Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Acts 4:36

And Joses, who by the apostles was surnamed Barnabas, (which is, being interpreted, The son of consolation,) a Levite, [and] of the country of Cyprus,

36. And Joses ] The same name as Joseph, which form the oldest MSS. give.

who by the apostles was surnamed Barnabas ] He was the companion of St Paul in his first missionary journey (Act 13:2), and is often mentioned by St Luke. He was invited by St Paul to join him on his second journey, but as they disagreed about taking John Mark with them, they did not labour again, as far as we know, in the same field, and the writer leaves Barnabas (Act 15:39) with the mention that “he took Mark and sailed to Cyprus.”

which is, being interpreted ] The explanation is added for the sake of Theophilus, who may have had no knowledge of the Hebrew (see Act 1:19).

son of consolation ] More probably, son of exhortation. The Greek may be thus rendered, and the Hebrew noun nebuah is from the same root as the common word for prophet. The title may have been given to Barnabas from his ability as a preacher (Act 11:23), though in this he seems (Act 14:12) to have been less prominent than St Paul, as most men must have been. In describing the work of Barnabas in Act 11:23 the verb used, “he exhorted,” is that from which the noun in this verse is derived, and is akin to the word “Paraclete,” which is so often translated “Comforter” when applied to the Holy Ghost, but rendered “advocate” in 1Jn 2:1 when used of the intercession of Jesus.

a Levite ] The Levites in the Holy Land had no inheritance given to them, but were scattered through all the tribes; the same regulation may not, however, have applied to the Levites in other countries; and we are not informed where the field was situated which Barnabas sold. He may also have been a married man, and have held lands from his marriage.

of the country of Cyprus ] The island still so called in the eastern part of the Mediterranean Sea. We find Jews settled there in the Maccabean times ( 1Ma 15:23 ). It was one of the places to which Paul and Barnabas went in their missionary journey, and it had been previously visited by some of the Christian teachers who were driven from Jerusalem by the persecution which succeeded the death of Stephen (Act 11:19).

Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

And Joses – Many manuscripts, instead of Joses, here read Joseph. The reasons why this individual is selected and specified particularly were, doubtless, because he was a foreigner; because it was a remarkable instance of liberality; and because he subsequently distinguished himself in the work of the ministry. He gave himself, his property, his all, to the service of the Lord Jesus, and went forth to the self-denying labors of the gospel. He is mentioned elsewhere with honor in the New Testament Act 11:24, Act 11:30, and usually as the companion of the apostle Paul. The occasion on which he became connected with Paul in the ministry was when he himself was sent forth by the church at Jerusalem to Antioch. There, it seems, he heard of the fame of Paul and went to Tarsus to seek him, and brought him with him to Antioch, Act 11:22-26. Before this he had been acquainted with him, and had introduced him to the other apostles at a time when they were afraid of Paul, and unwilling to acknowledge him as an apostle, Act 9:26-27. At Antioch, Barnabas was led into dissimulation by Peter in regard to the Gentiles, and was reproved by his friend and companion, Paul, Gal 2:13. He and Paul continued to travel in fellowship until a dispute arose at Antioch about Mark, and they separated, Paul going with Silas through Syria and Cilicia, and Barnabas, with Mark, sailing for his native place, Cyprus, Act 15:35-41. See the following places for particulars of his history: Act 11:22, Act 11:25, Act 11:30; Act 12:25; Act 13:1-2, Act 13:50; Act 14:12; Act 15:12; 1Co 9:6; Gal 2:1, Gal 2:9.

Who by the apostles was surnamed … – The practice of giving surnames, as expressive of character, was not uncommon. Thus, Simon was called Peter, or Cephas, Joh 1:44; and thus James and John were surnamed Boanerges, Mar 3:17.

Barnabas, which is … – This word properly denotes the son of prophecy. It is compounded of two Syriac words, the one meaning son, and the other prophecy. The Greek word which is used to interpret this paraklesis, translated consolation, means properly exhortation, entreaty, petition, or advocacy. It also means consolation or solace; and from this meaning the interpretation has been given to the word Barnabas, but with evident impropriety. It does not appear that the name was bestowed on account of this, though it is probable that he possessed the qualification for administering comfort or consolation in an eminent degree, but on account of his talent for speaking, or exhorting the people to holiness, and his success in preaching. Compare Act 11:23.

A Levite – One of the descendants of Levi employed in the lower services of the temple. The whole tribe of Levi was set apart to the service of religion. It was divided into priests and Levites. The three sons of Levi were Gershon, Kohath, and Merari. Of the family of Kohath Aaron was descended, who was the first high priest. His oldest son succeeded him, and the remainder of his sons were priests. All the others of the tribe of Levi were called Levites, and were employed in the work of the temple, in assisting the priests in performing sacred music, etc., Num. 3; Deu 12:18-19; Deu 18:6-8; 1Ch 23:24.

Of the country of Cyprus – Cyprus is the largest island in the Mediterranean; an island extremely fertile, abounding in wine, honey, oil, wool, etc. It is mentioned in Act 13:4; Act 15:39. The island is near to Cicilia, and is not far from the Jewish coast. It is said by Dion Caccius (lib. 68, 69) that the Jews were very numerous in that island – Clark. Barnabas afterward became, with Paul, a distinguished preacher to the Gentiles. It is worthy of remark, that both were born in pagan countries, though by descent Jews; and as they were trained in pagan lands, they were better suited for their special work. The case of Barnabas is that of a man who had property when he entered the ministry, and who gave up all for the Lord Jesus. The great mass of ministers, like very many who have been distinguished in other professions, have been taken from among the poor, and from humble ranks in life. But all have not been. Many have been wealthy, and have devoted all to Christ; and in regard to others, it is to be remarked, that a very considerable proportion of them could have gained more wealth in some other profession than they do in the ministry. The ministry is a work of self-denial, and none should enter it who are not prepared to devote all to the service of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible

Act 4:36-37

Joses, who by the apostles was surnamed Barnabas.

Barnabas

Surnames become necessary as soon as men form themselves into societies. They are then no longer adequately distinguished by the simple James or John, for others also bear the same name. Some personal characteristic, therefore, has to be selected: the trade, stature, complexion, or disposition of the man will suggest a title for him; he becomes known as James the Smith, or as John the Black, and probably transmits the surname to his posterity. When our Lord chooses His apostles they have to be distinguished in this way. There is Judas Iscariot, and Judas the brother of James. There is Simon Zelotes, and Simon surnamed Peter, etc. The apostles in their turn give surnames, and in the present instance the second name thrust the first out of recollection. Joses is from this time known as Barnabas alone. Our English translation interprets the name as the son of consolation. Take consolation in a strong sense, and that is right. The word is elsewhere rendered exhortation. It answers to the old English use of comfort, in the sense of strengthening, as well as soothing, as we have it in the phrase, the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost.

I. We shall best understand the nacre by surveying the history. We know little of the antecedents of Barnabas. He was a native of Cyprus, the first stepping-stone across the great sea to the lands of the Gentiles. Its population was partly Greek, partly Oriental; and the kind of education which such a society would afford may have helped to make Barnabas a broader man than his brethren who had been born and bred in the closer atmosphere of Jerusalem. Tradition marks him out as among the seventy sent forth by Christ. Or he may have been one of the fruits of Pentecost. Some of those converts, we know, were men of Cyprus and Cyrene. His first appearance has more of action in it than of speech. It was at the moment when, under the fresh impulses of their awakening, the disciples who had houses or lands were parting with them for the relief of their poorer brethren. Conspicuous among them was Barnabas. It was a good beginning for a Christian ministry. Let us not love in word, neither in tongue, but in deed and in truth. The interest deepens as we proceed. Six or seven years pass, and an unlooked-for and almost unwelcome proselyte presents himself. It is Saul, who finds himself an object of alarm and undisguised mistrust. The way is opening for a schism between them and this last of the apostles, who seeks their sympathy, but who can dispense with it, strong in his own independent authority, and in the promised presence of the Lord. There was needed at that moment some well-known and trusted leader, large-hearted enough to become surety for the former persecutor, and to stand his friend. This friend was found in Barnabas. It was he who joined Peters hands with Pauls, and who told the tale of the wonderful conversion in such a manner as to dissolve all doubt. The son of consolation appears here at his appropriate work, reconciling those opposing forces with the sweet reasonableness of his own gentler spirit. He was selected, shortly afterwards, for a mission in which the same spirit would find scope. Tidings had reached the apostles of strange successes attending the gospel in Antioch, and they were not prepared for such an event. The baptism of Cornelius was in obedience to a direct revelation from heaven, but this larger movement appeared unauthorised, and might prove unwarranted. Barnabas was accordingly chosen to visit the spot and make inquiry. Now it is not altogether easy for any man to give unstinted commendation to a work in which he himself has had no share. He is apt to point out what might have been done better, rather than what has been done well. Finely in contrast with that tendency stands out the candid and generous behaviour of Barnabas. He saw the grace of God, was glad, and expressed himself in terms of warm congratulation and approval. Nay, he threw his own energies into the glorious enterprise, and exhorted them all that with purpose of heart they would cleave to the Lord. When he departed he left many further converts added to the infant Church, and the impression that he was a good man, and full of the Holy Ghost and of faith. Next we find that by his urgency Paul was brought from the seclusion of Tarsus, and introduced to the field of work which lay ready for him in Antioch. It was through his generous co-operation that the ministry of the apostle of the Gentiles found favourable opportunities of exercise. But from that hour the lustre of his name begins to pale beside the fervent and forward energy of his incomparable companion. We find in the history no trace of any jealousy; but rather tokens of a noble modesty, akin to that of the Baptist when he drew back into the shade before the perfect light of Christ. This man, who, when others shunned Paul, had become his patron and protector, laying him under no common obligation, is now content to yield the precedence, and to walk loyally and lovingly at his side. When the missionaries differed–if we have to choose between the two–surely it was Barnabas who erred upon the generous side; for what he did was to take a faint-hearted brother whom Paul was too impatient to endure, and to give him that fresh chance of honourable service which made Mark profitable ever afterwards to Christ and to His Church.

II. All will acknowledge the peculiar charm which attaches to the true son of consolation. There are men who everywhere leave behind them a sense of irritation, like winds that blow dust into face and eyes. They are the opposites to Barnabas. There was sunshine where he came. At his approach the feeble gathered strength, and trembling souls crept out of their hiding toward the light. Hard words were hushed in his company; the sternest grew gentle, and the very churl tried to be liberal. Yet it would be a mistake to suspect him of moral weakness and irresolution. The sunshine has its strength, as well as the wind, though it makes much less noise. Barnabas was once, to Pauls great wonder, carried away by the dissimulation of others; but his very wonder–even Barnabas!–shows how unusual the symptom was. For sons of consolation are also sons of strong encouragement, who can themselves burn against injustice or hypocrisy, and inspire others with a kindred zeal. It is significant that heathen men called Barnabas Jupiter, the name that embodied their poor conceptions of what was greatest and best, most fatherly, and most benignant. We recognise the presence of such men in our own generation. The temper of the moment may not tend to exalt them, or to press their example on our imitation. The sterner gifts may be mostly in request. We watch with mingled awe and admiration as some impetuous missionary spirit sweeps by, rousing the dull Church to a measure of its own activity. We applaud the controversialists, who contend for separate sides of truth, or for principles which they reckon overlooked. No doubt there is great need of them. Is there not need also of the son of consolation, and may he not do as good a work as they? Surely it is not below the ambition of the strongest to play the part of Barnabas among the Churches of to-day. As long as so many timid, undecided souls remain, needing the tenderest touch and a patience almost motherlike to bring them to decision; as long as there are little children to be drawn into the Saviours arms; as long as the Church has her backsliders to reclaim, and her doubters to direct and encourage; so long there will be ample occupation for such a man, and abundant reward. Nor will he live in vain, but rather to the highest purpose, if he be made instrumental, like Barnabas, in dissipating suspicions, and confirming friendships, between Christian brethren. (W. Brock.)

