The Church at Antioch, Where Believers Were First Called Christians

Josephus calls Antioch the metropolis of Syria, ranks it third among the cities of the Roman empire, and says that it had a large and long-established Jewish community, which had drawn many Greeks to its worship (Josephus, Jewish War 3.29) (Josephus, Jewish War 7.43–45).

According to Acts, believers scattered by the persecution that followed Stephen’s death travelled as far as Phoenicia, Cyprus and Antioch, speaking only to Jews. Some of them, men from Cyprus and Cyrene, began at Antioch to speak also to “Hellenists”, by which Acts here appears to mean people who were not Jews, since it sets them against “Jews only”. A great number believed (Acts 11:19–21). The church in Jerusalem sent Barnabas to see what was happening. He was glad at what he found, and went to Tarsus to look for Saul, the future apostle Paul. He brought him back, and for a whole year the two met with the church and taught a large number of people (Acts 11:22–26).

“The disciples were first called Christians in Antioch” (Acts 11:26). The word is rare in the New Testament. It occurs twice more, once on the lips of King Agrippa II and once in a passage about suffering “as a Christian” (Acts 26:28) (1 Peter 4:16). The Roman historian Tacitus, writing of the year 64, says that it was the name the crowd gave them (Tacitus, Annals 15.44).

Acts says that prophets came down from Jerusalem and that one of them, Agabus, foretold a great famine over all the world, which came in the reign of Claudius. The disciples at Antioch decided to send help, each according to his means, to the believers in Judea, and sent it to the elders there by Barnabas and Saul (Acts 11:27–30). Josephus records a great famine in Judea under the procurators Fadus and Tiberius Alexander, during which Queen Helena bought grain in Egypt and figs in Cyprus for the people of Jerusalem (Josephus, Antiquities 20.101) (Josephus, Antiquities 20.51–53).

Acts lists the prophets and teachers of the church: Barnabas, Simeon called Niger, Lucius of Cyrene, Manaen, who had been brought up with Herod the tetrarch, and Saul. While they were worshipping and fasting, Acts says, the Holy Spirit told them to set apart Barnabas and Saul for a new work, and they laid hands on them and sent them off (Acts 13:1–3). In Acts Antioch thus becomes the base of the mission to the Gentiles. Paul set out from it on each of his three journeys in Acts (Acts 15:35–40) (Acts 18:22–23). It was there that the dispute over circumcision broke out, and there that he confronted Peter over eating with Gentiles (Acts 15:1–2) (Galatians 2:11–14).