9. A “New” Christian Community Is Born in Antioch

Acts of the Apostles

 

“Now the apostles and the brothers who were in Judea heard that the Gentiles too had accepted the word of God.” Peter went to Caesarea. In the house of the centurion Cornelius, he announced the Gospel to a group of foreigners and baptized them. The news reached Jerusalem, and instead of rejoicing in this missionary opening, the Christians of Jerusalem scold Peter; when he returns he is scolded because he entered the houses of the uncircumcised. Peter says: ‘I did something worse; not only did I go in the house, but I also baptized them.’ And he has to defend himself.

At the beginning of chapter 11 of the Acts of the Apostles, we find a speech by Peter in which he summarizes the history of Cornelius. It is interesting to note that this story is considered very important by the author of Acts, so much so that he mentions it three times. The first time, with all the details of the event and then Luke places two speeches in the mouth of Peter, one in chapter 11, and another in chapter 15, in which the protagonist narrates the same event as a probative argument for God’s will to open up horizons, to break out of the encirclement of Israel and bring the Gospel to all peoples.

Several years have already passed since the Passover of Jesus Christ, and it means that in these years, the apostles remained in Jerusalem and were content to announce the Gospel to the inhabitants of Jerusalem and therefore to the Jews who perhaps came from different parts of the ancient world, also those Greek-speaking Jews, the Hellenists, but always remaining within the sphere of Judaism. The community grew and even reached some Christian cells to Damascus. There are small communities in Lydda and Joppa.

Philip went down to Samaria, He announced the Gospel to the Samaritans and gave birth to communities in that region; he baptized the Ethiopian. Now with the official arrival of Cornelius in the Christian Church, the apostle Peter tells the whole community that the path is that of the opening, the Gospel is for all people. It has taken a few years to understand the mentality of God and the style that the Church had to follow. This is an important observation that we must reiterate because, throughout its history, the Church continues to seek the way of the Lord and the methodologies to be applied; discernment in the face of new situations implies research, must be illuminated by the grace of Christ.

The early apostolic community had its own ideas, but in the face of certain signs, they were able to change perspective. The signs of the times, observed with faith, have changed the mentality of people of faith, who have followed the line of the Lord. After having extensively told the episode of Cornelius, the account of the Acts, in chapter 11, verse 19, takes up the previous narrative thread.

We remember that in the time of Stephen, in the year 36, a violent persecution broke out against the Christian group, in particular against the Hellenists, the Greek-speaking Jews who had adhered to Jesus considering him the Messiah. In that year, the synedrion, having all the power, took advantage of it to eliminate these characters considered dangerous; they eliminated Stephen as the most authoritative and, therefore, the most dangerous and drove everyone else out of town. Where did they go?

Here the story continues from that moment: “Now those who had been scattered by the persecution that arose because of Stephen went as far as Phoenicia, Cyprus, and Antioch, preaching the word to no one but Jews.” There is a Christian diaspora, that is, a spread of believers who are scattered in the regions around Jerusalem. Saying this seems very insignificant, but in reality, we have to imagine that these people lost their homes, their jobs, the environment where they grew up and where they wanted to live, they are forcibly exiled, are expelled and therefore lose everything that was their natural environment; they must rebuild their lives, they have to find a home, look for a new job, resume social contact of relationships and friendships.

These were painful and tiring situations that lasted months, years; they must rebuild a life. They bring with them that Christian faith that has matured in Jerusalem and being of Jewish origin, they maintain that habit of relating only with the Jews and they talk about these religious things concerning the Messiah, for example, only with the Jews, that is, they did not intentionally go looking for others to proclaim the Gospel. However, in ordinary life, it is customary to talk about one’s situation. Imagine dealing with neighbors or co-workers; these Christians sent out from Jerusalem they told why they left… they were persecuted… Why were they persecuted? For a religious reason, because they believed that Jesus was the Christ.

So, it is possible that the collaborators and neighbors were not Jewish and the word ‘Christ’ meant nothing to them. They must have asked what it meant, and without wanting to, without a programmatic intention of evangelization, they announced the person of Jesus, his history, his theological message. And the Gospel interested non-Jewish people who were outside the biblical environment, of traditional religious knowledge. They were attracted by the proclamation of the Gospel and asked for something more and the Christians did what they could. Without a detailed plan, they began an authentic evangelization.

“There were some Cypriots and Cyrenians among them, however, who came to Antioch and began to speak to the Greeks as well, proclaiming the Lord Jesus. The hand of the Lord was with them and a great number who believed turned to the Lord.” Attention is drawn to one city, Antioch, the capital of Syria, a vast city, one of the main metropolises of the Roman world.

Antioch was the gateway to the Orient. The entire eastern world of Syria, from Mesopotamia, reached the Mediterranean and flowed to Antioch; it was a cosmopolitan city where people spoke Greek, but the peasants kept Syriac or Aramaic even for centuries. In this huge city, where there were people of all races, languages, and religions, a group of Jews coming from Jerusalem gave birth to a new community of believers in Christ.

Luke was from Antioch; the narrator of Acts probably met Jesus on this occasion. We are in the ’40s; the persecution had arrived in the year 36, some years have passed and after this period, a Christian group begins to be born. Most likely, doctor Luke was one of these non-Jewish Greeks who came to know the Gospel and were interested. A man of culture who became interested in the Bible read the biblical text in the Greek translation of the Seventy and matured a bond of faith. The hand of the Lord was with them, without them noticing or understanding anything, but the simple announcement bore fruit. “The news about them reached the ears of the church in Jerusalem.”

