The Catholic Accent Podcast

18 - What’s in a Name? The First Christians of Antioch

• Diocese of Greensburg • Season 2 • Episode 8

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A name can mark a people—and demand a way of life. We dive into the moment in Antioch when followers of Jesus were first called “Christians,” why the label likely came from outside the community, and how believers came to wear it with conviction. Along the way, we explore what names do in Scripture and sacrament, why early Christians also called themselves “saints,” and how the ordinary works of mercy turned a nickname into a credible public witness.

We trace the living thread from Judaism to Catholic practice: temple and priesthood fulfilled in Christ, the Eucharist at the center, and communion with the apostles through the bishops. That continuity isn’t about triumphalism; it’s about invitation. The Church’s history of caring for the most vulnerable—from rescuing exposed infants in Rome to building orphanages and hospitals—shows how a community becomes recognizable not by slogans but by service. A simple story about asking for a glass of water becomes a window into the Gospel: give drink to the thirsty, and the name you carry becomes believable.

So what does “Christian” ask of us now? Clarity about love: to will the eternal good of another, even when it means hard conversations delivered with tenderness. Courage to be findable and interruptible when neighbors need help. And joy in sharing a life that is more than argument—Eucharistic, merciful, and hospitable. If that vision resonates, share this episode with a friend, hit follow, and leave a quick review to help others find the show.

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Jordan Whiteko, Father Andrew Hamilton, Father Christopher Pujol, Vincent Reilly, Cliff Gorski, John Zylka, Sarah Hartner

SPEAKER_03:

You're listening to the Catholic Acting podcast. We discussed the act that Jesus performed that stunned his disciples. Great to be back, Jordan.

SPEAKER_01:

You don't know us by now, you're never gonna know.

SPEAKER_03:

I'm Jordan Waco here with Father Hamilton and Father Poojal. And we're both stunned. All right. Episode eight. Episode eight. What's in a name? The first Christians of Antioch. So in the Acts of the Apostles, we are told that the term Christian was first used at Antioch. What does the name Christian mean?

SPEAKER_00:

Well, I'd like to first talk about like what is the importance of a name? Because if we think about names and they delineate, I know, but like you have a baby, right? The first baby comes, and the first thing you do is name the child. And then in the sacrament of baptism, the first question is, what name do you give your child? And so by a name we are known, and by a name we have relationship with others. And so it's important as we start talking about these first Christians and how they're delineated in communities to understand the purpose of a name that that even God Himself has a name because he wants to be known. And so Christians are to be known and encountered. And so I think that was important just to Yeah, it's really good.

SPEAKER_01:

I think so often we have words, we have names. People don't look into like what their name means. Yeah, everything has a meaning. So I try to like always even when I preach, I bring that up a lot with etymologies and getting behind the words. But of course, Andrew as a name means what? From the Greek manly.

SPEAKER_00:

Well named. So we need to change your name. Well name. Jordan's pretty easy. Jordan means the podcaster. Yeah, yeah, exactly. Mine means the Christbearer.

SPEAKER_03:

I guess, yeah, Chris is pretty is probably the easiest. So manly Andrew, how did the Christians come up with that name, Christians?

SPEAKER_01:

Well, that really the first time it's ever used that we see in sacred scripture written down for us historically is at Antioch. Christians start to get the name Christians or like the followers of Christ, right? The one that is claiming to be the Messiah, the anointed one. That's why the other Jewish sects would have started to call these other individuals who are claiming the Messiah has come and now they're following this person, Jesus of Nazareth, who claimed to be the Christ, that they are called Christians.

SPEAKER_03:

So when when did they when were they exactly called this? Like, were they not called this in the early church?

SPEAKER_01:

They were, yeah, the early church. This is a the expansion right before the Jerusalem Council in the early life of the church that the name Christian comes about.

SPEAKER_00:

But Father's saying that they it's not a name that they took upon themselves, but it's a name that they received almost, I mean, in somewhat of a mocking manner, but not something to be um boasted about.

