THE IDEA OF AN APOSTOLATE TO THE GENTILES.--SAINT
BARNABAS.
Great was the excitement at Jerusalem[13.1] on hearing what had passed
at Antioch. Notwithstanding the kindly wishes of a few of the principal
members of the Church of Jerusalem, Peter in particular, the Apostolic
College continued to be influenced by mean and unworthy ideas. On every
occasion when they heard that the good news had been announced to the
heathen, these veteran Christians manifested signs of disappointment.
The man who this time triumphed over this miserable jealousy, and who
prevented the narrow exclusiveness of the "Hebrews" from ruining the
future of Christianity, was Barnabas. He was the most enlightened
member of the Church at Jerusalem. He was the chief of the liberal and
progressive party, and wished the Church to be open to all. Already he
had powerfully contributed to remove the mistrust with which Paul was
regarded; and this time, also, he excited a marked influence. Sent as a
delegate of the apostolical body to Antioch, he examined and approved
of all that had been done, and declared that the new Church had only
to continue in the course upon which it had entered. Conversions were
effected in great numbers. The vital and creative force of Christianity
appeared to be concentrated at Antioch. Barnabas, whose zeal always
inclined to action, resided there. Antioch thenceforth is his Church,
and it is thence that he exercised his most influential and important
ministry. Christianity has always done injustice to this man in not
placing him in the first rank of her founders. Barnabas was the patron
of all good and liberal ideas. His intelligent boldness often served
to neutralize the obstinacy of the narrow-minded Jews who formed the
conservative party of Jerusalem.
A magnificent idea germinated in this noble heart at Antioch. Paul
was at Tarsus in a forced repose, which to an active man like him,
was a perfect torture. His false position, his haughtiness, and his
exaggerated pretensions, had neutralized many of his other and better
qualities. He was uselessly wearing his life away; Barnabas knew how
to apply to its true work that force which was corroding Paul in his
unhealthy and dangerous solitude. For the second time, Barnabas took
the hand of Paul, and led this savage character into the society of
those brethren whom he avoided. He went himself to Tarsus, sought
him out, and brought him to Antioch.[13.2] He did that which those
obstinate old brethren of Jerusalem were never able to do. To win over
this great, reticent, and susceptible soul; to accommodate oneself to
the caprices and whims of a man full of fiery excitement, but very
personal; to take a secondary part under him, and forgetful of oneself,
to prepare the field of operations for the most favorable display of
his abilities--all this is certainly the very climax of virtue; and
this is what Barnabas did for Paul. Most of the glory which has accrued
to the latter is really due to the modest man who led him forward,
brought his merits to light, prevented more than once his faults from
resulting deplorably to himself and his cause, and the illiberal
views of others from exciting him to revolt; and also prevented his
insignificant and unworthy personalities from interfering with the work
of God.
During an entire year Barnabas and Paul co-operated actively.[13.3]
This was without doubt a most brilliant and happy year in the life
of Paul. The prolific originality of these two great men raised the
Church of Antioch to a degree of grandeur to which no Christian Church
had previously attained. Few places in the world had experienced more
intellectual activity than the capital of Syria. During the Roman
epoch, as in our time, social and religious questions were brought
to the surface principally at the centres of population. A sort of
reaction against the general immorality which later made Antioch the
special abode of stylites and hermits[13.4] was already felt; and the
true doctrine thus found in this city more favorable conditions for
success than it had yet met.
An important circumstance proves besides, that it was at Antioch that
the sect for the first time had full consciousness of its existence;
for it was in this city that it received a distinct name. Hitherto its
adherents had called themselves "believers," "the faithful," "saints,"
"brothers," or disciples; but the sect had no public and official name.
It was at Antioch that the title of _Christianus_ was devised.[13.5]
The termination of the word is Latin, not Greek, which would indicate
that it was selected by the Roman authority as an appellation of the
police[13.6] like _Herodiani_, _Pompeiani_, _Cæsariani_.[13.7] In
any event it is certain that such a name was formed by the heathen
population. It included a misapprehension, for it implied that
_Christus_, a translation of the Hebrew _Maschiah_ (the Messiah), was a
proper name.[13.8] Not a few of those who were unfamiliar with Jewish
or Christian ideas, by this name were led to believe that _Christus_
or _Chrestus_ was a sectarian leader yet living.[13.9] The vulgar
pronunciation of the name indeed was _Chrestiani_.[13.10]
The Jews did not adopt in a regular manner, at least,[13.11] the name
given by the Romans to their schismatic co-religionists. They continued
to call the new converts "Nazarenes" or "Nazorenes,"[13.12] undoubtedly
because they were accustomed to call Jesus Han-nasri or Han-nosri, "the
Nazarene;" and even unto the present day this name is still applied to
them throughout the entire East.[13.13]
This was a most important moment. Solemn indeed was the hour when the
new creation received its name, for that name is the direct symbol of
its existence. It is by its name that an individual or a community
really becomes itself as distinct from others. The formation of
the word "Christian" also marks the precise date of the separation
from Judaism of the Church of Jesus. For a long time to come the
two religions will be confounded; but this confusion will only take
place in those countries where the spread of Christianity is slow
and backward. The sect quickly accepted the appellation which was
applied to it, and viewed it as a title of honor.[13.14] It is really
astonishing to reflect that ten years after the death of Jesus His
religion had already in the capital of Syria, a name in the Greek and
Latin tongues. Christianity is now completely weaned from its mother's
breast; the true sentiments of Jesus have triumphed over the indecision
of its first disciples; the Church of Jerusalem is left behind; the
Aramaic language, in which Jesus spoke, is unknown to a portion of
His followers; Christianity speaks Greek; and the new sect is finally
launched into that great vortex of the Greek and Roman world, whence it
will never issue.
