Barnabas and the Early Christians 65Before it had been attempted, perhaps spreading [esus's mes
sage among the Gentiles had seemed a viable proposition. But,
having actually tried it, experience had proved that it was not pos
sible. Perhaps the reason why ms experience in Antioch had seemed
to be so successful was because there the Gentiles had been com
ing to the followers of Jesus and asking to be accepted as Chris
tians - whereas, when he, Mark and Paul went to Greece, it was
they who had been asking the Gentiles to come to them and be
come Christians.
There is no record of what happened to Barnabas after he re
tumed to Cyprus, but it is known that, like so many who held to a
new prophet's teaching, he died as a martyr. In spite of the fact
that Barnabas has been blocked out from many of the pages of the
Bible, it is evident that he acquired an integral position in the ms
tory of Christianity and cannot be forgotten. He was willing to
openly affirm and teach what he had learned from Jesus in the
early days of the Church, at a time when even sorne of those who
were nearest to Jesus were afraid to acknowledge their association
with mm. Barnabas's loyalty to Jesus is accepted as a fact by friends
and foes alike. As we have already seen, it is possible that it was
ms sister's hou se where Jesus had ms last Passover meal, and it
must have remained a meeting place for the followers of Jesus af
ter he had disappeared. Furthermore, the influence of Barnabas
over the Apostles and other followers of Jesus has been established
from the Bible itself, In it he is called a prophet, a teacher, and also
an apostle by Luke, whose unquestioned loyalty was to Paul. Above
all, Barnabas is remembered as a man who was not prepared to
compromise or change [esus's message in the least.
o o o o o
After Barnabas had left for Cyprus, Paul continued with what he
had begun. Although he had now been with many of the early
Christians long enough to be accepted as one of them, he was still
conscious of the weakness of ms position. He might now be called
an Apostle of Jesus, yet this did not alter the fact that he had never
met Jesus in his life. Although he claimed to have had access to
Jesus by revelation, he still needed someone who had lived with
Jesus to accompany him on his joumeys among the Gentiles. The
company of an eye-witness would provide him with invaluable
support and serve to back up his arguments with additional au
thority. He therefore persuaded Peter to join mm.