Acts 11:26

ἐγένετο δὲ αὐτοὺς, see critical notes, if dative αὐτοῖς = accidit eis, see Plummer, St. Luke, p. 45, on the use of ἐγένετο. ἐνιαυτὸν ὅλον : “even a whole year” R.V. συναχθῆναι ἐν τῇ ἐκκλ.: “they were gathered together in the Church,” so R.V. margin. Rendall holds that ἐν is fatal to the A.V. and R.V. text, and renders “they [i.e., Barnabas and Saul] were brought together in the Church,” an intimate association of inestimable value. Hort adopts as “the least difficult explanation of this curious word” “were hospitably received in the Church,” so Wendt, Weiss, Nösgen, cf. Matthew 25:35; Deuteronomy 22:2; Joshua 2:18; Judges 19:18; 2 Samuel 11:27. διδάξαι … χρηματίσαι : both infinitives depend upon ἐγένετο, “and that the disciples,” etc., suggesting that the name “Christian” followed as result upon the widespread teaching of the Apostles amongst the Gentiles. If St. Luke, as Eusebius states, was himself a native of Antioch, it has been well noted that he might well record such a distinction for his city as the origin of the name “Christian”. χρηματίσαι : prim. to transact business (χρῆμα), passes into the meaning of taking a name from one's public business, so to receive a name, to be called, cf. Romans 7:3, so in Josephus and Philo, and instances in Grimm-Thayer. See also Acts 10:22 for another shade of meaning, and so elsewhere in N.T.; and for its use to express a reply or information by a king or those in authority to inquiry, see Deissmann, Bibelstudien, p. 118. πρῶτον, see critical notes. Χριστιανούς : in the N.T. the Christians always named themselves μαθηταί, ἀδελφοί, ἅγιοι, πιστοί, etc., but on no occasion “Christians,” whilst the Jews not only refused to recognise that Jesus had any claim to be the Christ, but also called His followers Ναζωραῖοι (Acts 24:5), or spake of them as ἡ αἵρεσις αὕτη (Acts 28:22, cf. Acts 24:14). On the probably contemptuous use of the word in 1 Peter 4:16 and Acts 26:28 as not inconsistent with the above statements, see Wendt, edition 1899, in loco, and “Christian” in Hastings' B.D. But whilst it is difficult to find an origin for the title amongst Christians or amongst Jews, there is no difficulty in attributing it to the keen-witted populace of Antioch, already famous for their bestowal of nicknames, although perhaps the possibility that the name may have originated amongst the Latin speaking official retinue of the legatus at Antioch should not be excluded (though there is no evidence whatever that it became at this early date an official name). But there is no need to suppose that the name was of Roman origin, although we may readily concede that the Latin termination - ianus was common enough at this period. There is ample proof of the use of the same termination not only in Latin but in Greek, even if we do not regard - ιανός with Wendt as a termination of a native “Asiatic type”. The notice in Tacitus, Ann., xv., 44 (cf. Suetonius, Nero, 16), who was probably in Rome during Nero's persecution, A.D. 64, is very significant, for he not only intimates that the word was commonly and popularly known, but also that the title had been in vogue for some time: “quos vulgus Christianos appellabat,” note the imperfect tense. Against the recent strictures of Weizsäcker and Schmiedel we may place the opinion of Spitta, and also of Zahn, Einleitung, ii., 158. How soon the title given in mockery became a name of honour we may gather from the Ignatian Epistles, cf. Rom., iii. 3; Magn., iv.; Ephes., xi., 2, and cf. Mart. Polyc., x. and xii., 1, 2. See further Lightfoot, Phil., p. 16; Lechler, Das Apostolische Zeitalter, p. 129 ff.; Smith, B.D. 2 “Christian,” Conybeare and Howson, p. 100 (smaller edition), and Expositor, June, 1898.