A son of consolation

While some good people are overpraised, there are others who hardly get their dues. One of these too much neglected worthies is Barnabas, the son of consolation, or son of exhortation, as some Bible scholars prefer to render it. How seldom do we hear his name mentioned either in the pulpit or the lecture-hall or anywhere else! Yet, to my fancy, he is one of the very noblest of the New Testament heroes. As a blind person may detect the presence of a rose by its fragrance, so this good mans character exhales a peculiarly sweet perfume of godliness to those who will study it. He was just the sort of Christian needed in all our Churches in these days. The Bible is very chary of eulogies; but it does not hesitate to call him a good man, and full of the Holy Spirit. In some vital points he is a Christian to be copied.

1. He was a native of the island of Cyprus, which was renowned for the worship of Venus, and the very name Cyprian is still a synonym of impurity. But, as the brightest light is kindled on a point that comes out of a bed of charcoal, so this light-bearer of the gospel came out of a very dark region of debauchery and idolatry. His original name was Joseph; but another name was given him after his conversion to Christ. They christened him Barnabas, the son of consolation. That is a name to be proud of, and it comprehends a vast deal; it signifies a helper of the weak, a guide to the wanderer, a comforter of the sad, a succourer of the perishing, with an eye to discover misery and a hand to relieve it. My old friend William Arnot has well said that this name bespeaks a fine character. To possess consolation is to give it; not to give it is not to possess it. The more of it you have, the more you may give; and the more you give to others, the more you retain for your own use. This circle, when it is set a-going, moves perpetually, like the sea giving out its waters to the sky, and the sky sending back the boon by rain and the rivers to the sea again. The power of this man lay in the same quality that characterised nearly all those first converts to Christianity, and that was their superabounding sympathy. Barnabas, if in New York or Brooklyn or London now, would likely be found in a mission church for the half or the whole of every Sabbath. He would show us how to bridge the chasm between wealth and poverty, and between Christian culture and city heathenism. On many an evening during she week he `would be found beside the squalid bed of sickness, or amid the swarming outcasts of the slums. When the members of our Churches become sons of consolation in the broadest sense of the word, bestowing not merely their dollars, but their time, their presence, and the sympathy of their hearts upon the unchristianised masses, we shall have a primitive and Pentecostal revival. Personal sympathy is worth more to the poor, the suffering, and the neglected than silver and gold. Pulpits speak only for an hour or two, and then only to those who fill pews before them; it is by sermons in shoes–and plenty of them–that the suffering and the sinning only can be reached. The curse of too much of what passes for Christianity is itself selfishness.

2. There is another plume in the coronet of Barnabas. He was the father of systematic beneficence. We are told that having land he sold it, and brought the money and laid it at the apostles feet. Having given his heart to Christ, he consecrated a goodly portion of his property to his Masters service. Some others of the new converts may have done this as soon as he; but he is the first one mentioned. He is, therefore, to be regarded as the pioneer in that long procession of systematic givers which reaches on to our times, and numbers in its ranks the Nathaniel Ripley Cobbs and James Lenoxes and William E. Dodges, and many other bountiful stewards of the Lord; and not only they who gave of their abundance, but every conscientious Christian who gives according to his means–however humble–and gives spontaneously. Barnabas did more than fling loose money into Christs treasury. He sold real estate and contributed the proceeds. That looks as if there were real self-denial in the transaction, and that the man would stand a pinch for Christs sake. When he was converted, the work reached not only the bottom of his heart, but the bottom of his pocket. (T. L. Cuyler.)

A son of consolation

Who is the man who, in his bereavement or pain, receiving comfort from God, radiates it, so that the world is richer by the help the Lord has given him? It is the reverent, the unselfish, and the humble man. The sunlight falls upon a clod, and the clod drinks it in, is warmed by it itself, but lies as black as ever, and sheds no light. But the sun touches a diamond, and the diamond almost chills itself as it sends out in radiance on every side the light that has fallen on it. So God helps one man bear his pain, and nobody but that one man is a whit the richer. God comes to another sufferer, reverent, unselfish, humble, and the lame leap, and the dumb speak, and the wretched are comforted all around by the radiated comfort of that happy soul.

A son of consolation

I. Barnabas was a Levite, yet he possessed land, which was contrary to the old law of Israel, but probably on account of great and frequent changes it was found impossible to maintain the ancient constitution in its integrity. Barnabas was a good name; but how rife is its opposite–the son of complaint, of gloom. To such a man everything appears in its darkest colours. He sees no green on the earth, and in the heavens no blue–all is seen through the medium of a jaundiced eye. Barnabas had much comfort himself because he had much to bestow on others. If we see streams flowing to refresh a neighbourhood we argue that the spring is full. His great contributions did not embitter his spirit. The flow of bounty from that mans hand acted as the flow of water from the drain on a ploughed field–it sweetened and made fertile the whole breadth of his life. It is the gorging up of water for want of outlet that makes the land sour and leaves it barren. Barnabas was a rich man, and therefore able to bestow practical consolation; but in thus expending his wealth he acquired the better and more enduring riches.

II. Barnabas was a Levite, yet he was a son of consolation–how unlike many of the class to which he belonged, who despised others. See, e.g., the parable of the Good Samaritan, Yet is not this note added to show that an order must not be blamed for the vices of individual members? Levi had a remote descendant called Caiaphas; he had another surnamed Barnabas. Let those who assail the ministry and other professions remember this.

III. Barnabas was a Levite–a religious teacher. He could administer comfort from his lips as well as from his purse. Many can only give lip comfort; what we have, then, let us give cheerfully. (W. Arnot.)

Of the country of Cyprus.—

Cyprus

An island in the Mediterranean, one hundred and sixty miles long by fifty broad. A range of mountains runs through its entire length, called Oympus by the ancients, but now known by several names. Salamis, afterwards called Constantia, was one of the principal cities, and Paphos another. The island was colonised by Phoenicians at a remote period, and afterwards divided among petty tyrants when it became subject to the Persian yoke. Next it fell under the sway of Alexander, upon whose death it fell, with Egypt, to the share of Ptolemy Lagos. In the course of time it passed over to Rome, in whose hands it was during the New Testament period. Paul and Barnabas visited the island, and preached at Salamis and Paphos, where they left Christian Churches. When the empire was divided, Cyprus became part of the Eastern section. Richard

I. took it in 1191, and sold it to the Templars, whose oppression drove the people into revolt. Richard resumed the sovereignty, and gave it to Guy of Lusignan, the expelled king of Jerusalem, in 1192. The Lusignans retained it for nearly three centuries, which was a flourishing period for Cyprus. The Venetians were its next masters, but in 1470 Selim

II. seized it. No grass grows where the Turk sets his hoof, and ever since ruthless despotism has wasted the fair island, so that from 1,000,000 in the days of Barnabas, the population has dwindled to 100,000. Now under British protection, and with British enterprise, capital, and missionary zeal, Cyprus may become prosperous once more. (F. A. Warrington.)

Having land, sold it, and brought the money and laid it at the apostles feet.—

Practical Christian beneficence

The good Duchess of Gordon set her heart upon the erection of a school and chapel in a needy district of her neighbourhood. The Gordon estates at the time were so encumbered that she did not know where to find the necessary funds. In a letter to her friend Miss Howe, she described some of her efforts and the consequences. I took up to London, she says, a gold vase that cost about 1,200 in hopes of selling it, but could not find a purchaser even at half price. I have still left it to be disposed of. The Duchess of Beaufort, hearing of my vase, thought of her diamond earrings, which she got me to dispose of, for a chapel in Wales, and her diamonds made me think of my jewels; and as the Duke has always been most anxious for the chapel, he agreed with me that stones were much prettier in a chapel wall than round ones neck, and so he allowed me to sell 600 worth, or, rather, what brought that, for they cost me more than double. The chapel is going on nicely, and I have still enough jewels left to help to endow it, if no other way should open. I do think I may with confidence hope for a blessing on this. It is no sacrifice to me whatever, except as it is one to the Duke, who is very fond of seeing me fine, and was brought up to think it right. The chapel cost rather more than was expected, and the Duke, following up his wifes example, offered of his own accord to sell some of his own horses to make up the deficiency. (A. Moody Stuart, D. D.)

The profit and rule of Christian beneficence

Since I began to obey the law, said a thriving merchant to me, I have not only been greatly prospered, but I have found my ability to give somewhat largely the greatest luxury of my life. The money is laid by; the call comes, and I am not tempted to the baseness of inventing excuses; I generally have something, not always enough, for every deserving appeal; I make short work of it, for time I cannot spare, and as soon as I get the facts, and am sure as to the claimant, I give him cheerfully what I think I owe to his cause. I know another and a wealthier man, who said he and his wife had an understanding. When his wife thought they were rich enough to set up their carriage, the answer was, Yes, my dear; it will cost just so much a year; we can afford it, and you deserve it if you approve my increasing my charities by an equal sum. Is not this the law of Christian luxury? I can buy such a picture, or give such an entertainment, only when I give an equivalent to Christs poor and to the glory of His cross and crown. (Bp. Cleveland Coxe.)

.

Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell

Verse 36. Joses] Or, Joseph, as many excellent MSS. read; but who he was, farther than what is here said, we know not.

Surnamed Barnabas] Or, Barsabbas, according to the Coptic.

The son of consolation] ; As signifies exhortation, as well as consolation, and is indeed distinguished from the latter, 1Co 14:3, the original name was probably Bar naba, or Bar nebia, which signifies the son of prophecy or exhortation; and this is certainly one sense which prophecy has in the New Testament; and in this way Barnabas distinguished himself among the apostles. See Ac 11:23. And Barnabas EXHORTED them all that with purpose of heart they should cleave unto the Lord.

A Levite, and of the country of Cyprus] Cyprus is an island in the Mediterranean Sea, off Cilicia, and not very distant from the Jewish coast. The Jews were very numerous in that island: see Dion. Cas. lib. 68, 69. Though he was a Levite, he might have had land of his own by private purchase. The Levites, as a tribe, had no land in Israel; but the individuals certainly might make purchases any where in the country: but, as Barnabas was of Cyprus, his land probably lay there; and as it is likely that he was one of those strangers that came up to Jerusalem to the late feast, and was there converted, he might have sold his land in the island to some of his own countrymen who were at Jerusalem at this time; and so, being called to the work of the ministry, continued to associate with the apostles, travelling every where, and preaching the Gospel of the kingdom of God. He was the constant companion of St. Paul, till the separation took place on account of John Mark, mentioned Ac 15:36-39.

IT is worthy of remark that the two apostles of the Gentiles, though of Jewish extraction, were both born in Gentile countries; Paul in Cilicia, Barnabas in Cyprus: this gave them many advantages; served to remove prejudices from the heathens; and gave them no doubt much facility in the Greek tongue, without which they could have done but little in Asia Minor, nor in most parts of the Roman empire where they travelled. How admirably does God determine even the place of our birth, and the bounds of our habitation! When under the influence of the grace of Christ, every thing is turned to a man’s advantage. The man whom he calls to his work he will take care to endue with every necessary qualification. And is it too much to say that God never did call a man to preach the Gospel whom he did not qualify in such a manner that both the workman and the work should appear to be of God?

Some have said that ignorance is the mother of devotion. Devotion and religion are both scandalized by the saying. Enlightened piety has ever been the most sincere, steady, and active. God makes those wise who turn unto him; and by experimental religion all the powers of the mind are greatly improved. Every genuine minister of Christ has an enlightened heart; and, to this, it is his duty to add a well-cultivated mind. Ex quovis ligno Mercurius non fit: A blockhead never did, and never can, make a minister.

Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible

Joses; some read Joseph; the Hebrew names, when turned into Greek, meet with divers terminations or endings.

Surnamed Barnabas; full of consolation; not only in that he gave so liberally towards the relief of the poor, parting with his possessions for them; but that he excelled in propounding inward and spiritual comfort unto poor and rich, being of a mild disposition, and fitted to handle gently such wounds as the terrors of the law had made.

Though a Levite he might have land, either in right of his wife, or given to him and his ancestors; as we read was to Phinehas, Jos 24:33; otherwise the Lord was the Levites portion in an especial manner.

The Jews being dispersed all over the known world, some dwelt in Cyprus, as Josess parents; Sauls parents dwelt at Tarsus; though at this time both Saul and Joses dwell in Jerusalem.

Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole

36. Joses, &c.This isspecified merely as an eminent example of that spirit of generoussacrifice which pervaded all.

son of consolationnodoubt so surnamed from the character of his ministry.

a Levitewho, though asa tribe having no inheritance, might and did acquire property asindividuals (De 18:8).

