Thread by @JamesBejon

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Not the most urgent question of the day, but...

...who exactly is the Joseph mentioned in Acts 4.36?

#DetailsMatter

Please scroll down for my suggestion.

Or feel free to propose a better one.

In Acts 4.36, we’re introduced to a man named Joseph.

He’s introduced in such a way as to suggest we’ve previously heard of him. (‘Thus Joseph sold a field...’.)

And, immediately afterwards, we’re told three things about him.

First, the apostles give him the (nick?)name ‘Barnabas’.

Second, he’s a Levite.

And, third, he’s a native of Cyprus.

So, who might he be?

Well, we’ve only met one Joseph before in the book of Acts.

That particular Joseph is mentioned in 1.23 and is also named ‘Bar-Sabbas’,

which is a curious detail.

Like the modern-day Amharic name ‘feresanbat’, the name ‘Bar-Sabbas’ is likely to have been given to people who were been born on the Sabbath.

(For similar conventions, consider names like ‘Haggai’ = ‘born on a feast-day’ and ‘Shabbethai’ = ‘born on the Sabbath’.)

As such, it’s a pretty multi-cultural name. It’s grounded in a thoroughly Jewish word and custom, yet ends in a Greek suffix (-as).

It’s therefore a good fit for a Jew who, like the Joseph of Acts 4, happens to be a native of Cyprus.

Might, therefore, the Joseph of Acts 4 be the Joseph-aka-Barnabas mentioned in Acts 1?

If so, it would explain why the apostles chose to name him ‘Bar-Nabas’. (Just as the name ‘Saul’ sounds like ‘Paul’, so the name ‘Bar-Nabas’ sounds like ‘Bar-Sabbas’, right?)

Furthermore, we’d expect the name ‘Bar-Sabbas’ to be borne by a Levite,

since the only people with similar names (viz. ‘Shabbethai’) in the OT are Levites (cp. Ezra 10.15, Neh. 8.7, 11.16).

It’d therefore be quite neat if the Joseph-aka-Barsabbas of Acts 1 turned out to be the Levite named Barnabas of Acts 4.

And it might not be entirely coincidental that the Joseph of Acts 4 would have made an apt replacement for Judas,

which the Joseph of Acts 1 was (almost) chosen out to do,

since, while Judas was bought a piece of land and ended up facedown in the midst of it, Barnabas freely sold the land he owned for the sake of God’s kingdom and laid it at the feet of the apostles.

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