Acts 11:25

Acts 11:25. Then departed Barnabas to Tarsus, for to seek Saul. The history of St. Paul is here resumed, suddenly and somewhat indirectly, from Acts 9:30, which corresponds with Acts 22:21, and Galatians 1:21. We have no information regarding the length of time he spent at Tarsus, or his manner of employment when there. But we cannot imagine him to have been idle in his Master's cause; and to this period is probably to be assigned the formation of those Cilician churches of which we find mention afterwards in Acts 15:41, at the beginning of the Second Missionary Journey. We feel sure also that this time of exile, like the time of retirement in Arabia (Galatians 1:17), was made use of for the deepening of his religious life and his further Divine illumination.

As to the errand of Barnabas, for the purpose of seeking out Saul and bringing him to Antioch, it is evident that the future Apostle of the Gentiles was by no means lost sight of by the Church, but that the resuming of his active public work was earnestly desired. It is possible that Barnabas knew something of that vision in the Temple, recorded in Acts 22:21, when Saul was designated as Apostle to the Gentiles. It has also been conjectured that this searching out of Saul, and associating him with himself in the work among the new Syrian Christians, was part of the commission given to Barnabas. Thus the case of Antioch would be similar to that of Samaria, to which place Peter and John were sent (Acts 8:14), and would be accordant with our Saviour's habit of sending two and two on missionary work. However this may be, the character of Barnabas is at this point set before us in a most attractive light, in that he brought out of retirement one whose eminence was sure to supersede and eclipse his own. This has been forcibly noted by Calvin; and it has been illustrated, in modern history, by ‘the conduct of Farel with respect to Calvin himself (see Alexander's Commentary). Renan, with all his strange inconsistencies and wild theories, sometimes displays extraordinary sagacity in seizing the true import of points of the apostolic history; and his remarks concerning Barnabas are very just and happy. He says that ‘Christianity has been unjust towards this great man in not placing him in the first rank among its founders,' that ‘every good and generous thought had Barnabas for its patron.' As to the particular point before us, the bringing of Saul to Antioch, Renan says: ‘Gagner cette grande âme... se faire son inferieur, preparer le champ le plus favorable au deploiement de son activite en oubliant soi-meme, c'est la certes le comble de ce qu'a jamais pu faire la vertu; c'est la ce que Barnabe fit pour Saint Paul. La plus grande partie de ce dernier revient à l'homme modeste qui le devanca en toutes choses, s'effaca devant lui, decouvrit ce qu'il valait, le mit en lumiere... prévint le tort irremediable que de mesquines personalites auraient pu faire à l'oeuvre de Dieu.'