Does Christianity begin when the believers in Messiah are called “Christians”?
Luke notes in Acts 11:26: “In Antioch the disciples were first called christiano (Christians).” When that happened remains uncertain. It is unlikely that it already happened at the time Luke talks about in this context, when Barnabas brought Paul to Antioch. It is clear that this label was imposed from the outside; their self-designation here is disciples.” According to their own self-understanding, what characterizes the people in the Messiah-believing communities is that they are disciples of Jesus, that they receive their schooling from Jesus, so to speak. The Greek word formation christiano can be explained on the basis of Latin analogies. In Latin one encounters very frequently the combination of a mans name with the extension -iani, and this always marks a mans political party affiliation. The designation “Christians,” therefore, would probably have been coined by Antioch’s Roman provincial authority. In the background is the Roman desire to keep control of every associational ga
