The Church at Antioch

The event

Believers scattered by the persecution following Stephen's death carried the gospel as far as Phoenicia, Cyprus, and Antioch in Syria - the third-largest city in the Roman Empire - initially preaching only to Jews. But some of these believers, men from Cyprus and Cyrene, began speaking to Greeks in Antioch as well, "and the hand of the Lord was with them, and a great number who believed turned to the Lord" (Acts 11:21). When word reached the Jerusalem church, they sent Barnabas to investigate, and what he found so encouraged him that he went to Tarsus to find Saul and bring him back to help teach the rapidly growing congregation.

It was in Antioch, Luke notes, that the disciples were first called "Christians" (Acts 11:26). The Antioch congregation quickly showed the same generous spirit as Jerusalem's, sending famine relief back to the believers in Judea through Barnabas and Saul (Acts 11:27-30). Then, while the church was worshiping and fasting, the Holy Spirit set apart Barnabas and Saul for a wider work, and the church commissioned them with prayer and the laying on of hands (Acts 13:1-3).

Dated to roughly the early-to-mid 40s AD, Antioch's rise as a thriving, multi-ethnic congregation and its commissioning of Barnabas and Saul mark it as the true launching pad of the Gentile mission - the base of operations Paul would return to after each of his missionary journeys.

Dating

Acts 11:19-21 traces Antioch's first evangelization to believers scattered after Stephen's death, which may have begun in the mid-to-late 30s AD. The c. AD 42-44 date reflects the period when the church emerges as a major center - Barnabas's arrival, the year he and Saul spent teaching there, and the disciples first being called Christians - shortly before the famine-relief visit of the mid-40s.

Scripture references

• Acts 11:19-30
• Acts 13:1-3

Further reading

• Bible Odyssey (SBL): Antioch
• Bible Odyssey (SBL): Antioch to Jerusalem