After some days Paul said to Barnabas, “Let’s return now and visit our brothers in every city in which we proclaimed the word of the Lord, to see how they are doing.”
Parallel Translations
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After some days Paul said to Barnabas, “Let’s return now and visit our brothers in every city in which we proclaimed the word of the Lord, to see how they are doing.”
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But after a certayne space Paul sayde vnto Barnabas: Let vs goo agayne and visite oure brethren in every cite where we have shewed the worde of the Lorde and se how they do.
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But after certaine dayes, Paul said vnto Barnabas, Let vs returne, and visite our brethren in euery citie, where we haue preached the worde of the Lord, and see how they doe.
Cross-references (19)
Passages linked to Acts 15:36 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- Acts 13:4 So, being sent out by the Holy Spirit, they went down to Seleucia. From there they sailed to Cyprus.
- Acts 14:6 they became aware of it and fled to the cities of Lycaonia, Lystra, Derbe, and the surrounding region.
- Acts 13:13-14 Now Paul and his company set sail from Paphos, and came to Perga in Pamphylia. John departed from them and returned to Jerusalem. But they, passing on from Perga, came to Antioch of Pisidia. They went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and sat down.
- Acts 13:51 But they shook off the dust of their feet against them, and came to Iconium.
- Acts 14:24-25 They passed through Pisidia, and came to Pamphylia. When they had spoken the word in Perga, they went down to Attalia.
- 2 Corinthians 11:28 Besides those things that are outside, there is that which presses on me daily: anxiety for all the assemblies.
- Exodus 4:18 Moses went and returned to Jethro his father-in-law, and said to him, “Please let me go and return to my brothers who are in Egypt, and see whether they are still alive.” Jethro said to Moses, “Go in peace.”
- Acts 14:1 In Iconium, they entered together into the synagogue of the Jews, and so spoke that a great multitude both of Jews and of Greeks believed.
- Romans 1:11 For I long to see you, that I may impart to you some spiritual gift, to the end that you may be established;
- 1 Thessalonians 3:10-11 night and day praying exceedingly that we may see your face, and may perfect that which is lacking in your faith? Now may our God and Father himself, and our Lord Jesus Christ, direct our way to you.
- Jeremiah 23:2 Therefore Yahweh, the God of Israel, says against the shepherds who feed my people: “You have scattered my flock, driven them away, and have not visited them. Behold, I will visit on you the evil of your doings,” says Yahweh.
- Matthew 25:36 I was naked, and you clothed me. I was sick, and you visited me. I was in prison, and you came to me.’
- Matthew 25:43 I was a stranger, and you didn’t take me in; naked, and you didn’t clothe me; sick, and in prison, and you didn’t visit me.’
- Acts 7:23 But when he was forty years old, it came into his heart to visit his brothers, the children of Israel.
- Acts 14:21 When they had preached the Good News to that city, and had made many disciples, they returned to Lystra, Iconium, and Antioch,
- 1 Thessalonians 2:17-18 But we, brothers, being bereaved of you for a short season, in presence, not in heart, tried even harder to see your face with great desire, because we wanted to come to you—indeed, I, Paul, once and again—but Satan hindered us.
- 1 Thessalonians 3:6 But when Timothy came just now to us from you, and brought us glad news of your faith and love, and that you have good memories of us always, longing to see us, even as we also long to see you,
- 2 Timothy 1:4 longing to see you, remembering your tears, that I may be filled with joy;
- Philippians 1:27 Only let your way of life be worthy of the Good News of Christ, that whether I come and see you or am absent, I may hear of your state, that you stand firm in one spirit, with one soul striving for the faith of the Good News;
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
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John Calvin 1540 · Public Domain 36. Let us visit our brethren. In this history…
36. Let us visit our brethren. In this history we must first note how careful Paul was for the churches which he had ordained. He laboreth, indeed, at Antioch profitably, but because he remembered that he was an apostle ordained of God, and not the pastor of one particular place, he keepeth the course of his calling. Secondly, as it did not become him to be tied to one place, so he thinketh with himself, that he was bound to all whom he begat in the Lord; therefore, he will not suffer them to want his help. Moreover, the work that was begun in those places could not be neglected; but it would shortly after decay. Yet it is to be thought that Paul stayed still in the church of Antioch, until he saw the estate thereof well ordered, and concord established. For we know and try what great force principal churches have to keep other lesser churches in order. If there arise any tumult in an obscure street, or if there fall out any offense, the rumor goeth not so far, neither are the neighbors so much moved; but if any place be excellent, it cannot quail without great ruin, or, at least, but that the lesser buildings shall be therewith sore shaken, both far and wide. Therefore, Paul, in staying a time at Antioch, did provide for other churches; and so we must no less look unto his wisdom than his diligence in this example, because oftentimes the immoderate heat of the pastors in going about matters doth no less hurt than their sluggishness.
How they do. Paul knew that amidst so great lightness and inconstancy of men, and as their nature is inclined to vice, if there be any thing well ordered among them, it doth seldom continue stable, and for any long time; and especially that churches do easily decay or grow out of kind, unless they be looked to continually. There ought nothing under heaven to be more firm than the spiritual building of faith, whose stability is grounded in the very heaven; yet there be but few in whose minds the word of the Lord doth thoroughly take lively root; therefore, firmness is rare in men. Again, even those who have their anchor firmly fixed in the truth of God, do not cease notwithstanding to be subject to diverse tossings, whereby, though their faith be not overturned, yet hath it need of strengthening, that it may be underpropped and stayed. Moreover, we see how Satan doth assault, and with what subtle shifts he goeth about privily to pull down sometimes whole churches, sometimes every one of the faithful particularly. Therefore, it is not without cause that Paul is so careful for his scholars, lest they behave themselves otherwise than is to be wished; and therefore is he desirous in time to prevent, if there be any inconvenience risen, which cannot be until he have taken view.
John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain Congregations or Churches do easily degenerate, unless they be…
Congregations or Churches do easily degenerate, unless they be diligently seen unto, and therefore went these Apostles to oversee such as they had planted, and for this cause also Synods were instituted and appointed.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain 36 And some days after Paul said unto Barnabas,…
36 And some days after Paul said unto Barnabas, Let us go again and visit our brethren in every city where we have preached the word of the Lord, and see how they do.
Ver. 36. And see how they do] Whether that wicked one (or troubler, ο πονηρος, Mat 13:39) hath not cast his club among them, or corrupted their minds from the simplicity that is in Christ, 2Co 11:3. How soon were the Galatians unsettled by seducers and sect makers, Gal 1:6. What ill work made those deceitful workers at Corinth, in St Paul’s absence; and the heretics in the primitive Church, and the Anabaptists in Germany, &c. While Moses was but a while in the mount, the people had gotten them a golden calf. When Calvin was cast out of Geneva but for a short time, Sadoletus wrote a very smooth and subtle epistle to the inhabitants, to persuade them to return back to Popery. We ministers seldom find our work as we left it, we had need therefore visit often, and handle our sheep, &c., to see how they do, and whether (as Gaiuses) their souls as well as bodies be in health and prosper, 3Jn 1:2.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain It is not enough that they had sown good…
It is not enough that they had sown good seed, but they must take care lest it be plucked up, and tares sown in the stead of it, by the wicked one, Mat 13:19. A husbandman’s work is never at an end, neither is the labourer’s in God’s vineyard.
See how they do; not so much looking after their bodily welfare, as how their souls fared, whether they continued in the faith, and integrity of life.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
William Burkitt 1703 · Public Domain Observe here, The pious and prudential care which St.…
Observe here, The pious and prudential care which St. Paul, who had planted churches, takes to visit and inspect them; that he might see and understand how they did thrive and grow in the knowledge of Christ, and in their sincere obedience to him. This great apostle had been sowing the good seed of the word of God: his next care is, to examine and enquire whether the envious ones had not sowed tares in his absence.
A minister’s work, and a husbandman’s business, are never at an end, but run round in a circle: Redit labor actus in orbem; after ploughing and sowing, there must be weeding and watering, before reaping and ingathering.
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Accordingly St. Paul resolves upon the visitation here mentioned; Let us go again and visit our brethren in every city where we have preached the word of the Lord, and see how they do.
Here note, 1. The visitors, Paul and Barnabas.
2. The visited, our brethren, both the elders and members of the church.
3. The action performed, visiting; the word imports a strict view, a most diligent and solicitous scrutiny, lest some errors in their absence might be crept into the doctrine and conversation of these new-planted churches.
4. The place where the visitation is to be held: In every city where they have preached the word of the Lord.
Where they had planted, they were obliged to water; and where they had begotten any to the Christian faith, they thought it their duty to nurture and nourish them: and therefore, though there were presbyters no doubt in every city, yet Paul and Barnabas challenged to themselves a power of visitation, where they had personally preached. The apostles who first converted them, had a peculiar right to inspect and govern them. Converted souls, and planted churches, mist be farther visited, observed, and watered.
5. The end and design of the visitation: To see how they do, and what they do; to take an account of their faith and practice.
From the whole observe, 1. A disease which the churches of the apostles’ own planting were supposed to be liable and obnoxious to: the purest of churches and best of men in this militant and mortal state, are apt to fall into distempers: witness this chapter. Where we find the Jews nauseating the bread of life, and making it their choice to pick and eat the rubbish off the partition-wall which Christ had demolished; I mean circumcision, and the legal ceremonies, which, though expired at the death of Christ, and by this time had an honourable burial, yet they attempt to pull out of their graves, and give a resurrection to them. Such distempers will be in the purest churches, if we consider the hereditary corruption which is in all by nature; the remains of it in those who are renewed by grace, and the endeavours of Satan to solicit these remains, and invite them forth into act and exercise.
Observe, 2. The remedy resolved upon for preventing and healing of this disease; namely, apostolical visitation, and episcopal inspection, as the word signifies. The constitution of the church is such, that it cannot continue long in repair, without inspection and government: for though the universal church is secure, being built upon a rock, yet particular churches are liable to dilapidations: and accordingly it is the duty of the governors of the church frequently to inspect the authority of those who preach, to examine their doctrines, to enquire into their lives, to give rules for preserving order, and to censure those who neglect those rules, and disturb that order.
In fine, we see the church of Christ must be governed; in that government there must be a superiority in some, and subordination in others: superiors must frequently visit, and narrowly inspect the doctrine, the lives, and manners, both of the ministers and members of the church, according to the practice and example of these two great apostles, Paul and Barnabas; who said, Let us go again and visit our brethren in every city where we have preached the word, and see how they do.
William Burkitt's Expository Notes on the New Testament (1700–1703) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Henry 1710 · Public Domain We have seen one unhappy difference among the brethren,…
We have seen one unhappy difference among the brethren, which was of a public nature, brought to a good issue; but here we have a private quarrel between two ministers, no less men than Paul and Barnabas, not compromised indeed, yet ending well.
I. Here is a good proposal Paul made to Barnabas to go and review their work among the Gentiles and renew it, to take a circuit among the churches they had planted, and see what progress the gospel made among them. Antioch was now a safe and quiet harbour for them: they had there no adversary nor evil occurrent; but Paul remembered that they only put in there to refit and refresh themselves, and therefore begins now to think of putting to sea again; and, having been in winter quarters long enough, he is for taking the field again, and making another campaign, in a vigorous prosecution of this holy war against Satan's kingdom. Paul remembered that the work appointed him was afar off among the Gentiles, and therefore he is here meditating a second expedition among them to do the same work, though to encounter the same difficulties; and this some days after, for his active spirit could not bear to be long out of work; no, nor his bold and daring spirit to be long out of danger. Observe, 1. To whom he makes this proposal - to Barnabas, his old friend and fellow-labourer; he invites his company and help in this work. We have need one of another, and may be in many ways serviceable one to another; and therefore should be forward both to borrow and lend assistance. Two are better than one. Every soldier has his comrade. 2. For whom the visit is designed: "Let us not presently begin new work, nor break up new ground; but let us take a view of the fields we have sown. Come, and let us get up early to the vineyards, let us see if the vine flourish, Sol 7:12. Let us go again and visit our brethren in every city where we have preached the word of the Lord." Observe, He calls all the Christians brethren, and not ministers only; for, Have we not all one Father? He has a concern for them in every city, even where the brethren were fewest and poorest, and most persecuted and despised; yet let us visit them. Wherever we have preached the word of the Lord, let us go and water the seed sown. Note, Those that have preached the gospel should visit those to whom them have preached it. As we must look after our praying, and hear what answer God gives to that; so we must look after our preaching, and see what success that has. Faithful ministers cannot but have a particular tender concern for those to whom they have preached the gospel, that they may not bestow upon them labour in vain. See Th1 3:5, Th1 3:6. 3. What was intended in this visit: "Let us see how they do," pōs echousi - how it is with them. It was not merely a compliment that he designed, nor did he take such a journey with a bare How do you do? No, he would visit them that he might acquaint himself with their case, and impart unto them such spiritual gifts as were suited to it; as the physician visits his recovering patient, that he may prescribe what is proper for the perfecting of his cure, and the preventing of a relapse. Let us see how they do, that is, (1.) What spirit they are of, how they stand affected, and how they behave themselves; it is probable that they frequently heard from them, "But let us go and see them; let us go and see whether they hold fast what we preached to them, and live up to it, that we may endeavour to reduce them if we find them wandering, to confirm them if we find them wavering, and to comfort them if we find them steady." (2.) What state they are in, whether the churches have rest and liberty, or whether they are not in trouble or distress, that we may rejoice with them if they rejoice, and caution them against security, and may weep with them if they weep, and comfort them under the cross, and may know the better how to pray for them.
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II. The disagreement between Paul and Barnabas about an assistant; it was convenient to have a young man with them that should attend on them and minister to them, and be a witness of their doctrine, manner of life, and patience, and that should be fitted and trained up for further service, by being occasionally employed in the present service. Now, 1. Barnabas would have his nephew John, whose surname was Mark, to go along with them, Act 15:37. He determined to take him, because he was his relation, and, it is likely, was brought up under him, and he had a kindness for him, and was solicitous for his welfare. We should suspect ourselves of partiality, and guard against it in preferring our relations. 2. Paul opposed it (Act 15:38): He thought not good to take him with them, ouk ēxiou - he did not think him worthy of the honour, nor fit for the service, who had departed from them, clandestinely as it should seem, without their knowledge, or wilfully, without their consent, from Pamphylia (Act 13:13), and went not with them to the work, because he was either lazy and would not take the pains that must be taken, or cowardly and would not run the hazard. He run his colours just as they were going to engage. It is probable that he promised very fair now that he would not do so again. But Paul thought it was not fit he should be thus honoured who had forfeited his reputation, nor thus employed who had betrayed his trust; at least, not till he had been longer tried. If a man deceive me once, it is his fault; but, if twice, it is my own, for trusting him. Solomon saith, Confidence in an unfaithful man in time of trouble is like a broken tooth, and a foot out of joint, which will hardly be used again, Pro 25:19.
