Tool Beta
The Ancient World Behind the Text
Pick a passage anywhere in the New Testament. See the customs and ideas a first reader knew without being told.
Acts 11:19-30, Antioch, and the name Christian
Scattered believers bring the message to Gentiles in Antioch, where the disciples are first called Christians. When a prophet foretells famine, the church sends relief to the elders in Judea.
Acts 11:19-30, in every translation this tool compares.
Believers driven out after Stephen's death travel north and west, mostly speaking to fellow Jews, but some begin telling Greeks in Antioch about Jesus, and many respond. Barnabas is sent to look into it, rejoices, and brings Saul from Tarsus to help teach for a year, and Antioch is where outsiders first call the disciples Christians. When the prophet Agabus foretells a widespread famine, the Antioch believers collect what each can give. Barnabas and Saul carry the gift to the elders in Judea.
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/diaspora-jews\/","n":"Jews of the dispersion","s":"Most Jews of the first century lived outside the land, in cities from Parthia to Rome. They kept the law and their own synagogues, spoke Greek or Aramaic, and came up to Jerusalem for the feasts when they could.","r":""}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/messiah\/","n":"The Messiah, son of David","s":"The anointed king most Jews expected from David's line, who would free Israel from its enemies. Nobody expected him to be killed.","r":""}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/spirit-of-prophecy\/","n":"The Spirit of prophecy","s":"Jews of Jesus' day linked God's Spirit above all with prophecy. Many believed the prophets had fallen silent long ago, and they looked for the day God would pour out his Spirit again.","r":""}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/almsgiving\/","n":"Gifts to the poor","s":"Giving to the needy was one of the three pillars of Jewish piety, with prayer and fasting. Greeks and Romans had nothing quite like it.","r":""}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/elders\/","n":"Elders","s":"Older men respected for wisdom led Israel's villages in the Old Testament and still led Jewish communities and synagogues in the first century, usually as a group. The first churches took over the pattern, calling their elders overseers too, with deacons beside them.","r":""}
Antioch on the Orontes was the third city of the empire, with perhaps half a million people, seat of the governor of Syria, with many God-fearers (Keener and his notes). Its Jews held civic privileges from Seleucid times (the Zondervan atlas), and the Greeks here are Gentiles, unlike the Hellenists of chapter 6 (the cultural backgrounds notes). The name Christian was formed like the names of political parties, Caesarians, Herodians, Pompeians, and was given by outsiders (Keener and his notes); in Antioch's Greek Christ meant Messiah, so Wright hears the believers labeled the king's people, and the name later became a legal charge, as 1 Peter 4:16 shows (the cultural backgrounds notes). A series of famines struck under Claudius, and Josephus says "queen Helena sent some of her servants to Alexandria with money to buy a great quantity of corn" for Judea. Keener, his notes, the ESV and CSB Study Bibles and Carson, Moo and Morris date the Judean famine and this visit to the mid 40s, while Wright argues for the early 50s. Carson, Moo and Morris take this to be the visit of Galatians 2:1; many scholars equate that visit with the council of Acts 15 instead.
- NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible, notes on Acts 11:20, 11:26 and 11:28
- Craig S. Keener, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament, on Acts 11:20-21, 11:26, 11:28 and 11:29-30
- N. T. Wright, Acts for Everyone, Part One, comments on Acts 11:19-30 and 12:20-25
- ESV Study Bible, study note on Acts 11:28
- CSB Study Bible, note on Acts 11:27-28
- Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews 20.2.5, trans. William Whiston
- D. A. Carson, Douglas J. Moo and Leon Morris, An Introduction to the New Testament, ch. 7, Paul, sections The Problem of Sources and From Paul's First Missionary Journey to His Death
- Carl G. Rasmussen, Zondervan Atlas of the Bible, The Journeys of Paul, The Early Life of Saul
