Tidings of these events reaching the Church at Jerusalem, in accordance with the precedent already acted upon in Samaria (Acts viii. 14), it was resolved to send to Antioch one in whom they had entire confidence, and who might report on all that had occurred. The person selected for this important duty was no other than Barnabas, _the son of exhortation_, himself a Hellenist, a native of Cyprus, and in all probability well acquainted with Antioch, one known to be _a good man, full of the Holy Ghost, and of faith_ (Acts xi. 24). Accordingly Barnabas set out, and on his arrival found much to approve in the ministrations of the Hellenistic teachers. They had evidently been blessed with great success, and he laboured earnestly to advance it, _exhorting all to cleave to the Lord with full purpose of heart_. His own endeavours did not lose their reward, for the church at Antioch received many additions to its numbers (Acts xi. 24), but Barnabas saw that _a wise master-builder_ (1 Cor. iii. 10) was required for the work, and he therefore set out for Tarsus to fetch Saul. Once more, then, the two met, and Saul proceeded with his friend to the Syrian metropolis, and there side by side they continued to labour for a whole year, and so greatly were their exertions blessed, and so numerous were the additions made to the Church, that it was clear the disciples could no longer be confounded with any sect or party of the Jews. Standing out, then, as a separate community, they acquired a distinctive title, and it was first at Antioch, whose inhabitants were notorious for inventing names of derision[831], that the honourable appellation of CHRISTIANS was first applied to them (Acts xi. 26). This name they were not likely to assume themselves[832], nor is it probable that it was bestowed upon them by the Jews. They called them in hatred and contempt _the sect of the Nazarenes_[833] (Acts xxiv. 5), and Christ being equivalent to Messiah, they were not likely to apply to them a term they themselves held sacred[834]. The name, therefore, probably originated with the Gentiles, and with the Romans rather than the Greeks. The disciples would often speak of Christ as their leader and chief, and the heathens[835] would naturally call them in mockery and derision _Christians_, or the _Followers of Christ_, just as the partisans of Marius were called Mariani, of Pompeius Pompeiani, of Otho Othoniani, of Vitellius Vitelliani, of Herod Herodiani.