III. The issue of this disagreement: it came to such a height that they separated upon it. The contention, the paroxysm (so the word is), the fit of passion which this threw them both into, was so sharp that they departed asunder one from the other. Barnabas was peremptory that he would not go with Paul unless they took John Mark with them; Paul was as peremptory that he would not go if John did go with them. Neither would yield, and therefore there is no remedy but they must part. Now here is that which is very humbling, and just matter of lamentation, and yet very instructive. For we see, 1. That the best of men are but men, subject to like passions as we are, as these two good men had expressly owned concerning themselves (Act 14:15), and now it appeared too true. I doubt there was (as usually there is in such contentions) a fault on both sides; perhaps Paul was too severe upon the young man, and did not allow his fault the extenuation it was capable of, did not consider what a useful woman his mother was in Jerusalem (Act 12:12), nor make the allowances he might have made to Barnabas's natural affection. But it was Barnabas's fault that he took this into consideration, in a case wherein the interest of Christ's kingdom was concerned, and indulged it too much. And they were certainly both in fault to be hot as to let the contention be sharp (it is to be feared they gave one another some hard words), as also to be so stiff as each to stick resolutely to his opinion, and neither to yield. It is a pity that they did not refer the matter to a third person, or that some friend did not interpose to prevent its coming to an open rupture. Is there never a wise man among them to interpose his good offices, and to accommodate the matter, and to put them in mind of the Canaanite and the Perizzite that were now in the land, and that not only Jews and heathens, but the false brethren among themselves, would warm their hands at the flames of the contention between Paul and Barnabas? We must own it was their infirmity, and is recorded for our admonition; not that we must make use of it to excuse our own intemperate heats and passions, or to rebate the edge of our sorrow and shame for them; we must not say, "What if I was in a passion, were not Paul and Barnabas so?" No; but it must check our censures of others, and moderate them. If good men are soon put into a passion, we must make the best of it, it was the infirmity once of two of the best men that ever the world had. Repentance teaches us to be severe in reflections upon ourselves; but charity teaches us to be candid in our reflections upon others. It is only Christ's example that is a copy without a blot. 2. That we are not to think it strange if there be differences among wise and good men; we were told before that such offences would come, and here is an instance of it. Even those that are united to one and the same Jesus, and sanctified by one and the same Spirit, have different apprehensions, different opinions, different views, and different sentiments in points of prudence. It will be so while we are in this state of darkness and imperfection; we shall never be all of a mind till we come to heaven, where light and love are perfect. That is charity which never fails. 3. That these differences often prevail so far as to occasion separations. Paul and Barnabas, who were not separated by the persecutions of the unbelieving Jews, nor the impositions of the believing Jews, were yet separated by an unhappy disagreement between themselves. O the mischief that even the poor and weak remainders of pride and passion, that are found even in good men, do in the world, do in the church! Now wonder the consequences are so fatal where they reign.
IV. The good that was brought out of this evil-meat out of the eater, and sweetness out of the strong. It was strange that even the sufferings of the apostles (as Phi 1:12), but much more strange that even the quarrels of the apostles, should tend to the furtherance of the gospel of Christ; yet so it proved here. God would not permit such things to be, if he knew not how to make them to serve his own purposes. 1. More places are hereby visited. Barnabas went one way; he sailed to Cyprus (v. 39), that famous island where they began their work (Act 13:4), and which was his own country, Act 4:36. Paul went another way into Cilicia, which was his own country, Act 21:39. Each seems to be influenced by his affection to his native soil, as usual (Nescio qu natale solum dulcedine cunctos ducit - There is something that attaches us all to our native soil), and yet God served his own purposes by it, for the diffusing of gospel light. 2. More hands are hereby employed in the ministry of the gospel among the Gentiles; for, (1.) John Mark, who had been an unfaithful hand, is not rejected, but is again made use of, against Paul's mind, and, for aught we know, proves a very useful and successful hand, though many think it was not the same with that Mark that wrote the gospel, and founded the church at Alexandria, and whom Peter calls his son, Pe1 5:13. (2.) Silas who was a new hand, and never yet employed in that work, nor intended to be, but to return to the service of the church at Jerusalem, had not God changed his mind (Act 15:33, Act 15:34), he is brought in, and engaged in that noble work.
V. We may further observe, 1. That the church at Antioch seem to countenance Paul in what he did. Barnabas sailed with his nephew to Cyprus, and no notice was taken of him, nor a bene discessit - a recommendation given him. Note, Those that in their service of the church are swayed by private affections and regards forfeit public honours and respect. But, when Paul departed, he was recommended by the brethren to the grace of God. They thought he was in the right in refusing to make use of John Mark, and could not but blame Barnabas for insisting upon it, though he was one who had deserved well of the church (Act 11:22) before they knew Paul; and therefore they prayed publicly for Paul, and for the success of his ministry, encouraged him to go on in his work, and, though they could do nothing themselves to further him, they transferred the matter to the grace of God, leaving it to that grace both to work upon him and to work with him. Note, Those are happy at all times, and especially in times of disagreement and contention, who are enabled so to carry themselves as not to forfeit their interest in the love and prayers of good people. 2. That yet Paul afterwards seems to have had, though not upon second thoughts, yet upon further trial, a better opinion of John Mark than now he had; for he writes to Timothy (Ti2 4:11), Take Mark and bring him with thee, for he is profitable to me for the ministry; and he writes to the Colossians concerning Marcus, sister's son to Barnabas, that if he came to them they should receive him, bid him welcome, and employ him (Col 4:10), which teaches us, (1.) That even those whom we justly condemn we should condemn moderately, and with a great deal of temper, because we know not but afterwards we may see cause to think better of them, and both to make use of them and make friendship with them, and we should so regulate our resentments that if it should prove so we may not afterwards be ashamed of them. (2.) That even those whom we have justly condemned, if afterwards they prove more faithful, we should cheerfully receive, forgive and forget, and put a confidence in, and, as there is occasion, give a good word to. 3. That Paul, though he wanted his old friend and companion in the kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ, yet went on cheerfully in his work (Act 15:41): He went through Syria and Cilicia, countries which lay next to Antioch, confirming the churches. Though we change our colleagues, we do not change our principal president. And observe, Ministers are well employed, and ought to think themselves so, and be satisfied, when they are made use of confirming those that believe, as well as in converting those that believe not.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain And Barnabas determined,.... Or consulted, and contrived in his…
And Barnabas determined,.... Or consulted, and contrived in his own mind, and purposed within himself; the Alexandrian copy, and two of Beza's, the Vulgate Latin, Syriac, and Ethiopic versions read, "he would", or was willing; he had a mind, a very great desire,
to take with them John, whose surname was Mark; of whom see Act 12:12 he being his sister's son, Col 4:10 him they brought with them to Antioch, when they returned from Jerusalem thither, where they had been sent by the church at Antioch, with money for the relief of the poor saints; see Act 11:29 and who seems to have come with them from Jerusalem again; for thither he went, when he parted from them at Pamphylia, Act 13:13.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain Let us go and visit the brethren in every…
Let us go and visit the brethren in every city where we have preached - This was all that St. Paul designed at first; but it was not all that God designed by his journey, whose providence carried him much farther than he intended. And see how they do - How their souls prosper: how they grow in faith, hope love: what else ought to be the grand and constant inquiry in every ecclesiastical visitation? Reader, how dost thou do?
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain Verse 36. Let us go - and visit our…
Verse 36. Let us go - and visit our brethren in every city] This heavenly man projected a journey to Cyprus, Pamphylia, Pisidia, Lycaonia, Salamis, Paphos, Perga, Iconiam, Lystra, Derbe, Antioch in Pisidia, and elsewhere; for in all these places he had preached and founded Churches in the preceding year. He saw it was necessary to water the seed he had planted; for these were young converts, surrounded with impiety, opposition, and superstition, and had few advantages among themselves.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain Act 15:36. And some days after — After they…
Act 15:36. And some days after — After they had continued a considerable number of days at Antioch; Paul — Whose active spirit was ever forming some new scheme for the advancement of Christianity; said to Barnabas — His former associate; Let us go again and visit our brethren — The churches we have planted; in every city — Wherever we have preached the word of the Lord; let us go and water the seed sown. Those who have preached the gospel should visit those to whom they have preached it; that they may see what effect their ministry has had, and whether any real and lasting fruit has been produced by it. And see how they do — How their souls prosper; how they grow in faith, hope, love; and what is the state of religion among them. And what else ought to be the grand and constant inquiry in every ecclesiastical visitation? As the apostle could not but be sensible of the great danger in which the Gentile converts, in distant countries, were of being perverted by the Jews, and as his zeal for the purity of the gospel would lead him to consider by what means they might most probably be confirmed in the truth, it is likely that another end which he had in view in proposing this journey was, to make these Gentiles acquainted with the decrees which had been ordained by the apostles, elders, and brethren in Judea. For no expedient could appear to him more proper than this, to preserve them from being misled. Accordingly, as we find chap. Act 16:4, he and his fellow-traveller delivered these decrees to them as they went through the cities.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain Let us go again and visit our brethren -…
Let us go again and visit our brethren - That is, in the churches which they had established in Asia Minor, Act 13:14. This was a natural wish, and was an enterprise that might be attended with important advantages to those feeble churches.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures 1864 · Public Domain Act_15:36 to Act_18:22
SECTION III
THE SECOND MISSIONARY JOURNEY OF PAUL, ACCOMPAINED BY SILAS AND TIMOTHEUS, TO ASIA MINOR, AND EUROPE.
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Act_15:36 to Act_18:22
A.—COMMENCEMENT OF THE JOURNEY PAUL AND BARNABAS SEPARATE ON ACCOUNT OF JOHN MARK; BARNABAS PROCEEDS WITH MARK TO CYPRUS, AND PAUL WITH SILAS TO SYRIA AND CILICIA
Act_15:36-41
36And [But] some days after, Paul said unto Barnabas, Let us go again [Up δὴ, let us turn back] and visit [look after] our19 brethren in every city where [in which] we have preached the word of the Lord, and see [om.] and see] how they do [bear them selves]. 37And Barnabas determined to [advised that they should]20 take with them John, whose surname was Mark. 38But Paul thought not good to [deemed it just not to] take him [this one, τοῦτον] with them, who departed [had fallen away] from them from Pamphylia, and went not [had not gone] with them to the work. 39And the contention was so sharp between them, [Hence (οὖν)21 a sharp contention arose, so] that they departed asunder [separated] one from the other: and so [om. so] Barnabas took Mark [along], and sailed unto Cyprus; 40And [But] Paul chose Silas [as a companion], and departed [went forth], being [after having been] recommended [commended] by the brethren unto the grace of God [of the Lord]22. 41And he went [journeyed] through Syria and Cilicia, confirming [and strengthened] the churches [congregations].
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
Act_15:36. The commencement of the second missionary journey of Paul is not stated with chronological precision; it took place some days after. Silas and Judas had, according to Act_15:33, remained for some time at Antioch, and, after their departure, Paul and Barnabas continued in Antioch, Act_15:35. (It is probable that Peter’s visit to Antioch occurred during this period, Gal_2:11 ff.). Paul now proposed to set forth on another journey. He had undertaken the former by the direction of the Holy Ghost, who spoke by the mouth of certain prophets, Act_13:2. On the present occasion, the suggestion proceeds from Paul, who exhorts Barnabas to unite in the work with him. He appears to have had originally no other purpose than that of visiting the congregations which had been founded during the former journey. This fact is implied by the word ἐπιστρέψαντες, [i.e., re-entering a road that had previously been travelled over), as well as by the language: ἐπισκεψώμεθα—πῶς ἔχουσι; that is, the primary purpose was to visit only those cities in which both had preached the Gospel. They wished to look after the brethren πῶς ἔχουσι, i.e., to ascertain their present moral and religious state, and their condition in general. [Ἐν αἶς, because πᾶσαν is used in a collective sense, Winer. Gr. N. T. § 21. 3. (Meyer).—Tr.]
Act_15:37-38. Barnabas appears to have at once expressed a willingness to unite with Paul in visiting the congregations, but he advised (ἐβουλεύσατο, consulere) that they should take John Mark along, as their companion; Paul refused his consent; he could not approve of the proposition that Mark should accompany them, as the conduct of the latter on the former journey seemed to him to have been a falling off from them both (ἀποστάντα taken in a strict sense of the word). The term ἀξιοῦν designates a moral judgment: “he does not deserve that we should take him with us; he has made himself unworthy of it.” The peculiar mode of expression, moreover, very plainly shows that Paul’s indignation on account of that conduct, was avowed with warmth and energy; see Act_13:13, Exeg. note; (τὸν ἀποστάντα—μὴ συμπ. τοῦτον). [Τοῦτον, at the close: “we may well believe that Paul’s own mouth gave originally the character to the sentence.” (Alf.)—Tr.]
Act_15:39-41. Barnabas did not agree with Paul in judging the conduct of Mark with such severity; the latter was, besides, his nephew, Col_4:10. [Ἀνεψιός, consobrinus, Vulg.; relative, de Wette; cousin, Robinson: Meyer.—Tr.]. A discussion, conducted with great warmth,—a sharp contention (παροξυσμός)—ensued, and the result was that the two men parted, and took different roads. [“There is little doubt that severe words were spoken on the occasion. It is unwise to be over-anxious to dilute the words of Scripture, and to exempt even Apostles from blame.… We cannot, however, suppose that Paul and Barnabas parted, like enemies, in anger and hatred. It is very likely that they made a deliberate and amicable arrangement to divide the region of their first mission between them, Paul taking the continental, and Barnabas the insular, part of the proposed visitation. Of this at least we are certain, that the quarrel was overruled by Divine Providence to a good result. One stream of missionary labor had been divided, and the regions blessed by the waters of life were proportionally multiplied. St. Paul speaks of Barnabas afterwards (1Co_9:6,) as of an Apostle actively engaged in his Master’s service.” (Conyb. &H.; Life, etc. of St. Paul, I. 270–272).—“Luke does not mention the re-union which was subsequently effected (Col_4:10; Philem. Act_15:24; 2Ti_4:11), which would be very surprising, (as Mark was a disciple of Peter), if the opinion of those were correct, who allege that the Book of the Acts was written in order to harmonize Paulinism with Petrinism.” (Meyer, ad loc. n.).—Tr.]. Barnabas adhered to his purpose, and, retaining Mark, proceeded with him to the island of Cyprus, his original home (Act_4:36),while Paul chose Silas as his companion, who had, according to Act_15:33, returned to Jerusalem [on the omission of Act_15:34, see note 3, appended to Act_15:30-35, and the Exeg. note.—Tr.], but, as it would appear, afterwards came back to Antioch. The statement, Act_15:40, that Paul was dismissed in a solemn manner, and commended in the intercessory prayers of the congregation to the grace of the Lord, does not seem to include Barnabas. It is possible that he departed suddenly, or immediately after the dispute with Paul; at least his journey is more directly connected in Act_15:39 with that scene, than that of Paul. It is certain, however, that Barnabas, after sailing to Cyprus, performed precisely the labors which Paul had proposed, Act_15:36. Paul, on the other hand, in company with Silas, travelled by land, and, primarily, visited Syria and Cilicia, so that, like Barnabas, he sought his own early homeland, at first, confined his labors to the Christian congregations which had already been established, and which he strengthened in faith and in the Christian life. [“Here we finally lose sight of Barnabas in the sacred record.” (Alf).—Tr.]
DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL
1. Paul seems, at the first view, to have merely followed an impulse of his own mind, in undertaking the second missionary journey, which was of far greater extent than the first, and conducted him even to Europe; whereas, on the former occasion, he was directed by the Holy Ghost to set forth, and was commissioned by the congregation at Antioch. Still, the second journey, which was so abundantly blessed, was not the result of human plans and individual choice. It was, without doubt, from a sense of duty with respect to the congregations in Asia Minor, which had been established during the first journey, or, in consequence of the suggestions of his conscience, which was enlightened and guided by the Spirit of God, that Paul resolved to undertake this journey, and summoned Barnabas to accompany him. He did not at that moment intend to preach the Gospel, primarily, to unconverted men—to engage in the work of foreign missions; he rather designed to inquire into the state of those who were already converted, and to encourage them—a work allied to domestic missions, or, as it were, the “inner mission”. It was only during the progress of the journey that he became conscious that more extensive labors were assigned to him. The journey was intended to bear the character of an apostolic visitation; its purpose was: ἐπισκέψασθαι τοὺς ἀδελφοὺς—πῶς ἔχουσι, quomodo, se habeant in fide, amore, spe; nervus visitationis ecclesiasticæ (Bengel)—an apostolic model of a church-visitation; comp. also Act_8:14-15; Act_9:32.