The news is that a large number of Greeks became Christians. It was a new thing. It started with the Samaritans, then an Ethiopian, then Cornelius’ family, but now unexpectedly, in a Greek city like Antioch, a large community of non-Jewish Christians is born. The Jerusalem community sent an inspector… a bishop. One who had the task of observing the situation to verify it. It was Barnabas, who was originally from Cyprus. We had already found him when Luke told us that he had sold a field and offered the apostles the profits.

This Barnabas, a Levite, therefore, from a Sadducee environment, Hellenistic, rich, has become a Christian and since Antioch is opposite Cyprus, one of the areas could better deal with that case. And Barnabas came to Antioch, a city of 700,000 inhabitants, sought out that group and attended some of their meetings or celebrations.

“When he arrived and saw the grace of God, he rejoiced and encouraged them all to remain faithful to the Lord in firmness of heart, for he was a good man, filled with the Holy Spirit and faith.” Barnabas saw the grace of God. What did he see? He saw the happy and enthusiastic people; he saw that some Greeks were happy to accept the word of God from the Hebrew Scriptures; he saw men and women eager to put into practice what the Lord had taught them. He found people who believed in Jesus, who had placed their lives in the hands of Christ. He recognized that this was the grace of God. If it had not been for the hand of the Lord, that would not have happened. He was a man full of the Holy Spirit and faith, a virtuous man because he saw something different from his ideas and recognized it as good.

He is of priestly tradition, and, therefore, naturally, this led to the separation and exclusion of non-Jews. He saw the Greeks whom he considered to be impure, believers in Jesus, and he saw that it was a beautiful thing, although his mentality said otherwise. We have to realize that it is not easy. When one has an idea, if one sees a different reality, one hardly judges it well, but Barnabas was a virtuous man, full of the Holy Spirit and faith, and therefore was able to go against his mental scheme and recognize God’s grace in that reality, even if it did not correspond to his tastes.

Barnabas encouraged all to be faithful to the Lord with all their hearts. He stayed voluntarily in Antioch. He judged that the event was positive, and he realized that many people were trying to get to know Jesus. He did not have the materials; perhaps he brought a text written in Hebrew to Antioch as the first draft of the Gospel. Perhaps an anthology of sayings and actions of Jesus as a fundamental instrument for preaching. He had nothing else, and talking to many people was impossible. He realized he needed help.

He thought and came up with an idea, an excellent idea. Nearby, but not too near, about 200 kilometers away, but within the area was the city of Tarsus, where Saul had retired after becoming a Christian. Let us remember that his story was told in chapter 9. When he became a Christian, he retired to Arabia and then returns to Damascus but is persecuted; then he goes to Jerusalem.

Fifteen days are enough to find out that he is not accepted; Christians do not trust him, the Jews consider him a traitor, he must take the boat and go home with nothing to do. But Barnabas knew Paul, esteemed him; it was he who gave the apostles a guarantee that this man was not a traitor but a true seeker of God who had found the Messiah. But Paul had retired to private life, returned home, and started working as a craftsman, weaving some fabrics, some mats. Barnabas thinks that this man could be useful for this mission to proclaim the gospel.

With very few words the narrator tells an extraordinary story: “Barnabas went to Tarsus to look for Saul, and when he had found him, he brought him to Antioch.” Here is a decisive juncture in the history of Christianity. This is Saul’s second vocation. The first, on the road to Damascus, was to become a Christian; now, through the work of Barnabas, the Pharisee Saul, a Christian convert is called to be a preacher, a minister of the Gospel. We would say a ‘priest’; converted into a Christian now, through the mediation of Barnabas, he becomes a priest. How the events unfolded is not said to us. Luke tells us the essential: Barnabas went looking for him, he found him. He said something like this: ‘We need you, leave your work, come and preach about Christ; you have the competence to do it. Jerusalem created problems for you, but Antioch is not Jerusalem. Antioch is a colossal world; there you can help many people who want to know Jesus, and you can do so.’

Saul accepted and moved to Antioch. Barnabas and Saul stayed a whole year in Antioch and evangelized many people. On that occasion, the name ‘Christianos’ was born; it is a strange term, it was already strange in Greek because it is the adjective derived from ‘christos,’ they are the ‘anointed ones,’ it is an almost absurd name for us but which has now become technical in the Greek form: ‘They are Christ’s.’

In Antioch, this group is identified as ‘oi christianoi’ – the Christians. And here a new community is born. A new history is born because, precisely from Antioch, a mission for evangelizing the whole world starts. And Antioch is sensitive to a fact of solidarity because “At that time some prophets came down from Jerusalem to Antioch, and one of them named Agabus stood up and predicted by the Spirit that there would be a severe famine all over the world, and it happened under Claudius.” This notable famine that struck the regions of Judea was in the years 46 to 48. A Christian prophet from Jerusalem announces to the Christians of Antioch that the Mother Church of Jerusalem is suffering from famine. They had gathered the goods, had helped the poor, now they have found themselves in a situation of poverty, difficulty with politics of the rulers, difficulty with hunger, and the community of Jerusalem is hungry, poor.

The community of Antioch decides to help the Mother Church of Jerusalem. “So the disciples determined that, according to ability, each should send relief to the brothers who lived in Judea. This they did, sending it to the presbyters in care of Barnabas and Saul.” The two great apostles of Antioch are sent to Jerusalem to carry this economic contribution. It is an excellent initial example of solidarity among churches.