Acts 4:36-37

Acts 4:36-37. And Joseph, who by the apostles was surnamed Barnabas. This is given as one of the more famous instances of this giving up houses and lands for the Lord's sake. Clement of Alexandria tells us this Barnabas, a Levite of Cyprus, was one of the Lord's seventy disciples. This eloquent and devoted man subsequently became one of the foremost missionaries of Christ. In the vexed question of the authorship of the Epistle to the Hebrews, Barnabas has been by some scholars supposed to have been the writer. The well-known epistle bearing his name, quoted some seven times by Clement of Alexandria, and also by Origen, Jerome, etc., although undoubtedly a monument of the first Christian age, was probably written some time after Barnabas' martyrdom, which took place not later than A.D. 57 (see Hefele, Prolegomena Patrum Apost. Opera).

Which is, being interpreted, The son of consolation. The name Barnabas is compounded of two Hebrew words, בּ ַך נְבואה, which mean literally, ‘the son of prophecy.' The writer of the ‘Acts' translates it ‘son of consolation' (or exhortation). This name was given him by the apostles, no doubt on account of his rare gifts of speech and powers of exhortation.

A Levite, and of the country of Cyprus, (37) Having land, sold it. The land sold might have been situated in Cyprus; but this supposition is hardly necessary, for we know that even priests might hold land in the later days of the kingdom of Israel (see Jeremiah 32:7). On the return from the captivity, it was still more unlikely that the old restrictions of the Mosaic Law regarding heritages could be observed.