2. Paul practically demonstrated, in the case of Mark, all the keenness and severity of his moral judgment. He regarded the act of the latter in withdrawing from him and Barnabas, and from their common work at that time (Act_13:13), not as a matter of indifference in a moral point of view, but as one which, in his judgment, betrayed an inexcusable want of fidelity and Christian steadfastness Mark did not apostatize from Christ Himself, but from them,—the two messengers of Christ (ἀπʼ αὐτῶν, Act_15:38). Paul does not condemn him in exaggerated and passionate terms, as if he had become an infidel and an enemy of Christ. But he would not permit Mark to accompany them on the second journey, for he would otherwise have thus conferred on the latter a privilege, a dignity, a distinction (ἠξίου), of which he had rendered himself unworthy. Barnabas does not accord with Paul in pronouncing this stern sentence, but prefers to act in a mild, calm, and forgiving spirit. Each of the two men, doubtless, aided in conducting Mark to the salvation of his soul; the severity of Paul led him to repentance, humbled and warned him, while the gentleness of Barnabas preserved him from despondency. Paul did not, subsequently, remember the affair to his disadvantage, but must have forgiven him, for, otherwise, he would not have conveyed Mark’s friendly salutations to the Colossians, and recommended him to the congregation (Col_4:10). [See Exeg. note on Act_13:13.—Tr.]
3. The scene which Barnabas and Paul exhibited, Act_15:39, was marked by so much heat and passion, as far as we are enabled to judge, that it cannot have left either party, at the close, free from the stain of sin. [“Jerome says: “Paulus severior, Barnabas clementior; uterque in suo sensu abundat, et tamen dissensio habet aliquid humanæ fragilitatis.” Contra Pelag. II. 522. And Chrysostom says: “ὁ Παῦλος ἐζήτει το δίκαιον, ὁ Βαρνάβας τὸ φἱλάνθρωπον” (Conyb. and H. I. 271. n. 4.)—Tr.].—Here, again, the word of God, in place of covering the sins of the most worthy servants of God with the mantle of charity, testifies with the utmost sincerity respecting them, for the sake of the truth. The case affords another proof that where sin abounds, the grace of God in Christ does much more abound [Rom_5:20], so that, although so many temptations, and such great infirmity of the flesh may intervene, grace nevertheless preserves, sanctifies and sustains the children of God. Indeed, even this separation, which could not have occurred without sin, nevertheless produced good fruits, in the overruling providence of God, which does all things well, and conducts all to a glorious issue. Not only did Paul, no longer hindered by a companion of equal, or, originally, of superior rank, develop all his powers of action in an independent manner; but, further, the division of the work between himself and Barnabas, promoted the general interests of the cause. He had hitherto labored in common with Barnabas, in only one direction; but now, two missionary journeys were simultaneously undertaken, and, instead of a single pair of missionaries, two pairs now labor, at the same time, in different places.
HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL
Act_15:36. Let us go again and visit our brethren, etc.—It is not enough to plant a congregation; it must also be watered and nourished; 1Co_3:6. (Starke).—A church-visitation that is judiciously conducted, is necessary, in reference to pastors, as well as to the hearers. (Quesnel).
Act_15:39. And the contention was so sharp, etc.—Even the most eminent saints are not without their faults, which should, however, be carefully distinguished from dominant sins, (Starke).—But why did this dissension occur, and why is it even recorded here? Will it not, during all succeeding ages, give offence? No! It is precisely in this respect that the scriptural narrative differs from human biographies. The former exhibits a good man to our view, and then proceeds to state his faults, showing, at the same time, the manner in which the overruling grace of God, nevertheless, conducts all to a happy issue. The latter usually dwell on favorable circumstances, and, nevertheless, often leave the reader in doubt respecting the true character of the individual. Mark, who is afterwards found walking in the right way (Col_4:10), may have, on the one hand, been deeply humbled by the rigor of Paul, and, on the other, comforted and encouraged by the indulgent love of Barnabas. The one was as necessary to him as the other. (Rieger).—Barnabas occupied the position of a kind and gentle mother, who is very willing to excuse and overlook the faults of her children. Paul acts like a thoughtful father, who applies the rod, and says: ‘The spoiled child must be taught to feel.’ (Gossner).—Paul appears to have entertained a correct view of the case, rather than Barnabas, and Gideon furnished him with a model belonging to the Old Testament, Jdg_7:3. Still, it was not necessary that he should contest the point with such warmth; he might have remembered the example which Abraham gave; Gen_13:8-9. It was well, however, that the two men separated. Those whose characters are so essentially different, can seldom accommodate themselves readily to one another. Even while they remain brethren in Christ, it is better that each should stand alone. (Williger).—Let us look away from the errors and infirmities of the saints, which, however, the Scriptures never conceal, and let us rather contemplate the unerring hand of the Lord, which guides all things to a happy end. The severity of Paul did not injure Mark, but rather induced him to be more faithful; and, at a subsequent period, Paul speaks of Barnabas as his faithful associate in the work of the Lord, 1Co_9:6. (Besser).
Act_15:40. And Paul chose Silas, etc.—Silas, a Judæo-Christian, educated in Jerusalem, the companion of the apostle of the Gentiles! What vast and happy results the occurrence mentioned in Act_15:1, had accordingly produced! (Williger).—Recommended by the brethren unto the grace of God.—This special attention which the congregation paid to Paul, indirectly shows that the brethren virtually approved of his course, rather than of that of the other. (Rieger).
Human weakness, even in the most experienced Christians: I. That it does exist; II. Consolatory truths of religion in reference to it. (Lisco).—The contention of the brethren: I. What was the subject? (a) Both supposed that they were contending for Christ; (b) each contended, unconsciously, for himself and his own will. II. Which one was in the right? (a) Both desired that which was right—the spiritual welfare of the erring man, and the promotion of the kingdom of God; (b) neither was in the right, as each adhered to his own opinion, without fully examining that of the other; (c) both did right when they voluntarily separated, in order that love might not be subjected to further interruptions, (id.).—Why do the Scriptures disclose the weaknesses of the servants of God? I. To mortify spiritual pride, so that none may boastingly say: ‘I shall never be overcome.’ II. To afford comfort in the midst of human infirmities, by suggesting the encouraging thought: ‘They, too, were flesh of our flesh.’ III. To render honor to the divine wisdom, which can educe a blessing even from the faults of men.—The Lord triumphs, even when his servants exhibit weaknesses: I. Without His grace, even their virtues become failings; the mildness of Barnabas would have otherwise been a weak indulgence; the rigor of Paul, inflexible harshness. II. By His grace, blessings flow even from their faults; the humiliation which Mark endured, aided in restoring his strength and firmness; the separation of the apostles divided the full stream of the Gospel message into two branches, and thus more widely diffused the latter.—The divisions of the children of God carry their own remedy with them: for, I. They stand on the same foundation of faith; II. They have the same exalted aim; III. They bow in submission to the same Lord and Master.
Footnotes:
[19]Act_15:36. [̓Hμῶν after ἀδελφοὺς from G. H., is omitted in A. B. C. D. E. Cod. Sin., Vulg. etc., and is cancelled by recent editors generally.—Tr.]
[20]Act_15:37. ̓Eβουλεὐσατο [of text. rec. and retained by Alf] is supported, it is true, by only two uncial MSS. [G. H; D. has ἐβουλεύετο], while four of the latter [A. B. C. E., and also Cod. Sin.], and nearly all the versions [Vulg. volebat] exhibit ἐβούλετο [which Lach. and Tisch. adopt]. But ἐβούλετο could have far more readily been substituted, as an easier reading, than that it, if the original word, should have been converted by a later correction, into ἐβουλεύσατο. [The latter was usually interpreted in the sense of ἐβούλετο; comp. Act_5:33. (Meyer).—Instead of τὸν Iωάν of text, rec., from G. H., recent editors read καὶ ̓Iω., with A. C. E. Vulg.—B. and Cod. Sin. have καὶ τὸν Iω.—Tr.]
[21]Act_15:39. [For οῦ́ν before παροξ, of text. rec. from C. E. G. H., Lach. Tisch. and Alf. substitute δὲ from A. B. D. and Cod. Sin.—Tr.]
[22]Act_15:40. Kυρίου [from A. B. D. and Cod. Sin., and adopted by recent editors] is preferable to θεοῦ [in C. E. G. H., Vulg.], which seems to be conformed to the parallel passage in Act_14:26.
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures (Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical), ed. John Peter Lange, English translation edited by Philip Schaff (1864–1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain DISSENSION BETWEEN PAUL AND BARNABAS--THEY PART COMPANY TO PROSECUTE…
DISSENSION BETWEEN PAUL AND BARNABAS--THEY PART COMPANY TO PROSECUTE SEPARATE MISSIONARY TOURS. (Act 15:36-46)
And some days after--How long is a matter of conjecture.
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Paul said to Barnabas, Let us go again and visit our brethren--the true reading is, "the brethren."
in every city where we have preached . . . and see how they do--whether they were advancing or declining, &c.: a pattern for churches and successful missionaries in every age. ("Reader, how stands it with thee?") [BENGEL]. "Paul felt that he was not called to spend a peaceful, though laborious life at Antioch, but that his true work was far off among the Gentiles." We notice here, for the first time, a trace of that tender solicitude for his converts, that earnest longing to see their faces, which appears in the letters which he wrote afterwards, as one of the most remarkable and attractive features of his character. He thought, doubtless, of the Pisidians and Lycaonians, as he thought afterwards at Athens and Corinth of the Thessalonians, from whom he had been lately "taken in presence, not in heart, night and day praying exceedingly that he might see their face and perfect that which was lacking in their faith" [HOWSON].
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain 1. Disagreement and Separation of Paul and Barnabas, Act_15:36-41.
1. Disagreement and Separation of Paul and Barnabas, Act_15:36-41.
36. Paul said—The invitation is given by Paul, and he clearly in Luke’s view is the principal in the expedition. Just as in Act_14:21-25, he turned back to review their former ground, so now his energetic spirit would revisit the scenes of their former labour, and, city by city, ascertain their state, and more fully confirm their faith.
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How they do—How they hold or prosper.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain 36. visit our brethren] The oldest MSS. omit the…
36. visit our brethren] The oldest MSS. omit the pronoun, and read the brethren only. So R. V.
36–41. A new Mission-journey proposed. Contention between Paul and Barnabas. They separate, and Paul with Silas goes through Syria and Cilicia
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain (36) And some days after Paul said unto Barnabas.—The…
(36) And some days after Paul said unto Barnabas.—The commonly received chronology of the Acts makes the interval between the Council of Jerusalem and St. Paul’s second missionary journey somewhat more than a year.
Let us go again.—The proposal was characteristic of one whose heart was ever full of “the care of all the churches” (2Co_11:28), ever making mention of them in his prayers night and day (Rom_1:9; Eph_1:16; Php_1:3). We may well believe that it was a desire to know, not only the general condition of the churches, but the spiritual growth of each individual member.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain After some days for some days after, A.V; return…
After some days for some days after, A.V; return now for go again, A.V.; the brethren for our brethren, A.V. and T.R.; wherein we proclaimed for where we have preached, A.V.; fare for do, A.V. After some days is hardly equivalent to meta tinav hJmerav. The expression in Greek is quite indefinite as to time, and may cover months as well as days. That it does cover a considerable length of time we gather from the expression in ver. 33, that Judas and Silas "tarried some time at Jerusalem," followed by that in ver. 35, that after their departure "Paul and Barnabas tarried (dietribon) in Antioch." We can hardly suppose the two periods together to have included much less than a year. Let us return, etc. The singular loving care of Paul for his young converts appears here (1Th_2:7, 8 3:5-8; 2Co_1:14, etc.)
Vers. 36-41. The paroxysm.
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The proposal of two friends whose fast friendship was of many years" standing; of two brethren loving and beloved; of two apostles of Jesus Christ, who had long labored together to win souls to Christ and to advance the kingdom of God, and who had achieved together the most signal triumphs over the powers of darkness, who had suffered together, who had undergone the most appalling dangers together, who had stuck by one another under every circumstance of trial and difficulty; the proposal, I say, of two such men to start together on a new errand of love, might have seemed to be the very last occasion likely to produce contention and strife. Alas! for the infirmity of our poor fallen nature, that any evil should arise from purposes so good and holy. The faithful, truthful record of the sacred history in our text suggests much caution and many useful lessons for Christian practice.
1. There was perfect agreement between the two apostles as to the end in view the revisiting the Churches they had planted for the purpose of confirming them in the faith of Jesus Christ. As far as we know, they were both of one mind, both equally desirous of advancing the kingdom of God, both equally ready to spend and be spent for the Name of the Lord Jesus and for the spread of his gospel in the world. Thus far we may well believe that their communications on the subject of the new mission were carried on in perfect harmony and love, because there was in each a single eye and an unmixed motive, viz. the glory of Christ.
2. The difference arose when Barnabas proposed that they should take John Mark as their companion. Here we seem to detect the entrance in of human motives. His partiality for his cousin; possibly the feeling that his own softer character needed the support of a steady ally to enable him to hold his own against the strength of Paul"s will; possibly too some leaning towards the Jewish party in the Church, or at least an unwillingness to offend them, made him blind to the inconvenience of taking a halfhearted companion with them. He was consulting with flesh and blood, and not with the Spirit of God, when he made the suggestion. We can imagine that Paul objected at first with mildness, and pointed out the evils that might arise. He would dwell upon the vital interests of the mission, the dangers and difficulties of the work, the insufficient guarantee that John Mark"s constancy would be equal to the task. It is, of course, possible, though it does not appear, that Paul may have judged Mark somewhat severely, or may have urged his objections without all the tenderness that was due to the feelings of Barnabas. But there is not the slightest evidence that this was so. Probably at first he hoped to persuade Barnabas to give up his project. Probably Barnabas hoped so to state his wish to reinstate John Mark that Paul might give way. But when these hopes broke down on either side, then gradually, no doubt, the discussion assumed a growing tone of asperity, till at length the paroxysm came on. Barnabas cut the discussion short by turning upon his heel, and separating himself from his old companion and friend, and going forth in self-will with his cousin to Cyprus. The old partnership with Paul was dissolved, and nothing remained for Paul to do but to choose another missionary companion, and pursue his project in sadness. We cannot doubt that the peace and joy of both apostles was clouded by this unfortunate episode. But St. Paid had probably the testimony of his conscience that he had acted from the purest motives, and, from the friendly mention of Barnabas alluded to in the note to ver. 39, we may hope that, when the paroxysm had subsided, the old relations between the two brethren were restored to their former footing of cordimity and love. But the great practical lesson we learn is the importance of keeping our motives of action pure and simple. We must try and not allow our judgment to be clouded by partialities and personal influences of any kind. We must endeavor never to subordinate the great interests of the Church and of the gospel to any private feelings or wishes, however innocent in themselves. And even right feelings and reasonable wishes must be so kept under control as never to overflow the banks of reason and of charity, and never to injure the great cause of the gospel of Christ, to which they ought always to be made subservient. Generally, the narrative of this paroxysm enforces the wise words of St. James, "Let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath: for the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God". (Jam_1:20, Jam_1:21)
Vers. 36-41. Apostles at fault.
