The circumstance of his being again in Rome a prisoner, after having been once set free by the mandate of the emperor himself, after a full hearing, must at once require a reference to a state of things, in which Paul’s religious profession and evangelizing labors, before esteemed so blameless that no man in Rome forbade him to preach the gospel there,——had now, by a mighty revolution in opinions, become a crime, since for these, he was now held in bondage, without the possibility of escape from the threatened death. Such a change actually did occur in the latter part of the reign of Nero, when, as already related in the history of Peter’s first epistle, the whole power of the imperial government was turned against the Christians, as a sect, and they were convicted on that accusation alone, as deserving of death. The date of this revolution in the condition of the Christians, is fixed by Roman history in the sixty-fourth year of Christ; and the time when Paul was cast into chains the second time, must therefore be referred to this year. His actual death evidently did not take place at once, but was deferred long enough to allow of his writing to Timothy, and for him to make some arrangements therein, for a short continuance of his labors. The date which is commonly fixed as the time of his execution, is in the year of Christ 65; but in truth, nothing whatever is known about it, nor can even a probability be confidently affirmed on the subject. Being a Roman citizen, he could not die by a mode so infamous as that of the cross, but was beheaded, as a more honorable exit; and with this view, the testimony of most of the early Fathers, who particularize his death, distinctly accords.
Of the various fictions which the monkish story-tellers have invented to gratify the curiosity which Christian readers feel about other particulars of the apostle’s character, the following is an amusing specimen. “Paul, if we may believe Nicephorus, was of a low and small stature, somewhat stooping; his complexion fair; his countenance grave; his head small; his eyes sparkling; his nose high and bending; and his hair thick and dark, but mixed with gray. His constitution was weak, and often subject to distempers; but his mind was strong, and endued with a solid judgment, quick invention, and prompt memory, which were all improved by art, and the advantages of a liberal education. Besides the epistles which are owned to be genuine, several other writings are falsely ascribed to him: as an epistle to the Laodiceans, a third to the Thessalonians, a third to the Corinthians, a second to the Ephesians, his letter to Seneca, his Acts, his Revelation, his voyage to Thecla, and his Sermons.” (Cave’s Lives of the Apostles.)
But the honors and saintship of Paul are recorded, not in the vague and misty traces of bloody martyr-death, but in the far more glorious achievements of a heroic life. In these, are contained the essence of his greatness; to these, all the Gentile world owes its salvation; and on these, the modern historian, following the model of the sacred writers, dwells with far more minuteness and particularity, than on a dull mass of uncertain tradition.
JOSEPH BARNABAS.
Of this apostle, so few circumstances are known, that are not inseparably connected with the life of Paul, in which they have been already recorded, that only a very brief space can be occupied with the events of his distinct life. The first passage in which he is mentioned, is that in the fourth chapter of Acts, where he is specified as having distinguished himself among those who sold their lands, for the sake of appropriating the avails to the support of the Christian community. Introduced to the notice of the reader under these most honorable circumstances, he is there described as of the tribe of Levi, and yet a resident in the island of Cyprus, where he seems to have held the land which he sacrificed to the purposes of religious charity. This island was for a long time, before and after that period, inhabited by great numbers of wealthy Jews, and there was hardly any part of the world, where they were so powerful and so favored, as in Cyprus; so that even the sacred order of the Levites might well find inducements to leave that consecrated soil to which they were more especially attached by the peculiar ordinances of the Mosaic institutions, and seek on this beautiful and fertile island, a new home, and a new seat for the faith of their fathers. The occasion on which Joseph (for that was his original name) left Cyprus to visit Jerusalem, is not known; nor can it even be determined whether he was ever himself a personal hearer of Jesus. He may very possibly have been one of the foreign Jews present at the Pentecost, and may there have been first converted to the Christian faith. On his distinguishing himself among his new brethren, both by good words and generous deeds, he was honored by the apostles with the name of Barnabas, which is interpreted in Greek by words that may mean either “son of consolation,” or “son of exhortation.” The former sense, of course, would aptly refer to his generosity in comforting the poor apostolic community, by his pecuniary contributions, as just before mentioned; and this has induced many to prefer that meaning; but the majority of critical translators and commentators have been led, on a careful investigation both of the original Hebrew word and of the Greek translation of it, to prefer the meaning of “son of exhortation” or “instruction,” a meaning which certainly well accords with the subsequent distinction attained by him in his apostolic labors. Both senses may, however, have been referred to, with an intentional equivoque.
“Acts, chapter iv. verse 37. ὑπάρχοντος αὐτῳ ἀγροῦ He could not have sold that which was his paternal inheritance as a Levite; but this might perhaps be some legacy, or purchase of land in Judea, to which he might have a title till the next jubilee, or perhaps some land in Cyprus. (Doddridge.) That it was lawful for the Levites to buy land, we learn from the example of Jeremiah himself, who was of the tribe of Levi. See Jeremiah xxxii. 17. It is observed by Bp. Pearce, that those commentators who contend that this land must have belonged to his wife, because, according to the law mentioned in Numbers xviii. 20, 23 and 24, a Levite could have no inheritance in Israel, seem to have mistaken the sense of that law, ‘which,’ says he, ‘means only that the Levites, as a tribe, were not to have a share in the division of Canaan among the other tribes. This did not hinder any Levite from possessing lands in Judea, either by purchase or by gift, as well as in right of his wife. Josephus was a Levite, and a priest too; and yet in his Life, chapter 76, he speaks of lands which he had lying about Jerusalem, and in exchange of which, Vespasian gave him others, for his greater benefit and advantage. After all, I see no reason why we may not suppose that this land, which Barnabas had and sold, was not land in Judea; and if so, the words of the law, “no inheritance in Israel,” did not, however understood, affect their case. His land might have been in his own country, Cyprus, an island of no great distance from Judea; and he might have sold it at Jerusalem to some purchaser there; perhaps to one of his own countrymen.’” (Bloomfield’s Annotations, Vol. IV. pp. 147, 148.)
In all the other passages of the New Testament in which he is mentioned, he is associated with Paul, and every recorded act of his life has been already given in the life of his great associate. His first acquaintance with him on his return to Jerusalem after his conversion,——his mission to Antioch and labors there in conjunction with Paul, when he had brought him from Tarsus,——their visit to Jerusalem,——their return to Antioch,——their first great mission through Asia Minor——their visit to Jerusalem at the council, and their joint report,——their second return to Antioch,——their proposed association in a new mission,——their quarrel and separation,——have all been fully detailed; nor is there any authentic source from which any facts can be derived, as to the subsequent incidents of his life. All that is related of him in the Acts, is, that after his separation from Paul, he sailed to Cyprus; nor is any mention made, in any of the epistles, of his subsequent life. The time and place of his death are also unknown.