Barnabas
1 CE · Cyprus
Barnabas was a leading figure in the first generation of the church. Acts says his given name was Joseph (Joses). He was a Levite from Cyprus, and the apostles called him Barnabas, which Acts explains as 'son of encouragement'. He sold a field and gave the money to the apostles (Acts 4:36-37). When the Jerusalem believers distrusted the newly converted Saul, Barnabas vouched for him (Acts 9:27). Sent to Antioch, he brought Saul there from Tarsus, and the two taught together (Acts 11:22-26). The Antioch church sent them out on a journey through Cyprus and southern Asia Minor (Acts 13-14). At Lystra the crowd hailed Barnabas as Zeus (Acts 14:12). Acts calls both men apostles (Acts 14:14). Barnabas went with Paul to the Jerusalem meeting about Gentile believers (Acts 15:2-12; Galatians 2:1-9). Afterwards they argued over John Mark (called Barnabas's cousin in Colossians 4:10) and separated, and Barnabas sailed to Cyprus (Acts 15:36-39). Church tradition says he was martyred at Salamis. Clement of Alexandria credited him with the 'Epistle of Barnabas', but scholars treat that work as anonymous and later.
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CyprusCyprus
What they did here
Acts describes Barnabas as 'a Levite, a man of Cyprus by race' (Acts 4:36). No town is named.
About Cyprus
Cyprus, the eastern Mediterranean island. Evangelized by Barnabas and Paul (Acts 13), its church was recognized as autocephalous by the Council of Ephesus (431).
In the same place & time
Sages whose lives overlapped with Barnabas’s in the same cities, drawn from their recorded journeys.
Across the traditions
In the same tradition
Joseph of Arimathea, Nicodemus, Mary, mother of Jesus, Jesus of Nazareth, Peter the Apostle, Philip the Apostle, Matthias the Apostle, Bartholomew the Apostle, Thomas the Apostle, Mary Magdalene, James, son of Zebedee, Andrew the Apostle, Paul the Apostle, John the Apostle, Silas, Titus, Timothy, Mark the Evangelist
The world in their lifetime
Thinkers and teachers of other traditions whose lives overlapped with Barnabas’s — a glimpse of the wider world they lived in. Drawn purely from recorded birth and death years.
Works
No works attributed in the corpus yet.