New Testament History: A Narrative Account by Ben Witherington III

Author:Ben Witherington III
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub, pdf
Tags: REL006000, book
ISBN: 9781441205377
Publisher: Baker Publishing Group
Published: 2003-10-31T17:00:00+00:00

Syrian Antioch was a great city. In fact, Josephus says that it was the third greatest city in the empire, after Rome and Alexandria (J.W. 3.29). We may suspect that Antioch, after Damascus and Jerusalem, was the third major city to become a center for the growing early Christian movement, before there ever was a Pauline mission. Antioch was a large commercial city located on the Orontes River. It was the Roman provincial capital for Syria, with a population in the mid-first century of about a half million people, much larger than either Jerusalem or Damascus. The city had close ties with the Herodians and had received benefactions from them. In addition, the city had a large Jewish population, and Josephus informs us that there were also many proselytes to Judaism there (J.W. 7:45). For Jewish Christians fleeing persecution in Jerusalem, Antioch was a natural place to go to. In fact, Acts 11:20 says that it was Jewish Christians, originally from Cyprus and Cyrene, who began the mission to Antioch, which included approaching both Jews and Gentiles. The considerable success of the witness to Gentiles is probably why Jesus’ followers were first called Christianoi in this city (Acts 11:26), for this term, which means “adherents of Christ,” suggests a group of people who could be naturally distinguished from both Jews and pagans.[15]

Antioch

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