Cyprusa well-knownisland in the Mediterranean.

Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible

And Joses,…. The Vulgate Latin, Syriac, and Ethiopic versions, read “Joseph”, and so do Beza’s most ancient copy, and two of his manuscripts, and the Alexandrian copy, and others; for “Jose”, or “Joses”, is only an abbreviation or contraction of “Joseph”; though according to others it is the same with “Josiah”: there is one of this name, who was the sort of Alphaeus, and brother to two of the apostles, James and Jude, Mt 13:55 and another called “Joses Barsabas”; and it may be to distinguish the one from the other this is called “Joses Barnabas”; for so it follows,

who by the apostles was surnamed Barnabas: his name before his conversion was “Joses”, or “Joseph”, or “Josiah”; and afterwards, or at least after he came to be acquainted with the apostles, and to be in their company, they called him “Barnabas”, The Arabic and Ethiopic versions read, “who was of the apostles”; and so Barnabas is spoken of as if he was an apostle, 1Co 9:5

which is, being interpreted, the son of consolation; or “of exhortation”; from the excellent gift and talent he had at exhorting; see Ac 11:23 and from the use he was of for the comforting of distressed minds; for , “Naba, to prophesy”, includes both exhortation and comfort; and he having the gift of prophecy or preaching the Gospel, was called , “Barnabas”, a son of comfort, or a comforter, or an exhorter: and so Jerom r interprets it, “the son of a prophet”. Drusius conjectures that his right name was , “Bar Nachama”, and by contraction “Barnama”, and with a Greek termination “Barnamas”; which properly signifies, in the Chaldee and Syriac languages, “the son of consolation”, as it is here interpreted; and he observes, that the letters “M” and “B” are sometimes used one for an other: thus one and the same man is called “Berodach” and “Merodach”, 2Ki 20:12 and the same river is called “Abana”, 2Ki 5:12 and in the margent “Amana”; but others think he had his name from the same word that Noah had his, and which signifies rest and comfort, as appears from the reason of his name. “This same shall comfort us”, c. And so the name of this man in the Chaldee or Syriac language was , which may be literally rendered “the son of the fathers’ rest”, or “comfort”. And this man is said to be

a Levite of the tribe of Levi, and of the priestly race:

and of the country of Cyprus; or “by birth”, or “nation, a Cyprian”; for though he was a Jew, as is clear from his being of the tribe of Levi, and was born of Jewish parents, yet in Cyprus, and so was a native of that place. The Ethiopic version renders it, “of the city of Cyprus”; but Cyprus was not a city, but a country; wherefore the Syriac version renders it, “of the place, or country of Cyprus”, as we do: it was an island in the further part of the Mediterranean sea; it had its name from the plant Cyprus, and is now by the Turks called “Kibris”. According to Pliny s, it lay to the east and west of Cilicia, and was opposite Syria, and was formerly the seat of nine kingdoms; its circumference was three hundred and seventy miles, and had been called by various names; as Acamantis, Cerastis, Aspella, Amathusia, Macaria, Crypton, and Colinia; in it were fifteen towns or cities, which wcre Paphos, Palsepaphos, Curias, Citium, Corineum, Salamis, Amethus, Lapethos, Solce, Tamaseus, Epidarum, Chytri, Arsinoe, Carpasium, and Golgi. According to the same writer t, it was by an earthquake divided from Syria; and that part of it which lay to the east from Syria, is said to be less than a hundred miles distant from it. And according to Mela u, its chief cities were Salamis and Paphos, mentioned in Ac 13:5. And according to Ptolomy w, it had on the west Pamphylia, on the south the Egyptian and Syrian seas, and on the east the Syrian sea, and on the north the straits of Cilicia: it was inhabited by people of various nations, and, among the rest, by Jews; and R. Benjamin makes mention of Jewish Rubbans in Cyprus, in his time x.

r De Nominibus Hebraicis, fol. 105. I. s Nat. Hist. l. 5. c. 31. t Ib. l. 2. c. 88. u De Orbis Situ, l. 2. p. 66. w Geograph. l. 5. c. 14. x Itinerar. p. 30.

Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible

Barnabas (). His name was Joseph (correct text, and not Jesus) and he is mentioned as one illustration of those in verse 34 who selling brought the money. The apostles gave him the nickname Barnabas by which later he was known because of this noble deed. This fact argues that all did not actually sell, but were ready to do so if needed. Possibly Joseph had a larger estate than some others also. The meaning of the nickname is given by Luke as “son of consolation or exhortation” ( ). Doubtless his gifts as a preacher lay along this same line. Rackham thinks that the apostles gave him this name when he was recognized as a prophet. In Ac 11:23 the very word (exhorted) is used of Barnabas up at Antioch. He is the type of preacher described by Paul in 1Co 14:3. Encouragement is the chief idea in though exhortation, comfort, consolation are used to render it (Acts 9:31; Acts 13:15; Acts 15:31). See also Acts 16:9; Acts 20:12. It is not necessary to think that the apostles coined the name Barnabas for Joseph which originally may have come from (Deissmann, Bible Studies, pp. 308-10), son of Nebo, or even the Hebrew Bar Nebi (son of a prophet). But, whatever the origin, the popular use is given by Luke. He was even called apostle along with Paul (Ac 14:14) in the broad sense of that word.

Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament

1) “And Joses, who by the apostles was surnamed Barnabas,” (loseph de ho epikletheis Barnabas) “Moreover Joseph who is surnamed Barnabas,” (apo ton apostolon) “From, or by, originating from the apostles,” a cousin of John Mark, Col 4:10.

2) “(Which is being interpreted,” (ho estin methermeneouomenon) “Which is being translated,” giving the meaning as:

3) “The son of consolation),” (hurios parakleseos) “Son or heir of consolation,” or son of exhortation.

4) “A Levite and of the country of Cyprus,” (Levites kuprios to genei) “By race a Levite, a Cypriote,” A native Levite Jew of the Island of Cyprus; He later became a teacher at Antioch and a missionary companion of Paul, Act 11:22; Act 11:15-16; Act 11:30; Act 12:25; Act 13:1-3.

The country (Island) of Cyprus is sixty miles west of the coast of Lebanon or Syria; The Island is 140 miles long and 50 miles wide; Its chief cities are Salamis and Paphos.

Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary

(36) And Joses, who by the apostles was surnamed Barnabas.The better MSS. give the name as Joseph. It is possible, as Rabbinic writers often give Jose for Joseph, that both were but different forms, like Simon and Simeon, of the same name. The later friendship between the Levite of Cyprus and St. Paul makes it probable that there had been some previous companionship (see Notes on Act. 9:27; Act. 11:25), and it may well have been that he was sent from Cyprus to receive his education in the famous schools of Tarsus, or practised with Saul in early life the craft of tent-making, for which Tarsus was famous, and in which they were afterwards fellow-labourers (1Co. 9:6). As a Levite he had probably taken his place in the ministries of the Temple, and may, therefore, have been among our Lords actual hearers. His relation Mary, the mother of John surnamed Marcus, was, we know, living at Jerusalem. (See Note on Act. 12:12; Col. 4:10.) A tradition, as early as Clement of Alexandria (Strom. ii. 116), makes him one of the Seventy, and this agrees with the prophetic character which we have seen reason to think of as attaching to that body. (See. Note on Luk. 10:1.) The new name which the Apostles gave him, literally, if we look to its Hebrew etymology, The son of prophecy, or, taking St. Lukes translation, The son of counsel, implies the possession of a special gift of persuasive utterance, in which the Apostles recognised the work of the Spirit. The Paraclete had endowed him with the gift of paraclesis, in the sense in which that word included counsel, comfort, admonition, application of divine truth to the spiritual necessities of men. (See Excursus G. on St. Johns Gospel.) In Act. 11:23, we find him exhorting the Gentile converts at Antioch, the verb being that from which paraclesis is derived. He was, i.e., conspicuous for the gift of prophecy as that gift is described in 1Co. 14:3. The several stages in his life come before us later. An Epistle bearing his name, and recognised as his by Clement of Alexandria and Origen, is still extant, but its authenticity is, to say the least, questionable. It consists mainly of allegorical interpretations of Old Testament narratives. Some critics have assigned the Epistle to the Hebrews to his authorship, as the expounder of St. Pauls thoughts. It should be noted that a little further on his kinswoman Marys house is the chief meeting-place of the Church of Jerusalem (Act. 12:12), and that her son John, surnamed Mark, is mentioned by St. Peter (Marcus my son, 1Pe. 5:13) in words which make it almost certain that he was converted by that Apostle.

Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)

36. Joses Joseph.

Barnabas Where a man had so ordinary a name as Joseph he needed a second name to individualize him. But this surname honoured as well as individualized its receiver.

Son of consolation Perhaps more properly son of prophecy or preaching. Act 13:1, he is called a prophet. The epithet was probably a testimony from the apostles to his sacred eloquence. Eusebius says he was one of the seventy. An Epistle said to be by Barnabas, and certainly of very early antiquity, is still extant.

A Levite The Levites had no share in the division of Canaan to the twelve tribes, yet could own land within the precincts of the Levitical cities. But Barnabas may have owned land in his native Cyprus and have sold it in Jerusalem.

Of the country of Cyprus Literally, by birth a Cyprian Barnabas, the Cyprian, with his Levitical rank and training, his sacred eloquence, his wealth, and his noble presence, that made the Lystrans identify him with Jove, is here signalized among the many both on account of his future eminence, and for the purpose of picturing him in contrast with the unhappy pair next to be narrated. Barnabas becomes a star of the firmament, while Ananias goes down in darkness.

Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

‘And Joseph, who by the apostles was surnamed Barnabas (which is, being interpreted, Son of exhortation), a Levite, a man of Cyprus by race, having a field, sold it, and brought the money and laid it at the Apostles’ feet.’

There was a man called Joseph, whose surname was Barnabas, (uncle or cousin to John Mark, writer of the Gospel – Col 4:10). He was a Levite, a Jew dedicated to God’s service. And he was a Cypriot, one of the Dispersion. There were many Jews living in Cyprus. And he demonstrated that he was both dedicated to God and no longer ‘far off’ from Him by selling a field that he owned and bringing all the proceeds and laying them at the Apostles’ feet. It was an act of love, sacrifice, worship and full dedication without thought for the cost.

‘Bar-nabas.’ This may mean ‘son (bar) of a nabi (a prophet)’ and thus a giver of encouragement and consolation. Or it may reflect the Aramaic newaha (‘consolation) transcribed into Greek as ‘navas’. The purpose is to bring out Barnabas’ character not simply to translate. He was an encourager and consoler. Later he will be described as ‘a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and of faith’ (Act 11:24). He would continue to grow spiritually until he became the valuable companion of Paul.

No doubt one reason that he was selected as an example was precisely because Luke would shortly show that he soon rose to greater things within the Kingly Rule of God. He demonstrated that one act of dedication can lead on to another until a man becomes especially useable by God. The moment the reader saw the name of Barnabas his eyes would light up. While at this stage he was simply an unknown he would go on to greater things and become one of the most esteemed men in the church. What a contrast with what happened to Ananias. Later Luke would similarly introduce Stephen (Act 6:5), Philip (Act 6:5) and Saul who became Paul (Act 7:58; Act 8:1; Act 8:3) in small cameos, before subsequently expounding on their fuller ministries.

They were the difference between the old creation and the new. In the new creation salvation was at work in all who were chosen to be God’s people. Thus while failure might arise God’s final triumph was assured.

But for Ananias there would be no future. Like Judas he made his choice in the wrong direction. He had given Satan leeway.

Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett

Act 4:36-37. Joses,surnamed Barnabas, Considering how common the names of Joses and Joseph were, there seems no just reason to conclude, as some have done, that this was the Joseph mentioned ch. Act 1:23 nor does there seem any reason to conclude that this Joses was called a son of consolation, to express the great consolation the brethren received from the sale of his estate. The name seems rather to refer to his extraordinary abilities for the ministerial work, and to those gifts of the Spirit, whereby he was enabled both to comfort and exhort; for the word implies both. See ch. Act 11:23. As Barnabas was a Levite, he could not have sold or alienated his paternal inheritance; (see Lev 25:34.) but the land or estate here spoken of might either have been some bequest made by will, or some purchased land in Judea, to which he might have a title tillthe next jubilee; or perhaps some land in Cyprus: and we may suppose it mentioned either as the first foreign estate sold, or as of some extraordinary value.

