The Book of the Acts

36After some time84 Paul said to Barnabas, “Let us go back and visit the brothers in all the cities where we preached the word of the Lord, and see how they are getting on.”

37Barnabas wished to take John, surnamed Mark, along with them.

38But Paul refused to take him along,85 because he had parted from them in Pamphylia and not gone on with them to the work.

39The disagreement between them became so sharp that they separated. Barnabas took Mark and set sail for Cyprus,

40but Paul chose Silas and set out, having been commended by the brothers to the grace of the Lord.

41He made his way through Syria and Cilicia, strengthening the churches.86

36–39 The story of the disagreement between Paul and Barnabas does not make pleasant reading, but Luke’s realism in recording it helps us to remember that the two men, as they themselves said to the people of Lystra, were “human beings with feelings like” any other. Luke does not relate the dispute in such a way as to put Paul in the right and Barnabas in the wrong. In view of Luke’s restraint, it is idle for the reader to try to apportion the blame.

When Paul proposed to Barnabas that they should revisit the churches planted during their recent tour of Cyprus and central Anatolia, Barnabas agreed, and suggested that they should take Mark along with them as they had done on the former occasion. But Paul, believing that Mark’s departure from Perga during their former journey was unjustified,87 and probably reckoning that it revealed some defect of character which made him unsuitable for such work, refused point-blank to take him again. We can believe that it would indeed have been unwise for Mark at this stage to join another missionary expedition of which Paul was one of the leaders. On the other hand, Barnabas probably discerned promising qualities in his young cousin which could be developed under his care rather than under Paul’s. It did Mark good to spend more time in the company of such a “son of encouragement”; in the event his latent qualities reached full maturity and were appreciated in due course by Paul himself (Col. 4:10; Philem. 23; 2 Tim. 4:11).

It is a pity that the dispute was allowed to generate such bitterness; it might not have done so but for the memory of the incident at Antioch when “even Barnabas,” as Paul says, followed Peter’s example in withdrawing from the society of Gentile Christians.88 After that, it is doubtful if Paul and Barnabas could ever be so happy in their association as they had once been. The old mutual confidence had been damaged and could not be restored: “never glad confident morning again.” It is not Luke’s policy to record such disagreements on points of principle, but the disagreement on a personal matter which he does record here can be read with greater understanding in the light of Paul’s account in his letter to the Galatians. Even so, the present disagreement was overruled for good: instead of one missionary and pastoral expedition there were two. Barnabas took Mark and went back to Cyprus to continue the evangelization of his native island; Paul visited the young churches of Anatolia.

40–41 Paul now had to find a new travel companion. He had had opportunity, during the recent visit to Antioch of Judas and Silas, to make an assessment of Silas, and in many ways found him to be a kindred spirit.89 Luke certainly intends his readers to identify the Silas whom Paul chose as his companion with the Silas who, with Judas Barsabbas, had carried the apostolic letter from Jerusalem to Antioch, and there is no good reason to question the identification. Not only did he commend himself to Paul as a congenial colleague; it would be advantageous to have a leading member of the Jerusalem church as his companion. It appears, moreover, from the story of their adventures in Philippi that Silas, like Paul himself, was a Roman citizen (16:37–38); Paul would thus be spared the embarrassment of claiming for himself civic privileges or exemptions which his colleague could not share. Commended afresh to the divine grace by the Antiochene church, as on the earlier occasion when he set out with Barnabas (13:3),90 Paul went with Silas through the cities of Syria and Cilicia, encouraging the believers and strengthening the churches.