When a grave and critical juncture had been safely passed without damage done to any, there arose a quarrel about an unimportant and insignificant matter, which had regrettable, not to say deplorable, results. The heart of the earnest and affectionate Paul yearned to know how their converts fared in "every city where they had preached the Word of the Lord" (ver. 36). Barnabas immediately acquiesced in Paul"s proposal to visit them; everything promised another useful mission journey, in which the calmer and more genial qualities of the one man would supplement the intenser and more vehement characteristics of the other. But there arose a question as to companionship, which wrecked their agreement to work in one another"s company, and which separated the two friends for life. Barnabas wished to take Mark, and would not abandon his desire; Paul would not consent to take him: "and the contention was so sharp... that they departed asunder" (ver. 39). We learn from this incident
I THAT AS ACT OF MORAL WEAKNESS MAY HAVE FAR LONGER AND MORE SERIOUS CONSEQUENCES THAN WE CAN POSSIBLY FORESEE. Could Mark have foreseen that his desertion of the cause in Pamphylia would have led to the lifelong separation of his uncle from Paul, he would probably have remained with them, and "fulfilled the work," even as they did. But he did not reckon on after consequences. It is well for us to consider that our acts of minor wrongdoing, of moral weakness, of spiritual shortcoming, may do an amount of mischief from the commission of which we should shrink with dismay if we could only look it in the face.
II THAT BETWEEN THE TWO APOSTLES A DECIDED AND REGRETTABLE FAULT WAS COMMITTED. Their intention to work together in the cause of Christ need not and should not have been broken off by their disagreement. They ought either to have compromised the matter by mutual concession, or one of the two should have yielded to the other. Paul owed too much to Barnabas to be justified in pushing his own will to the point of separation. Barnabas owed too much to Paul to make it right for him to insist so pertinaciously on his particular desire. One should have yielded if the other would not. It was an unedifying, unseemly, unchristian thing for two apostles to throw up a plan on which they had sought Divine direction, and which must have received the sanction of the Church, because they could not agree on a matter of detail. They must both have lived to regret it. Men in prominent positions, and those who are engaged in great matters, are bound to be above such unseemliness of behavior. Either
(1) the ingenuity of love should devise a middle way, or
(2) the sacrificial spirit of love should yield the point altogether.
III THAT IN EACH CASE THE FAULT COMMITTED WAS THE SHADOW OF HIS OWN PARTICULAR EXCELLENCY. Probably both of the apostles were blameworthy. But so far as Paul was to be condemned, his failure was the shadow of his intensity. Such was the entirety of his devotedness, such the intensity of his zeal, such the strenuousness of his soul, that he could not brook anything which looked like half-heartedness. And so far as Barnabas was to blame, his fault was the shadow of his kind-heartedness, his willingness to give another chance to a young man, his reluctance to exclude from noble service a man who had made one mistake. Each was animated by a commendable spirit, though each may have gone too far in his own course. Often when we unsparingly condemn, it would be well to remind ourselves and others that the faults of good men are usually but the shadow of their virtues.
IV THAT GOD JUDGES THE GOOD BY THEIR ABIDING SPIRIT, AND NOT BY THEIR OCCASIONAL DISPOSITIONS: so also should we. These two men were not the less servants of God, ambassadors of Jesus Christ, because they were betrayed into temporary ill humor. God appraised them by their essential, abiding spirit of love and devotion; he forgave their passing ebullition. In the same way we must take care to estimate men, not by an occasional outburst which is not really characteristic and is no true criterion, but by the "spirit of their mind that which really shapes and colors their life and character.
V THAT THIS FAULT OF THE APOSTLES HAD, AS BECAME THE MEN, A CHRISTIAN ENDING. Paul afterwards wrote kindly of Barnabas, and actually sent for Mark, declaring that he was "profitable for the ministry". (2Ti_4:11) The sun should not go down upon our wrath. If any man has a quarrel against any, he is to "forbear and to forgive". (Col_3:13) C.
Vers. 36-41. Beginning of the second missionary journey.
The dissension of Paul and Barnabas, painful in itself, may yield useful matter of reflection.
HUMAN INFIRMITY IS MATURE CHRISTIANS.
1. The fact of it. Paul judged severely of Mark on moral grounds. His desertion of him and Barnabas (Act_13:13) on a former occasion was to his mind a strong proof of inconstancy. But Mark had fallen away from them, not from Christ. And Barnabas would lean to the side of leniency and clemency towards the young disciple. The contention became sharp. Both thought themselves to be contending for Christ; both were unconsciously contending for self. Both were in the right, each from his own point of view aiming at the good of the young man and the furtherance of the kingdom.
2. The consolation of it.
(1) With reference to the person concerned. Chrysostom says that the strife was of great service to Mark; for the sternness of Paul brought a change in his mind, while the kindness of Barnabas suffered him not to feel abandoned.
(2) With reference to us. We may be encouraged by the thought that these holy men were of like passions with ourselves, bone of our bone and flesh of our flesh. Divine love triumphs over and is made perfect in human weakness. Apart from that, man"s very virtues become faults; the mildness of Barnabas degenerates into softness, the severity of Paul into harshness. Divine love converts faults into blessings. Mark is humiliated, and thereby raised in Christian manhood. The separation of the apostles divides the stream of saving grace into two streams, and so the more widely spreads it in the world. J.
Vers. 36-41. Contention amongst brethren.
Importance of the record as showing:
1. The sincerity and simplicity of the Christian writers. An impostor would never have inserted such a fact.
2. The overruling grace of God. The treasure in earthen vessels. Infirmities in the agents magnifies him who, notwithstanding, accomplishes his proposes. Notice
I THE TRUE PRINCIPLE OF CHRISTIAN WORK. Constant watchfulness and inspection. "See how they fare;" for encouragement and confirmation; for maintenance of order for advancement in teaching. "Visit the brethren." Not only in each Church, but in the outlying districts; maintain brotherly sympathy. The true conception of the Church is that of a society resting on a spiritual basis of mutual confidence and love.
II SUBORDINATION OF PERSONAL CONSIDERATIONS to the highest interests of Christ"s kingdom. Barnabas thought more of his nephew than the work. He was most in the wrong. The Church, by their commendation of Paul in prayer, plainly expressed their sympathy with his side of the controversy. At the same time, as Mark proved himself faithful, events showed that Paul might have yielded for the sake of peace without injury to the cause of truth. His strong will tempted him.
III THE ERRORS OF GOOD MEN are not suffered to hinder the work of God. More good done by the division of labor. Introduction of Silas. Mark probably best under the sole guidance of Barnabas. The divisions in the Christian Church viewed in the light of this primitive contention. Not wholly injurious. Partly due to the natural differences of intellect and temper. Overruled to develop the variety of Christian character. Will be at last, like discords resolved into harmony, the source of glory to God. Yet, as at first, so always, remembrance of the infirmity and fallibility of great and good men should keep us near the throne of grace. R.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain And some days after Paul said unto Barnabas, Let…
Act_15:36
And some days after Paul said unto Barnabas, Let us go again and visit our brethren … and see how they do.
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Church visitation
Paul felt that he was not called to spend a peaceful though laborious life at Antioch, but that his true work was far off among the Gentiles (Act_22:21). He knew that his campaigns were not ended; that as a soldier of Jesus Christ, he must not rest from his warfare, but must endure hardness, that he might please Him who had called him. As a careful physician he remembered that they, whose recovery from sin had begun, might be in danger of relapse, or to use another metaphor, he said, Come, let us get up early to the vineyards: let us see if the vine flourish (Son_7:12). We notice here for the first time, a trace of that tender solicitude concerning his converts, that earnest longing to behold their faces, which appears in the letters which he wrote afterwards, as one of the most remarkable and attractive features of his character. Paul was the speaker, not Barnabas. The latters feelings might not be so deep, nor his anxiety so urgent. Paul thought, doubtless, of the Pisidians and Lycaonians, as he thought afterwards at Athens and Corinth of the Thessalonians, from whom he had been lately taken (2Th_2:17; 2Th_3:10). He was not ignorant of Satans devices. He feared lest by any means the tempter had tempted them, and his labour had been in vain (1Th_3:5). He stood in doubt of them, and desired to be present with them once more (Son_4:2). We are here reminded of the importance of continuing a religious work when once begun. We have had the institution of presbyters, and of councils, and now we have an example of that system of Church visitation, of the happy effects of which we have still some experience, when we see weak resolutions strengthened, and expiring faith rekindled, in confirmations at home, or in missionary settlements abroad. (J. S. Howson.)
The pastors visit to his flock
Solomon tells us that to everything there is a season, etc. Among these he specifies a time to plant and a time to build up. The husbandman must not only sow, but he must use other arts of cultivation, to ensure the abundant crop; and the architect must not content himself with laying the foundation, but must rear the superstructure. Thus, too, it should be with the ministers of the gospel. There is a season when they are to break up the fallow ground, and one in which they should examine whether their labours have been successful--a season when, having laid the basis, they are to build thereon, and raise to higher elevation that structure which is to grow into a holy temple of the Lord.
I. Let me offer some prefatory remarks which rise out of the text.
1. Christianity is a religion of benevolence. Those greatly mistake its character who suppose that its possessors are to become recluse. Nor does it merely refine and direct our social affections, in reference to the ordinary engagements of life, but it renders their subject solicitous for the best welfare of those by whom he is surrounded. It was on the principle of holy love giving birth to pious zeal, that Paul and Barnabas went among the heathen preaching the gospel of the kingdom. They were solicitous for the improvement of those who had received the truth in the love of it. Here is a test by which to try our ministry--we are not to be content with calling men out of darkness into marvellous light, but we must be anxious for their advancement in religion.
2. Christian ministers and people should stir one another up to works of usefulness. Barnabas was incited to this particular part of his work by Paul. Now this teaches us to provoke one another, to love and to good works. This association is important. It often happens that one has knowledge but no wisdom, ardour but no discretion, and therefore his companion may act as a regulator to the rapid movements of the watch or a machine, etc. Besides which, two are better than one, in counsel, strength, courage, probable success, because, bye combination of their talent and energy, they may accomplish what the solitary individual could never effect.
3. Wherever the disciples of Christ travel, they should endeavour to do some good on the spots which they visit.
4. Expectations of fruitfulness in proportion to the means of cultivation are justly cherished. Paul and Barnabas visited the Churches, hoping to witness the auspicious results of their missionary efforts.
II. Indulge in some close interrogations as to your state.
1. Personally.
(1) Sinners! How is it with you? Have you reaped any advantage from the discourses which you have often heard?
(2) Believers! How do you do? What of your knowledge? is it more clear, extensive, deep? What of your faith? does it embrace more firmly the testimony of Jesus? What of your love? is it more fervent? What of your patience? does it bear with more submission the afflictive dispensations of providence? What of your zeal?
(3) Backsliders! How is it with you? Have you seen your error and mourned your departures from God?
(4) Afflicted Christians! How do you do? Are your trials mortifying your corruptions?
(5) Young people! How do you do?
(6) You that are advanced in life! how is it with you? Are you like old trees stretching your fibrous roots wider and deeper into the earthly soil on which you stand?
2. Relative. My inquiry is, whether you whom God has set in families have established an altar in your houses. Is there a spirit and life in your sacred transactions? And are you guarding against those hindrances to these engagements which will multiply upon us without great caution? Do you, mothers, take your little ones alone, and converse with them about Him who says, Suffer little children to come unto Me? Do you, fathers, charge your offspring to fear the Lord in their youth? But, perhaps, some will say, we have no families. Have you any leisure hours? Are you living an idle and a selfish life?
3. Collectively. Suffer me to ask whether as a Christian society you are constantly bearing one another on your hearts before God in prayer--whether you are regular in your observance of the Lords Supper, and are walking in love, as Christ also loved you and gave Himself for you? whether you are sustaining the several institutions connected with your place of worship?
III. Glance at the advantages which are likely to result from this inquiry.
1. It will tend to the removal of obstructions to the prosperity of our Christian society. The artificer and the engineer frequently look into the works of the watch, or the wheels and different parts of the machine, that they may remedy any defect which examination may discover. The husbandman often walks along the fields which he has sown, to notice whether the weeds are growing there; and he cuts down the thistles and nettles, which would hinder the growth of the corn. Thus we may discover and correct those evils which are apt to creep into the best constituted communities on earth.
2. It sets the minds of many at work. The spirit of anxiety on behalf of yourselves will necessarily produce a solicitude on behalf of your families, etc. Thus all reap the benefit.
3. May I be allowed to make a reference to our own ministerial encouragement and satisfaction? You, who are in business, are not content unless you are making a profitable concern of your avocation, and are grieved if you are not making a good percentage on your capital. And do you think that we do not long for success in our occupation of saving souls from death, and winning them to Christ?
4. To all which I will add, that another result will be the extension of such an aspect in the Church, as to produce a favourable impression upon spectators without. They will see that Christianity is not a mere profession, but a real and important business. (J. Clayton, A. M.)
Revisiting the Churches
I. Revisiting the churches. The converts old faults still clung to them in part, and their union in the same Churches stirred up strifes. They were but weak bands in the midst of worldly and licentious communities. No wonder that their spiritual father felt the necessity of confirming their faith (Act_16:36; Act_16:41). Brief report of a large work, parts of which are more fully disclosed in the epistles. Such labours are the main work of every pastor, too commonly underestimated in comparison with revival effort. The evangelist comes to a people with many advantages, and no wonder that he succeeds. But the hardest work yet remains--to lead the new converts from the excitement of revival scenes to the steady activity and growth to daily religion in commonplace surroundings.
II. The new work. Old scenes arouse longings for new service. On the edge of the light the darkness is terribly visible. The better to do this new work, Paul finds a companion to take Marks place in Timothy, who had doubtless been converted with his mother and grandmother during the apostles first visit, and had already gained the confidence and praise of the Church. He is circumcised, simply to avoid needless irritation of Jewish prejudice, and then ordained, making a good profession before many witnesses. The work in Phrygia and Galatia is told in a single sentence, with that inspired reticence which is more surprising than speech. Paul and his companions seem to have been inclined to devote themselves to a region so important and receptive; but God was calling them another way. We note in passing that this heavenly control is attributed first to the Holy Spirit, then to the Spirit of Jesus, then to God. So Ananias and Sapphira are said to lie to the Holy Ghost, unto God, and to tempt the Spirit of the Lord. These unstrained allusions show how deeply fixed in the early Church was the doctrine of the Divine Trinity. Very striking, also, are the disclosures of the Lords guidance of His servants. In planning his journey to this point, the apostle depended upon what we may call business sagacity--his knowledge of the Churches and their needs. Now pushing on to promising work, he is suddenly turned away by direct supernatural interposition. Then comes the most vivid disclosure, calling to strange and overwhelming tasks. How like the Christian life of today! At one period our path leads on in common, uneventful ways. We realise no Divine guidance, no special care or appointed mission. Again, in the thick of useful labours, we are hindered, forbidden. Sickness, loss, failure, etc., sharply arrest us, to our wonder and grief. But there are glorious hours when the call comes divinely clear, as it did to Paul at Treas. The blood of Trojan and Greek had stained the earth where he stood. Xerxes, Alexander, and Caesar had lingered here, and crossed to their conquests. But the grandest event which ever happened on that shore was the vision and the cry which led the gospel of Christ into that continent which ruled for centuries the mind and the heart of the world. Conclusion: One great truth breathes through the whole--the living Christ is always present in His Church.
1. How else could He trust us with such interests?
2. How else could we bear such responsibilities. (Sermons by the Monday Club.)
Pauls second missionary journey
I. The work resumed.
1. Working together. The Council at Jerusalem had been an interruption, but was more profitable to the Church than if the apostles had kept on with their work. For the settling of great principles, at times even a revival may well stop. And the principle which they went to settle was one that strengthened the nerve of revival effort among the Gentiles.
2. Working apart.
(1) The cause of the separation, from which we learn that a quarrel can arise--
(a) Over a very good cause.
(b) Between very good men.
(c) Between very good friends.
(2) The results of separation. A division of the field of labour. By this the whole field was more quickly revisited, and Mark made into a good worker for Christ.
