Acts 11:24

Good. Or, “upright” (see Luke 18:18, 19). Applied to Barnabas, this was high praise, and no doubt expressed Luke’s personal opinion of the man. He was perhaps careful to put this recommendation into the record because he would shortly have to narrate the contention that was to separate Barnabas from Luke’s own friend and fellow worker, Saul of Tarsus (Acts 15:39).

Full of the Holy Ghost. A man of character like Barnabas, eminent among the Greek Jews of Antioch, would have a great influence among both Jews and Greeks in the city. The same qualification is given for Stephen (ch. 6:5). It was in consequence of the persecution following Stephen’s death that the preachers had come to Antioch. Some of them may have been Grecians who had been active in the work for which Stephen was martyred.

Much people. Literally, “a great multitude,” implying a large increase over the work related in v. 21. The approval of the church in Jerusalem on what was being done, as expressed in the joy and encouragement of Barnabas, “the son of exhortation,” would increase the zeal of these earnest workers for Christ.