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

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

Episode Transcript

SPEAKER_03 (00:01):
You're listening to the Catholic Acting podcast.
We discussed the act that Jesusperformed that stunned his
disciples.
Great to be back, Jordan.

SPEAKER_01 (00:09):
You don't know us by now, you're never gonna know.

SPEAKER_03 (00:12):
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 atAntioch.
What does the name Christianmean?

SPEAKER_00 (00:34):
Well, I'd like to first talk about like what is
the importance of a name?
Because if we think about namesand they delineate, I know, but
like you have a baby, right?
The first baby comes, and thefirst thing you do is name the
child.
And then in the sacrament ofbaptism, the first question is,
what name do you give yourchild?
And so by a name we are known,and by a name we have

(01:00):
relationship with others.
And so it's important as westart talking about these first
Christians and how they'redelineated in communities to
understand the purpose of a namethat that even God Himself has a
name because he wants to beknown.
And so Christians are to beknown and encountered.
And so I think that wasimportant just to Yeah, it's

(01:22):
really good.

SPEAKER_01 (01:22):
I think so often we have words, we have names.
People don't look into like whattheir name means.
Yeah, everything has a meaning.
So I try to like always evenwhen I preach, I bring that up a
lot with etymologies and gettingbehind the words.
But of course, Andrew as a namemeans what?
From the Greek manly.

SPEAKER_00 (01:41):
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 (01:54):
I guess, yeah, Chris is pretty is probably the
easiest.
So manly Andrew, how did theChristians come up with that
name, Christians?

SPEAKER_01 (02:07):
Well, that really the first time it's ever used
that we see in sacred scripturewritten down for us historically
is at Antioch.
Christians start to get the nameChristians or like the followers
of Christ, right?
The one that is claiming to bethe Messiah, the anointed one.
That's why the other Jewishsects would have started to call

(02:27):
these other individuals who areclaiming the Messiah has come
and now they're following thisperson, Jesus of Nazareth, who
claimed to be the Christ, thatthey are called Christians.

SPEAKER_03 (02:37):
So when when did they when were they exactly
called this?
Like, were they not called thisin the early church?

SPEAKER_01 (02:44):
They were, yeah, the early church.
This is a the expansion rightbefore the Jerusalem Council in
the early life of the churchthat the name Christian comes
about.

SPEAKER_00 (02:52):
But Father's saying that they it's not a name that
they took upon themselves, butit's a name that they received
almost, I mean, in somewhat of amocking manner, but not
something to be um boastedabout.

SPEAKER_03 (03:06):
So it was almost like if you come if someone
calls you a nickname and youdon't like it, but then you
embrace that nickname and makeit your own.

SPEAKER_01 (03:15):
That's a good analogy, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 (03:16):
Okay, so the Christian they came to embrace
this term, is what you'resaying, but it was made mocker
like mocking them at first.

SPEAKER_01 (03:23):
Not necessarily I don't know if it was mocking
absolutely, but it was justwanting to be separated from.
So whenever, especially like saythe Roman Empire was looking at
Christians or those thatfollowed this man, Jesus of
Nazareth, that basically theysaw them as another Jewish sect

(03:44):
that just believes somethingslightly different.
That's how the the Jewish peoplewanted to be separated from them
and say, We are different thanthis group.
And so that's why they start touse labels or different titles.

SPEAKER_00 (03:53):
And the early Christians would have called
themselves the way, the ones onthe way, the ones so that's the
Christians saw themselvesdifferent than the authorities
did, just like most people do.

SPEAKER_03 (04:08):
You really do you remember that trend that uh
people were asking their theirsignificant other, like their
their male significant other?
How often do you think about theRoman Empire?
So now we're following that.

SPEAKER_00 (04:23):
Got it.
Um daily.
We are the Roman Empire today.
True.
I mean, think about it.
The Emperor has been replaced bythe Holy Father, and we've
continued for 2,000 years.

