Barnabas, Joses

, i.e. Son of the Prophet, an apostle, and one of the first preachers of the Gospel in the first century, was born in Cyprus, of the tribe of Levi. It is supposed that he went to Jerusalem, and studied with St. Paul, under Gamaliel. Upon embracing the Christian faith he sold his land, and laid the price of it at the apostles’ feet. He was appointed to be an apostle of the Gentiles with St. Paul, travelled with him, and accompanied St. Mark into the island of Cyprus. It is said, that he suffered martyrdom, after having founded the church of Milan, and that his body was found in the year 488, with the gospel of St. Matthew upon the breast. An epistle, attributed to St. Barnabas, was published 1645, by Dom. Luke d’Acheri, 4to. It is in the library of the fathers, and in the Patres Apostclici of Cotelier; but in all probability it was the production of some Jew, whose mean talents and attachment to Jewish fables point him out as a very different person from the companion of St. Paul. Yet Dupin labours hard to give it a kind of authenticity. ²