Acts 9:27

Βαρνάβας, cf. Acts 4:36. Saul and Barnabas may have been previously acquainted, see J. Lightfoot, Hor. Heb., and note on Acts 4:36. St. Chrysostom, Hom., xxi. (so Theophylact and Oecumenius), sees here a proof of the kindly nature of Barnabas, so truly called “Son of Consolation”. For an appreciative notice of the goodness and generosity of Barnabas, from a very different standpoint, see Renan, Apostles, p. 191 E.T. ἐπιλ., cf. Acts 23:19; so as to disarm fear: on the force of this characteristic word of St. Luke see Ramsay, St. Paul, p. 245, Friedrich, p. 27, and below Acts 17:19; generally constructed with genitive, but here αὐτὸν is probably governed by ἤγαγε; cf. Acts 16:19, and Acts 18:17, where also the accusative is found in cases of a finite transitive verb following the participle, ἐπιλ. Blass, Gram., p. 100, note 2, refers αὐτόν to ἤγαγε, and understands αὐτοῦ with ἐπιλ. πρὸς τοὺς ἀποστόλους, cf. Galatians 1:19; there is no contradiction, although St. Paul's own narrative confines Saul's introduction to Peter and James: “though most of the Apostles were absent, yet the two real leaders were present” (Ramsay), and this was the point which St. Luke would emphasise. Wendt (1899) rejects the narrative of Acts as indistinct when compared with Galatians 1, but see Lightfoot, Galatians, p. 91, and Drummond, Galatians, p. 67; see below on Acts 9:30 also. διηγήσατο, exposuit, i.e., Barnabas (but Beza and Meyer make Saul the subject, although unlikely from construction and context); verb twice in Luke's Gospel, Luke 8:39; Luke 9:10, and three times in Acts, Acts 8:33 (quotation), Acts 12:17; cf. Hebrews 11:32, and Mark 5:16; Mark 9:9; and nowhere else in N.T.; frequent in LXX to recount, narrate, declare, cf. 1Ma 5:25; 1Ma 8:2; 1Ma 10:15; 1Ma 11:5, and several times in Ecclesiasticus. Similarly used in classical Greek; Grimm compares figurative use of German durchführen. πῶς εἶδε Κ.: while it is not said in any part of the three accounts of the Conversion that Saul saw Jesus, it is distinctly asserted here in a statement which Barnabas may well have received from Saul himself, and also in the two expressions of Ananias, cf. Acts 9:17; Acts 22:14; cf. also the Apostle's own words, 1Co 9:1; 1 Corinthians 15:8. ἐπαῤῥησιάσατο, cf. the verb with the expression μετὰ παρρησίας λαλεῖν, see above on Acts 4:13, and of the preaching of the other Apostles and of the Church, cf. Acts 28:31 (of Paul). Verb only used by Luke and Paul, and always of speaking boldly the truths of the Gospel; so seven times in Acts, and also in 1 Thessalonians 2:2; Ephesians 6:20.