Inferences.In the instance before us in the former part of this chapter, we may observe the natural but detestable effects of a proud, bigoted, overbearing temper, even where it seems least excusable. The Sadducees themselves, though they believed no future state of retribution, yet persecuted the apostles as eagerly, as if they, like some other Jews, had expected to merit heaven by their severity to them. Compare Joh 16:2.

On the other hand, it is delightful to observe the zeal and courage with which Peter and John defended the cause of their crucified Redeemer, even in the presence of those by whom he had so lately been condemned. Thus can God give power to the feeble, and increase the strength of them that have no might, Isa 40:29.

The testimony which they bore is well worth our regard: There is salvation in no other; neither is there any other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved. O that the ends of the earth might hear and reverence that name! That millions to whom it is yet unknown, may learn to build upon it all their hopes of salvation! May we never be ashamed to own it, nor afraid to adhere to it! but speak of it with such a favour, and defend it with such a zeal, that they who are round about us may take knowledge of us, that we have been with Jesus, and trace the genuine effects of our intimate acquaintance with him.

Never was there an instance of a more memorable combat between the force of evidence and of prejudice; nor a more impudent attempt to bear down the cause of unquestionable truth by brutal violence, than that which this chapter holds out to us. But great is the truth, and it will prevail. May the ministers of the gospel never want that courage in the defence of it, which these holy men expressed; but always judge it infinitely more reasonable, more safe, and more necessary to obey God than man! Never may we be ashamed to profess our reverence and love to him, who is our supreme ruler, and our most bountiful friend! and may he give us such an inward and heart-influencing sense of the worth and sweetness of his gospel, as may effectually prevent our betraying or neglecting it.

The present season was indeed the golden age of the church; and it is impossible to trace the memoirs of it, if we love the cause of Christ, without a secret complacency and exultation of mind. How amiable and how venerable do the apostles and primitive converts appear in the native simplicity of the Christian character! And what a glory did the grace and Spirit of God put upon them; far beyond all that human establishments, splendid dignities, or ample revenues, could ever give to those who have succeeded them! while the multitude of them had one heart and one soul; and each was ready to impart to his brethren whatever he himself possessed. How high a relish of pleasure must they have received, and how must their joys have been multiplied by each of their number!

Thus does divine grace, when once it powerfully enters into the heart, open it into sentiments of generosity and love. Thus does it conquer that selfish temper which reigns so frequently in the minds of sinful men, and makes them like wild beasts, rather than like brethren to each other. Providence does not indeed call us entirely to give up our possessions, or to introduce a community of goods among Christians, in circumstances so different from those which we have now been surveying. Yet surely it is always our duty, and will be our highest interest, to remember, that we are not original proprietors of what we possess, but stewards, who are to manage what is entrusted to our care, for the honour of our great Master, and the good of his family here on earth; continually ready to resign any part, or even the whole of it, whenever these important ends shall require such a resignation.

In the mean time, it behoves us frequently to lift up our hearts to the great and ever blessed God, who hath made heaven and earth, and the sea, and all that is in them, that he would support and extend the progress of that gospel in the world, which he hath so graciously begun to plant. Kings may still set themselves, and rulers take counsel against it; but he knows how to turn their counsels into foolishness, and their rage into shame. He hath anointed Jesus his holy Son with the oil of gladness, and placed him on his throne in heaven; and all the united malice and fury of his enemies can do no more, than what shall make part of his wise and gracious scheme for the government of his faithful people. Let us then pray that he would give freedom of speech to all who are employed in pleading his cause, and that he will plentifully anoint them with the effusion of his Spirit! Nor let the signs and wonders which were done by the name of Jesus in former ages, fail to encourage us in the hope, that he will never desert a scheme which he once so illustriously interposed to establish; and, consequently, let them animate us to exert ourselves in its service, whatever labours, threatenings, or dangers, may meet us in our way.

REFLECTIONS.1st, The success of the gospel could not but provoke Satan’s enmity; and the inveterate enemies of the name of Christ cannot be expected long to be at rest.

1. The apostles continued to teach the people, and, as their grand subject, preached through Jesus the resurrection from the dead. They both testified the certainty of his resurrection, and affirmed, that he was raised up for this purpose, to be the author of spiritual and eternal life to all his believing persevering people, who should be raised up by him at the last day, to a glorious immortality.

2. Multitudes of their hearers believed: five thousand converts were added to the church, notwithstanding the enmity to which they saw their preachers exposed; so mightily grew the word of God, and prevailed. Note; Where the gospel meets with the greatest opposition, it is usually attended with the most remarkable success.

3. The priests, the captain of the temple, who presided over the watches, and the Sadducees, grieved and vexed to the heart, that the doctrine of Jesus, which they had taken such pains to suppress, should now spread with such amazing rapidity; and that he whom they had ignominiously crucified, should be exalted as the resurrection and the life, as the author of all blessedness in time and eternity; rushed upon the apostles suddenly, seized them as criminals, and committed them to safe custody for the night, it being eventide, that they might be brought before the Sanhedrim the next day. Note; They who preach Christ faithfully, must prepare to suffer for him.

2nd, No sooner was the morning returned, than we have,
1. The court assembled to try the innocent prisoners; but little justice can be exposed, when their judges are known to be their avowed and inveterate enemies. The rulers, elders, and scribes, the high-priest Annas, who now enjoyed that dignity, with Caiaphas, who had sat in the chair the year preceding, with John and Alexander, persons of distinguished note, and others of the high priest’s kindred, were all leagued against two poor fishermen, to try if their power could not intimidate, or their learning confute, or their authority silence them.
2. The prisoners are arraigned. They set them in the midst, to answer before their judges the interrogatories which they chose to put to them, and haughtily demanded, by what power, human, divine, or diabolical; or by what name, by virtue of whose authority, or by the invocation of what name, have ye done this?

3. Peter, filled with the Holy Ghost, endued with singular boldness, and directed by the immediate influence of the Spirit, according to Christ’s promise, (Mar 13:11.) said unto them respectfully, addressing them as magistrates and men of rank, Ye rulers of the people, and elders of Israel, if we be examined as criminals, this day, of the good deed done to the impotent man; and you demand information, by what means such an act of mercy and power was performed, and he is made whole; we with pleasure appear to give you the fullest satisfaction. Therefore, be it known unto you all, and to all the people of Israel, whom it highly concerns, that by the name, the precious, powerful, all-prevailing name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom ye have treated with the highest contempt, and most ignominiously crucified, but whom God raised from the dead, disappointing the impotent malice of his murderers: even by him, by this once despised, but now glorified Jesus, and by no power of our own, by no magic charm, but by faith in him alone, doth this man stand here before you whole. This Jesus is the stone spoken of Psa 118:22 which was set at nought of you, who by station and office should be builders of God’s spiritual temple, but which is now exalted of God, and become the head of the corner, by which the church of God is supported and knit together. Neither is there salvation in any other; there is no spiritual or eternal salvation out of him, by the deeds of the law, or by any human power whatsoever; for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved; God having appointed him to be the only Redeemer from sin, death, and hell; and all who believe not in him, must therefore perish everlastingly. Note; (1.) Salvation is every sinner’s great concern. (2.) Of ourselves we have nothing but misery, sin, and wrath, and have no power of ourselves by nature to help ourselves. (3.) Christ alone can save a sinful soul, by the merit of his blood, and by the operation of his divine Spirit. (4.) God freely offers him in the gospel to the miserable, and invites all men to believe on him to the saving of their souls. (5.) They must inevitably and eternally perish, who neglect so great a salvation.

4. Such an answer quite confounded the court. When they saw the boldness of Peter and John, their undaunted courage, their readiness of speech, and powerful elocution; and perceived that they were unlearned and ignorant men, had been brought up at none of the public seminaries, at the feet of none of their rabbins, nor had ever the least advantages of education; they marvelled at the intrepidity, wisdom, and eloquence which appeared in them; and they took knowledge of them that they had been with Jesus, in whose company they recollected they had seen them formerly; and beholding the man which was healed standing with them, who probably came ready to bear testimony for them, and to do honour to his benefactors, to whatever danger it might expose him, they could say nothing against it; the miracle was too notorious to be contradicted. Note; (1.) In Christ’s cause, even before the greatest, we may well boldly stand forth; he will bear us through. (2.) They who have been with Jesus, will carry the marks of it visibly about them: like Moses on the mount, their faces will shine, and their holy and heavenly conversation proclaim their Master’s glory.

3rdly, How to punish those against whom they had no charge to lay, they knew not; yet fain would they brand them, if possible, with some mark of infamy.
1. In order to consult upon the case the more freely, they commanded the apostles to be led out of the council-chamber, while they conferred among themselves, saying, what shall we do to these men? our difficulties are greater than ever; for that indeed a notable miracle hath been done by them is manifest to all them that dwell at Jerusalem, and we cannot deny it; so that to attempt it, would but expose our own characters: but, that it spread no further among the people, neither the fame of the miracle, nor the doctrine of Christ, in confirmation of which it was wrought, let us straitly threaten them, on pain of our highest displeasure, and at the peril of suffering the punishment due to their contumacy, that they speak henceforth to no man in this name. Thus they hope, by silencing the ministers, to suppress the doctrines of the gospel. And they called them, and commanded them not to speak at all, nor teach in the name of Jesus; breathing forth their impotent malice. Note; (1.) The enemies of the gospel often join in close cabal how to suppress the growing progress of the truth; but he who sitteth on the heavens, laughs them to scorn. (2.) Many faithful ministers of Jesus, for the truths which they have maintained, have met the frowns and threatenings of proud priests and prelates, who would fain intimidate and silence them, that they should speak no more in the name of Jesus; but they despise their menaces; they are prepared to suffer, but will not be silent.

2. The prisoners give in their answers; they needed no premeditation to reply, and said unto them, Whether it be right in the sight of God, to hearken unto you more than unto God, judge ye. Can it be possible we should be silent, when acting under his express injunctions; or how can we thus acquit ourselves to our consciences, or mankind, for whose sake we preach this salvation of Jesus? Your commands therefore being incompatible with the superior obedience that we owe to God, cannot possibly be observed; for we cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard; a necessity is laid upon us, and woe unto us if we preach not the gospel. Note; (1.) Where the injunctions of men are contrary to the word of God, we must not hesitate a moment which we shall obey. (2.) They who have experimentally known the salvation which is in Jesus, and tasted its sweetness, cannot but delight to spread the savour of his name, and to make all men, as far as their influence reaches, know the grace which is in him.

3. Unable to fix the least accusation against the apostles, they were compelled reluctantly to let them go, repeating their former threatenings, to try if that would intimidate them, and finding nothing how they might punish them, as they earnestly wished to dobecause of the people, who would have risen up against them for such a flagrant act of injustice; for all men glorified God for that which was done; the multitude in general were convinced that this was the finger of God, and could not but adore him who had enabled these men to perform this act of power and mercy; for the man was above forty years old, on whom this miracle of healing was shewed, and had been so long known by the people, that the cure was rendered thereby the more singular and astonishing. Note; (1.) God can put his restraints upon persecutors, and prevent them, by various considerations, from doing all the mischief to which they are inclined. (2.) They who in old age are cured by the gospel word, are more eminent monuments of divine mercy.

4thly, No sooner were the two apostles dismissed than,
1. They returned to their own company, not ashamed or afraid to join them, notwithstanding all the threatenings of the priests; and reported all that the chief priests and elders had said unto them, and most probably their reply. Note; We must never desert the society of our brethren. The world has its end, if it can confine our religion to our closets, and prevent our open profession of it, by joining those who appear on the Lord’s side.

2. When they heard that, they lifted up their voice to God, in prayer and praise, with one accord, under the influence of the Holy Ghost, speaking as if animated by one soul, and said, Lord thou art God, infinite in power, which hast made heaven and earth, and the sea, and all that in them is; the great Creator and governor, in whose hands are the hearts of all men, and all events directed by thy providence and under thy controul; who by the mouth of thy servant David hast said, Why did the heathen rage, and the people imagine vain things, endeavouring to suppress the glorious gospel of Jesus? The kings of the earth stood up, and the rulers were gathered together against the Lord, and against his Christ.

