Content area
Full Text
BERND KOLLMANN, Joseph Barnabas: His Life and Legacy (Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 2003). Pp. vii + 68. Paper$12.95.
In this translation of Joseph Barnabas: Leben und Wirkungsgeschichte [SBS 175; Stuttgart: Katholisches Bibelwerk, 1998], Bernd Kollmann attempts to reclaim Barnabas as a founding figure of early Christianity, on a par with Peter, Paul, and James. The English follows the German original, but omits some twenty-five pages of postcanonical sources on Barnabas. K.'s method, historical rather than exegetical, provides little textual justification for the conclusions he draws about Barnabas's importance in early Christianity.
The book comprises an introduction followed by five sections and a conclusion. Apart from the section on the pre-Christian Barnabas, K. examines NT texts from Acts and Paul. The section entitled "Later Traditions about Barnabas" deems these sources not helpful for recovering the historical Barnabas.
A brief summary of K.'s portrait of Barnabas highlights its main features. Barnabas was born at the end of the first century B.C.E. in Cyprus. K. imagines him as a farmer or a merchant dealing in agricultural products. Barnabas...