talks about the way in which all these people who joined the church in Jerusalem sold the property that they had and gave the proceeds to the twelve apostles so that they could distribute it among all the believers. It says they had nothing that they called their own. They had everything in common. And they stayed together for breaking bread and for prayers and devotion to the apostles teaching. And that's where we meet Barnabas first. There's sort of like a whole bunch of people who are doing this, but Barnabas is the one who gets named. Yeah, because you know he's done something significant himself. And then you also know that he's going to be a player in this story.
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B
Okay, so what do we. So if he's a kind of from Cyprus, if he's a Levite in Jerusalem, who joins this movement, what is that? Is that normal to move back home? Is he there because he's serving the temple? Do we know anything about that?
- [03:32]
A
No, nothing. Nothing is. Nothing is given to us in Scripture. There's been some people who've suggested. Right. Or some traditions that talk about him having been a disciple of Gamaliel in Jerusalem, like that he sort of like got his education there and that that's why he's there. He could also just be there because there's people from Cyprus who are there for the feast of Pentecost. So he could have just come for Pentecost to Jerusalem to worship like he's supposed to and gotten baptized at Peter's Pentecost sermon and then stayed with them.
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B
Okay, so he's maybe Paul's doctor brother, studied with the same person.
- [04:11]
A
That's what. Yeah, that's the idea. But yeah, so most famously after this, in the book of Acts, Barnabas is most famous as a co worker of Paul.
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B
Right.
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A
He's an encourager. He's a minister. And he's also one who recognizes the gifts of others and kind of like helps them to use them. So short overview. When Paul or Saul sees the Lord and comes to faith in the Lord Jesus, the people in Jerusalem are suspicious of him, Right. Because they're like, he's been persecuting us. And now he says he wants to hang out, like, feel like I don't want to let him in the door. But Barnabas is the one who listens to Paul. Barnabas is the one who brings Paul to them to the twelve apostles and says, hey, he's on the level. Right. He has seen the Lord in a vision. He is a sincere believer now, and he wants to put his gifts and talents to use.
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B
So we have, in some ways, we have St. Barnabas to thank for St. Paul and his contributions to the church. Because without the Barnabas Inn, he might not have gotten too far with the early Christian community.
- [05:19]
A
Yeah, that's exactly right. And we have Barnabas to thank even more for that. So, like later on, this comes up at the end of Acts, chapter 11. Paul has been back home for a while in Tarsus, and Barnabas is the one who actually comes to get him to say, hey, you need to be involved in our preaching and teaching in this place called Antioch. And Antioch is the first place where there's a totally mixed congregation of believers, both who used to be pagan and then those who are Jews and of the children of Abraham. And it's a situation where Barnabas can see somehow we're not given a whole lot of detail in the book of Acts, but Barnabas is the one who is there, sees what's going on and says, we need Saul. And then he goes and gets him and brings him back so that they can be ministers and teachers in this area together. So he seems to recognize Paul's gifts as somebody who can sort of talk to both groups, address them with his learning. And that ends up being really formative both for, like, the way that Paul has a big influence in early Christianity. The topics of a lot of his letters. And Barnabas ends up going with Paul on his first sort of missionary journey. The Holy Spirit says, set apart for me, Barnabas and Saul, or also Paul, the Holy Spirit calls him Saul there for the work that I have for them to do. And that's the beginning of Acts, chapter 13. Acts, chapter 13. And 14. Barnabas and Saul go around together preaching and teaching.
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B
So Barnabas is like the early church's talent scout slash first talent manager.
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A
You could say it that way. That's right.
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B
Also, a lesson to all of us who've been grad students that when there's a smarter grad student than you in the class, don't be threatened, just team up with them. Yeah.
- [07:10]
A
So that's a cool thing about Barnabas too, right? Is that not only does he go to. To sort of bring Paul into what he's doing and his ministry, to recognize his gifts and his potential, but Barnabas also is happy to let Paul run the show. Like, so Barnabas is kind of the lead man in some ways, you think, or some People would say on their first missionary journey, the Spirit says, set apart from me, Barnabas and Saul. And then they go, and yet Paul's the one who does most of the talking. And there's a place in Acts chapter 14 where they come to called Lystra, and this is in modern Turkey. And they run into a group of pagans. They preached in a synagogue before, and they quote the scriptures and things like that. And then they run into a group of total pagans. And God heals a man through them. And the people all start trying to offer sacrifice to them because they're like, oh, the gods are here. And they think that Paul is Hermes, but Barnabas is Zeus.
- [08:07]
B
Okay, so Barnabas being the superior of the two.
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A
Yeah, they think that Zeus is the superior. And they think Paul is Hermes. And it says because Paul was the chief speaker, he's just speaker. Even in this first one, he's like, well, Paul, you got the gift of gap. Go for it. You have the gift of arguing. And Barnabas is sort of happy to manage, facilitate, minister to people, care for them. And also surely he does his own preaching too. But Paul shines and Barnabas lets Paul shine.
- [08:33]
B
Yeah, I mean, that's a really important lesson. Sometimes when you're the more senior person, it can be threatening to you to have some young upstart who's doing a better job. And in this case, Barnabas is really the more established person in the Christian community. He's really kind of got that credibility to bring Paul into the fold. Also reminds me of something that St. Augustine said, which is never fear of the conversion of someone else. They may convert and make faster progress than you. So Paul, unlikely candidate for chief Christian speaker, but Barnabas obviously sees that gift in him and sees what the spirit wants to work through Paul and lets him do it. That's really amazing. Well, can you say a little bit maybe about Barnabas legacy? Any traditions you might want to share? I know that that's kind of the material that we have from the biblical witness.
