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This week we celebrate the Feast of St Barnabas on Sunday 11 June. We first are introduced to Barnabas in Acts, 4:36-37. “There was a Levite, a native of Cyprus, Joseph, to whom the apostles gave the name Barnabas (which means “son of encouragement”). He sold a field that belonged to him, then brought the money, and laid it at the apostles’ feet.” This would ring bells for any early Jewish Christian reader, that Barnabas a Levite sold a field for the service of God’s kingdom. Because Levites were those who didn’t own land in the first place – Levites gave up land ownership in order to serve Israel’s spiritual well-being, and here is Barnabas, a Levite, selling land perhaps he shouldn’t own, to serve the Church’s well being. But there is a real puzzle here in this short text: the name “Barnabas” doesn’t actually mean “son of encouragement”, but “son of Nebo”! Scholars have lots of theories about what’s happening here, but this is at best educated guesswork. Sometimes that’s as good as it gets. But if we step back from the actual issue, what strikes me is that we can only have a debate about this textual oddity…...