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(Gal. 1:15). Yet he needed more than this commission
and separation fully to qualify him for the service. This confirmation was now added. The Holy Ghost called upon
the assembled church to `separate Me, Barnabas and Saul'. The particle de (δη) is not translated in either the A.V.
or the R.V. Weymouth's translation reads:
`Set apart for Me, now at once, Barnabas and Saul. When therefore the brethren had fasted and prayed, and laid
their hands on them, they sent them away' (Acts 13:2,3).
While there are passages in the Acts that show that the gift of holy spirit was conferred by the laying on of
hands, it is not always so. For example, Stephen was a man `full of faith and of the Holy Ghost' yet the apostles laid
their hands on him (Acts 6:5,6), and there is no suggestion that any gift was conferred upon Barnabas and Saul on
this occasion. It seems rather to have been a means of expressing hearty agreement with their call to service,
and is actually explained in the words of Acts 14:26, `recommended to the grace of God for the work'. The apostle
evidently referred to this occasion when he wrote:
`Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, separated unto the gospel of God' (Rom. 1:1).
The first step taken by the apostles Barnabas and Saul for the evangelization of the Gentiles is now recorded:
`So they, being sent forth by the Holy Ghost, departed unto Seleucia; and from thence they sailed to Cyprus'
(Acts 13:4).
Barnabas was of the country of Cyprus (Acts 4:36) and after the rupture with Paul he took John Mark with him
back to Cyprus (Acts 15:39). While, as in the case of Barnabas and John Mark, family affection may sometimes
prove a hindrance to spiritual work, there is no reason, in itself, why it should not be a help. So in the decision to
make Cyprus the first sphere of labour, love of country may have had some weight.
The great mission had now been launched, and the course set. In our next section we shall be free to take up the
record of the ministry accomplished on this island and to learn its most important dispensational lesson.
`Saul, who also is called Paul'
Acts 13:4-13
As the little vessel leaves the shores of Syria carrying, on their great adventure, the two emissaries of a despised
faith, what insignificant persons must they have appeared. There seems to have been no `send off', except that
lowly one in the atmosphere of prayer and fasting (Acts 13:3). As they traversed the miles of sea, slowly reducing
the distance from the place of their initial ministry, there could have been little realization of the tremendous issues
that hung, humanly speaking, upon their faithfulness and courage.
The strongest might have felt the task too great: still more such a man as Paul. His bodily presence is described
by the Corinthians as `weak' and as we hope to prove, he reminds the Galatians that he was with them on this very
journey, during a bout of sickness (Gal. 4:13). Before the journey is accomplished and the apostle is back again at
Antioch, he is to meet with the opposition of sorcery, the contradiction and blasphemy of the Jew, persecution at the
hands even of the honourable and the devout, despiteful handling by the combined attack of Jew and Gentile, and
the ordeal of stoning and being left for dead: yet is he sustained and preserved. The grace of God, to which they had
been recommended (Acts 14:26), proved all-sufficient, and the door of faith had been opened to the Gentiles.
No particulars are given of the work done upon the island. The verb kateggellon used in Acts 13:5 suggests a
`continuance' of preaching in the synagogues of the Jews, a number of which may therefore have been visited at
Salamis. The island is about 150 miles long, and the distance between Salamis and Paphos is 100 miles. It appears
from the narrative, and from the relative positions of Salamis and Paphos, that, excepting the promontory east of
Salamis, the whole of the island (Acts 13:6) was traversed and the gospel preached. Yet not until the arrival at