SPEAKER_03 (04:33):
So yeah, I've I've thought that before.

SPEAKER_00 (04:36):
What happened to it, you know.
Even the Roman law has beentransformed into Catholic law.
The Roman Curia is named fromancient Rome.
I mean, we have talk about theperfect substitution.

SPEAKER_01 (04:47):
We defeated all the bad elements of the Roman Empire
by destroying them from theinside out, being Christians,
and then we took all the goodthings, and now they're part of
Western culture.

SPEAKER_03 (04:57):
You heard it here first, folks.
In case you ever wondered whathappened to the Roman Empire.
It's still in Rome.
Um so here, the term Christiancarries complex meaning, but it
wasn't originally used by Jesusor the early church.
Instead, believers referred tothemselves as saints.
So, how did we go from referringto ourselves as saints to

(05:20):
Christians?

SPEAKER_00 (05:21):
Well, I think we still, in one sense, refer to
ourselves as a saint in thefuture, right?
But if we think about what thatmeans, like a saint, a canonized
saint, or somebody in heaven,right, who has the beatific
vision is a saint becausethey're holy.
So if you're living out aChristian life, a life that's

(05:43):
modeled after the anointed one,the Christ, then we're living
out a life of holiness andsanctity in the midst of the
world.
And so we can think about itlike as a lowercase saint.

SPEAKER_03 (05:54):
Okay.
That makes, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 (05:56):
Yeah, and you're holy, so you're set apart that
you look different from the restof the culture that's around you
and the way that they worshipthings, you don't worship
necessarily in the same way.
And that builds your identityover time.
Even in ancient Rome, one of thethings that really delineated
Christians, followers of Christ,from the rest of the society
around them was care for thedowntrodden neighbor, but

(06:20):
especially children who are leftto what they called exposure of
the time.
That if you didn't want one ofyour children, you basically put
them out to a trash dump orsomewhere else to be eaten by
animals.
How terrible that is.
But then what would Christiansdo?
They were there to pick up thosechildren and raise them.
And so Christians started tohave really large families
compared to, say, late Romanfamilies that were only one or

(06:41):
two.

SPEAKER_03 (06:42):
Is that all is that why all like you know,
depictions of early orphanageswere ran by like priests and
nuns and stuff?
Is because it comes to thetradition of the church.

SPEAKER_00 (06:51):
Absolutely.
I mean, the whole orphanagesystem in the United States was
run and founded by the church,and even to this day, I think
worldwide, we care for the mostpoor, the most it's an act of
charity.

SPEAKER_01 (07:05):
And so if you're looking for, especially in the
Catholic understanding, that weare to become holy, right?
We're not just by baptism madeholy.
We are set apart in a way, butwe're always becoming holy.
And so by doing that, we have togo out and we do charitable
works, right?
Christ talks about at the end oftime that really what separates
the sheep from the goats.

(07:26):
Well, all of these differentcorporal works of mercy.
Like, did you come and visit mewhen 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 somany orphanages, hospitals,
universities, education, allthese things that come through
the Christian tradition.

SPEAKER_00 (07:44):
And it can even be as simple as offering someone a
glass of water.
Recently, I was at a wedding andI was in the sacristy before,
and it was so hot, and there hadno sink and there was nothing to
drink, and I just wanted a glassof water before mass started.
And I asked the lady working inthe sacristy, I said, Do you
have any water?
And she goes, Well, the churchdoesn't have running water.

(08:04):
It was a very old church.
And she goes, But I'll go to myhouse.
It's two minutes away and I'llcome back and bring water.
I'm like, Oh, thank you.
You don't have to do that, butthat would be great.
So we're getting ready for Mass.
And here she comes with herlittle 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 Godto give drink to those who

(08:27):
thirst.
And I thought of that rightaway.

SPEAKER_02 (08:30):
You're so bougie, though.
Like you're like, yes, go toyour house and give it.
Oh, you don't have to do that.
But that would be great.

