Tag Archives: Barnabas

Memorial of St. Barnabas

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St. Barnabas was one of the prominent Christian disciples in Jerusalem, Jewish and Cypriot by birth. He was sent to Antioch as an emissary of the Church in Jerusalem and witnessed the work of the Lord. At some time before this, St. Paul had his Damascus Road experience and conversion. “When [Paul] arrived in Jerusalem he tried to join the disciples, but they were all afraid of him, not believing that he was a disciple.” (Acts 9:26) and it seems he moved on to Tarsus and resumed his trade as a tentmaker. Continue reading →

St. Barnabas

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Today is the Memorial of St. Barnabas one of the prominent Christian disciples in Jerusalem. According to Acts 4:36, Barnabas was a Cypriot Jew. In Acts 11:22, the Jerusalem church sent Barnabas to Antioch to proclaim the word of God. While there he apparently heard that St. Paul, former persecutor of Christians, was in Tarsus. Acts 9 tells of the conversion of Saul in the memorable Damascus Road story.  What Acts leaves out and St. Paul provides in Galatians 11, after the experience in Damascus, for three years, Paul was in “Arabia” (Gal 1:17) In the first century this refers to the Syro-Arabian desert, farther north, which includes portions of modern-day Syria and Jordan; likely the region of the Nabataean Arabs, east and south of Damascus. Continue reading →