In the New Testament, Antioch is the city where believers were first called Christians.
Acts 11:26 says that Barnabas and Saul taught a large crowd in Antioch for a year and that the disciples were first called Christians there. Antioch was a major city of the Roman Empire in Syria, located near the eastern Mediterranean. Its diverse population made it an important base for the movement’s expansion.
The community included both Jewish and non-Jewish followers of Jesus. Acts presents Antioch as a center from which Barnabas and Paul were sent on missionary work. The city also became associated with debates about how Jewish and Gentile believers should live together.
Antioch is sometimes confused with Antioch in Pisidia, another city visited during Paul’s travels. The city named in Acts 11 is Syrian Antioch, not the settlement in central Anatolia. Its role helps explain why the New Testament presents Christianity as becoming an increasingly international movement.