Acts 11:25

"And he went forth to Tarsus to seek for Saul"He went forth to Tarsus" Barnabas realized that this work needed more assistance than he could personally give. "We cannot help admiring Barnabas' humility in wanting to share the work with Saul, and his sense of strategy also. He must have known of Saul's calling to be the apostle to the Gentiles (Acts 9:15; Acts 9:27), and it may well have been the Gentile conversions in Antioch which made him think of Saul" (Stott pp. 204-205). "To Tarsus" The destination to which Saul was headed in Acts 9:30. It has been five to six years since that time. In the interval Saul has been preaching in the Syrian and Cilician region (Galatians 1:21). "From Selecucia to the port of Tarsus would be about. twelve hour's sail; or, by land,. journey of about eighty miles would bring him to Tarsus" (P.P. Comm. p. 359). "To seek for" To search out. "Strictly, like our hunt up" (Vincent p. 505). "To seek up and down, back and forth, to hunt up, to make. thorough search till success comes" (Robertson p. 159). The word suggests that Barnabas may have had some difficulty in finding Saul. "He had none of the littleness which cannot bear the presence of. possible rival. Barnabas knew his own limitations and knew where the man of destiny for this crisis was, the man who already had the seal of God upon him. The door was open and the man was ready, far more ready than when Jesus called him on the road to Damascus. The years in Cilicia and Syria were not wasted for they had not been idle" (Robertson p. 159).