by Edwin Crozier<\/p>\n
The first stop for Barnabas and Saul on this first missionary journey has some really interesting wordplay in the names.<\/p>\n
First, you’ve got Bar-Jesus and Barnabas. The first literally means “son of Jesus,” and the second literally means “son of the prophets.” Luke gives us more insight by calling him the “son of encouragement<\/em>” (Acts 4:36). Paul gives more insight into Bar-Jesus when he calls the magician a “son of the devil<\/em>” (Acts 13:10).<\/p>\n Then, we meet a proconsul named Sergius Paulus. Oddly enough, in this story we will discover Saul was also known by the Greek name Paul. From this point on in Acts, he will take that Greek name. That shift likely happens because he travels in Greek regions and works among Greek speakers. Yet, how odd that Luke brings it up in an event where we meet another Paul.<\/p>\n However, more intriguing than the contrasting wordplay is the contrast in character. Bar-Jesus was a Jewish false prophet who was attacking and speaking against the gospel. Though Saul was not called a prophet before becoming a Christian, he, like Bar-Jesus, had opposed the gospel. But the same thing happened to Bar-Jesus as it had to Saul. He was struck blind for a time and had to seek people to lead him by the hand (see Acts 9:8). However, for all the wordplay with names and such, we see the real distinction. Sergius Paulus turned to the Lord when he saw what happened to Bar-Jesus. But we hear nothing of Bar-Jesus’s conversation. When Saul was struck blind, he responded with submission. When Bar-Jesus was struck blind, he didn’t respond at all.<\/p>\n This gets back to one point. Saul chose to follow Jesus. Bar-Jesus, whose name means “son of Jesus,” chose not to. Folks often want to fixate on all the events that happen to them. It’s as if some believe they had to respond the way they did because of what they experienced. But these two men experienced similar things, yet they chose to respond differently.<\/p>\n This leaves us with the question. Not what has happened to me and where has it led me? Rather, how will I respond to Jesus? How will you?<\/p>\n Can we help you surrender to Jesus as both of the Pauls did?<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" by Edwin Crozier The first stop for Barnabas and Saul on this first missionary journey has some really interesting wordplay in the names. First, you’ve got Bar-Jesus and Barnabas. The first literally means “son of Jesus,” and the second literally means “son of the prophets.” Luke gives us more insight by calling him the “son…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_seo_schema_type":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[27],"tags":[118,416],"class_list":["post-98737","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article","tag-paul","tag-submission"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":33919,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/barnabas-the-encourager\/","url_meta":{"origin":98737,"position":0},"title":"Barnabas – The Encourager","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"April 5, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"by Ross Ward Text: Acts 4:31-37 Barnabas' work in Acts Acts 4:31-37 - gave of himself Acts 9:26-30 - advocated for Saul in Jerusalem Acts 11:19-24 - qualities as a servant Acts 11:25-26 - advocates for Saul Acts 15:35-41 - advocates for John Mark Being a Barnabas Barnabas sacrificed himself\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Audio"","block_context":{"text":"Audio","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/audio\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":17146,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/what-prophet-did-god-blind\/","url_meta":{"origin":98737,"position":1},"title":"What prophet did God blind?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 2, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: What prophet did God blind? Answer: The question is worded vaguely enough that there are two possible answers: The false prophet, Elymas, was blinded. \"Now when they had gone through the island to Paphos, they found a certain sorcerer, a false prophet, a Jew whose name was Bar-Jesus, who\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":84572,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/do-churches-decide-where-preachers-should-teach\/","url_meta":{"origin":98737,"position":2},"title":"Do churches decide where preachers should teach?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"February 14, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Do preachers have to be sent out by churches according to Romans 10:15? Answer: \"For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; for the same Lord is Lord of all, abounding in riches for all who call on Him; for \"Whoever will call on the name of the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3321,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/is-jesus-the-name-used-in-the-new-testament\/","url_meta":{"origin":98737,"position":3},"title":"Is “Jesus” the name used in the New Testament?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"October 17, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Can you demonstrate that \"Jesus\" is a very old name mentioned by the writers of the New Testament? Answer: The New Testament was originally written in Greek. The name for our Lord was spelled \"Iesous\" in Greek (using English letters). Four people in the New Testament are mentioned having\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":22343,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/from-saul-to-david-from-david-to-jesus\/","url_meta":{"origin":98737,"position":4},"title":"From Saul to David, From David to Jesus","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"May 13, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"by Edwin Crozier Paul makes a subtle but profoundly powerful argument in his sermon at Antioch of Pisidia (Acts 13:16-41). The people, Paul explains, asked for a king (Acts 13:21). So God gave them Saul the son of Kish. As far as the worldly-minded would be concerned, Saul was a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/change-300x169.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":9611,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/location\/","url_meta":{"origin":98737,"position":5},"title":"Location","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"September 13, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"by Jeffrey W. Hamilton Text: Psalm 119:153-160 \u00a0 I.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The Bible doesn\u2019t contain fillers. Every word exists in its text for a reason - I Corinthians 2:11-13 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0A.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0That doesn\u2019t mean we are always aware of the reason but we should acknowledge that God does know His purpose \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0B.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The four gospels only\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Audio"","block_context":{"text":"Audio","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/audio\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Part of the Madaba Map showing Bethabara. The map says in Greek, \"Bethabara, the place of Saint John's baptizing.\"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/Sapsaphas_Madaba-300x225.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98737","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=98737"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98737\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":98740,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98737\/revisions\/98740"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=98737"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=98737"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=98737"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}