II. The work prospered.
1. The workers increased (Act_16:1).
2. The Churches increased. The Churches were strengthened by the visit, and so increased in number daily. Each day was a birthday of souls. There were no blank days in their books of record.
III. The work enlarged.
1. Guided by the Spirit. Twice the Spirit did not allow the missionaries to preach the Word where they were inclined to proclaim it. He suffered them to work in Galatia and Phrygia. In the latter region they gathered some disciples (Act_18:23), and in the former there grew up some Churches as the fruit of their labours (Gal_1:2). But they were forbidden of the Holy Ghost to speak the word in Asia, and when they essayed to go into Bithynia, the Spirit of Jesus suffered them not.
2. Called by the Spirit. Come over into Macedonia, and help us. Now they understood why they had not been permitted to preach in Asia, or to go into Bithynia. God had closed those doors that He might open to them a wider one. The call of the heathen today for the gospel is a call of the Spirit. (M. C. Hazard.)
Pauls second missionary journey
I. A new journey decided on.
1. The reason for this decision. It shows Pauls zeal. Had he not already done his share of this perilous work? It was very pleasant at Antioch. It needs a missionary fully to understand the sweetness of that simple phrase, with the disciples. It was not only pleasant to abide at Antioch; certainly they were very useful there, teaching and preaching this word of the Lord. Why not let well enough alone? What an appalling mass of work yet remained to be done at home! But God saw that the best thing for Antioch herself was to send forth her best men to distant and still darker fields. The missionary force sent to Antioch, and then to Asia Minor and to Europe, did not weaken--it strengthened--the Church at Jerusalem (Act_15:3-4). It rolled back to the Churches at home accumulating and mighty evidence of the power and faithfulness of their living Lord.
2. The preparations for the journey. Who shall form the party? Important question! It is a vital matter, both for their happiness and their usefulness, that they should be congenial companions--especially that they should feel great confidence in each other. Paul felt that he must be sure of his comrades. Still, it is not strange that Barnabas should have favoured his young relative. They could not agree, and accordingly they wisely decided to divide the field. So, to a great extent, our missionaries do today. It would be somewhat difficult for Methodists and Baptists and Presbyterians and Episcopalians all to work together in the same party and on the same ground. And they need not. The field is large enough to give to each body a place of its own. Yet their hearts are one. Paul chose Silas, already well known and useful, for his companion, and after a farewell meeting in which the Church with prayer and words of love commended them to the grace of God, the two departed.
II. The plan of their journey.
1. The former fields were revisited.
(1) What did those fields need?
(a) Sympathy. He knew that the converts must suffer much tribulation. And there are tens of thousands of Christian converts in heathen lands today in equal need of sympathy from us.
(b) Inspection. Let us go again and see how they do. Read closely the allusions in the Acts and Epistles to the first Churches, and you will see that they needed careful supervision. These converts had just been plucked out of utter paganism. Even their elders and preachers were in many cases men who had never seen a Christian example except for a few days in Paul. It was inevitable that errors and abuses should creep in. This necessity is the same now.
(c) Instruction. A thousand questions plain to us were new and full of perplexity to them. Discussions about so simple a thing as the meats they might eat arose, and there was need of special warning and teaching respecting some matters of the most ordinary morality (chap. 15:29). Think of Paul in the fulness of his Christian knowledge and his power burying himself for years in remote provinces to teach these weak, dark-minded people the first beginnings of Christian truth on such points as these! It may well rebuke the folly and fastidiousness of any Christians who feel themselves too nicely educated to take a Sunday school class, and the vanity of any preachers who think themselves too gifted to expend their lives on the heathen or even on a country parish in their own land.
(2) What they gave.
(a) Multiplying converts. Paul found that the Churches he had planted increased in numbers daily. His visit gave them a new impulse. The parallel between missions then and now is still maintained. In no part of Christendom today is the rate of increase in the Churches equal to what we see in the Churches planted in heathen lands.
(b) Ripening Christian character. These converts were established in the faith. Notwithstanding the faults to be expected both in Pauls day and ours, there has always been witnessed growth in knowledge and grace, and on every field lives which have filled the hearts of our missionaries with joy.
(c) Most notable help. From the neighbourhood of Derbe came Timothy. The annals of modern missions tell of numbers who, without his advantages, have more than equalled the devotion and courage of Timothy. Have you ever read the life of Quala, the native preacher of Burma, or of Papehia, the first fruits of Tahiti?
2. New fields were opened. Phrygia and Galatia, large provinces north of Lycaonia, are traversed by them. There also Churches sprang up as the result of their labours (1Co_16:1). At a point about a hundred and fifty miles from the coast Paul would stand with Bithynia on his right, mountainous, but wealthy and populous, a favourite region with the emperors of Rome; on his left Asia, with its great ports and cities, Ephesus, Sardis, Thyatira, Laodicea, Philadelphia, Smyrna, with vast populations sunken in idolatry and utterly ignorant of the gospel. What a field! And it is just at hand. It seems a well-laid plan, but it is for some unknown reason forbidden by the Holy Ghost. Paul then turns northward; but again The Spirit suffered them not. Mysia also, under the same Divine intimations, they are compelled to pass by. It must have seemed a strange providence! What is this unknown plan which God has laid? At length they reach Troas. It is a great mercantile city. Is this their destination? No. Thus far all their own plans are thwarted, although no doubt formed with thought and prayer. But they need not mourn. They are now to see Gods plan disclosed. That night there is given to Paul a vision: There stood a man of Macedonia, and prayed him, saying, Come over into Macedonia and help us. Yes, to another continent the seed of the gospel is to be borne. It is to be planted. God shall watch over its growth and spread in those new lands. Then Paul may return and preach in Asia.
(1) It is a circumstance useful for us to notice that even so good a man as Paul is often led by God in the dark.
(2) A lesson is found in Pauls interpretation of the vision. That Macedonian phantom called for help. Upon the wharf at Troas stood four wayworn travellers, unknown, penniless. What succour had Greece to ask from them? There never had been a civilisation on earth equal to hers, and yet there she lay, wretched and guilty beyond anything which we are permitted to describe. What wonder is it that when Paul heard that prayer for help he gathered assuredly that the Lord had called him to preach the gospel unto them! Give the gospel, first of all, if you would give sure help to any people. Would you help a fellowman? Tell him of Christ. Would you help your country? See to it that every village and every lane in her crowded cities is reached by the gospel. Would you help this unhappy world? Then hasten in the spirit and the wisdom of Paul to bear the gospel to every Macedonian shore. (A. Mitchell, D. D.)
Pauls second missionary journey
1. Christianity is essentially missionary in its purpose.
2. God will direct by hindering or helping His servants in doing His work.
3. God wants the best equipped servants for missionaries.
4. God will not allow honest differences among His servants to hinder the gospels progress.
5. God will always give increase in numbers where His people are established in the faith.
6. The gospel will have accomplished its purpose only, when there shall be none to cry--Come over and help us! (J. M. King, D. D.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Expositor's Bible 1887 · Public Domain Chapter 11
Chapter 11
APOSTOLIC QUARRELS AND THE SECOND TOUR.
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Act_15:36; Act_15:39; Act_16:6; Act_16:8-9
THE second missionary tour of St. Paul now claims our attention, specially because it involves the first proclamation of Christianity by an apostle within the boundaries of Europe. The course of the narrative up to this will show that any Christian effort in Europe by an apostle, St. Peter or any one else prior to St. Pauls work, was almost impossible. To the Twelve and to men like-minded with them, it must have seemed a daring-innovation to bring the gospel message directly to bear upon the masses of Gentile paganism. Men of conservative minds like the Twelve doubtless restrained their own efforts up to the time of St. Pauls second tour within the bounds of Israel, according to the flesh, in Palestine and the neighbouring lands, finding there an ample field upon which to exercise their diligence. And then when we turn to St. Paul and St. Barnabas, who had dared to realise the free-ness and fulness of the gospel message, we shall see that the Syrian Antioch and Syria itself and Asia Minor had hitherto afforded them scope quite sufficient to engage their utmost attention. A few moments reflection upon the circumstances of the primitive Christian Church and the developments through which Apostolic Christianity passed are quite sufficient to dispel all such fabulous incrustations upon the original record as those involved in St. Peters episcopate at Antioch or his lengthened rule over the Church at Rome. If the latter story was to be accepted, St. Peter must have been Bishop of Rome long before a mission was despatched to the Gentiles from Antioch, if not even before the vision was seen at Joppa by St. Peter when the admission of the Gentiles to the Church was first authorised under any terms whatsoever. In fact, it would be impossible to fit the actions of St. Peter into any scheme whatsoever, if we bring him to Rome and make him bishop there for twenty-five years beginning at the year 42, the time usually assigned by Roman Catholic historians. It is hard enough to frame a hypothetical scheme, which will find a due and fitting place for the various recorded actions of St. Peter, quite apart from any supposed Roman episcopate lasting over such an extended period. St. Peter and St. Paul had, for instance, a dispute at Antioch of which we read much in the second chapter of the Galatian epistle. Where shall we fix that dispute? Some place it during the interval of the Synod at Jerusalem and the second missionary tour of which we now propose to treat. Others place it at the conclusion of that tour, when St. Paul was resting at Antioch for a little after the work of that second journey. As we are not writing the life of St. Paul, but simply commenting upon the narratives of his labours as told in the Acts, we must be content to refer to the Lives of St. Paul by Conybeare and Howson, and Archdeacon Farrar, and to Bishop Lightfoots "Galatians," all of whom place this quarrel before the second tour, and to Mr. Findlays "Galatians" in our own series, who upholds the other view. Supposing, however, that we take the former view in deference to the weighty authorities just mentioned, we then find. that there were two serious quarrels which must for a time have marred the unity and Christian concord of the Antiochene Church.
The reproof of St. Peter by St. Paul for his dissimulation was made on a public occasion before the whole Church. It must have caused considerable excitement and discussion, and. raised much human feeling in Antioch. Barnabas too, the chosen friend and companion of St. Paul, was involved in the matter, and must have felt himself condemned in the strong language addressed to St. Peter. This may have caused for a time a certain amount of estrangement between the various parties. A close study of the Acts of the Apostles dispels at once the notion men would fain cherish, that the apostles and the early Christians lived just like angels without any trace of human passion or discord. The apostles had their differences and misunderstandings very like our own. Hot tempers and subsequent coolnesses arose, and produced evil results between men entrusted with the very highest offices, and paved the way, as quarrels always do, for fresh disturbances at some future time. So it was at Antioch, where the public reproof of St. Peter by St. Paul involved St. Barnabas, and may have left traces upon the gentle soul of the Son of Consolation which were not wholly eradicated by the time that a new source of trouble arose.
The ministry of St. Paul at Antioch was prolonged for some time after the Jerusalem Synod, and then the Holy Ghost again impelled him to return and visit all the Churches which he had founded in Cyprus and Asia Minor. He recognised the necessity for supervision, support, and guidance as far as the new converts were concerned, The seed might be from heaven and the work might be Gods own, but still human effort must take its share and do its duty, or else the work may fail and the good seed never attain perfection. St. Paul therefore proposed to Barnabas a second joint mission, intending to visit "the brethren in every city wherein they had proclaimed the word of the Lord." Barnabas desired to take with them his kinsman Mark, but Paul, remembering his weakness and defection on their previous journey, would have nothing to say to the young man. Then there arose a sharp contention between them, or as the original expression is, there arose a paroxysm between the apostles, so that the loving Christian workers and friends of bygone years, "men who had hazarded their lives for the name of our Lord Jesus Christ," separated the one from the other, and worked from henceforth in widely different localities.
I. There are few portions of the Acts more fruitful in spiritual instruction, or teeming with. more abundant lessons, or richer in application! to present difficulties, than this very incident. Let us note a few of them. One thought, for instance, which occurs at once to any reflecting mind is this: what an extraordinary thing it is that two such holy and devoted men as Paul and-Barnabas should have had a quarrel at all; and. when they did quarrel, would it not have been far better to have hushed the matter up and never! have let the world know anything at all about it?
Now I do not say that it is well for Christian people always to proclaim aloud and tell the world at large all about the various unpleasant circumstances of their lives, their quarrels, their misunderstandings, their personal failings and backslidings. Life would be simply intolerable did we live always, at all times, and under all circumstances beneath the full glare of publicity. Personal quarrels too, family jars and bickerings, have a rapid tendency to heal themselves if kept in the gloom, the soft, toned, shaded light of retirement. They have an unhappy tendency to harden and perpetuate themselves when dragged beneath the fierce light of public opinion and the outside world. Yet it is well for the Church at large that such a record has been left for us of the fact that the quarrel between Paul and Barnabas waxed so fierce that they departed the one from the other, to teach us what we are apt to forget-the true character of the apostles. Human nature is intensely inclined to idolatry. One idol may be knocked down, but as soon as it is displaced the heart straightway sets to work to erect another idol in its stead, and men have been ready to make idols of the apostles. They have been ready to imagine them supernatural characters tainted with no sin, tempted by no passion, weakened by no infirmity. If these incidents had not been recorded-the quarrel with Peter and the quarrel with Barnabas-we should have been apt to forget that the apostles were men of like passions with ourselves, and thus to lose the full force-the bracing, stimulating force-of such exhortations as that delivered by St. Paul when he said to a primitive Church, "Follow me, as I, a poor, weak, failing, passionate man, have followed Christ." We have the thorough humanity of the apostles vigorously presented and enforced in this passage. There is no suppression of weak points, no accentuation of strong points, no hiding of defects and weaknesses, no dwelling Upon virtues and graces. We have the apostles presented at times vigorous, united, harmonious; at other times weak, timorous, and cowardly.
Again, we note that this passage not only shows us the human frailties and weaknesses which marked the apostles, and found a place in characters and persons called to the very highest places; it has also a lesson for the Church of all time in the circumstances which led to the quarrel between Paul and Barnabas. We do well to mark carefully that Antioch saw two such quarrels, the one of which, as we have already pointed out, may have had something to say to the other. The quarrel between St. Paul and St. Peter indeed has a history which strikingly illustrates this tendency of which we have just now spoken. Some expositors, jealous of the good fame and reputation and temper of the apostles, have explained the quarrel at Antioch between St. Paul and St. Peter as not having been a real quarrel at all, but an edifying piece of acting, a dispute got up between the apostles to enforce and proclaim the freedom of the Gentiles, a mere piece of knavery and deception utterly foreign to such a truth-loving character as was St. Pauls. It is interesting, however, to note as manifesting their natural characteristics, which were not destroyed, but merely elevated, purified, and sanctified by Divine grace, that the apostles Paul and Barnabas quarrelled about a purely personal matter. They had finished their first missionary tour on which they had been accompanied by St. Mark, who had acted as their attendant or servant, carrying, we may suppose, their luggage, and discharging all. the subordinate offices such service might involve. The labour and toil and personal danger incident to such a career were too much for the young man. So with all the fickleness, the weakness, the want of strong definite purpose we often find in young people, he abandoned his work simply because it involved the exercise of a certain amount of self-sacrifice. And now, when Paul and Barnabas are setting out again, and Barnabas wishes to take the same favourite relative with them, St. Paul naturally objects, and then the bitter, passionate quarrel ensues. St. Paul just experienced here what we all must more or less experience, the crosses and trials of public life, if we wish to pass through that life with a good conscience. Public life, I say-and I mean thereby not a political life, which alone we usually dignify by that name, but the ordinary. life which every man and every woman amongst us must live as we go in and out and discharge our duties amid our fellow-men, -public life, the life we live once we leave our closet communion with God in the early morning till we return thereto in the eventide, is in all its department most trying. It is trying to temper, and it is. trying to principle, and no one can hope to pass through it without serious and grievous temptations. I do not wonder that men have often felt, as the old Eastern monks did, that salvation was more easily won in solitude than in living and working amid the busy haunts of men where bad temper and hot words so often conspire to make one return home from a hard days work feeling miserable within on account of repeated falls and shortcomings. Shall we then act as. they did? Shall we shut out the world completely and cease to take any part in a struggle which seems to tell so disastrously upon the-equable calm of our spiritual life? Nay, indeed, for such a course would be unworthy a soldier of the Cross, and very unlike the example shown by the blessed apostle St. Paul, who had to battle not only against others, but had also to. battle against himself and his own passionate. nature, and was crowned as a victor, not because-he ran away, but because he conquered through the grace of Christ.
