St. Barnabas 14. Famine Visit. In our continuing series on the life of St. Barnabas, we last surmised that Barnabas would have been an excellent teacher to Gentile Christian converts of the virtues of charity and generosity for those suffering a famine in Judea ( Ac 11:27-30 ). St. John Chrysostom’s (344/354-407 AD) homily on this passage points out, “Do you see how for them the famine was an encouragement to salvation, an opportunity to give alms, and a harbinger of many blessings? ... The famine was foretold so that they might prepare themselves beforehand for almsgiving.” An interesting note on the purpose of prophecy: that people might prepare to respond to the call of the prophetic message with generosity. [1] The Acts also tells us that the Church in Antioch sent their relief “to the elders [in Jerusalem] by the hand of Barnabas and Saul” ( Ac 11:30 ). Notice that Barnabas continues to be named first as the leader. The term translated “elders” here is the word “presb...

  St. Barnabas 13. Prophecy of Famine.       “Now in these days prophets came down from Jerusalem to Antioch. And one of them named Agabus stood up and foretold by the Spirit that there would be a great famine over all the world; and this took place in the days of Claudius” ( Ac 11:27-28 ).       In the NT we hear much about the gift of prophecy. We also knew of prophets from the OT, but prophecy had ceased after Malachi in the late 5th Century BC. However, with the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, the gift of prophecy was poured out anew on the infant Church ( Ac 2 ).       Chronologically, it is now about 13 years since Pentecost, about 43 AD. By now, individual disciples are recognized as prophets (e.g., Ac 11:27-28 ; 13:1 ), and a few years later, St. Paul’s letters will show that the gift of prophecy was common (e.g., Ro 12:6 ; 1 Cor 12:10 , 28-29 ; 14 ; Eph 4:11 ). The Didache , written around 70-90 AD, t...