Acts 4:36-37
The son of consolation
A Levite from Cyprus sells land and lays the price at the apostles’ feet. The nickname arrives with him and the text stops to translate it.
People of the Bible
Barnabas
Was nicknamed the son of consolation, and spent it on the two men nobody else would take.
Also called Joses, a Levite of Cyprus
His name is a nickname the apostles gave him, which the text translates: the son of consolation, or of encouragement. He earns it early by selling a field and laying the money at the apostles’ feet, and then again by doing the two things this sheet is really about. When Saul comes to Jerusalem after Damascus and the disciples are all afraid of him and do not believe he is a disciple, Barnabas takes him and brings him to the apostles himself.
Scroll down to the storyThe movements, in the order the text gives them.
The story of Barnabas
- 01
- 02
Acts 9:26-28
They were all afraid of him
Saul tries to join the disciples at Jerusalem and is not believed. Barnabas takes him, brings him in, and tells them what happened on the road.
- 03
Acts 11:22-26
He was glad
Sent to inspect an irregular church of Greeks, he approves it, fetches Saul from Tarsus, and the disciples are first called Christians there.
- 04
Acts 15:36-40
The contention was so sharp
He will not give up on Mark and Paul will not take him. They split the first missionary partnership rather than settle it, and both keep working.
Why it matters
The church at Antioch is the second thing. Jerusalem hears that Greeks are believing in a foreign city and sends him to look, and he sees the grace of God and is glad, which is not the report they might have expected. Then he goes to Tarsus to find Saul, and the two of them teach there a whole year. The partnership ends over Mark, whom Paul will not take because he had turned back, and the contention is so sharp they part company. Barnabas takes Mark and sails. Paul later asks for Mark by name.
3 songs
The music
Every song in the catalogue whose passage falls inside these chapters.
