Antioch (Antioch_1)

Antioch on the Orontes, in Syria, was the third largest city of the Roman Empire and became the base from which the early church sent missionaries to the Gentile world; it was there that believers were first called Christians. Barnabas and Paul both taught there, and the church at Antioch commissioned Paul's missionary journeys, sending him first to a different Antioch, in Pisidia, where he preached with initial success before opposition from local Jewish leaders drove him out; he returned there later to strengthen the church he had founded. Antioch on the Orontes survives today as the Turkish city of Antakya.