And now this prophesy is eminently fulfilled; for of a truth against thy holy child Jesus, whom thou hast anointed as the true Messiah promised so long before, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles, and the people of Israel, were gathered together, conspiring to destroy the adorable Redeemer; but, in the execution of their barbarous and malicious design, thou didst overrule their wickedness for to do whatsoever thy hand and thy counsel determined before to be done, bringing to thyself the greatest glory, to the Redeemer the greatest honour, and to lost souls a free and full salvation. And now, Lord, behold their threatenings, restrain and disappoint their rage and malice; and grant unto thy servants, that with all boldness they may speak thy word, openly and zealously preaching thy gospel, in nothing dismayed by their adversaries; and own them in their testimony, by stretching forth thine hand to heal: and that signs and wonders may be done by the name of thy holy child Jesus; by the authority derived from this thy incarnate Son, and to the glory of his great name. Note; (1.) In all our dangers, we should make application to him who is able to help us. (2.) All the wickedness and wrath of man shall turn to God’s praise, and the remainder of that wrath he will restrain. (3.) The sin of persecutors is not the less malignant, because God overrules it to subserve purposes of his own glory. (4.) God takes cognizance of all the malice of his people’s foes, and hears their threatenings; therefore we need not fear them. (5.) They who are to preach the gospel to a gainsaying world, need to be often secretly looking up to God for boldness, that they may not, through fear or shame, be unfaithful to men’s souls. (6.) Tokens of God’s blessing and presence with us, are comfortable encouragements to us to persevere, even through much tribulation.

3. Their prayer receives an immediate answer from God. When they had prayed, the place was shaken where they were assembled together, as a sensible token of the divine presence in the midst of them; and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, feeling a growing ardour in their souls, experiencing fresh measures of strength, courage, and consolation communicated to them; and they spake the word of God with boldness. Note; When God is for us, we need neither fear nor care who are against us.

5thly, How beautiful is the scene presented to us in the concluding paragraph of the chapter! how unlike the schisms and divisions which have since unhappily rent the church of Christ!
1. The multitude of them that believed, vast as the accessions lately made had been, were of one heart, knit together in love, united in sentiment, and seemed as it were actuated by one soul.

2. With great power gave the apostles witness of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, proving the fact by incontestable evidence, and enforcing the truths connected therewith, confirming their testimony, with signs and wonders, and preaching with the most intrepid boldness and zeal the glorious gospel committed to them; and great grace was upon them all, the most evident tokens of the divine favour rested upon them; and the effects of it were an entire contempt of the world, and most fervent love and charity towards all men.

3. They had all things common, and none said that ought of the things which he possessed, was his own, but freely gave up all for the general service; hence there was not any among them that lacked, the poorest being equally supported out of the common stock, while the richer members of the church, as many as were possessors of lands or houses, sold them, and of their own accord freely brought the prices of the things that were sold, and laid them down at the apostles’ feet, as trustees for the goods of the community; and distribution was made unto every man, by these faithful stewards, according as he had need. And Joses, who by the apostles was surnamed Barnabas (which is, being interpreted, the son of consolation), probably from the admirable faculty that he possessed of speaking peace to wounded consciences; a Levite, and of the country of Cyprus, having land, either in Judea or in his own country, sold it, and brought the purchase money, which seems to have been very considerable, and laid it at the apostles’ feet; a noble instance of enlarged and disinterested charity deserving a particular memorial. Note; (1.) What we have in the world is not our own, but God’s; and, whenever he is pleased to call for it, should be employed in his service. (2.) If we are not called now to the same exercise of charity as in those days of the church’s infancy, yet the rich must remember that they are still but God’s almoners, and should approve themselves faithful stewards of the gifts entrusted to them. (3.) Objects of real need have a title to our relief according to our ability, especially those that are of the household of faith. (4.) One bright example provokes the zeal of others; and none who shew themselves faithful to Jesus and his cause, shall be forgotten by him.

Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke

Act 4:36-37 . ] autem , introduces, in contradistinction to what has been summarily stated in Act 4:34-35 , the concrete individual case of an honourably known man, who acted thus with his landed property. The idea in the is: All acted thus, and in keeping with it was the conduct of Joses .

(see the critical remarks)]: as at Act 2:22 .

.] , son of prophetic address, i.e. an inspired instigator, exhorter. Barnabas was a prophet (Act 13:1 ), and it is probable that (at a later period) he received this surname on the occasion of some specially energetic and awakening address which he delivered; hence Luke did not interpret the name generally by , but, because the had been displayed precisely in the characteristic form of (comp. 1Co 14:3 ), by . At Act 11:23 also, appears as a characteristic of Barnabas. We may add, that the more precise description of him in this passage points forward to his labours afterwards to be related.

] Jer 32:7 proves that Levites might possess lands in Palestine. See Ewald, Alterth. p. 406. Hence the field is not to be considered as beyond the bounds of the land (Bengel).

. . ] Genitive absolute.

] in the singular: the sum of money, the money proceeds, the amount received. Herod, iii. 38; Poll. 9. 87; Wesseling, ad Diod. Sic. v. p. 436.

Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary

36 And Joses, who by the apostles was surnamed Barnabas, (which is, being interpreted, The son of consolation,) a Levite, and of the country of Cyprus,

Ver. 36. Surnamed Barnabas ] See Trapp on “ Act 1:23 “ See Trapp on “ Phm 1:7 “

Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)

36 .] Barnabas, , is and the interpretation has been generally made good by taking as included in , and as in the sense of exhortation: see ch. Act 11:23 .

] The Levites might possess land at all times within the precincts of the Levitical cities: such was the case, e.g., in Jer 32:7 . At the division of the kingdoms, the priests and Levites all resorted to Rehoboam in Judah (and Benjamin), 2Ch 11:13 ; from that time probably, but certainly after the captivity, when the Mosaic division of the land was no longer accurately observed, the possession of land by Levites seems to have been allowed. The whole subject is involved in some uncertainty: cf. Lev 25:32 ff.; Num 35:1-8 ; Deu 12:12 ; Deu 18:8 , al.

] For the state of Cyprus at this time, see notes on ch. Act 11:19 ; Act 13:4-7 .

Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament

Act 4:36 . : introduces the special case of Barnabas after the general statement in Act 4:34 . ., cf. Act 1:23 . On what occasion this surname was conferred by the Apostles nothing certain is known ( as often for , Act 2:22 ), although the fact that it was conferred by them may indicate that he owed his conversion to them. Possibly it may not have been bestowed until later, and reference may here be made to it simply to identify him (Nsgen). : most commonly derived from (“quod neque ad sensum neque ad litteras prorsus convenit,” Blass) = properly . But St. Luke, it is argued, renders this , because under the threefold uses of prophecy, 1Co 14:3 , the special gift of distinguished Barnabas, cf. Act 11:23 . So Harnack (whose full article “Barnabas” should be consulted, Real-Encyclopdie fr prot. Theol. und Kirche ,” xv., 410) explains it as indicating a prophet in the sense in which the word was used in the early Church, Act 15:32 (Act 11:23 ), = edifying exhortation. But not only is an Aramaic word, whilst is Hebrew, but the above solution of St. Luke’s translation is by no means satisfactory (see Zckler, in loco ). In 1Co 14:3 . might equally mean consolation, cf. 2Co 1:3-7 , and it is translated “comfort” (not “exhortation”) in the R.V. In St. Luke’s Gospel the word is used twice, Luk 2:25 , Luk 6:24 , and in both passages it means comfort, consolation, cf. the cognate verb in Act 16:25 . Another derivation has been suggested by Klostermann, Probleme im Aposteltexte , pp. 8 14. He maintains that both parts of the word are Aramaic, and , solatium , and that therefore St. Luke’s translation is quite justified. Blass however points out that as in the former derivation so here there is a difficulty in the connection between and the somewhat obscure Aramaic word. In the conversion of Barnabas, the first man whose heart was so touched as to join him, in spite of his Levitical status and culture, to ignorant and unlettered men, the Apostles might well see a source of hope and comfort ( cf. Gen 5:29 ), Klostermann, p. 13. It is also worthy of note that the LXX frequently uses as a translation of the common Hebrew words for comfort or consolation; cf. Job 21:2 , Ps. 93:19, Isa 57:8 , Jer 16:17 , etc., and cf. Psalms of Solomon 13, title, . On the whole question, Deissmann, Bibelstudien , p. 175 ff., should be consulted. Deissmann, referring to an inscription recently discovered in Northern Syria, in the old Nicopolis, probably of the third or fourth century A.D., explains the word as follows: The inscription contains the name , which . considers rightly = Son of Nebo; cf., e.g. , Symmachus, Isa 46:1 , who renders , Nebo (transcribed by the LXX, Aquila and Theodotion, ), by . The view of the connection or identity of with is facilitated by the fact that in other words the sound in Nebo is replaced by [167] ; cf. Ne buchadnezar = LXX , so Ne buzaradan = LXX . Very probably therefore will occur instead of and the Jews themselves might easily have converted into being the constant termination of Greek names. In his Neue Bibelstudien , p. 16, Deissmann is able to refer to an Aramaic inscription from Palmyra, dating 114 A.D., with the word Barnebo, and cf. also Enc. Bibl. , i., 484. : although the Levites were not allowed to hold possessions in land, since God Himself was their portion (Num 18:20 , Deu 10:9 ), yet they could do so by purchase or inheritance, cf. Jer 32:7-12 , or it is possible that the field of Barnabas may not have been in Palestine at all (see Bengel, but, on the other hand, Wendt, in loco ), and that the same Messianic regulations may not have applied to the Levites in other countries (Wetstein). It would also seem that after the Captivity the distribution of land, according to the Mosaic Law, was no longer strictly observed (Overbeck, Hackett (Hastings’ B.D.), “Barnabas,” e.g. , Josephus, a Levite and Priest, has lands in the vicinity of Jerusalem, and gains others in exchange for them from Vespasian, Vita , 76. : soon after the time of Alexander, and possibly before it, Jews had settled in Cyprus, and 1Ma 15:23 indicates that they were there in good numbers. This is the first mention of it in the N.T.; see also Act 11:19-20 , Act 13:4-13 , Act 15:39 , Act 20:16 , and the geographical notices in Act 21:3 , Act 27:4 . From the neighbouring island, Cyprus, Barnabas might well have been sent to the famous University of Tarsus, and so have made the acquaintance of Saul. In this way the previous acquaintance between the two men goes far to explain succeeding events, Act 9:27 : see “Cyprus,” B.D. (Hastings), Hamburger, Real-Encyclopdie des Judentums , i. 2, 216. , “a man of Cyprus by race,” R.V. not “of the country of Cyprus”: refers to his parentage and descent, cf. Act 18:2 ; Act 18:24 .

[167] A(ntiochena), in Blass, a fair rough copy of St. Luke.

Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson

NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: Act 4:36-37

36Now Joseph, a Levite of Cyprian birth, who was also called Barnabas by the apostles (which translated means Son of Encouragement), 37and who owned a tract of land, sold it and brought the money and laid it at the apostles’ feet.

Act 4:36 “Joseph, a Levite” The Old Testament forbade priests to own land, but the Roman authorities had changed many things in Palestine.

“called Barnabas by the apostles (which translated means Son of Encouragement)” This is the popular meaning of “Barnabas.” In Aramaic it could have meant “son of prophecy” or in Hebrew possibly “son of Nebo” (AB, vol. 1). He was an early leader in the Jerusalem church and Paul’s friend and missionary companion. Eusebius, an early church historian, says that he was one of the seventy in Luke 10.

SPECIAL TOPIC: BARNABAS

Act 4:37 “who owned a tract of land” He was a man of means (like Nicodemus and Joseph of Aramathea). Acts 5 shows the potential for abuse in this method of financing ministry (e.g., jealousy, lying, and death).

Fuente: You Can Understand the Bible: Study Guide Commentary Series by Bob Utley

The next chapter should begin here.

Joses. Texts read Joseph, as in Act 1:23.