- [09:24]
A
Yeah. So. In terms of the end of his life, this is actually the end of the story of Barnabas in the Book of Acts. Comes in Acts, chapter 15. And this is actually one of the things people might remember about him if they don't recall much else from. From the New Testament, is that he and Paul split because they have a disagreement. They're about to go off on another journey and they're making plans together. And Barnabas says, let's bring along John, who is called Mark. The Book of Colossians. Says that someone named Mark is Barnabas cousin. And so maybe this is the same Mark who's the cousin. But anyway, he wants to bring him along. And Paul says no, he only went with us halfway last time. I don't want to bring him along. And these are the words of scripture. In Acts 15:39, 40, it says there arose a sharp disagreement so that they separated from each other. Barnabas took Mark with him and sailed away to Cyprus. But Paul chose Silas, this other guy, and departed. So they go their opposite ways. After sharp disagreement. We don't hear anything more about them like coming back together or chatting, at least in the Book of Acts. And traditions end up saying that Barnabas was martyred there in Cyprus when he came back and that Mark buried him. But the legacy of Barnabas, he's left us no writings. There's a book called the Epistle of Barnabas from the 1000s or so, maybe a little bit later that's not by him. Tertullian thinks that Barnabas might have written Hebrews, that he might be the author of Hebrews, but we don't know. But we can see a lot to imitate in Barnabas on the one hand, like peacemaking and consolation. He's the son of encouragement. He's the one who makes peace between Paul and the 12. He wants to bring along John, Mark. Right. He sort of wants to bring people into the work.
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B
He's a galvanizer.
- [11:19]
A
He's a galvanizer, yeah. He's able to recognize other people's gifts, identify them, encourage them in them. He's able to. He's like, able to. Able to put his pride away and take a back seat like he does with Paul almsgiving. Obviously, the whole thing starts with Barnabas in Acts chapter four, giving away all that he's got, selling his property so that he could join and give everything to the mission of the church. Obviously also his preaching and his mission work. Right. Like he's an evangelist alongside Paul, wanting the salvation of souls. And then I think this last little bit, the last appearance that he has in the Book of Acts is notable too, and a bit of comfort for us that even as a peacemaking disciple, you can have sharp disagreements with other disciples.
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B
That Paul, he's got a strong personality, that guy.
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A
Everybody always wants to blame Paul.
- [12:10]
B
No, I think this is actually. And this is something that's come up on the show before and will come up again and again. You can have two really wonderful saints who live in the same time period, who don't necessarily get along with each other that. Well, people who are passionate about the mission of the church and passionate about their faith can often have strong personalities and have charisma that doesn't always play well with others. It doesn't mean that they can't both serve the Lord in the capacity that they. That the Lord has called them to. And I think that that's what we, we see here. And I think also what's cool about this story is, you know, these disagreements can be really painful within the church. But also in divine providence, we can see that God spread the gospel through both of them being faithful to their own mission. And even if maybe that didn't feel great at the time, you know, we have these great missionaries sent to different places to spread the word through their own sort of individual receptivity and the companions that they chose.
- [13:06]
A
Yeah, that's absolutely right.
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B
So we've kind of covered what we might sort of take away from his life for today. Do you have any last thoughts about how Barnabas might inspire us or any words of scripture about Barnabas that might be a particularly good sort of takeaway from him?
- [13:23]
A
Just remembering his name, son of encouragement or son of consolation is what it says his name means. And to be able to be that, whether you're. In ministry, like officially, professionally, as a priest or in any other capacity, to be able to be that son of encouragement for others, to mediate, to bring people along, to bring people in, to walk alongside them and sort of lead them and mentor them, but also to be able to be that, even if you're not right. So Barnabas is with and connected to the twelve apostles, but he's not. And in that sense, lay people in my state or yours can also look to him and say, oh, he was an encourager and a facilitator for the mission, not only of his own mission that he was called to, but also others, the way that he helped the 12. And just that spirit of consolation, that spirit of service, that spirit of help.
- [14:31]
B
Yeah. As you were speaking, just also thinking about something just beautiful about the lives of saints in general is that you can, almost anybody can find a kindred spirit among the saints. And what's so beautiful about the treasury that the church offers us in the lives of the saints is all kinds of different people with different personalities. We can relate to them in a human level. And also a lot of saints are sort of what we would think of as, like, unsung heroes, you know, in a sort of modern context. Like people whose actions weren't necessarily, you know, making the bottom line. Like Paul racked up more baptisms, you know, than Barnabas or, or whatever. And yet it recognizes how valuable someone who offers encouragement and consolation within the church. I mean, we've all experienced this and that. Anyone who's maybe in the limelight more maybe like someone who's a priest or someone who's a speaker, author or whatever, someone who seems more influential in the church, there's always the whole church is behind them and there's lots of other people who are working hard for the sake of the church that make that possible.
- [15:33]
A
That's right.
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B
Well, thanks so much for talking to me about Barnabas. Thank you.
- [15:37]
A
Thanks for having me on.
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B
St Barnabas pray for us.
- [15:41]
A
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