“Barnabas (meaning Son of Encouragement)”
Acts 4:36
IdiomSettledNarrator
Joseph, a Levite from Cyprus, whom the apostles called Barnabas (meaning Son of Encouragement), (Acts 4:36 BSB)
What it sounds like today
A nickname with a translation footnote.
The cultural key
The Semitic 'son of' idiom again: bar (son) plus a quality names what a person embodies, as in the sons of thunder (Mark 3:17) or sons of the kingdom. The apostles rename Joseph the way Jesus renamed Simon: the nickname is a character reference. Acts then spends chapters proving it earned: Barnabas sells a field for the common fund, vouches for the newly converted Saul when everyone else is afraid of him, and fetches him from Tarsus for the work at Antioch.
Recovered meaning
A man so defined by putting courage into other people that his given name fell away. Half of Paul's story exists because the Son of Encouragement kept sponsoring people nobody else would risk.
Parallels: Mark 3:17; Acts 9:26–27; Acts 11:22–26