Barnabas and Cyprus

Acts 4:36-37 And Joses, who by the apostles was surnamed[i] Barnabas, (which is, being interpreted, The son of consolation,) a Levite, and of the country of Cyprus, having land, sold it, and brought the money, and laid it at the apostles’ feet.

Cyprus is an island nation in the eastern Mediterranean Sea – south of Turkey, west of Syria & Lebanon, and northwest of Israel. It “lies in the eastern Mediterranean some 60 miles west off the coast of Syria and about the same distance [south] from the Turkish coast.”[ii] Cyprus is mentioned eight times in the book of Acts: 4:36; 11:19-20; 13:4; 15:39; 21:3, 16; and 27:4. It may be included, though not by this name, in references to the isles in Ezekiel 27:6-7 (Cf. Genesis 10:4; I Chronicles 1:7).

• Barnabas was a native of Cyprus, Acts 4:36
• Christians were scattered to Cyprus by persecution, Acts 11:19
• Christians from Cyprus were witnesses in Antioch, Acts 11:20
• Barnabas and Paul preached across Cyprus, from Salamis to Paphos, Acts 13:4-13
• Barnabas went back to Cyprus with John Mark, Acts 15:39

Notes:

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[i] surname/ surnamed επικαλειται/ επικληθεις to call upon, to attach an additional name; an appellation added to the original name. Many folks had an additional name or names by which they were called, representing characteristics, places, or perhaps to distinguish them from another of the same name. (Matthew 4:18; 10:2-3; Mark 3:16-17; Luke 6:15; 8:2; 22:3; John 1:42; 11:16; 20:24; Acts 1:23; 9:36; 10:5, 18, 32; 11:13; 12:12, 25; 13:1, 9; 15:22; 15:37; Colossians 4:11). There is a difference in a surname, by which one might at times be called both (e.g., Simon Peter) and simply having a name by which one was called according to the use of different languages (e.g. Dorcas and Tabitha). 

[ii] “Cyprus,” T. C. Mitchell, New Bible Dictionary, p. 285.