"Barnabas: Second Chances" Acts 15: 36-41; Acts 9: 23-29

We  continue reflecting on minor characters, although we move this week from the time of the Israelites to the early church as we meet Barnabas.

From Wikipedia and the Harper's Bible Dictionary, we discover the following information about Barnabas: His Hellenic Jewish parents called him Joseph (although the Byzantine text-type calls him Ιὠσης, Iōsēs, 'Joses', a Greek variant of 'Joseph'), but when he sold all his goods and gave the money to the apostles in Jerusalem, they gave him a new name: Barnabas. This name appears to be from the Aramaic בר נביא, bar naḇyā, meaning 'the son (of the) prophet'. However, the Greek text of Acts 4: 36 explains the name as υἱός παρακλήσεως, hyios paraklēseōs, meaning "son of consolation" or "son of encouragement". A similar link between ”prophecy” and ”encouragement” is found in Paul’s letter to the Corinthians (I Corinthians 14: 3) (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barnabas)

In Acts 9, Barnabas steps forward to embrace Saul when everyone else was afraid of Saul. This allows Saul to grow into Paul.

IN Acts 15, we discover that Paul has no desire to have John Mark travel with them because Mark had previously backed out on them.   Paul a second chance.

Barnabas wants to give John Mark a second chance.  Paul will not, so Barnabas splits with
Saul

I am reflecting n the God of second chances.