Barnabas, gospel of A medieval forgery by a convert to Islam purporting to give the secret teaching of Jesus. It consists of 222 chapters and claims that Jesus (who was not crucified—Judas took his place) prophesied the coming of Muhammad. Barnabas A Cypriot and a Levite who, on becoming a Christian, generously disposed of his real estate (Acts 4: 36–7) and was instrumental in persuading Paul to come to Antioch (Acts 11: 25–6). Subsequently, Paul and Barnabas travelled together, accompanied by John Mark, a relative of Barnabas, and they are both reported to be at the Council of Jerusalem (Acts 15: 2; 12). A quarrel, however, ended the partnership; according to Acts 15: 38 this was because Paul doubted the reliability of Mark whom Barnabas again wanted with them, though the reason may well have been that Barnabas had sided with Peter against Paul in the confrontation at Antioch about sharing a common table with Gentiles (Gal. 2: 13), which was a scene that the author of Acts probably found resistant to his theme of ecclesiastical harmony. Significantly later, Col. 4:10 has a friendly reference to Mark and Barnabas. In Aramaic, Bar-nabas means ‘having a genius for encouragement’.