Acts 9:27

Acts 9:27. But Barnabas took him. Barnabas, a Levite of the island of Cyprus, early a disciple of Christ, and, according to Eusebius and Clement of Alexandria, one of the ‘seventy,' in the first days after the resurrection held a prominent place in the little Church of Christ. We hear of him as one of the wealthy brethren who sold their land, and gave the price to the apostles for the use of the society (Acts 4:36-37). His influence seems to have been very great in the first councils of the believers in Jesus: a word of his changed the mind of the leaders of the community in regard to the convert Saul of Tarsus. Subsequently associated with Saul, being specially pointed out by the Holy Ghost for the missionary work, he was with him solemnly ordained by the Church, and in the council of Jerusalem (Acts 15) the two were specially recognised as apostles of the Gentiles. The Clementine Homilies relate that Barnabas was a disciple of the Lord Himself, and assign to him the conversion of Clement of Rome. The Recognitions even assert that he preached at Rome during the lifetime of the Lord. There is a well-known epistle which bears the honoured name of Barnabas; but although the epistle is undoubtedly the work of the first age of Christianity, and writers of great weight like Clement of Alexandria and Jerome identify the author with the fellow-labourer of St. Paul, still, the best scholars hesitate to attribute this writing which bears his name to Barnabas the apostle.

Brought him to the apostles, viz. to Peter and James, as we learn from Galatians 1:18-19, where Paul, mentioning how during that visit to Jerusalem he abode with Peter, writes: ‘Other of the apostles saw I none, save James the Lord's brother.' The other members of the apostolic body were at this time most probably absent from the city.