Greek form of an Aramaic name. In Acts in the New Testament the byname Barnabas was given to a man named Joseph, a Jew from Cyprus who was a companion of Paul on his missionary journeys. The original Aramaic form is unattested, but it may be from בּר נביא (bar naviya’) meaning “son of the prophet”.

Altogether, the name Barnabas occurs 29 times in the New Testament.

 

The author of Acts writes that the apostles gave Barnabas his nickname and explains that it means Son of Encouragement (Acts 4, 36), which is not a literal translation but rather a paraphrase (something similar happens with the name Boanerges). The word Luke uses is παρακλησις (paraklesis), which describes the act of calling people close together, toward a closer and stronger union. It is derived from the verb παρακλεω (parakaleo), which in turn is a construct of the words παρα (para), which expresses the notion of immediate proximity or closeness, and the verb καλεω (kaleo), which means to call.