And now it is well that we should note the special trials he had to endure. He had to fight against the spirit of cowardly self-indulgence in others, and he had to fight against the spirit of jobbery. These things indeed caused the rupture in the apostolic friendship. St. Barnabas, apostle though he was, thought far more of the interests of his cousin than of the interests of Christs mission. St. Paul with his devotion to. Christ may have been a little intolerant of the weakness of youth, but he rightly judged that one who had proved untrustworthy before should not be rapidly and at once trusted again. And St. Paul was thoroughly right, and has left a very useful and practical example. Many young men among us are like St. Mark. The St. Marks of our own day are a very numerous class. They have no respect for their engagements. They will undertake work and allow themselves. to be calculated upon, and arrangements to be made accordingly. But then comes the stress of action, and their place is found wanting, and the work undertaken by them is found undone. And then they wonder and complain that their lives are unsuccessful, and that men and women who are in earnest will not trust or employ them in the future! These are the men who are the social wrecks in life. They proclaim loudly in streets and highways the hard treatment which they have received. They tell forth their own misery, and speak as if they were the most deserving and at the same time the most ill-treated of men; and yet they are but reaping as they have sown, and their failures and their misfortunes are only the due and fitting rewards of their want of earnestness, diligence, and self-denial. To the young this episode proclaims aloud. Respect your engagements, regard public employments as solemn contracts in Gods sight. Take pains with your work. Be willing to endure any trouble for its sake. There is no such thing as genius in ordinary life. Genius has been well defined as an infinite capacity for taking pains. And thus avoid the miserable weakness of St. Mark, who fled from his work because it entailed trouble and self-denial on his part.
Then, again, we view St. Paul with admiration because he withstood the spirit of jobbery when it displayed itself even in a saint. Barnabas in plain language wished to perpetrate a job in favour of a member of his family, and St. Paul withstood him. And how often since has the same spirit thus displayed itself to the injury of Gods cause! Let us note how the case stood. St. Barnabas was a good pious man of very strong emotional feelings. But he allowed himself to be guided, as pious people often do, by their emotions, affections, prejudices, not by their reason and judgment. With such men, when their affections come into play, jobbery is the most natural thing in the world. It is the very breath of their nostrils. It is the atmosphere in which they revel. Barnabas loved his cousin John Mark, with strong, powerful, absorbing love, and that emotion blinded Barnabas to Marks faults, and led him on his behalf to quarrel with his firmer, wiser, and more vigorous friend. Jobbery is a vice peculiar to no age and to no profession. It flourishes in the most religious as in the most worldly circles. In religious circles it often takes the most sickening forms, when miserable, narrow selfishness assumes the garb and adopts the language of Christian piety. St. Pauls action proclaims to Christian men a very needful lesson. It says, in fact, Set your faces against jobbery of every kind. Regard power, influence, patronage as a sacred trust. Permit not fear, affection, or party spirit to blind your eyes or prejudice your judgment against real merit; so shall you be following in the footsteps of the great Apostle of the Gentiles, with his heroic championship of that which was righteous and true, and of One higher still, for thus you shall be following the Masters own example, whose highest praise was this: "He loved righteousness, and hated iniquity."
We have now bestowed a lengthened notice upon this quarrel, because it corrects a very mistaken notion about the apostles, and shows us how thoroughly natural and human, how very like our own, was the everyday life of the primitive Church. It takes away the false halo of infallibility and impeccability with which we are apt to invest the apostles, making us view them as real, fallible, weak, sinful men like ourselves, and thereby exalts the power of that grace which made them so eminent in Christian character, so abundant in Christian labours. Let us now apply ourselves to trace the course of St. Pauls second tour.
The effect of the quarrel between the friends was that St. Paul took Silas and St. Barnabas took Mark, and they separated; the latter going to Cyprus, the native country of Barnabas, while Paul and Silas devoted themselves to Syria and Asia Minor and their Churches. The division between these holy men became thus doubly profitable to the Church of Christ. It is perpetually profitable, by way of warning and example, as we have just now shown; and then it became profitable because it led to two distinct missions being carried on, the one in the Island of Cyprus, the other on the continent of Asia. The wrath of man is thus again overruled to the greater glory of God, and human weakness is made to promote the interests of the gospel. We read, too, "they parted asunder, the one from the other." How very differently they acted from the manner in which modern Christians do! Their difference in opinion did not lead them to depart into exactly the same district, and there pursue a policy of opposition the one against the other. They sought rather districts widely separated, where their social differences could have no effect upon the cause they both loved. How very differently modern Christians act, and how very disastrous the consequent results! How very scandalous, how very injurious to Christs cause, when Christian missionaries of different communions appear warring one with another in face of the pagan world! Surely the world of paganism is wide enough and large enough to afford scope for the utmost efforts of all Christians without European Christendom exporting its divisions and quarrels to afford matter for mockery to scoffing idolaters! We have heard lately a great deal about the differences between Roman Catholic and Protestant missionaries in Central Africa, terminating in war and bloodshed and in the most miserable recriminations threatening the peace and welfare of the nations of Europe. Surely there must have been an error of judgment somewhere or another in this case, and Africa must be ample enough to afford abundant room for the independent action of the largest bodies of missionaries without resorting to armed conflicts which recall the religious wars between the Roman Catholic and the Protestant Cantons of Switzerland! With the subsequent labours of Barnabas we have nothing to do, as he now disappears from the Acts of the Apostles, though it would appear from a reference by St. Paul- 1Co_9:6, "Or I only, and Barnabas, have we not a right to forbear working?"-as if at that time, four or five years after the quarrel, they were again labouring together at Ephesus, where First Corinthians was written, or else why should Barnabas be mentioned in that connection at all.
Let us now briefly indicate the course of St. Pauls labours during the next three years, as his second missionary tour must have extended over at least that space of time. St. Paul and his companion Silas left Antioch amid the prayers of the whole Church. Evidently the brethren viewed Pauls conduct with approbation, and accompanied him therefore with fervent supplications for success in his self-denying labours. He proceeded by land into Cilicia and Asia Minor, and wherever he went he delivered the apostolic decree in order that he might counteract the workings of the Judaisers. This decree served a twofold purpose. It relieved the minds of the Gentile brethren with respect to the law and its observances, and it also showed to them that the Jerusalem Church and apostles recognised the Divine authority and apostolate of St. Paul himself, which these "false brethren" from Jerusalem had already assailed, as they did four or five years later both in Galatia and at Corinth. We know not what special towns St. Paul visited in Cilicia, but we may be sure that the Church of Tarsus, his native place, where in the first fervour of his conversion he had already laboured for a considerable period, must have received a visit from him. We may be certain that his opponents would not leave such an important town unvisited, and we may be equally certain that St. Paul, who, as his Epistles show, was always keenly alive to the opinion of his converts with respect to his apostolic authority, would have been specially anxious to let his fellow townsmen at Tarsus see that he was no unauthorised or false teacher, but that the Jerusalem Church recognised his work and teaching in the amplest manner.
Starting then anew from Tarsus, Paul and Silas set out upon an enormous journey, penetrating, as few modern travellers even now do, from the southeastern extremity of Asia Minor to the northwestern coast, a journey which, with its necessarily prolonged delays, must have taken them at least a year and a half. St. Paul seems to have carefully availed himself of the Roman road system. We are merely given the very barest outline of the course which he pursued, but then, when we take up the index maps of Asia Minor inserted in Ramsays "Historical Geography of Asia Minor," showing the road systems at various periods, we see that a great Roman road followed the very route which St. Paul took. It started from Tarsus and passed to Derbe, whence of course the road to Lystra, Iconium, and Antioch had already been traversed by St. Paul. He must have made lengthened visits to all these places, as he had much to do and much to teach. He had to expound the decree of the Apostolic Council, to explain Christian truth, to correct the errors and abuses which were daily creeping in, and to enlarge the organisation of the Christian Church by fresh ordinations. Take the case of Timothy as an example of the trouble St. Paul must have experienced. He came to Derbe, where he first found some of the converts made on his earlier tour; whence he passed to Lystra, where he met Timothy, whose acquaintance he had doubtless made on his first journey. He was the son of a Jewess, though his father was a Gentile. St. Paul took and circumcised him to conciliate the Jews. The Apostle must have bestowed a great deal of trouble on this point alone, explaining to the Gentile portion of the Christian community the principles on which he acted and their perfect consistency with his own conduct at Jerusalem and his advocacy of Gentile freedom from the law. Then he ordained him. This we do not learn from the Acts, but from St. Pauls Epistles to Timothy. The Acts simply says of Timothy, "Him would Paul have to go forth with him." But then when we turn to the Epistles written to Timothy, we find that it was not as an ordinary companion that Timothy was taken. He went forth as St. Paul himself had gone forth from the Church of Antioch, a duly ordained and publicly recognised messenger of Christ. We can glean from St. Pauls letters to Timothy the order and ceremonies of this primitive ordination. The rite, as ministered on that occasion, embraced prophesyings or preachings by St. Paul himself and by others upon the serious character of the office then undertaken. This seems plainly intimated in 1Ti_1:18 : "This charge I commit unto thee, my child Timothy, according to the prophecies which went before on thee"; while there seems a reference to his own exhortations and directions in 2Ti_2:2. where he writes, "The things which thou hast heard from me among many witnesses, the same commit thou to faithful men." After this there was probably, as in modern ordinations, a searching examination of the candidate, with a solemn profession of faith on his part, to which St. Paul refers in 1Ti_6:12, "Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on the life eternal, whereunto thou wast called, and didst confess the good confession in the sight of many witnesses. I charge thee in the sight of God who quickeneth all things, and of Christ Jesus, who before Pontius Pilate witnessed the good confession; that thou keep the commandment without spot, without reproach, until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ." And finally there came the imposition of hands, in which the local presbyters assisted St. Paul, though St. Paul was so far the guiding and ruling personage that, though in one place {1Ti_4:14} he speaks of the gift of God which Timothy possessed, as given "by prophecy with the laying on of the hands of the presbytery," in another place he describes it as given to the young evangelist by the imposition of St. Pauls own hands. {2Ti_1:6} This ordination of Timothy and adoption of him as his special attendant stood at the very beginning of a prolonged tour throughout the central and northern districts of Asia Minor, of which we get only a mere hint in Act_16:6-8 : "They went through the region of Phrygia and Galatia, having been forbidden of the Holy Ghost to speak the word in Asia; and when they were come over against Mysia, they essayed to go into Bithynia; and the Spirit of Jesus suffered them not; and passing by Mysia, they came unto Troas." This is the brief sketch of St. Pauls labours through the northwestern provinces of Asia Minor, during which he visited the district of Galatia and preached the gospel amid the various tribal communities of Celts who inhabited that district.
St. Pauls work in Galatia is specially interesting to ourselves. The Celtic race certainly furnished the groundwork of the population in England, Ireland, and Scotland, and finds to this day lineal representatives in the Celtic-speaking inhabitants of these three islands. Galatia was thoroughly Celtic in St. Pauls day. But how, it may be said, did the Gauls come there? We all know of the Gauls or Celts in Western Europe, and every person of even moderate education has heard of the Gauls who invaded Italy and sacked Rome when that city was yet an unknown factor in the worlds history, and yet but very few know that the same wave of invasion which brought the Gauls to Rome led another division of them into Asia Minor, where-as Dr. Lightfoot shows in his Introduction to his Commentary about three hundred years before St. Pauls day they settled down in the region called after them Galatia, perpetuating in that neighbourhood the tribal organisation, the language, the national feelings, habits, and customs which have universally marked the Celtic race, whether in ancient or in modern times. St. Paul on this second missionary tour paid his first visit to this district of Galatia. St. Paul usually directed his attention to great cities. Where vast masses of humanity were gathered together, there St. Paul loved to fling himself with all the mighty force of his unquenchable enthusiasm. But Galatia was quite unlike other districts with which he had dealt in this special respect. Like the Celtic race all the world over, the Gauls of Galatia specially delighted in village communities. They did not care for the society and tone of great towns, and Galatia was wanting in such. St. Paul, too, does not seem originally to have intended to labour amongst the Galatians at all. In view of his great design to preach in large cities, and concentrate his efforts where they could most effectually tell upon the masses, he seems to have been hurrying through Galatia when God laid His heavy hand upon the Apostle and delayed his course that we might be able to see how the gospel could tell upon Gauls and Celts even as upon other nations. This interesting circumstance is made known to us by St. Paul himself in the Epistle to the Gal_4:13 : "Ye know that because of an infirmity of the flesh I preached the gospel unto you for the first time." Paul, to put it in plain language, fell sick in Galatia. He was delayed on his journey by the ophthalmia or some other form of disease, which was his thorn in the flesh, and, then, utilising the compulsory delay, and turning every moment to advantage, he evangelised the village communities of Galatia with which he came in contact, so that his Epistle is directed, not as in other cases to the Church of a city or to an individual man, but the Epistle in which he deals with great fundamental questions of Christian freedom is addressed to the Churches of Galatia, a vast district of country. Mere accident, as it would seem to the eye of sense, produced the Epistle to the Galatians, which shows us the peculiar weakness and the peculiar strength of the Celtic race, their enthusiasm, their genuine warmth, their fickleness, their love for that which is striking, showy, material, exterior. But when we pass from Galatia we know nothing of the course of St. Pauls further labours in Asia Minor. St. Luke was not with him during this portion of his work, and so the details given us are very few. We are told that "the Spirit of Jesus" would not permit him to preach in Bithynia, though Bithynia became afterwards rich in Christian Churches, and was one of the districts to which St. Peter some years later addressed his first Epistle. The Jews were numerous in the districts of Bithynia and Asia, and "the Spirit of Jesus" or "the Holy Ghost"-for the sacred writer seems to use the terms as equivalent the one to the other-had determined to utilise St. Paul in working directly among the Gentiles, reserving the preaching of the gospel to the Dispersion, as the scattered Jews were called, to St. Peter and his friends. It is thus we would explain the restraint exercised upon St. Paul on this occasion. Divine providence had cut out his great work in Europe, and was impelling him westward even when he desired to tarry in Asia. How the Spirit exercised this restraint or communicated His will we know not. St. Paul lived, however, in an atmosphere of Divine communion. He cultivated perpetually a sense of the Divine presence, and those who do so experience a guidance of which the outer world knows nothing. Bishop Jeremy Taylor, in one of his marvellous spiritual discourses called the "Via Intelligentiae," or the Way of Knowledge, speaks much on this subject, pointing out that they who live closest to God have a knowledge and a love peculiar to themselves. And surely every sincere and earnest follower of Christ has experienced somewhat of the same mystical blessings! Gods truest servants commit their lives and their actions in devout prayer to the guidance of their heavenly Father, and then when they look back over the past they see how marvellously they have been restrained from courses which would have been fraught with evil, how strangely they have been led by ways which have been full of mercy and goodness and blessing. Thus it was that St. Paul was at length led down to the ancient city of Troas where God revealed to him in a new fashion his ordained field of labour. A man of Macedonia. appeared in a night vision inviting him over to Europe, and saying, "Come over into Macedonia and help us." Troas was a very fitting place in which this vision should appear. Of old time and in days of classic fable Troas had been the meeting-place where, as Homer and as Virgil tell, Europe and Asia had met in stern conflict, and where Europe as represented by Greece had come off victorious, bringing home the spoils which human nature counted most precious. Europe and Asia again meet at Troas, but no longer in carnal conflict or in deadly fight. The interests of Europe and of Asia again touch one another, and Europe again carries off from the same spot spoil more precious far than Grecian poet ever dreamt of, for "when Paul had seen the vision, straightway we sought to go forth into Macedonia, concluding that God called us for to preach the gospel unto them." Whereupon we notice two points and offer just two observations. The vision created an enthusiasm, and that enthusiasm was contagious. The vision was seen by Paul alone, but was communicated by St. Paul unto Silas and to St. Luke, who now had joined to lend perhaps the assistance of his medical knowledge to the afflicted and suffering Apostle. Enthusiasm is a marvellous power, and endows a man with wondrous force. St. Paul was boiling over with enthusiasm, but he could not always impart it. The two non-apostolic Evangelists are marked contrasts as brought before us in this history. St. Paul was enthusiastic on his first tour, but that enthusiasm was not communicated to St. Mark. He turned back from the hardships and dangers of the work in Asia Minor. St. Paul was boiling over again with enthusiasm for the new work in Europe. He has now with him in St. Luke a congenial soul who, when he hears the vision, gathers at once its import, joyfully anticipates the work, and "straightway sought to go forth into Macedonia." Enthusiasm in any kind of work is a great assistance, and nothing great or successful is done without it. But above all in Divine work, in the work of preaching the gospel, the man devoid of enthusiasm begotten of living communion with God, such as St. Paul and St. Luke enjoyed, is sure to be a lamentable and complete failure.
