Antioch of Syria was the third largest city in the Roman Empire, surpassed only by Rome and Alexandria. It stood on the banks of the Orontes River, at the crossroads between the East and the Mediterranean world, and already had a large Jewish community before the gospel arrived there.
After the persecution that followed the death of Stephen, scattered believers reached Antioch and began proclaiming Jesus to the Greeks as well, not only to the Jews. There a truly mixed church was born, Jews and Gentiles side by side.
Barnabas was sent from Jerusalem to confirm this work and brought Saul of Tarsus to teach alongside him for a whole year. It was in Antioch that the disciples were first called Christians.
From there the Holy Spirit set apart Barnabas and Saul for the church’s first great missionary journey. Antioch became the sending base for the mission to the Gentiles, the counterpart to Jerusalem in the book of Acts, the place from which missionaries departed and to which they returned to give an account.
