The Acts of the Apostles

LANDS, NATIONS, CITIES, AND HOUSES 89
its foundation was Gentile Christian,^ and mentions
its founders ; ^ he knows that at the very begin-
ning it was extraordinarily flourishing (xi. 21 : 7roXi'9
apiOjuLOi), that through the ministry of Barnabas,
who came thither from Jerusalem,^ it grew yet
stronger (xi. 22-24), and that then for the space
of a year it received instruction from St. Barnabas
and St. Paul, whom the former had brought from
Tarsus (xi. 25, 26).* He moreover knows {loc. cit.)
that the name " Christians " arose in Antioch—of
course invented by opponents ; neither St. Paul nor
the four Evangelists use it— ; he knows an episode in
the primitive history of the community—their offer-
ing on behalf of the brethren in Judaea ; ^ and he has
* There exists a formal discrepancy between xi. 19 and xi. 20
(. . . 'Arrtoxf ^as, fjLrjSevl XaXoCi'Tes top \&yop el /xt) 'Iov5ti.iot.s and iXdopres
els 'AvTLdxetap eXdXovp Kal irpbs Tovs'"EX\ripas), but the discrepancy is
only brought about by stylistic awkwardness. We need not conclude
therefrom that there must have been here two sources. Similar cases
of pardonable awkwardness are also found elsewhere in the book.
2 Chap. xi. 19 : Some men of Cyprus and Cyrene of the number
of those driven from Jerusalem. St. Barnabas the Cypriote did not
belong to them ; for it was not till later that he entered upon the
mission in Antioch. On the other hand, the " old disciple " Mnason
the Cypriote (xxi. 6), with whom St. Paul lodged at Jerusalem,
may have belonged to them. St. Paul may even on this account have
claimed his hospitality, because he had known him of old in Antioch.
2 It is strange that Barnabas, who had been already mentioned
at an earlier period, should here be again specially described (xi. 24).
It may well be that the author wished in this way to explain and
to emphasise the grandeur and the success of his work in Antioch.
* St. Luke thus distinguishes quite plainly three stages in the
early history of the Church in Antioch.
^ The importance which St. Luke seeras to assign to this offering
appears in an especially clear light if we remember what stress St.
Paul laid upon the collections for Jerusalem. St. Paul continues
what the Christians of Antioch had begun.