Then, again, and lastly, we note the slow progress of the gospel as shown to us by this incident at Troas. Here we are a good twenty years after the Crucifixion, and yet the chief ministers and leaders of the Church had not yet crossed into Europe. There were sporadic Churches here and there. At Rome and at possibly a few Italian seaports, whence intercourse with Palestine was frequent, there were small Christian communities; but Macedonia and Greece were absolutely untouched up to the present. We are very apt to overrate the progress of the gospel during those first days of the Churchs earliest Church life. We are inclined to view the history of the Church of the first three centuries all on a heap as it were. We have much need to distinguish century from century and decennium from decennium. The first ten years of the Churchs history saw the gospel preached in Jerusalem and Palestine, but not much farther. The second decennium saw it proclaimed to Asia Minor; but it is only when the third decennium is opening that Christ despatches a formal mission to that Europe where the greatest triumphs of the gospel were afterwards to be won. Ignorance and prejudice and narrow views had been allowed to hinder the progress of the gospel then, as they are hindering the progress of the gospel still; and an express record of this has been handed down to us in this typical history in order that if we too suffer the same we may not be astonished as if some strange thing had happened, but may understand that we are bearing the same burden and enduring the same trials as the New Testament saints have borne before us.
William Robertson Nicoll, ed., The Expositor's Bible (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1887–1910) — public domain. 65 of 66 books (1 Corinthians is not separately keyed, as that volume carries no machine-parseable verse references); section-level commentary keyed to the opening verse. Introductory and overview sections not keyed to a specific passage are excluded.
B. W. Johnson 1891 · Public Domain 36–41. Paul said unto Barnabas. This is a proposal…
36–41. Paul said unto Barnabas. This is a proposal to start on a second missionary journey, in order to visit and strengthen the churches already planted, as well as to extend the work.
Barnabas determined to take with them John. He had abandoned them on the first tour (13:13), and his reasons did not satisfy Paul; hence he declined to take him.
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The contention was so sharp. Neither would yield, so they determined to work separately. Barnabas, with Mark, went to visit the churches of Cyprus, while Paul chose Silas as his fellow laborer. He seems to have returned from Jerusalem.
Being recommended … to the grace of God. Evidently a meeting of the church was held to commend them to God.
Went through Syria and Cilicia. We have no account of the founding of these churches, but we know that Paul had before this labored in these parts. See Gal. 1:21.
B. W. Johnson's The People's New Testament with Notes (1889–1891) — public domain. Electronic text from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (CCEL) ThML edition.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary 1892 · Public Domain Act_15:36. Some days (as in Act_16:12; compare ἡμέραι ἱκαναί,…
CRITICAL REMARKS
Act_15:36. Some days (as in Act_16:12; compare ἡμέραι ἱκαναί, Act_9:23) might be weeks or months. After.—Subsequent to the departure of Judas or Judas and Silas from Antioch. In visit our brethren substitute the for “our.” How they do?—I.e., how they fare, spiritually. The clause requires an antecedent supplement, and see.
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Act_15:37. Determined.—ἐβουλεύσατο. The oldest MSS. have ἐβούλετο, wished, which some consider a correction, with a view of softening down the altercation between Barnabas and Paul (Alford and Hackett).
Act_15:39. The contention was so sharp between them.—Better, there arose a severe contention. If the incident described in Gal_2:11 had occurred in the days preceding this contention (Alford, Lechler, Conybeare and Howson) that incident would help to explain the hotness of the dispute between the two missionaries; but it seems improbable that such a reaction in favour of Judaism as that scene at Antioch represents could have taken place so soon after the decision at Jerusalem (Hackett). They departed asunder one from the other.—Not in friendship, but in service. Barnabas.—Not named again in Acts, but reported by one tradition to have proceeded to Milan, and died as first bishop of its Church; and by another to have spent some years in Rome and Athens. Took Mark, who afterwards gained Paul’s esteem (Col_4:10; 2Ti_4:11), and sailed to Cyprus, his native city (Act_4:36), where, according to the second of the above traditions, he suffered martyrdom. The authenticity of the well known Epistle of Barnabas cannot be defended.
Act_15:40. That Paul and Silas, on setting forth, were commended by the brethren to the grace of God suggests that the Church at Antioch espoused the side of Paul, as no similar commendation appears to have been given to Barnabas and Mark.
Act_15:41. Confirming the churches.—Not candidates for admission to, but those already in, them (Act_14:22). Of the founding of these churches in Syria and Cilicia no account has been preserved, but they most likely dated from the time of Paul’s visit to those regions (Act_9:30; Gal_1:21). One of these churches was probably located at Tarsus.
HOMILETICAL ANALYSIS.—Act_15:36-40
The Second Missionary Journey Commenced; or, the Separation of Barnabas and Paul
I. Paul’s proposal to Barnabas.—
1. To what it referred. The initiation of a second missionary journey, for the purpose of visiting the brethren—i.e., the young converts in every city in which, on their previous tour, they had preached the gospel—and inquiring into their spiritual condition. Not only must the work of spreading the gospel never stop, but the equally important business of edifying and building up those who have been converted must never be neglected. A true pastor will not only labour to bring souls into Christ’s fold, but will watch with assiduity and care over such as are already in.
2. When it was made. Some days after the return to Jerusalem of Judas and Silas (Act_15:33), or of Judas alone (see “Critical Remarks”), and after their own evangelistic activity at Antioch had continued for some time, though how long remains uncertain. Perhaps the commencement of this second journey should be dated A.D. 51.
3. How it was received. Obviously Barnabas assented to the proposal, though it had been mooted by Paul rather than by himself. Of jealousy on Barnabas’s part not a trace appears. Though probably older than Paul he appears to have recognised, with equanimity and satisfaction, Paul’s superior genius and greater fitness to be a leader. That they quarrelled before the proposal could be carried out was, doubtless, to be regretted. But meanwhile it may be noted that the cause of that quarrel was nothing connected with the subordinate position of Barnabas.
II. Paul’s contention with Barnabas.—
1. Quite simply it arose. As great contentions often do.
(1) Barnabas very naturally wished, as before, to take along with them John Mark, his kinsman (Col_4:10)—probably for his own sake, as having a liking for his relative as well as a desire for his society, and probably because Mark, having got over his home-sickness, or, having laid aside his early feeling of offence (see on Act_13:13), was once more desirous of resuming active service in the cause of the gospel.
(2) Paul, on the other hand, demurred to the proposal of Barnabas, probably because he had not been able to sympathise with Mark’s motives for going back on the previous occasion, and because he was not yet assured of Mark’s stability and courage. It is, however, pleasing to observe that Paul susequently took a kindlier view of the young man (2Ti_4:11), and even accepted him as a companion in travel (Col_4:10).
2. Very hotly it blazed. The contention became so sharp that the two missionaries felt obliged to separate. Barnabas’s kinship with, and affection for, the young man would not allow him to yield. Paul’s judgment as to the unlikelihood of a fickle character like Mark being of much use in the mission field determined him to hold out. Which was right is not clear. If Barnabas had Christian feeling on his side, Paul had Christian reason. Most likely both erred in exhibiting temper and in not trying to understand each other’s view of the case. Had they done this, and omitted to do that, they would surely have come to some amicable arrangement.
3. Exceeding peacefully it ended. As they could not agree, they let the matter drop, and took each his own independent course. What a pity they had not done this before the quarrel! It would have saved an unpleasant episode in the history of both.
III. Paul’s separation from Barnabas.—“They parted asunder the one from the other.”
1. Not in perfect friendship. There is some reason to suspect that they were a trifle displeased with one another. All the more likely if this occurred shortly after the rebuke which Paul administered to Peter for conduct of which Barnabas also had been guilty. Yet that the present rupture did not permanently estrange the good men appears from the way in which Paul afterwards alludes to Barnabas as a Christian teacher worthy of the fullest confidence of the Churches (1Co_9:6).
2. But in Christian service. Neither of them retired from his work as a Gentile missionary, as modern Christian workers often withdraw from service altogether when they quarrel with one another. Both continued to labour in the cause of the gospel, but each pursued his own path. Barnabas, taking with him Mark, sailed to his native Cyprus on a missionary tour, thus following the track of his first journey with Paul; Paul, choosing as a companion Silas, who must by this time have returned to Antioch (Act_15:33), started on a similar journey over the old route, only approaching it from the opposite end, travelling to Derbe and Lystra through the Cilician gates.
3. And with the prayers of their brethren. Although it is only of Paul that it is written that he was “commended by the brethren to the grace of the Lord,” it is hardly to be supposed that Barnabas would be allowed to depart without the prayers of his fellow-Christians. To infer that he was, because the Church had taken sides in the quarrel and decided for Paul as against Barnabas, is to ascribe to the Church quite an unworthy part. Better far let it be said that Luke has omitted to record anything of the Church’s attitude towards Barnabas, and confined himself to what was done in the case of Paul—not because Barnabas was left to go his way alone and unsympathised with, but simply because Paul was the hero whose future fortunes it was Luke’s object to trace.
Learn.—
1. That good men are, unhappily, not above quarrelling, though they should be.
2. That when good men do quarrel, they should study to go asunder rather than come to blows.
3. That God can overrule even the quarrels of good men, for good.
4. That Churches should never send forth missionaries without commending them to God’s grace.
5. That ministers and missionaries should not neglect the work of confirming young converts.
HINTS AND SUGGESTIONS
Act_15:36-40. Four Valuable Lessons.
I. For Christian preachers.—Never to desist from their holy work of converting sinners and edifying saints.
II. For Christian friends.—Never to contend with one another, except in love and Christian activity.
III. For Christian workers.—Never to grow weary in well-doing, but to be steadfast and immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord.
IV. For Christian Churches.—Never to omit praying for both ministers and missionaries.
Barnabas, Paul, and the Lord.
I. The forbearing love of Barnabas was good.
II. The holy severity of Paul was better.
III. The wisdom of the Lord, converting all things into good, was best.—Gerok.
Act_15:36. Pastoral Visitation.
I. A necessary part of ministerial work.—Christ’s sheep and lambs have not merely to be gathered into the fold, but also to be carefully fed and tended (Joh_21:15-17).
II. A kindly display of Christian sympathy.—If it betokens an amiable and brotherly disposition to ask after each other’s welfare (Exo_18:7), much more does it do so to inquire after each other’s spiritual progress.
III. A profitable form of religious service.—Like mercy, “it blesses him that gives and him that takes.” It benefits those who are visited and them who visit; it contributes to the spiritual upbuilding of both.
Act_15:39. The Quarrel between Barnabas and Paul illustrates—
I. The imperfection of good men.
II. The danger of success. even for eminent Christians.
III. The grace of God in making the wrath of men to praise Him.
The Quarrels of Good Men—
I. Are of more frequent occurrence than they ought to be.
II. Are less deeply lamented than they should be.
III. Are seldom healed as quickly as they might be.
IV. Are more tenderly dealt with than they deserve to be.
V. Are sometimes productive of more good than they promise to be.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.
F. W. Grant 1903 · Public Domain Section 1. (Act 15:36-41; Act 16:1-12.)
Section 1. (Act 15:36-41; Act 16:1-12.)
The fundamental principle the sovereign will of God.
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The character of the message is seen in the messenger, as Paul elsewhere urges. A yea and nay preacher would not commend his preaching as a trustworthy "yea." (2Co 1:17-19.) A man himself insubject could not expect to lead others into subjection to God. And this is what we start with here in him who is the pattern worker set before us in the scenes in which we are now to accompany him. For him to live was Christ; and that means obedience absolute: that God must be God was his fundamental principle; and this gave him, not freedom from exercise, but assurance as to a path which he could walk in in faith as God’s path -the only thing that can give ability for it. Christ as his Lord alone, the Spirit was for him, as for all others then, sole Guide and Interpreter of his Lord’s will. His conscience was before God and not man, as a right conscience ever must be. Nothing is more plainly seen here than the positive way in which the Spirit guided, often in opposition to the human wisdom and will of the apostle himself. Being forbidden to speak the Word in Asia, they attempt to go into Bithynia, but the Spirit suffers them not. Then follows the vision of the man of Macedonia, and they pass over into Europe. Guidance is by no means in any uniform way; one needs to be on the alert, as well as instructed in the Lord’s mind. Guidance with the eye requires the eye to be in waiting for the look that is to guide; and so Elijah stood before the Lord his God.
1. In the first place we do not hear of any direct word. It is the heart that prompts Paul to think of the brethren in the various places in which he had preached the gospel, with solicitude to know how they have been faring since. He proposes therefore to Barnabas that they should visit them together. Love is the true motive principle, and (where it is divine love) is clear-sighted too. The trouble as to guidance here is to avoid mixtures and counterfeits. That Barnabas should be ready seems a matter of course; but he proposes to take Mark with them, who had failed them on the former occasion, and at the very entrance upon what was the real work. Here was love too, no doubt, but as to his sister’s son, too purely human. Paul being unwilling, there arises a very warm feeling between them, which separates the two so closely attached hitherto. Barnabas, kindly man as he is, now ruffled in his affections which doubtless are mingled with gracious desire that the young man may recover himself, seems to manifest most (as just such kindly spirits, so touched, are apt to do) the impatience which hurries him off with his nephew to his native land; and we lose him from the history. Paul, choosing Silas for his companion, goes forth, commended by the brethren to the grace of the Lord. Barnabas had failed also, just before this, as we learn from Galatians, following Peter’s example upon the Jewish question; and this would naturally add to the seriousness of the matter in Paul’s eyes. Certainly with him it was faithfulness that cost much which could make him stand against the endeared companion of days so happily remembered, and against the solicitations of a heart that knew if any did, the mercy of God towards the weak and erring, but now must be strong in the interests of grace itself to keep it free from all that would hinder its proper testimony among men. To Mark, at a later day, he gladly bears testimony; and he, the failing servant, is privileged, as we know, to give us the story of the Unfailing, Perfect One. Would he not in that after-time be the first to justify the apparent harshness which was only truth to Christ before all else, of the apostle now? And this is true love also, that seeketh not her own, but can be faithful because it is love.