Barnabas. It is possible that Joseph Barnabas, or

Barnabas. It is possible that Joseph Barnabas, or Barnabbas, is the same as Joseph Barsabbas of Act 1:23, and that he was reserved for a better lot by the Holy Spirit.

son. App-108. See note on Act 3:25.

consolation. Greek. exhortation. Greek. paraklesis has both meanings. See Luk 2:25; Luk 6:24. 1Co 14:3.

of the country of Cyprus = a Cypriote by race.

Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics

36.] Barnabas, , is -and the interpretation has been generally made good by taking as included in , and as in the sense of exhortation: see ch. Act 11:23.

] The Levites might possess land at all times within the precincts of the Levitical cities: such was the case, e.g., in Jer 32:7. At the division of the kingdoms, the priests and Levites all resorted to Rehoboam in Judah (and Benjamin), 2Ch 11:13; from that time probably, but certainly after the captivity, when the Mosaic division of the land was no longer accurately observed, the possession of land by Levites seems to have been allowed. The whole subject is involved in some uncertainty: cf. Lev 25:32 ff.; Num 35:1-8; Deu 12:12; Deu 18:8, al.

] For the state of Cyprus at this time, see notes on ch. Act 11:19; Act 13:4-7.

Fuente: The Greek Testament

Act 4:36. , who was surnamed) A new specimen of the apostles high dignity, to give surnames to believers.- , the Son of consolation) A Gospel surname. De Dieu on this passage, and Hiller, Onom. p. 300, explain the etymology.[39]-, a Levite) Instead of Levitical ordinances, those of Christianity flourish. The priests also follow, ch. Act 6:7, A great company of the priests was obedient to the faith.- ) So , , ch. Act 18:2; Act 18:24.

[39] The has evident reference to the , alluded to in ver. 31.-E. and T.

Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament

Lying to the Holy Spirit

Act 4:36-37; Act 5:1-11

The Spirit of God is the source of generous and liberal giving. It is a poor substitute to set up bazaars, and fairs, and ice cream suppers. When the Church is filled with the Holy Spirit, her pockets will be easily emptied before His gracious, thawing presence. Let the sun arise in the heavens, and the frozen streams are instantly liberated and begin to sing on their way to transform wildernesses into gardens.

Mark the contrast between Ananias and Barnabas. The same phrases are applied to each. The sin of Ananias was not in keeping back part of the purchase money, but in pretending to have brought all to the Apostle. He wished to pose as a saint, and at the same time to line his own nest. In the act of consecration, we must not allow one corner for Satan or selfishness to possess, because instantly we shall have to concede the right of way, and a thoroughfare will be opened, along which all manner of contraband may be smuggled in. Peter had no doubt as to the personality of the Holy Spirit. You cannot lie to an influence! Note the interchange of Holy Spirit and God in Act 4:3-4.

Fuente: F.B. Meyer’s Through the Bible Commentary

Barnabas: Act 11:22-25, Act 11:30, Act 12:25, Act 13:1, Act 15:2, Act 15:12, Act 15:37, 1Co 9:6, Gal 2:1, Gal 2:9, Gal 2:13

The son: Mar 3:17

Cyprus: Act 11:19, Act 11:20, Act 15:39, Act 21:16

Reciprocal: Lev 25:34 – General Act 9:27 – Barnabas Act 13:4 – Cyprus Act 21:3 – Cyprus Act 27:4 – Cyprus

Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

BARNABAS

Barnabas, (which is being interpreted, The son of consolation).

Act 4:36

The name Barnabas may be equally translated Son of Prophecy or Son of Consolation. We cling to the latter, having grown up with it in our authorised version and having felt its appeal to the needs of our human nature. It is because of his name and character as consoler that St. Barnabas has been chosen in recent years as the patron of that band of workers who minister to the needs of the sick and suffering, some among them being able to minister to the troubled spirit as well as to the weary body, thus proving themselves true Sisters of Consolation and following their patron in his twofold ministry.

Let us trace this ministry in its double aspect.

I. First, his ministrations to bodily needs.Having land, sold it, and brought the money, and laid it at the apostles feet. The fund to which he thus contributed was administered to supply the needs of those who had forfeited the means of livelihood through embracing the Christian faith. Again, he ministered to the relief of the brethren which dwelt in Juda (Act 11:27).

II. And now to turn to his spiritual ministrations.We find him (Act 11:22-23) sent to Antioch to strengthen and stablish the fresh converts in their faith; and read that he exhorted them all, that they would cleave unto the Lord, no doubt saving many from lapsing under the first strain of persecution and contempt. A few years later we find him specially chosen by the Holy Spirit with St. Paul for definite missionary work; and it is from that time that we find these two given the title and dignity of Apostles. It is interesting to notice that their first sphere of work was in St. Barnabas native land, where his countrymen were steeped in idolatry and all manner of luxury and vice. At Paphos, owing probably to the former position of Barnabas in the island, they were sent for by the governor, who desired to hear the word of God, with the happy result of his conversion and baptism. From Paphos they returned to the mainland, visiting Perga and Antioch in Pisidia, where, as at the other Antioch, St. Barnabas, now aided by St. Paul, ministered to the Christian converts, persuading them to continue in the grace of God (Act 13:43).

A. N. Vizard.

Fuente: Church Pulpit Commentary

7

Act 4:36-37. We might wonder at the purpose of this paragraph, as it seems to be mentioned casually without any connection with the line of narrative being run. But it really does have a related purpose in what Luke knew he was about to report on the subject. There was to be given the sad story of some people who met with disaster because of their dishonesty. The present instance was given first to show that some disciples fulfilled their promise and came up to the agreement without a fault. The details of identity for this man are im-portant because of the prominent place Barnabas occupies later in the work of the Lord. We shall hear much of him while studying this book, and even in one of the epistles of Paul he will be named (1Co 9:6).

Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary

Act 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 Lords sake. Clement of Alexandria tells us this Barnabas, a Levite of Cyprus, was one of the Lords 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, , 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 Jer 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.

Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament

Subdivision 5. (Act 4:36-37; Act 5:1-11.)

The Government of God over those with Him.

We have now to see the government of God over His own, now separated as a distinct company from the mass of Israel, although one could not say, as yet, from Israel itself. The trial of the nation as such is not yet ended. Meanwhile we are called away from this to see the attempt of the enemy against this new beginning, and the solemn judgment of God by which it is defeated. Yet on the other hand, we are not to overlook the divine appreciation of the fruits of the Spirit, where they are found, as in the case of Joseph, surnamed Barnabas, who by his ministry in self-sacrificing love to the need of the saints “purchases to himself a good degree” (1Ti 3:13), and we bear of him accordingly, in the after history. His name answers to his character here, -“one who adds,” -and he becomes indeed a “son of consolation,” -meriting his surname.

In terrible contrast to him is Ananias (“Jah has shown grace”) but who abuses grace to his own destruction. The good report of Barnabas, if we may judge by the connection, seems to have moved him; but only with an ungodly emulation. He covets the reputation and influence; with perhaps much greater things following, as the movement spreads; but he has no thought, even for this, of making the sacrifice demanded. Outwardly he must do it, while his heart refuses; and thus, in conjunction with his wife, he forms a deliberate plan to deceive, -leaving God out. He actually sells his possession, and professedly brings the whole purchase-money, to lay it down at the apostles’ feet. But he has not brought the whole: he reserves a part for himself, and in the midst of the divine power working (only in grace as yet, which probably he misinterprets, to his ruin,) does not fear to offer this imitation of the fruit of divine love, -in fact, a fraudulent attempt to buy for himself what alone be values. Satan was thus working from inside the assembly, to destroy truth and holiness, and thus early to introduce into it the worldly elements which, by and by, alas, were to gain open allowance. But the Spirit of God, as yet ungrieved, forbids the intrusion of the evil; and judgment swift and terrible smites down the transgressor. His unhappy wife, coming in afterwards, and deliberately reaffirming her husband’s falsehood, shares his punishment. And fear falls upon all the assembly, and upon all that hear these things.

Thus we have indicated to us the evils which, from within as well as from without, threatened the infant Church. It is in a hostile world. It carries the fatal seeds of corruption in its own bosom. For in this respect the community can only be as those who compose it. The exercise as to evil and the struggle with it we are not yet, in the wisdom of God, delivered from; although the final deliverance is completely secured. God is training us for eternity, and to bring us into full participation in His apprehension of it. For this He would have us see it as those who are partakers of the divine nature, and yet linked with that flesh in which “dwelleth no good thing.” Responsible to be its masters, we may yet degrade ourselves to do its will, and need at all times to be on the watch against it; while the world around appeals to it, and incites it to activity, and Satan with all the cunning of four thousand years’ acquirement is “the prince of this world,” proved so by the Cross! So thoroughly are we intended, it is plain, to learn the painful -and yet, it must be, salutary -lesson of the nature of that which exhibits the ruin of the creature fallen away from God! But this is also the background of the divine glory in redemption, in which He is displayed in His mastery over it, and thus we are held fast to Him forever.

Fuente: Grant’s Numerical Bible Notes and Commentary

Act 4:36-37. And Joses Among the rest of those primitive converts who so generously contributed of their substance for the relief and subsistence of the poor believers, in these extraordinary circumstances, there was one Joses, by the apostles surnamed Barnabas, The son of consolation Not only on account of his so largely assisting the poor with his fortune, but also of those peculiar gifts of the Spirit whereby he was so well qualified both to comfort and exhort. A Levite And yet so far from being prejudiced against this new religion, which might seem to oppose his temporal interest, that he gladly devoted himself to its service; of the country of Cyprus Where, it seems, he was born and brought up. Having land, sold it As he was a Levite, he could not have sold, or alienated, his paternal inheritance; (see Lev 25:34;) but the land or estate here spoken of, might either have been some legacy, or purchased land, in Judea, to which he might have a title till the next jubilee, or, perhaps, some land in Cyprus. And we may suppose it mentioned, either as the first foreign estate sold, or as of some extraordinary value.

Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

36, 37. After stating that many brethren who had property sold it, and gave up the proceeds, Luke now gives an individual instance of this liberality, introduced, no doubt, on account of the subsequent celebrity of the individual. (36) “Now Joses, who was surnamed Barnabas by the apostles, (which is, when translated, son of exhortation,) a Levite, a Cyprian by birth, (37) having land, sold it, and brought the money, and laid it at the feet of the apostles.” This surname was given to Joses on account of his excellence in horatory address, and not on account of the consolation which he afforded by his liberality. The original term paraklesis, rendered consolation in the common version, is a verbal noun used to express both the act of the verb parakalein and the effect produced by it. We have no one word in English to represent it in these two senses; but exhortation expresses the act, and consolation the effect. We have, therefore, exhortation eight times in the common version, when the paraklesis is connected with the agent, but always consolation when the reference is to the recipient. As Barnabas is contemplated at the agent, in this case, it should be exhortation, not consolation. This criticism is confirmed by the history of Barnabas. When the Church in Jerusalem heard that a congregation was planted in Antioch, they sent Barnabas thither, who “exhorted them all, that with purpose of heart they should cleave to the Lord.” This exhorting being the object for which he was sent, his selection for the mission indicates his superiority in that kind of talent. Perhaps it was chiefly on account of this talent, in which Paul was deficient, that Barnabas became the traveling companion of this apostle. It is a talent much more rare than mere logical power, and has always been highly prized by the Churches.

It is quite probable that the land sold by Barnabas constituted his whole estate. Having no family dependent on him, he consecrated his life to unrequited missionary labor.

Fuente: McGarvey and Pendleton Commentaries (New Testament)

Act 4:36 to Act 5:11. Community of Goods among the First Christians.

Act 4:36 f. The Case of Joses Barnabas.Joses is not again heard of in the NT under this name, but always under his other name, Barnabas, a translation of which is offered, but one with which scholars are not satisfied. It connects him with prophetic functions (Nabi, a prophet) and consolation is one of these. He is Pauls companion in his first journey, but Paul excels him as a speaker (Act 14:12); and he is a person whom the Galatians and Corinthians know well (Gal 2:13, 1Co 9:6). To his connexion with Cyprus the direction of Pauls first journey was due. He has property, whether in his native country of Cyprus or elsewhere we know not; he afterwards worked for his living (1Co 9:6), and may have parted with all his property at this time.

Fuente: Peake’s Commentary on the Bible

Verse 36

A Levite. Very few of the priests or Levites had hitherto embraced Christianity.–Cyprus; an island in the Mediterranean.