The feverish activity of ideas manifested by this young Church
was truly extraordinary. Great spiritual manifestations were
frequent.[13.15] All believed themselves to be inspired in different
ways. Some were "prophets," others "teachers."[13.16] Barnabas, as his
name indicates,[13.17] was undoubtedly among the prophets. Paul had
no special title. Among the leaders of the church at Antioch may also
be mentioned Simeon, surnamed _Niger_, Lucius of Cirene, and Menahem,
who had been the foster-brother of Herod Antipas, and was naturally
quite old.[13.18] All these personages were Jews. Among the converted
heathen was, perhaps, already that Evhode, who, at a certain period,
seems to have occupied a leading place in the Church of Antioch.[13.19]
Undoubtedly the heathen who heard the first preaching were slightly
inferior, and did not shine in the public exercises of using unknown
tongues, of preaching, and prophecy. In the midst of the congenial
society of Antioch, Paul quickly adapted himself to the order of
things. Later, he manifested opposition to the use of tongues,{13.20}
and it is probable that he never practised it; but he had many visions
and immediate revelations.[13.21] It was apparently at Antioch{13.22}
that occurred that ecstatic trance which he describes in these terms:
"I knew a man in Christ above fourteen years ago (whether in the body I
cannot tell; or whether out of the body, I cannot tell--God knoweth).
Such an one was caught up to the third heaven.[13.23] And I knew such
a man (whether in the body or out of the body I cannot tell--God
knoweth), how that he was caught up into paradise[13.24] and heard
unspeakable words which it is not lawful for a man to utter."[13.25]
Paul, though in general sober and practical, shared the prevalent ideas
of the day in regard to the supernatural. Like so many others, he
believed that he possessed the power of working miracles;[13.26] it was
impossible that the gift of the Holy Spirit, which was acknowledged to
be the common right of the Church,[13.27] should be denied to him.
But men permeated with so lively a faith cannot content themselves
with merely exuberant piety, but pant for action. The idea of great
missions, destined to convert the heathen, and beginning in Asia
Minor, seized hold of the public mind. Had such an idea been formed
at Jerusalem, it could not have been realized, because the Church
there was without pecuniary resources. An extensive establishment of
propagandism requires a solid capital to work on. Now, the common
treasury at Jerusalem was devoted to the support of the poor, and was
frequently insufficient for that purpose; and to save these noble
mendicants from dying with hunger, it was necessary to obtain help from
all quarters.[13.28] Communism had created at Jerusalem an irremediable
poverty and a thorough incapacity for great enterprises. The Church
at Antioch was exempt from such a calamity. The Jews in the profane
cities had attained to affluence, and in some cases had accumulated
vast fortunes.[13.29] The faithful were wealthy when they entered
the Church. Antioch furnished the pecuniary capital for the founding
of Christianity, and it is easy to imagine the total difference in
manner and spirit which this circumstance alone would create between
the two churches. Jerusalem remained the city of the poor of God, of
the _ebionim_ of those simple Galilean dreamers, intoxicated, as it
were, with the expectation of the kingdom of Heaven.[13.30] Antioch,
almost a stranger to the words of Jesus, which it had never heard, was
the church of action and of progress. Antioch was the city of Paul;
Jerusalem, the seat of the old apostolic college, wrapped up in its
dreamy fantasies, and unequal to the new problems which were opening,
but dazzled by its incomparable privileges, and rich in its unsurpassed
recollections.
A certain circumstance soon brought all these traits into bold relief.
So great was the lack of forethought in this half-starved Church of
Jerusalem, that the least accident threw the community into distress.
Now in a country, destitute of economic organization, where commerce
is almost without development, and where the sources of welfare are
limited, famines are inevitable. A terrible one occurred in the reign
of Claudius, in the year 44.[13.31] When its threatening symptoms
appeared, the veterans at Jerusalem decided to seek succor from the
members of the richer churches of Syria. An embassy of prophets was
sent from Jerusalem to Antioch.[13.32] One of them, named Agab, who was
in high reputation for his prophetic powers, was suddenly inspired, and
announced that the famine was now at hand. The faithful were deeply
moved at the evils which menaced the mother Church, to which they still
deemed themselves tributary. A collection was made, at which every
one gave according to his means, and Barnabas was selected to carry
the funds obtained to the brethren in Judea.[13.33] Jerusalem for a
long time remained the capital of Christianity. There were centred the
objects peculiar to the faith, and there only were the apostles.[13.34]
But a great forward step had been taken. For several years there had
been only one completely organized Church, that of Jerusalem--the
absolute centre of the faith, the heart from which all life proceeded
and through which it circulated; but it no longer maintained this
monopoly. The church at Antioch was now a perfect church. It possessed
all the hierarchy of the gifts of the Holy Ghost. It was the
starting-point of the missions,[13.35] and their head-quarters.[13.36]
It was a second capital, or rather a second heart, which had its own
proper action, exercising its force and influence in every direction.
It is easy to foresee that the second capital must soon eclipse the
first. The decay of the church at Jerusalem was, indeed, rapid. It is
natural that institutions founded on communism should enjoy at the
beginning a period of brilliancy, for communism involves high mental
exaltation; and it is equally natural that such institutions should
very quickly degenerate, because communism is contrary to the instincts
of human nature. During a moment of great religious excitement, a
man readily believes that he can entirely sacrifice his selfish
individuality and his peculiar interests; but egotism has its revenge,
in proving that absolute disinterestedness engenders evils more serious
than by the suppression of individual rights in property it had hoped
to avoid.