2. But love gives wisdom also; and fullest obedience to Christ will go farthest in all that is permissible to yield to bring men to Him. At Jerusalem the circumcision of the Gentiles had been resisted to the uttermost, and on his new journey into Asia Minor Paul carried with him and delivered to the assemblies the decrees which had distinctly freed them from any imposition of the yoke of the law; yet at Lystra he himself circumcises Timothy, the child of a Jewess and a Greek; and this is for some an inconsistency sufficient to discredit the whole narrative. In fact, it is doubted, however, whether such a step was legally right at all; though if it were not, it is hard to see how it would have conciliated the unconverted Jews, and not rather have been an additional offence to them. The apostle certainly knew well the people he was dealing with, none better; and that would settle the legality of it, in their minds at least. As for his own use of the Jewish rite, he uses it, as is plain in the fullest Christian liberty, which is always liberty to give up one’s privileges wherever the love that constrains us to seek souls for Christ shall be better served by it. He expresses elsewhere carefully the principle that guides him here: "to those that are under the law, as under the law, not being myself under law, that I might gain those that are under the law" (1Co 9:20). Here is the motive of his act in this case, with the assertion at the same time of his own freedom from the law while acting so. It is the wisdom that wins souls that he displays in it. Of Timothy we shall hear much elsewhere. At present we know him only as one to whom witness is borne by the brethren, and whom Paul takes with him as companion and assistant on his journey now. He answers to his name all through, as "one who honors God"; and even the two epistles to him which are preserved to us are in striking accord with this. It is to Timothy that Paul in his very last epistle pours out his whole heart.
The company of travelers thus increased carry with them the decrees determined by the apostles and elders at Jerusalem; and these have happy effect in confirming the assemblies in the faith, and adding to their number. Grace it is that establishes the soul and wins the heart to God.
3. The controlling hand and guidance of the Spirit are here very clearly seen. There was no one method of it, -and this is for our instruction, as well as the fact itself. If the broad commission be to "go into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature," that in no wise sets aside the fact that there is to be subjection to God as to the way of carrying this out. His personal interest in it is such that He cannot leave to hap-hazard, or to the fallible judgment of men, the questions of time and place, and indeed of any other matters in connection with a work so precious. There is need -even for an apostle, there always was -for every one who would have success in his work to take every debatable point into the sanctuary for guidance. How we shall be guided, we see here to be another matter. They pass through Phrygia and Galatia, where we hear afterwards of disciples who are, no doubt largely, if not altogether, the fruit of their labor at this time. They then turn westward towards proconsular Asia, which included Mysia, Lydia, and Caria, that is, all the western coast, -at another time to be evangelized by Paul from Ephesus with large results. Now, however, they are forbidden of the Holy Spirit to speak the Word there. They seek from Mysia, therefore, to go north-east into Bithynia; but here again, with more of outward restraint apparently, "the Spirit of Jesus suffered them not." In both these cases we are left without positive means of ascertaining the character of the hindrance: for the first word does not necessarily signify a verbal prohibition. Satan too might hinder, as the apostle says to the Romans; but hindrance by the Spirit would, no doubt, be realized by its character, if not sometimes without serious and profitable exercise: the enemy cannot so well mimic the work of God as to deceive the one who is truly single-hearted. Indeed the unique expression used here -the Spirit of Jesus -may well intimate this: the Spirit in the power of which He walked upon earth; Jesus being the personal Name by which He was known on earth.
Thus they are hindered from going whether to the right or to the left. If they go forward, they must go to Troas. There, almost upon the old battleground between Europe and Asia, they were just opposite Macedonia; and there that vision appeared in the night to Paul, in which a man of Macedonia, representative of the whitening harvest fields beyond, stood and besought him, saying, "Come over and help us!" Immediately they concluded that the Lord had called them to announce the gospel in those parts, and sought to go forth into Macedonia.
Thus, after a time of fruitful and happy work, they are left for awhile to groping and uncertainty, headed off from different roads that seem open to them, yet shut up by this to take the direction in which the Lord was in fact bringing them, until in due time the uncertainty is removed, and they receive definite assurance as to what is in His mind. How comforting to us, conscious of many perplexities, is this little glimpse of the way of one like Paul! It may be said however, that we can hardly expect a vision at last to resolve our doubts, and that thus we are still left without the consolation we might derive from this. But neither did the apostle expect or in general receive a vision to guide him. It is not given to any man to walk habitually in such open light. It would not really encourage faith, which has to do with the unseen and not the seen. And perhaps the record here may serve a purpose of good by preventing our expectation of any one method of assurance, and casting us upon Him to meet us in any way He please; so that we may learn the better His various speech, and be more on the alert to discover Him under whatever apparent disguises. Doubtless the man of Macedonia shows us the appeal to that in us which is, or should be, at all times the motive power; and the weighing of comparative needs, as well as of what in the Lord’s ways He has been leading on to, will have its place in determining the issue for us. After all, no rules can be given which will not probably have large exception in actual working out. The Lord is able to give assurance to the heart that honestly seeks to be subject to Him; and that is the main point.
Another beautiful touch in the narrative is found here: -At Troas we discern, simply by the change of the pronoun used, that the narrator himself has joined the party of Paul. His name is never once mentioned, and it is only by the change from "they" to "we" that we are able to trace him from Troas to Philippi, where he seems to remain until Paul returns, after his long stay at Ephesus, when be rejoins and travels with him to Jerusalem (Act 20:6-38; Act 21:1-18). There, during Paul’s long imprisonment, we lose sight of him again; but upon the apostle’s voyage to Italy, once more he is with him the whole way to Rome (Act 27:1-44; Act 28:1-16). Through all he certainly filled no unimportant place, -one would say more so than others whose names are mentioned; yet he keeps to this reticence which characterizes him all along the way. There is no trace of self-consciousness about him, as one may say; and how beautiful is this in the inspired historian of such a book as this! what an example for us, who are, alas, so apt to give at least their due value to all our doings. It is surely a lesson which we shall do well to take to heart.
F. W. Grant, The Numerical Bible (4th ed., 1903) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
J. R. Dummelow 1909 · Public Domain St Paul's Second Missionary Journey, 49, 50 a.d. (Act_15:36…
St Paul's Second Missionary Journey, 49, 50 a.d. (Act_15:36 to Act_18:22)
Having secured the formal recognition by the Twelve of Gentile Christianity, St. Paul was free to resume his missionary labours. He first revisited the Churches founded on the First Journey, and then carried the gospel to Europe, preaching at Philippi, Thessalonica, Berosa, Athens, and Corinth, He then returned to the Syrian Antioch, and visited Jerusalem.
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Act_15:36 to Act_16:5. The Galatian and other Churches revisited.
Act_15:36-41. St. Paul's grievance against Barnabas was that the latter insisted on taking with them an unsuitable assistant simply because he was a relation. The Church of Antioch seems to have sympathised with St. Paul (see Act_15:40). St. Paul was subsequently reconciled with. Barnabas (1Co_9:6) and also with Mark (2Ti_4:11; Col_4:10).
41. Confirming the churches] see Act_16:5, and op. Act_14:22.
J. R. Dummelow, A Commentary on the Holy Bible (Macmillan, 1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
J. W. McGarvey 1914 · Public Domain 36-41. We have lingered long upon the interval spent…
36-41. We have lingered long upon the interval spent by Paul and Barnabas in Antioch. We are now to follow the former upon his second missionary tour. (36) " But after some days, Paul said to Barnabas, Let us return and visit our brethren in every city in which we have preached the word of the Lord, and see how they do. (37) And Barnabas determined to take with them John surnamed Mark. (38) But Paul thought proper not to take with them him who had departed from them in Pamphylia, and did not go with them to the work. (39) Then there was a contention, so that they separated one from the other: and Barnabas took Mark and sailed into Cyprus. (40) But Paul chose Silas, and departed, having been commended to the favor of God by the brethren; (41) and went through Syria and Cilicia, confirming the Churches. " This journey, it should be observed, was undertaken for the prime purpose of revisiting the Churches where these brethren had previously labored, and not, primarily, to preach to the heathen. This shows that the solicitude with which the apostles watched for the welfare of the congregations was not less ardent than their zeal in spreading a knowledge of the gospel.
The desire of Barnabas to take John with them was, doubtless, prompted, in part, by partiality, arising from the relationship which existed between them. John, of course, desired to go, and Barnabas wished to give him an opportunity to atone for his former dereliction. Paul's reason for refusing to let him go was based upon a want of confidence in one who would, either through fear or love of ease, desert him in a trying hour. Each considered the reason for his own preference a good one; and as neither was willing to yield for the sake of remaining with the other, they ought to have parted in perfect peace. But some unpleasant feeling was aroused by the controversy, which Luke expresses by the term paroxusmos, of which contention is rather a tame rendering, though paroxysm which we have derived from it, would express too high a degree of passion. This incident shows that the best of men may differ about matters of expediency, and that, in contending for their respective conclusions, they may be aroused to improper feelings. But the good man, under such circumstances, will always be distinguished by the readiness with which such feelings will be repressed, and by the absence of all subsequent malice. We know that Paul afterward felt very differently toward John; for, during his first imprisonment at Rome, he mentions him to Philemon as a fellow-laborer there present; and to the Colossians as one who had been a comfort to him; and, during his second imprisonment, he writes to Timothy: "Take Mark and bring him with you; for he is profitable to me for the ministry." The slight heat engendered between Barnabas and Paul also subsided in a short time; for Paul afterward speaks of him in most friendly terms, in the First Epistle to the Corinthians.
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By returning with Mark to his native land, Barnabas revisited a portion of the brethren to whom he and Paul had preached, while Paul visited another portion of them by a different route. Thus, notwithstanding their disagreement and separation, they did not allow the good cause to suffer, but accomplished separately the whole of the proposed work. The separation of Barnabas and Paul is our separation from Barnabas. His name is not mentioned again by Luke. But as we bid him farewell, the sails are spread which are to bear him over the sea, that he may make the islands glad with a knowledge of salvation. The further incidents of his life will yet be known to all who shall sit down with him in the everlasting kingdom.
We turn with Luke to follow the history of him who was in labors more abundant and in prisons more frequent than all the apostles, and to form a better acquaintance with his new companion. The statement that Paul and Silas were "commended to the favor of God by the brethren," does not imply, as many writers have supposed, that they refused thus to commend Barnabas and Mark, or that the brethren sided with Paul against Barnabas in their contention. It is sufficiently accounted for by the fact that the attention of the writer is fixed upon the detail of Paul's history rather than that of Barnabas. No doubt the prayers of the brethren followed them both to their distant and dangerous fields of labor.
By a northern route through Syria, and then a westerly course through Cilicia, Paul approached the extremity of his recent tour in the interior of Asia Minor. He was not altogether a stranger along the journey, for he had spent some time in Syria and Cilicia before his first visit to Antioch; and it is most probable that he now revisited, in these districts, Churches which he had planted by his own labors.
J. W. McGarvey (with Philip Y. Pendleton), Commentaries on the New Testament (The Fourfold Gospel, 1914; Acts; and the epistles) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Paul E. Kretzmann 1924 · Public Domain The Beginning of Paul’s Second Missionary Journey.
The Beginning of Paul’s Second Missionary Journey.
v. 36. And some days after, Paul said unto Barnabas, Let us go again and visit our brethren in every city where we have preached the Word of the Lord, and see how they do.
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v. 37. And Barnabas determined to take with them John, whose surname was Mark.
v. 38. But Paul thought not good to take him with them who departed from them from Pamphylia, and went not with them to the work.
v. 39. And the contention was so sharp between them that they departed asunder one from the other; and so Barnabas took Mark, and sailed unto Cyprus;
v. 40. and Paul chose Silas and departed, being recommended by the brethren unto the grace of God.
v. 41. And he went through Syria and Cilicia, confirming the churches.
After some days, after some time had elapsed, Paul suggested to Barnabas that they return, that they reenter the road over which they had traveled, and visit the brethren in every city in which they had proclaimed the Word of the Lord, to see how they were getting along. A true missionary is not satisfied with merely organizing mission-stations and congregations, but is interested also in their establishment and growth in spiritual knowledge. The suggestion seems to have appealed to Barnabas, but when they were talking over their plans as to companions, he strongly advised taking his nephew John Mark along, and practically insisted upon it. But as even the best of friends map differ on questions of expediency and of personal preference, so it happened here. Paul believed that it was not fair to themselves and to their work to take the younger man along, whose defection at Perga, chap. 13:13, had probably seriously inconvenienced them. Paul may have thought that Mark still did not possess the necessary maturity and strength of character for such difficult work. The difference of opinion proceeded to a point where there was a serious outbreak of anger, causing them to part company. "There is little doubt that severe words were spoken on the occasion. It is unwise to be overanxious to dilute the words of Scripture, and to exempt even apostles from blame. We cannot, however, suppose that Paul and Barnabas parted, like enemies, in anger and hatred. It is very likely that they made a deliberate and amicable arrangement to divide the region of their first mission between them, Paul taking the continental and Barnabas the insular part of the proposed visitation. Of this at least we are certain, that the quarrel was overruled by Divine Providence to a good result. One stream of missionary labor had been divided, and the regions blessed by the waters of life were proportionally multiplied. " That the estrangement was not permanent appears from the fact that Paul refers to Barnabas as a fellow-worker unto the kingdom of God, Col 4:11; 1Co 9:6, and that he speaks of Mark as profitable to him for the ministry, 2Ti 4:11. But the brethren in Antioch evidently believed Paul to be in the right, for when Barnabas took Nark and sailed for Cyprus, there was no special leave-taking, whereas when Paul chose Silas, the prophet from Jerusalem, as his companion, he was commended by the brethren to, the grace of the Lord. Very likely there was a meeting of the congregation and a farewell service as when Paul left on his first journey. So Paul left Antioch with his companion, traveling by land, in order to visit the congregations of Syria and Cilicia which had been founded either by some of the scattered brethren after the execution of Stephen or by Paul himself at a time concerning which we have no further data, Gal 1:21. wherever the two missionaries came, they confirmed the congregations, they made them firm in faith and trust by proper instruction and exhortation. Visitations of this kind are bound to result in blessings for the congregations thus visited.
Summary
On account of threatening dissension caused by Judaizing brethren, Paul and Barnabas are delegated to the congregation at Jerusalem for advice; an assembly is held, and the results sent to the brethren at Antioch in a letter delivered by Judas and Silas; Paul chooses Silas as his companion on his second journey after an altercation with Barnabas
Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 Connecting Statement:
Connecting Statement:
Paul and Barnabas go on separate journeys.
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Let us return now
"I suggest we now return"
visit the brothers
"care for the brothers" or "offer to help the believers"
the word of the Lord
Here "word" stands for the message. AT: "the message about the Lord" (See: Metonymy)
see how they are
"learn how they are doing." They want to learn about the current condition of the brothers and how they are holding on to God's truth.
to also take with them John who was called Mark
"to take John, who was also called Mark"
Paul thought it was not good to take Mark
The words "not good" are used to say the opposite of good. AT: "Paul thought that taking Mark would be bad" (See: Litotes)
Pamphylia
This was a province in Asia Minor. See how you translated this in Acts 2:10.
did not go further with them in the work
"did not continue to work with them then" or "did not continue to serve with them"
translationWords
preach
John Mark
works
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 15:36-41 The discordant separation of Paul and Barnabas is…
15:36-41 The discordant separation of Paul and Barnabas is indicated by a very strong word in Greek (their disagreement was so sharp). It was an honest disagreement between two godly men about whether John Mark (Barnabas’s cousin, Col 4:10) should be given a second chance to accompany them on a mission journey after he had deserted them in Pamphylia (see Acts 13:13). The rift between Paul and John Mark was eventually healed (2 Tim 4:11).
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.