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From: Acts 11:21b-26; 13:1-3
The Beginning of the Church in Antioch (Continuation)
The Mission of Barnabas and Paul
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Commentary:
19-30. This account links up with Acts 8:1-4, which describes the flight of Chris-
tians from Jerusalem due to the first persecution following on the martyrdom of
St. Stephen. We are now told about the spread of the Gospel to Antioch on the
Orontes, the capital of the Roman province of Syria. Antioch was the first major
city of the ancient world where the word of Jesus Christ was preached. It was
the third city of the empire, after Rome and Alexandria, with a population of a-
bout half a million and a sizeable Jewish colony, and was a very important cul-
tural, economic and religious center.
In Antioch the Gospel is proclaimed not only to Jews and proselytes. These Hel-
lenist Jews from Jerusalem preached the Gospel to all and sundry as part of their
ordinary everyday activity. St. Luke does not give us any names: the preachers
are ordinary Christians. “Notice”, says Chrysostom, “that it is grace which does
everything. And also reflect on the fact that this work is begun by unknown wor-
kers and only when it begins to prosper do the Apostles send Barnabas” (”Hom.
on Acts”, 25).
The Christian mission at Antioch played a key part in the spread of Christianity.
Evangelization of non-Jews becomes the norm; it is not just something which
happens in a few isolated cases. Nor is it limited to “God-fearers”; it extends to
all the Gentiles. The center of gravity of the Christian Church begins to move
from Jerusalem to Antioch, which will become the springboard for the evangeli-
zation of the pagan world.
22-26. The community at Jerusalem, where the Apostles were based, felt res-
pon- sible for everything that happened in the Christian mission-field. This was
why they sent Barnabas to oversee developments in Antioch. Barnabas was a
man whom the Apostles trusted, noted for his virtue (he was mentioned in Acts
4:36).
No doubt it was because of all the work opening before the preacher of the Gos-
pel that Barnabas sought out Paul, who had returned to Tarsus after his conver-
sion and his visit to Jerusalem (9:30). Barnabas probably knew that the future
Apostle was the very man he needed to join him in the work of evangelization
about to be undertaken by the Antiochene Church. Barnabas’ sense of respon-
sibility and his zeal to find laborers for the Lord’s harvest (cf. Matthew 9:38) lead
to the first of the great missionary journeys, in which Paul’s vocation find full
scope.
26. We do not exactly know who first began to describe the disciples as “Chris-
tians”. In any event the fact that they were given a name shows that everyone re-
cognized them as an identifiable group. The name also suggests that the term
“Christos” — Messiah, Anointed—is no longer regarded simply as a messianic
title but also as a proper name.
Some Fathers of the Church see this name as further indication that people do
not become disciples of the Lord through human causes. “Although the holy
Apostles were our teachers and have given us the Gospel of the Savior, it is not
from them that we have taken our name: we are “Christians” through Christ and
it is for Him that we are called in this way” (St. Athanasius, “Oratio I Contra
Arianos”, 2).
1. From this point onwards Luke’s account centers on the Church of Antioch.
This was a flourishing community, with members drawn from all sectors of so-
ciety. In some respects its organization structure was like that of the Jerusalem
Church; in others, not. It clearly had ordained ministers who were responsible for
its government, who preached and administered the Sacraments; along these we
find prophets (cf. 11:28) and teachers, specially trained members of the commu-
nity.
In the early Church “teachers” were disciples well versed in Sacred Scripture
who were given charge of catechesis. They instructed the catechumens and
other Christians in the basic teaching of the Gospel as passed on by the Apos-
tles, and some of them had a capacity for acquiring and communicating to
others an extensive and profound knowledge of the faith.
Teachers do not necessarily have to be priests or preachers. Preaching was
usually reserved to ordained ministers; teachers had an important position in the
Church: they were responsible for on-going doctrinal and moral education and
were expected faithfully to hand on the same teaching as they themselves had
received. A virtuous life and due learning would have protected them against any
temptation to invent new teachings or go in for mere speculation not based on
the Gospel (cf. 1 Timothy 4:7; 6:20; Titus 2:1).
The “Letter to Diognetus” describes the ideal Christian teacher: “I do not speak
of passing things nor do I go in search of new things, but, like the disciple of the
Apostles that I am, I become a teacher of peoples. I do nothing but hand on what
was given me by those who made themselves worthy disciples of the truth” (XI,
1).
2-3. “Worship” of the Lord includes prayer, but it refers primarily to the celebra-
tion of the Blessed Eucharist, which is at the center of all Christian ritual. This
text indirectly establishes a parallel between the Mass and the sacrificial rite of
the Mosaic Law. The Eucharist provides a Christian with the nourishment he
needs, and its celebration “causes the Church of God to be built up and grow in
stature” (Vatican II, “Unitatis Redintegratio”, 15). Significantly, the Eucharist is
associated with the start of this new stage in the expansion of the Church.
Paul and Barnabas receive a missionary task directly from the Holy Spirit, and
by an external sign—the laying on of hands—the Antiochene community prays
to God to go with them and bless them. In His promotion of the spread of the
Church the Holy Spirit does not act at a distance, so to speak. Every step in the
progress of the Church in the world is rightly attributed to the initiative of the Pa-
raclete. It is as if God were repeatedly ratifying His salvific plans to make it per-
fectly plain that He is ever-faithful to His promises. “The mission of the Church is
carried out by means of that activity through which, in obedience to Christ’s com-
mand and moved by the grace and love of the Holy Spirit, the Church makes it-
self fully present to all men and people” (Vatican II, “Ad Gentes”, 5).
The dispatch of Paul and Barnabas is inspired by the Holy Spirit, but it is also
an ecclesial act: the Church gives them this charge, specifying God’s plans and
activating the personal vocation of the two envoys.
The Lord, “who had set me apart before I was born and had called me by his
grace [sent me] in order that I might preach Him among the Gentiles” (Galatians
1:15-16), now arranges, through the Church, for this mission to begin.
Fasting and prayer are the best preparation for the spiritual enterprise on which
Paul and Barnabas are about to embark. “First, prayer; then, atonement; in the
third place, very much ‘in the third place’, action” (St. J. Escriva, “The Way”, 82).
They know very well that their mission is not man-made and that it will produce
results only with God’s help. The prayer and penance which accompany apos-
tolate are not just aimed at obtaining graces from God for others: the purpose of
this prayer and fasting is to purify hearts and lips, so that the Lord will be at their
side and ensure that none of their words “fall to the ground” (1 Samuel 3:19).
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Source: “The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries”. Biblical text from the
Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentaries by members of
the Faculty of Theology, University of Navarre, Spain.
Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock, Co. Dublin, Ireland, and
by Scepter Publishers in the United States.