Murderer's Row: The Church Jerusalem Didn't Expect

Now in the church at Antioch there were prophets and teachers: Barnabas, Simeon called Niger, Lucius of Cyrene, Manaen (who had been brought up with Herod the tetrarch), and Saul. (Acts 13:1)

That is a pretty fascinating list of names to start a church with. So let’s do a roll call here.

We’ll start off with Barnabas. Now, Barnabas we know from earlier in Acts. He’s introduced back in chapter 4, and his real name is Joseph, or in some manuscripts Joses.1 But he’s given the nickname Barnabas, which means son of encouragement, because in his first appearance he sells a plot of land that he owns and brings the proceeds to the church in Jerusalem to share with the poor (Acts 4:36–37).

What’s interesting about Barnabas, and relevant for our story today, is that he is a Levite from Cyprus. And that tells us a couple of interesting things about him. First of all, he is thoroughly ethnically Jewish. In fact, he’s a Levite, so he’s from the tribe that cared for temple worship in Jerusalem within that Levitical system. But he is also part of the diaspora. He’s not living in Jerusalem near the temple. He’s from Cyprus, a little island off the coast of Syria, just north of Palestine, out in the Mediterranean Sea. And it’s this story of Jesus that seems to draw him back to his faith. So he sells his land and makes his way back to Jerusalem, all of this to be part of this emerging Jesus movement that’s happening.

Well then, how does he end up in Antioch? His background is probably a big clue to the story, because the church in Antioch is a bit of an anomaly in itself.

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