SPEAKER_03:

So it was almost like if you come if someone calls you a nickname and you don't like it, but then you embrace that nickname and make it your own.

SPEAKER_01:

That's a good analogy, yeah.

SPEAKER_03:

Okay, so the Christian they came to embrace this term, is what you're saying, but it was made mocker like mocking them at first.

SPEAKER_01:

Not necessarily I don't know if it was mocking absolutely, but it was just wanting to be separated from. So whenever, especially like say the Roman Empire was looking at Christians or those that followed this man, Jesus of Nazareth, that basically they saw them as another Jewish sect that just believes something slightly different. That's how the the Jewish people wanted to be separated from them and say, We are different than this group. And so that's why they start to use labels or different titles.

SPEAKER_00:

And the early Christians would have called themselves the way, the ones on the way, the ones so that's the Christians saw themselves different than the authorities did, just like most people do.

SPEAKER_03:

You really do you remember that trend that uh people were asking their their significant other, like their their male significant other? How often do you think about the Roman Empire? So now we're following that.

SPEAKER_00:

Got it. Um daily. We are the Roman Empire today. True. I mean, think about it. The Emperor has been replaced by the Holy Father, and we've continued for 2,000 years.

SPEAKER_03:

So yeah, I've I've thought that before.

SPEAKER_00:

What happened to it, you know. Even the Roman law has been transformed into Catholic law. The Roman Curia is named from ancient Rome. I mean, we have talk about the perfect substitution.

SPEAKER_01:

We defeated all the bad elements of the Roman Empire by destroying them from the inside out, being Christians, and then we took all the good things, and now they're part of Western culture.

SPEAKER_03:

You heard it here first, folks. In case you ever wondered what happened to the Roman Empire. It's still in Rome. Um so here, the term Christian carries complex meaning, but it wasn't originally used by Jesus or the early church. Instead, believers referred to themselves as saints. So, how did we go from referring to ourselves as saints to Christians?

SPEAKER_00:

Well, I think we still, in one sense, refer to ourselves as a saint in the future, right? But if we think about what that means, like a saint, a canonized saint, or somebody in heaven, right, who has the beatific vision is a saint because they're holy. So if you're living out a Christian life, a life that's modeled after the anointed one, the Christ, then we're living out a life of holiness and sanctity in the midst of the world. And so we can think about it like as a lowercase saint.

SPEAKER_03:

Okay. That makes, yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, and you're holy, so you're set apart that you look different from the rest of the culture that's around you and the way that they worship things, you don't worship necessarily in the same way. And that builds your identity over time. Even in ancient Rome, one of the things that really delineated Christians, followers of Christ, from the rest of the society around them was care for the downtrodden neighbor, but especially children who are left to what they called exposure of the time. That if you didn't want one of your children, you basically put them out to a trash dump or somewhere else to be eaten by animals. How terrible that is. But then what would Christians do? They were there to pick up those children and raise them. And so Christians started to have really large families compared to, say, late Roman families that were only one or two.

SPEAKER_03:

Is that all is that why all like you know, depictions of early orphanages were ran by like priests and nuns and stuff? Is because it comes to the tradition of the church.

SPEAKER_00:

Absolutely. I mean, the whole orphanage system in the United States was run and founded by the church, and even to this day, I think worldwide, we care for the most poor, the most it's an act of charity.

SPEAKER_01:

And so if you're looking for, especially in the Catholic understanding, that we are to become holy, right? We're not just by baptism made holy. We are set apart in a way, but we're always becoming holy. And so by doing that, we have to go out and we do charitable works, right? Christ talks about at the end of time that really what separates the sheep from the goats. Well, all of these different corporal works of mercy. Like, did you come and visit me when I was in prison? Did you care for the sick? Did you feed the hungry? Did you clothe the naked? And so that's why you see so many orphanages, hospitals, universities, education, all these things that come through the Christian tradition.