Fuente: Abbott’s Illustrated New Testament

The generosity of Barnabas 4:36-37

Luke now gave a specific instance of what he had just described in Act 4:34-35. This reference to Barnabas is significant because it introduces him to the reader. Barnabas becomes an important character in Acts later, mainly as a missionary (apostle) and preacher. [Note: See S. Jonathan Murphy, "The Role of Barnabas in the Book of Acts," Biblitheca Sacra 167:667 (July-September 2010):319-41.] Furthermore Barnabas provides a vivid contrast to Ananias in chapter 5.

Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)

His given Jewish name was Joseph, but people called him by his Jewish nickname (cognomen), Barnabas, which means "Son of Encouragement" (Gr. huios parakleseos). The Jews often called a person "son of ___" to denote his or her characteristics (e.g., "son of Beliel"). They probably did so because Barnabas was a constant positive influence on those around him, as further references to him in Acts will demonstrate (cf. Act 9:27; Act 11:22-30; Act 13:1 to Act 14:28; Act 15:2-4; Act 15:12; Act 15:22; Act 15:36-41; 1Co 9:6). [Note: See Michael Pocock, "The Role of Encouragement in Leadership," in Integrity of Heart, Skillfulness of Hands, pp. 301-7.] Luke probably mentioned that he was a Levite just to identify him more specifically, not to throw a cloud of suspicion over him. The Mosaic Law forbade Levites from owning property in the Promised Land (Num 18:24).

". . . the rule was no longer rigidly adhered to, and would not have applied to those living overseas." [Note: Neil, p. 94. Cf. Jeremiah 1:1; 32:6-15.]

Levites had connections to the temple, but not everyone with temple connections opposed the apostles (cf. Act 4:1). Barnabas had lived on the island of Cyprus at some time, though he had relatives in Jerusalem, namely, John Mark, Mark’s mother, and perhaps others (cf. Act 12:12; Col 4:10).

Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)

Chapter 11

HONESTY AND PRETENCE IN THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH

Act 4:36-37; Act 6:1-6

THE exact period in the history of the apostolic Church at which we have now arrived is a most interesting one. We stand at the very first origin of a new development in Christian life and thought. Let us observe it well, for the whole future of the Church is bound up with it. Christianity was at the beginning simply a sect, of Judaism. It is plain that the Apostles at first thus regarded it. They observed Jewish rites, they joined in the temple and synagogue worship, they restricted salvation and Gods favour to the children of Abraham, and merely added belief in Jesus of Nazareth as the promised Messiah to the common Jewish faith. The spirit of God was indeed speaking through the Apostles, leading them, as it led St. Peter on the day of Pentecost, to speak words with a meaning and scope far beyond their thoughts. They, like the prophets of old, knew not as yet what manner, of things the Spirit which was in them did signify.

“As little children lisp, and tell of Heaven, So thoughts beyond their thought to those high bards were given.”

Their speech had a grander and wider application than they themselves dreamt of; but the power of prejudice and education was far too great even for the Apostles, and so, though the nobility and profuseness of Gods mercy were revealed and the plenteousness of His grace was announced by St. Peter himself, yet the glory of the Divine gift was still unrecognised. Jerusalem, the Temple, the Old Covenant, Israel after the flesh, -these things as yet bounded and limited the horizon of Christs Church. How were the new ideas to gain an entrance? How was the Church to rise to a sense of the magnificence and universality of its mission? Joseph, who by the Apostles was surnamed Barnabas, emerges upon the scene and supplies the answer, proving himself in very deed a son of consolation, because he became the occasion of consoling the masses of mankind with that truest comfort, the peace of God which passes all understanding. Let us see how this came about.

I. The Christian leaders belonged originally to the extreme party in Judaism. The Jews were at this time divided into two sections. There was the Hebrew party on the one hand; extreme Nationalists as we might call them. They hated everything foreign. They clung to the soil of Palestine, to its language and to its customs. They trained up their children in an abhorrence of Greek civilisation, and could see nothing good in it. This party was very unprogressive, very narrow-minded, and, therefore, unfit to recognise the developments of Gods purposes. The Galileans were very prominent among them. They lived in a provincial district, remote from the influences of the great centres of thought and life, and missed, therefore, the revelations of Gods mind which He is evermore making through the course of His providential dealings with mankind. The Galileans furnished the majority of the earliest Christian leaders, and they were not fitted from their narowness to grasp the Divine intentions with respect to Christianity and its mission. What a lesson for every age do we behold in this intellectual and spiritual defect of the Galileans. They were conscientious, earnest, devout, spiritually-minded men. Christ loved them as such, and devoted Himself to their instruction. But they were one-sided and illiberal. Their very provincialism, which had sheltered them from Sadduceism and unbelief, had filled them with blind prejudices, and as the result had rendered them unable to read aright the mind of God and the development of His purposes. Man, alas! is a very weak creature, and human nature is very narrow. Piety is no guarantee for wisdom and breadth, and strong faith in Gods dealings in the past often hinders men from realising and obeying the Divine guidance and the evolution of His purposes amid the changed circumstances of the present. The Galilean leaders were best fitted to testify with unfaltering zeal to the miracles and resurrection of Christ. They were not best fitted to lead the Church into the possession of the Gentiles.

There was another party among the Jews whom God had trained by the guidance of His providence for this purpose. The Acts of the Apostles casts a strong and comforting light back upon the history of the Lords dealings with the Jews ever since the days of the Babylonish Captivity. We can see in the story told in the Acts the reason why God permitted the overthrow of Jerusalem by the hands of Nebuchadnezzar, and the apparent defeat for the time of His own designs towards the chosen people. The story of the dispersion is a standing example how wonderfully God evolves good out of seeming ill, making all things work together for the good of His Church. The dispersion prepared a section of the Jews, by travel, by foreign civilisation, by culture, and by that breadth of mind and sympathy which is thereby produced, to be mediators between the Hebrew party with all their narrowness and the masses of the Gentile world whom the strict Jews would fain have shut out from the hope of Gods mercy. This liberal and progressive party is called in the Acts of the Apostles the Hellenists. They were looked at askance by the more old-fashioned Hebrews. They were Jews, children of Abraham indeed, of the genuine stock of Israel. As such they had a true standing-ground within the Jewish fold, and as true Jews could exercise their influence from within much more effectually than if they stood without; for it has been well remarked by a shrewd observer, that every party, religious or political, is much more powerfully affected by movements springing from within than by attacks directed from without. An explosive operates with much more destructive force when acting from within or underneath a fortification than when brought into play from outside. Such was the Hellenistic party. No one could deny their true Jewish character, but they had been liberalised by their heaven-sent contact with foreigners and foreign lands; and hence it is that we discern in the Hellenistic party, and specially in Joseph, who by the Apostles was surnamed Barnabas, the beginnings of the glorious ingathering of the Gentiles, the very first rift in the thick dark cloud of prejudice which as yet kept back even the Apostles themselves from realising the great object of the gospel dispensation.

The Hellenists, with their wealth, their culture, their new ideas, their sense and value of Greek thought, were the bridge by which the spiritual life, hitherto wrapped in Jewish swaddling clothes, was to pass over to the masses of the Gentile world. The community of goods led Joseph Barnabas to dedicate his substance to the same noble cause of unselfishness. That dedication led to disputes between Hellenists and Hebrews, and these disputes occasioned the election of the seven deacons, who, in part, at least, belonged to the more liberal section. Among these deacons we find St. Stephen, whose teaching and martyrdom were directly followed by St. Paul and his conversion, and St. Paul was the Apostle of the Gentiles and the vindicator of Christian freedom and Christian liberty. St. Barnabas and his act of self-denial and self-sacrifice in surrendering his landed estate are thus immediately connected with St. Paul by direct historic contact, even if they had not been subsequently associated as joint Apostles and messengers of the Churches in their first missionary journeys; while again the mistaken policy of communism is overruled to the worlds abiding benefit and blessing. How wonderful, indeed, are the Lords doings towards the children of men!

II. We have thus suggested one of the main lines of thought which run through the first half of this book of the Acts. Let us now look a little more particularly at this Joseph Barnabas who was the occasion of this great, this new departure. We learn then, upon consulting the sacred text, that Joseph was a Levite, a man of Cyprus by race; he belonged, that is, to the class among the Jews whose interests were bound up with the maintenance of the existing order of things; and yet he had become a convert to the belief proclaimed by the Apostles. At the same time, while we give full credit to this Levite for his action, we must not imagine that either priests or Levites or Jews at that period fully realised all the consequences of their decisions. We find that men at every age take steps blindly, without thoroughly realising all the results which logically and necessarily flow forth from them. Men in religious, political, social matters are blind and cannot see afar off. It is only step by step that the purposes of God dawn upon them, and Joseph Barnabas, the Levite of Cyprus, was no exception to this universal rule. He was not only a Levite, but a native of Cyprus, for Cyprus was then a great stronghold and resort of the Jewish race. It continued to be a great centre of Jewish influence for long afterwards. In the next century, for instance, a great Jewish rebellion burst forth wherever the Jews were strong enough. They rose in Palestine against the power of the Emperor Hadrian, and under their leader Barcochba vindicated the ancient reputation of the nation for desperate and daring courage; while, in sympathy with their brethren on the mainland, the Jews in Cyprus seized their arms and massacred a vast multitude of the Greek and Roman settlers, numbering, it is said, two hundred and forty thousand persons. The concourse of Jews to Cyprus in the time of the Apostles is easily explained. Augustus Caesar was a great friend and patron of Herod the Great, and he leased the great copper mines of the island to that Herod, exacting a royalty upon their produce as we learn from Josephus, the well-known Jewish historian (Antiqq., 16. 4:5). It was only to be expected, then, that when a Jewish monarch was leasehoulder and manager of the great mining industry of the island, his Jewish subjects should flock thither, and it was very natural that amongst the crowds who sought Cyprus there should be found a minister of the Jewish faith whose tribal descent as a Levite reminded them of Palestine, and of the City of God, and of the Temple of Jehovah, and of its solemn, stately worship. This residence of Barnabas in Cyprus accounts for his landed property, which he had the right to sell just as he liked. A Levite in Palestine could not, according to the law of Moses when strictly construed, possess any private landed estate save in a Levitical city. Meyer, a German commentator of great reputation, has indeed suggested that Jer 32:7, where Jeremiah is asked to redeem his cousins field in the suburbs of Anathoth, proves that a member of the tribe of Levi could possess landed estate in Palestine. He therefore concludes that the old explanation that the landed property of Barnabas was in Cyprus, not in Palestine, could not stand. But the simple fact is that even the cleverest German expositors are not familiar with the text of their Bibles, for had Meyer been thus familiar he would have remembered that Anathoth was a city belonging to the priests and the tribe of Levi, and that the circumstance of Jeremiah the priest possessing a right to landed property in Anathoth was no proof whatsoever that he could hold landed property anywhere else, and, above all, affords no ground for the conclusion that he could dispose of it in the absolute style which Barnabas here displayed. We conclude then that the action of Barnabas on this occasion dealt with his landed estate in Cyprus, the country where he was born, where he was well-known, and where his memory is even still cherished on account of the work he there performed in conjunction with St. Paul.

III. Let us see what else we can glean concerning this person thus prominent in the early Church, first for his generosity, and then for his missionary character and success. It is indeed one of the most fruitful and interesting lines upon which Bible study can be pursued thus to trace the scattered features of the less known and less prominent characters of Scripture, and see wherein Gods grace specially abounded in them.

