Barnabas and the Early Christians 51tain, and chose twelve, whom he called apostles, among
whom is Judas, who was slain upon the cross. Their
names are: Andrew and Peter his brother, fishermen;
Barnabas, who wrote this, with Matthew the publican,
who sat at the receipt of custom; John and James, sons
of Zebedee; Thaddaeus and Judas; Bartholomew and
Philip; James, and Judas Iscariot the traitor, To these he
always revealed the divine secrets; but the Iscariot Ju
das he made his dispenser of that which was given in
alms, but he stole the tenth part of everything. (The Gos
pel of Barnabas: 14).It is interesting to note in passing that although the names of the
apostles which Barnabas gives do not all correspond to those listed
in the Gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke, the same observation
can equally be made as regards the three groups of names given in
Matthew 10.24, Mark 3.14-19 and Luke 6:13-16 respectively: Luke
does not mention Thaddaeus, whereas Barnabas, Matthew and
Mark do. Both Matthew and Mark do not mention the other Judas,
the son of James, whereas Barnabas and Luke do. Matthew, Mark
and Luke mention Thomas and Simon the Zealot, whereas Barna
bas does not. Neither Matthew, Mark nor Luke refer to Barnabas,
whereasBarnabasdoes. The Gospel of John in itspresentformdoes
not provide a complete list of the twelve apostles. As always, when
faced with gaps or contradictions, it is up to the reader to decide
which of these Gospels in their present form is the most divinely
inspired and the least altered, and accordingly themost accurate
and reliablel
As we have already seen, it is likely that Jesus was brought up
by the Essene community, and there is a tradition that Barnabas
was a student of Gamaliel, the greatest teacher of orthodox Juda
ism at that time. Thus the meeting of Jesus and Barnabas meant
the fusing together of all that was best in the gnostic teaching of
the Essenes and the orthodox [udaism of the Temple. Doubtless
this contributed to the harmonious understanding between them.
Since Barnabas was a Levite, he could well have been the com
mander of a division of the Zealots.
Althoughsolittleis knownaboutBarnabas,the latesthistorical
research is slowly uncovering the importance that was undoubt
edly his while Jesus was on earth. It is now generally agreed by