SPEAKER_00:

And it can even be as simple as offering someone a glass of water. Recently, I was at a wedding and I was in the sacristy before, and it was so hot, and there had no sink and there was nothing to drink, and I just wanted a glass of water before mass started. And I asked the lady working in the sacristy, I said, Do you have any water? And she goes, Well, the church doesn't have running water. It was a very old church. And she goes, But I'll go to my house. It's two minutes away and I'll come back and bring water. I'm like, Oh, thank you. You don't have to do that, but that would be great. So we're getting ready for Mass. And here she comes with her little plastic cups and these two big bottles of water. And I said to her, Oh, ma'am, you are such an angel. And she said, No, father. She said, I am commanded by God to give drink to those who thirst. And I thought of that right away.

SPEAKER_02:

You're so bougie, though. Like you're like, yes, go to your house and give it. Oh, you don't have to do that. But that would be great.

SPEAKER_01:

There's not Fiji water there. That would be nice.

SPEAKER_00:

Oh, you don't have any smart water of sparkling. He needed the bubbles. No, but I thought, isn't that a beautiful, simple example of Christian hospitality? And that's something too that early on, you know, if somebody was in need, they knew that they could go to those Christians and they would find aid.

SPEAKER_03:

Back to um, you know, the Christians and uh name and everything. I know there's discussion around this, but are Catholics Christian?

SPEAKER_00:

Absolutely. Absolutely. As we like to say the original Christians, OG Christians. Because really Catholic means universal. And so in the early church, we see this universal expansion of the church. We see Gentiles and Jews coming together, and then as we continue, we'll start to see the apostles going out to different parts of the world to spread the faith. And what makes us Catholic Christians is that number one, Christ is our Savior who has come to earth in the person of Jesus to set us free from our sins and to give us eternal life. But also we are in communion with each other, we are in communion with the apostles through the bishops, we are united in the Eucharist, a common sharing of the same sacrifice of Christ. And so Christians all Catholics are Christians, but not all Christians are Catholic.

SPEAKER_01:

And we should understand too that really Catholics, and this will reach back to a previous episode, is that we understand Judaism wasn't just here, and then Christianity here is two separate things, but Judaism was preparing the foundation and the way for the practices of Catholicism, Christians. So you could look at other Christian denominations and say, Well, the Jewish people in the time of Jesus had a temple, they had a place of worship, of things that were offered up. They had priesthood, they had all these things that were tangible. The holy of holies. Right. All these things that can be thought of, where does that go to? It goes to the one that claims to be the temple, the body of Christ, which is Jesus, and it goes into then the Catholic priesthood, the Catholic understanding of the sacraments, of the church, and all of that, that really is a natural through line from ancient Judaism, the Old Testament to the New. And I think that we most perfectly see that in Catholicism as an ancient apostolic practice.

SPEAKER_03:

So what does it mean to be a Christian today? And how can we embrace that term?

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, so we have to really dig through a lot of things that are thrown upon Christians in our own culture. Sometimes people think that Christians are bigots or they hate certain people that have different ways of lifestyle and so on and so forth. And we have to get back to the gospel message of following Christ who has the ultimate message of love. But that's what we've been talking a lot about. What does it mean to love? And we have to get to that definition, which is to will the eternal good of another. And so if certain things and behaviors and so forth in another person's life aren't conducive to that, a person that would love them would say to them in a caring way, I don't think you should do that because I want this good for you that you don't yet have. One of the greatest pitches of being Catholic is not to go to others and be like, you're wrong in this and you're wrong in this and you're wrong in this. It might be true that people have errant views on things, but rather to show them the richness of the life that we live and tell people we want this for you.

SPEAKER_03:

Thanks for listening to the Catholic Accent Podcast. Don't forget to follow, like, and subscribe to our show. Real quick, if you had to give somebody an elevator pitch, what would they say? What would you say if you were asked who were the first Christians of Antioch?

SPEAKER_00:

They weren't who you think they are. Were.

SPEAKER_01:

Elaborate on that. I don't know what you mean. That elevator pitch would have left me like wanting a lot more. Sorry, I've met my floor. That's like when somebody asks you why, and you go, why not? Because. Because. Because.