Antioch 

There are two ancient cities named Antioch. The more frequently referenced Antioch, known as Antioch on the Orontes or Antioch in Syria, was located on the Mediterranean coast in ancient Syria. It was the third greatest city in the world at the time, surpassed only by Rome and Alexandria. Today, the modern city of Antakya, which derives its name from Antioch, serves as the capital of Hatay Province in southern Turkey, approximately 475 miles north of Jerusalem. Antioch was a major center of early Christianity, hosting a large Jewish population and becoming an early missionary hub. After the destruction of Jerusalem, it served as the headquarters for Pauline Christianity, significantly influencing the spread of Christianity in the Western world. Here, the term “Christians” was first used to describe Paul’s disciples.

Antioch was also the scene of a pivotal controversy involving Gentile Christians and Jewish law, where Peter initially supported but then opposed Paul’s work, leading to a significant dispute between them.

The second city, Antioch in Pisidia, also known as Antioch in Phrygia, is situated in what is now Turkey’s Lakes Region, near the modern town of Yalvac in Isparta Province, about 870 miles north of Jerusalem. It was an important stop during Paul’s first missionary journey and the hometown of Luke, the physician. Luke, a Gentile convert under Paul, wrote his Gospel based on Paul’s teachings, interviews with eyewitnesses, and early written sources, including a copy of Mark’s Gospel.

The two cities, about four hundred miles apart, played distinct but pivotal roles in the spread and development of early Christianity, each hosting key events and figures in the New Testament.

Jesus and two natives from India, Gonod and his son Ganid, toured the Roman world for two years, during Jesus’ twenty-eight and twenty-ninth year, beginning April 26, 22 CE. One of the stops when returning from Rome was Antioch on the Syrian coast. Antioch was the capital of the Roman province of Syria, and here the imperial governor had his residence. It was the empire's third-largest city but the most evil and sinful. Gonod had a lot of business to do, so Jesus and Ganid were very much on their own. They explored every aspect of this multilingual metropolis except the Daphne grove. Gonod and Ganid went to this notorious shrine of shame, but Jesus declined to accompany them. Such events were not particularly surprising to Indians, but they were repulsive to an idealistic Hebrew. Jesus visited few people in Antioch and seldom walked about the city.

In Jesus’ thirty-first year, 25 CE, after a journey to the Caspian Sea, he made one more trip outside of Palestine, and that was into Syria, where he returned to Antioch and spent two months. For three weeks, he worked as a tentmaker. He took time to visit, minister, and teach. When Peter, Paul, and the other Christian teachers were in Rome, they heard about the “tentmaker of Antioch” but hardly guessed this was Jesus, who years before planted seeds to help the apostles’ and others’ future work.

After Jesus was put to death, the cardinal feature of the faith of the early gospel teachers was the unquestioned assurance that Jesus had risen from the dead. In every major center, including Antioch, they stood united. When Jesus made a resurrection appearance in Tyre on May 16, 30 CE, the next day, it was reported in Antioch. The spreading of the new religion about Jesus followed the path of Alexander’s march of former days, going by way of Tyre to Antioch, and then over Asia Minor to Macedonia, then on to Rome, and onward to other parts of the empire.

The early Christians in Jerusalem, believing that Jesus would return any day to complete the kingdom, gave away all their possessions. Soon, the believers in Antioch began taking up a collection to keep their fellow believers from starving.

By the beginning of the second century, Christianity was winning over the best minds of the Roman Empire. One of the reasons was a willingness to compromise with the dominant religion of Mithraism, bringing them over to accept Paul’s version of Christianity, also known as Antioch Christianity.