The very personal appearance of Barnabas can be recalled by the careful student of this book. Though it lies a little out of our way, we shall note the circumstance, as it will help us to form a more lively image of Barnabas, the Son of Consolation. The two Apostles, Paul and Barnabas, were on their first missionary tour when they came to the city of Lystra in Lycaonia. There the multitude, astonished at the miracle wrought upon the cripple by St. Paul, attempted to pay. divine honours to the two Christian missionaries. “They called Barnabas Jupiter, and Paul Mercurius, because he was the chief speaker.” It must have been their physical characteristics as well as the mode of address used by the Apostles which led to these names; and from the extant records of antiquity we know that Jupiter was always depicted as a man with a fine commanding presence, while Mercury, the god of eloquent speech, was a more insignificant figure. Jupiter, therefore, struck the Lycaonian people as the fittest name for the taller and more imposing-looking Apostle, while St. Paul, who was in bodily presence contemptible, was designated by the name of the active and restless Mercury. His character again shines through every recorded action of St. Barnabas. He was a thoroughly sympathetic man, and, like all such characters, he was ever swept along by the prevailing wave of thought or action, without allowing that supreme place to the judgment and the natural powers which they should always hold if the feelings and sympathies are not to land us in positions involving dire ruin and loss. He was carried away by the enthusiasm for Christian communism which now seized upon the Jerusalem Church. He was influenced by the Judaising movement at Antioch, so that “even Barnabas was carried away with the Petrine dissimulation.” His sympathies got the better of his judgment in the matter of St. Marks conduct in abandoning the ministry to which St. Paul had called him. His heart was stronger, in fact, than his head. And yet this very weakness qualified him to be the Son of Consolation. A question has, indeed, been raised, whether he should be called the Son of Consolation or the Son of Exhortation, but practically, there is no difference. His consolations were administered through his exhortations. His speech and his advice were of a consoling, healing, comforting kind. There are still such men to be found in the Church. Just as all other apostolic graces and characteristics are still manifested, -the eloquence of a Paul, the courage of a Peter, the speculative flights of a John, – so the sympathetic power of Barnabas is granted to some. And a very precious gift it is. There are some good men whose very tone of voice and bodily attitudes-their heads thrown back and their arms akimbo and their aggressive walk-at once provoke opposition. They are pugnacious Christians, ever on the lookout for some topic of blame and controversy. There are others, like this Barnabas, whose voices bring consolation, and whose words, even when not the clearest or the most practical, speak counsels of peace, and come to us thick-laden with the blessed dews of charity. Their advice, is not, indeed, always the wisest. Their ardent cry is always, Peace, peace. Such a man on the political stage was the celebrated Lucius Carey, Lord Falkland, in the days of the great civil war, who, though he adhered to the royalist cause, seemed, as the historian tells us, to have utterly lost all heart once that active hostilities commenced. Men of this type appear in times of great religious strife. Erasmus, for instance, at the time of the Reformation, possessed a good deal of this spirit which is devoted to compromise, and ever inclined to place the interests of peace and charity above those of truth; and principle, just as Barnabas would have done at Antioch were it not for the protest of his stronger and sterner friend St. Paul. And yet such men, with their sympathetic hearts and speech, have their own great use, infusing a healing, consoling tone into seasons of strife, when others are only too apt to lose sight of the sweet image of Christian love in pursuit of what they consider the supreme interests of religious or political truth. Such a man was Barnabas all his life, and such we behold him on his first visible entrance upon the stage of Church history, when his sympathies and his generosity led him to consecrate his independent property in Cyprus to his brethrens support, and to bring the money and lay it down at the Apostles feet.

IV. Now for the contrast drawn for us by the inspired pen of St. Luke, a contrast we find oft repeating itself in Church history. Here we have the generous, sympathetic Son of Consolation on the one side, and here, too, we have a warning and a type for all time that the tares must evermore be mingled with the wheat, the false with the true, the hypocrites with real servants of God, even until the final separation. The accidental division of the book into chapters hinders casual readers from noticing that the action of Ananias and his wife is set by the writer over against that of Barnabas. Barnabas sold his estate and brought the price, the whole price, and surrendered it as an offering to the Church. The spirit of enthusiastic giving was abroad, and had seized upon the community; and Barnabas sympathised with it. Ananias and Sapphira were carried away too, but their spirits were meaner. They desired to have all the credit the Church would give them for acting as generously as Barnabas did, and yet, while getting credit for unselfish and unstinting liberality, to be able to enjoy in private somewhat of that which they were believed to have surrendered. And their calculations were terribly disappointed. They tried to play the hypocrites part on most dangerous ground just when the Divine Spirit of purity, sincerity, and truth had been abundantly poured out, and when the spirit of deceit and hypocrisy was therefore at once recognised. It was with the Apostles and their spiritual natures then as it is with ourselves and our physical natures still. When we are living in a crowded city we notice not strange scents and ill odours and foul gases: our senses are dulled, and our perceptive powers are rendered obtuse because the whole atmosphere is a tainted one. But when we dwell in the pure. air of the country, and the glorious breezes from mountain and moor blow round us fresh and free, then we detect at once, and at a long distance, the slightest ill-odour or the least trace of offensive gas. The outpoured presence of the Spirit, and the abounding love which was produced thereby, quickened the perception of St. Peter. He recognised the hypocrisy, characterised the sin of Ananias as a lie against the Holy Ghost; and then the Spirit and Giver of life, seconding and supporting the words of St. Peter, withdrew His support from the human frame of the sinner, and Ananias ceased to live, just as Sapphira, his partner in deceit, ceased to live a few hours later. The deaths of Ananias and Sapphira have been ofttimes the subject of much criticism and objection, on the part of persons who do not realise the awfulness of their position, the full depths of their hypocrisy, and the importance of the lesson taught by their punishment to the Church of every age. Their position was a specially awful one, for they were brought into closest contact, as no Christian can now be brought, with the powers of the world to come. The Spirit was vouchsafed during those earliest days of the Church in a manner and style which we hear nothing of during the later years of the Apostles. He proved His presence by physical manifestations, as when the whole house was shaken where the Apostles were assembled; a phenomenon of which we read nothing in the latter portion of the Acts. By the gift of tongues, by miracles of healing, by abounding spiritual life and discernment, by physical manifestations, the most careless and thoughtless in the Christian community were compelled to feel that a supernatural power was present in their midst and specially resting upon the Apostles. Yet it was into such an atmosphere that the spirit of hypocrisy and of covetousness, the two vices to which Christianity was specially opposed, and which the great Master had specially denounced, obtruded itself as Satan gained entrance into Eden, to defile with their foul presence the chosen dwelling-place of the Holy Ghost. The Holy Ghost vindicated His authority therefore, because, as it must be observed, it was not St. Peter sentenced Ananias to death. No one may have been more surprised than St. Peter himself at the consequences which followed his stern rebuke. St. Peter merely declared his sin, “Thou hast not lied unto men, but unto God”; and then it is expressly said, “Ananias hearing these words fell down, and gave up the ghost.” It was a stern action indeed; but then all Gods judgments have a stern side. Ananias and Sapphira were cut off in their sins, but men are every day summoned into eternity in precisely the same state and the same way, and the only difference is that in the case of Ananias we see the sin which provoked the punishment and then we see the punishment immediately following. Men object to this narrative simply because they have a one-sided conception of Christianity such as this period of the worlds history delights in. They would make it a religion of pure, unmitigated love; they would eliminate from it every trace of sternness, and would thus leave it a poor, weak, flabby thing, without backbone or earnestness, and utterly unlike all other dispensations of the Lord, which have their stern sides and aspects as well as their loving.

It may well have been that this incident was inserted in this typical church history to correct a false idea which would otherwise have grown up. The Jews were quite well accustomed to regard the Almighty as a God of judgment as well as a God of love. Perhaps we might even say that they viewed Him more in the former light than in the latter. Our Lord was obliged, in fact, to direct some of His most searching discourses to rebuke this very tendency. The Galileans, whose blood Pilate mingled with their sacrifices, the men upon whom the tower of Siloam fell-neither party were sinners above all that were at Jerusalem, or were punished as such. Such was His teaching in opposition to the popular idea. The Apostles were once quite ready to ascribe the infirmity of the man born blind to the direct judgment of the Almighty upon himself or upon his parents. But men are apt to rush from one extreme to another. The Apostles and their followers were now realising their freedom in the Spirit; and some were inclined to run into licentiousness as the result of that same freedom. They were realising, too, their relationship to God as one of pure filial love, and they were in great danger of forgetting that God was a God of justice and judgment as well, till this stern dispensation recalled them to a sense of the fact that eternal love is also eternal purity and eternal truth, and will by no means clear the guilty. This is a lesson very necessary for every age of the Church. Men are always inclined, and never, perhaps, so much as at the present time, to look away from the severe side of religion, or even to deny that religion can have a severe side at all. This tendency in religious matters is indeed simply an exhibition of the spirit of the age. It is a time of great material prosperity and comfort, when pain is regarded as the greatest possible evil, softness, ease, and enjoyment the greatest possible good. Men shrink from the infliction of pain even upon the greatest criminals; and this spirit infects their religion, which they would fain turn into a mere matter of weakly sentiment. Against such a notion the judicial action of the Holy Ghost in this. case raises an eternal protest, warning the Church against one-sided and partial views of truth, and bidding her never to lower her standard at the worlds call. Men may ignore the fact that God has His severe aspect and His stern dispensations in nature, but yet the fact remains. And as it is in nature so is it in grace: God is. merciful and loving to the penitent, but towards the hypocritical and covetous He is a stern judge, as the punishment of Ananias and Sapphira proved.

V. This seems one of the great permanent lessons for the Church of every age which this passage embodies, but it is not the only one. There are many others, and they most important. An eminent modern commentator and expositor has drawn out at great length, and with many modern applications and illustrations, four great lessons which may be derived from this transaction. We shall just note them, giving a brief analysis of each.

(1) There is such a thing as acting as well as telling a falsehood. Ananias did not say that the money he brought was the whole price of his land; he simply allowed men to draw this conclusion for themselves, suggesting merely by his conduct that he was doing exactly the same as Barnabas. There was no science of casuistry in the apostolic Church, teaching how near to the borders of a lie a man may go without actually being guilty of lying. The lie of Ananias was a spiritual act, a piece of deception attempted in the abyss of the human soul, and perpetrated, or attempted rather, upon the Holy Spirit. How often men lie after the same example. They do not speak a lie, but they act a lie, throwing dust into the eyes of others as to their real motives and objects, as Ananias did here. He sold his estate, brought the money to the Apostles, and would fain have got the character of a man of extraordinary liberality and unselfishness, just like others who truly sacrificed their all, while he enjoyed in private the portion which he had kept back. Ananias wished to make the best of both worlds, and failed in his object. He sought to obtain a great reputation among men, but had no regard to the secret eye and judgment of the Almighty. Alas! how many of our actions, how much of our piety and of our almsgiving are tainted by precisely the same vice. Our good. works are done with a view to mans approbation, and not as in the sight of the Eternal God.

(2) What an illustration we find in this passage of the saying of the Apostle, “The love of money is the root of all evil; which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves with many sorrows!” The other scriptures are full of warnings against this vice of covetousness; and so this typical history does not leave the Church without an illustration of its power and danger. Surely if at a time when the supernatural forces of the unseen life were specially manifested, this vice intruded into the special sphere of their influence, the Church of every age should be on its perpetual guard against this spirit of covetousness which the Bible characterises as idolatry.

(3) What a responsibility is involved in being brought near to God as members of His Sons Church below! There were hypocrites in abundance at Jerusalem at that time, but they had not been blessed as Ananias had been, and therefore were not punished as he. There is a reality in our connection with Christ which must tell upon us, if not for good, then inevitably for evil. Christ is either the savour of life unto life or else the savour of death unto death unto all brought into contact with Him. In a far more awful sense than for the Jews the words of the prophet Ezekiel are true, “That which cometh into your mind shall not be at all, that ye say, We will be as the heathen, as the families of the countries, to serve wood and stone”; {Eze 20:32} or as the poet of the “Christian Year” has well put it in his hymn for the eighteenth Sunday after Trinity:-

“Fain would our lawless hearts escape, And with the heathen be, To worship every monstrous shape In fancied darkness free.”

“Vain thought, that shall not be at all, Refuse we or obey; Our ears have heardth Almightys call, We cannot be as they.”

“We cannot hope the heathens doom To whom Gods Son is given, Whose eyes have seen beyond the tomb, Who have the key of Heaven.”

(4) Lastly, let us learn from this history how to cast out the fear of one another by the greater and more awful fear of God. The fear of man is a good thing in a degree. We should have respect to the opinion of our fellows, and strive to win it in a legitimate way. But Ananias and his consort desired the good opinion of the Christian community regardless of the approval or the watchful eye of the Supreme Judge, who interposed to teach His people by an awful example that in the new dispensation of Love, as well as in the old dispensation of Law, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and that they and they alone have a good understanding who order their lives according to that fear, whether in their secret thoughts or in their public actions.

Fuente: Expositors Bible Commentary