Verses 36 and 37 constitute a particular instance of the immediately preceding generalized statement of the behavior of people in the believing community. At the same time these verses serve as an introduction to Barnabas and as a transition to the following story. It is, therefore, essential that this brief section be carefully structured so as to fulfill these important requirements in the discourse.
And so it was that translates a particle which Luke uses to indicate a transition in a narrative. It is rendered variously in different translations: “for instance” (New English Bible), “it was at this time” (Phillips), “there was a” (Jerusalem Bible), and it is not translated at all by An American Translation*.
A transition in a number of languages is “and so it happened that” or “and so it was with Joseph.”
One who Encourages is literally “a son of encouragement”; but the Semitic phrase “son of” is used to indicate the qualities or characteristics which distinguish a person. Evidently Barnabas had the gift for encouraging his fellow Christians (see 11.23 where a verb is used which comes from the same stem as this noun: he [Barnabas] was glad and urged [that is, “encouraged”] them all to be faithful…).
The heavy set of attributives to Joseph requires in many languages a series of closely related, complete sentences. He was not only a Levite, but he was born in Cyprus; the apostles called him Barnabas and, in addition, there is an explanation of what this name meant. In some languages such a series could be translated as “And so it happened with Joseph. This man was a Levite born in Cyprus. The apostles gave him the name Barnabas. (In their language the name meant ‘he is the One who Encourages.’)” It is understood, of course, that the term Levite will be explained in a glossary and that a map will be published with a translation of any book such as Acts so that people can identify where Cyprus is. In some languages a classifier such as “island” can be added to the term Cyprus, so as to give people some idea as to what this geographical proper name refers.
Quoted with permission from Newman, Barclay M. and Nida, Eugene A. A Handbook on The Acts of the Apostles. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1972. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .