St. Barnabas 6. Disciple of Jesus. As we continue looking at the life of St. Barnabas, the natural question is: When did Barnabas come to believe in Jesus? Many will say it was from the events of Pentecost, but that seems to be based solely on the fact that the first clearest reference to Barnabas in the Bible ( Ac 4:36 ) is shortly after Pentecost.  Yet we have already seen that it is very likely Barnabas lived in Jerusalem during all the years of Jesus’ public ministry, as did St. Paul. But unlike Paul, we have no specific record of Barnabas’ conversion. So what evidence do we have? First, it turns out that some Greek manuscripts of Acts 4:36 have his name as “Joses” instead of “Joseph,” leading some to identify Barnabas with the Joses who was the son of Mary and brother of James the Less ( Mt 27:56 ; Mk 15:40 , 47 ; cf. 16:1 ), elsewhere called the “brother of the Lord.” Interesting thought. But this is quite a small minority opinion, nor does there seem to be an...

The Gospel of the Forty Days: Priesthood       We again consider the “gospel of the forty days” (Ac 1:2-3), and consider what Jesus may have taught the Apostles after His resurrection about their priesthood.       In the New Testament (NT) the Christian community is described as a “holy priesthood” (1 Pt 2:5), a kingdom of priests to God (Rev: 1:6, 5:10, 20:6). This fulfills God’s original intention for Israel to be a kingdom of priests (Ex 19:6) but which they lost through idolatry. This NT “holy priesthood” we call the “common priesthood” or “priesthood of all believers.” So St. Paul can appeal to all to present themselves “as a living sacrifice,” our “spiritual worship” (Ro 12:1).       Yet, as St. Paul put it, “all the members [of the Body] do not have the same function” (Ro 12:4), and so we distinguish between the “common priesthood” and the “ministerial priesthood.” The book of Hebrews develops wonderfully Ch...

The Gospel of the Forty Days: Bishops and Presbyters       Last week we saw that the “gospel of the forty days” after Jesus’ resurrection (Ac 1:2-3) included that the Apostles would appoint their successors, and we discussed the origin of the terms “bishop” and “deacon.” There is a third term from the Greek which the Apostles adopted as a title for an office in the early Church. The Greek OT and the NT refer to “elder” in many different contexts, but the first time it is used as a designation of an office in the Church is in Acts 11:30 where St. Barnabas and St. Paul (Saul) brought famine relief to the Judean “elders.” The Greek term is presbuteros , or in English, “presbyters.” Also in Acts 14:23 Paul and Barnabas appoint presbyters in all the mission churches, and there are presbyters with the Apostles at the council of Jerusalem (Ac 15:2, 4, 6, 22, 23; 16:4; cf., Ac 21:18).       In Paul’s farewell address to the presbyters of Ephesus (Ac 2...

The Gospel of the Forty Days: Appointing Bishops and Deacons       Imagine you are one of the Twelve – well, eleven now – and you are with the other followers of Jesus – 120 of you together – praying for the coming of Holy Spirit (Ac 1:15). Peter now stands up and you see he has a new air of authority, or maybe it’s new confidence. So you have a hunch about what’s coming. You remember during one of Jesus’ talks after His resurrection (Ac 1:2-3) that Peter had asked Him about His saying that they would sit on twelve thrones (Lk 22:29-30) – but now there were only eleven and – (no one wanted to think, let alone speak, of Judas, that traitor). (Remember, this is just your imagination now....)       Jesus had replied, “Elect the twelfth. It is your duty, Peter, to do so.”       “Mine? Not mine, Lord! I ask You to choose him.”       “I elected My Twelve once and I formed them. Then I appointed t...