: F.F. Bruce
: The Pauline Circle Engaging Portraits of Paul's Friends, Co-Workers, Hosts and Hostesses
: Kingsley Books
: 9781912149179
: 1
: CHF 5.20
:
: Christentum
: English
: 112
: DRM
: PC/MAC/eReader/Tablet
: ePUB
'Paul,' writes F.F. Bruce, 'attracted friends around him as a magnet attracts iron filings.' In each of the first ten chapters, Professor Bruce engagingly pictures one of Paul's associates: Ananias and the disciples at Damascus, Barnabas, Silas, Timothy, Luke, Priscilla and Aquila, Apollos, Titus, Onesimus, and Mark. The last two chapters briefly introduce co-workers and hosts and hostesses, who 'had no other motive in being so helpful than love of Paul and love of the Master whom he served.' In creating these portraits, Professor Bruce, widely known as one of the foremost Pauline scholars, examines the relationships of the first-century Christians and gives a clear understanding of people who influenced the New Testament church.

CHAPTER 2

BARNABAS,
THE LEVITE FROM CYPRUS


IT WOULD HAVE BEEN A DEBATABLE POINT IN THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH whether Barnabas belonged to the Pauline circle or (as some would have hotly contended) Paul belonged rather to the circle of Barnabas. It would be fruitless to discuss this question; the inclusion of Barnabas in this series is justified by the fact that for some years the two men were closely associated.

If Ananias proved himself a friend in need to Paul in Damascus, Barnabas performed the same service for him when he returned to Jerusalem as a believer. His old associates would have none of him, and those who would most naturally be his new associates were suspicious of him. So far as they knew, he might well be anagent provocateur. “But Barnabas took him, and brought him to the apostles” (Acts 9:27), and told them how Paul had already given proof of the genuineness of his conversion. This implies some prior knowledge of Paul on the part of Barnabas. It also shows what confidence the apostles had in Barnabas.

Barnabas, in fact, is a man of whom nothing but good is reported. Luke sums up his character by saying, “he was a good man” (Acts 11:24). He first appears as a generous donor of a piece of land—or at least of the price that he got for it—to the common pool set up by the Jerusalem church for the maintenance of its poorer members. If it be asked how a Levite came to have landed property, the answer may be that it was a burial plot which, like many another pious Jew, he had acquired in the neighbourhood of Jerusalem. It is on first introducing him into his narrative that Luke tells us that Barnabas, “the son of encouragement,” was the sobriquet given him by the apostles (his original name was Joseph). The aptness of the sobriquet is unmistakable, for wherever Barnabas found people or situations requiring encouragement, he gave all the encouragement of which he was capable. Both Paul and the Jerusalem church leaders benefited greatly by his encouragement on the occasion when he brought them together.

Barnabas’s next appearance brings him to Antioch. Some of the Hellenistic believers who had left Jerusalem during the persecution that broke out after Stephen’s death16 made their way north through the province of Syria until they reached its capital city, Antioch on the Orontes. In those days Antioch was the third largest city in the world (surpassed on