Sárospataki Füzetek 16. (2012)
2012 / 3-4. szám - TANULMÁNYOK
well trusted by the church in Jerusalem (Acts 11:24). Having his own roots on the island of Cyprus (Acts 4:36), he was the right person to assess what the Cypriot and Cyrenian brothers had achieved in Antioch. On his arrival, Barnabas encouraged (ttCipexdXei) them all to persevere and to remain true to the Lord. Barnabas was also the one who introduced Saul — just as he had previously done in Jerusalem — to the church in Antioch. By a spontaneous process, this was where believers are first called XpiOTiavoi (Acts 11:26b; cf. Acts 26:28 and I Peter 4:14): here, the Christians, disciples of Christ, form an independent community. From that time onwards, the mother church in Jerusalem co-existed alongside a daughter church in Antioch consisting not only of Jewish but also Gentile Christians (this is also an instance of BKxXyjcria being used in the singular: Acts 11:26; 13:1; 14:27; 13:3). This daughter church, it seems, was led by prophets and teachers, five of whom (just as the Twelve and the Seven) are mentioned by their full names: Barnabas, Simeon Niger, Lucius the Cyrenian, Manaen, and Saul (Acts 13:1). Increasingly, the daughter church in Antioch begins to show marks of adulthood, and eventually becomes an independent church, full of missionary vigour.19 What was the relationship between the mother church in Jerusalem and her independent daughter in Antioch? There was always a risk that they would grow apart. Each had its own character: Jerusalem was exclusively Jewish, while Antioch was also partly Gentile. In Acts 11-15, Luke repeatedly points out that these two Christian churches, intimately woven together by a common past, consciously aimed to find a way together once the work of mission among the nations began to expand. Further to this, delegations were sometimes sent from the one church to the other. A number of prophets travelled from Jerusalem to Antioch to pass on their message, or to deliver and further explain a letter. Antioch provided financial help to Jerusalem for the support of brothers and sisters during a period of famine. Antioch, not Jerusalem, became the home base for Paul’s missionary journeys: even though Paul was not from the church in Jerusalem, some of his first missionary colleagues certainly were (Barnabas, John Mark and Silas; see also Acts 11:22,27; 12:25; 13:4- 5; 15:22,40).20 Mission work among the Gentiles, therefore, was not a typically Antiochian enterprise; it remained anchored in the mother church in Jerusalem. 9. James and the elders With Peter’s departure, the leadership of the church in Jerusalem fell to James. In the New Testament, he appears more than once as a church leader (Acts 12:17; Galatians 1:19, James 1:1). This brings to the fore a category of men less well-known 12 About the origins of Christianity in Antioch, see Wayne A. Meeks and Robert L. Wilken, Jews and Christians in Antioch. In the First Four Centuries of the Common Era (Missoula: Scholars Press, 1978), 13-16; Magnus Zetterholm, The formation of Christianity in Antioch. A social-scientific approach to the separation between Judaism and Christianity (London and New York: Routledge, 2003); Paul Barnett, The Birth of Christianity. The First Twenty Years (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2005), chapter 8 [“Christians” in Antioch], Barnett also discusses the list of five names in Acts 13:1. It is perhaps no coincidence that this list starts with Barnabas and ends with Saul. 20 See Richard Bauckham, “James and the Jerusalem Church.” In The Book of Acts in Its First-Century Setting. Volume 4: Palestinian Setting, ed. Richard Bauckham (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1995), 415- 480 [434]. Barnabas and Saul even worked together for one year, preaching and teaching at Antioch (Acts 11:26). Jerusalem the Mother Church 2012/3-4 Sárospataki Füzetek 21