SPEAKER_01 (08:36):
There's not Fiji water there.
That would be nice.

SPEAKER_00 (08:38):
Oh, you don't have any smart water of sparkling.
He needed the bubbles.
No, but I thought, isn't that abeautiful, simple example of
Christian hospitality?
And that's something too thatearly on, you know, if somebody
was in need, they knew that theycould go to those Christians and

(08:58):
they would find aid.

SPEAKER_03 (09:00):
Back to um, you know, the Christians and uh name
and everything.
I know there's discussion aroundthis, but are Catholics
Christian?

SPEAKER_00 (09:10):
Absolutely.
Absolutely.
As we like to say the originalChristians, OG Christians.
Because really Catholic meansuniversal.
And so in the early church, wesee this universal expansion of
the church.
We see Gentiles and Jews comingtogether, and then as we
continue, we'll start to see theapostles going out to different

(09:31):
parts of the world to spread thefaith.
And what makes us CatholicChristians is that number one,
Christ is our Savior who hascome to earth in the person of
Jesus to set us free from oursins and to give us eternal
life.
But also we are in communionwith each other, we are in

(09:52):
communion with the apostlesthrough the bishops, we are
united in the Eucharist, acommon sharing of the same
sacrifice of Christ.
And so Christians all Catholicsare Christians, but not all
Christians are Catholic.

SPEAKER_01 (10:11):
And we should understand too that really
Catholics, and this will reachback to a previous episode, is
that we understand Judaismwasn't just here, and then
Christianity here is twoseparate things, but Judaism was
preparing the foundation and theway for the practices of
Catholicism, Christians.
So you could look at otherChristian denominations and say,

(10:34):
Well, the Jewish people in thetime of Jesus had a temple, they
had a place of worship, ofthings that were offered up.
They had priesthood, they hadall these things that were
tangible.
The holy of holies.
Right.
All these things that can bethought of, where does that go
to?
It goes to the one that claimsto be the temple, the body of
Christ, which is Jesus, and itgoes into then the Catholic

(10:56):
priesthood, the Catholicunderstanding of the sacraments,
of the church, and all of that,that really is a natural through
line from ancient Judaism, theOld Testament to the New.
And I think that we mostperfectly see that in
Catholicism as an ancientapostolic practice.

SPEAKER_03 (11:13):
So what does it mean to be a Christian today?
And how can we embrace thatterm?

SPEAKER_01 (11:19):
Yeah, so we have to really dig through a lot of
things that are thrown uponChristians in our own culture.
Sometimes people think thatChristians are bigots or they
hate certain people that havedifferent ways of lifestyle and
so on and so forth.
And we have to get back to thegospel message of following
Christ who has the ultimatemessage of love.
But that's what we've beentalking a lot about.

(11:40):
What does it mean to love?
And we have to get to thatdefinition, which is to will the
eternal good of another.
And so if certain things andbehaviors and so forth in
another person's life aren'tconducive to that, a person that
would love them would say tothem in a caring way, I don't
think you should do that becauseI want this good for you that
you don't yet have.

(12:00):
One of the greatest pitches ofbeing Catholic is not to go to
others and be like, you're wrongin this and you're wrong in this
and you're wrong in this.
It might be true that peoplehave errant views on things, but
rather to show them the richnessof the life that we live and
tell people we want this foryou.

SPEAKER_03 (12:15):
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 givesomebody an elevator pitch, what
would they say?
What would you say if you wereasked who were the first
Christians of Antioch?

SPEAKER_00 (12:32):
They weren't who you think they are.
Were.

SPEAKER_01 (12:41):
Elaborate on that.
I don't know what you mean.
That elevator pitch would haveleft me like wanting a lot more.
Sorry, I've met my floor.
That's like when somebody asksyou why, and you go, why not?
Because.
Because.
Because.