BARNABAS, the surname given by the apostles to Joses, or Joseph, a fellow-laborer of Paul, and like him ranked as an apostle. He was a Levite and a native of Cyprus; contributed to the community of goods among the disciples (Acts iv, 36-37); was sponsor for Saul, the former persecutor. That he was a man of influence in the early church of Jeru salem is attested by his being commissioned to investigate the church of Antioch. He jour neyed thence to Tarsus, where he joined Saul, with whom he was again sent out upon mis sionary work (Acts xiii 2). With Paul, he journeyed through Asia Minor, and wound up his missionary tour at Antioch, where both he and Paul became involved in the contentions of the Judaizing Christians regarding circum cision. They submitted the matter to the apos tles and returned to Antioch, where they labored for some time before revisiting the communi ties established during their first tour of Asia Minor. A difference arose between them in re gard to Mark, a nephew of Barnabas, and they separated, Bamabas and Mark going to Cyprus, the native place of the former. From this time the history of Barnabas is obscure. There is men
tion of him (1 Cor. ix, 6) as being still actively engaged in missionary work, but it would ap pear that he never rejoined Paul. There are unsupported traditions that he preached in Rome; that he was founder and first bishop of the church of Milan, and that he suffered martyrdom at Salamis in his native Cyprus. There is an epistle of 21 chapters ascribed to Barnabas by Tertullian and other early Chris tian writers, but without any support of inter nal evidence. It was probably written in the 2d century by a Gentile who had come under the influence of Alexandrian Judaistic thought. An apocryphal Acts, an apocryphal Gospel also bear his name. Tertullian also ascribes to him the epistle to the Hebrews in the New Testa ment. Consult uBarnabasp in Hastings' 'Dic tionary of the Bible' (New York 1898) ; id. in Cheyne, Biblica' (ib. 1899) ; Harnack, A. 'Chronologie der altcristlichen Litteratur' (Leipzig 1897) ; Kruger, G., 'His tory of Early Christian Literature) (New York 1897) ; Lightfoot, J. B., 'Apostolic Fathers' (London 1893).