Great was the excitement at Jerusalem[13.1] on hearing what had passed at Antioch. Notwithstanding the kindly wishes of a few of the principal members of the Church of Jerusalem, Peter in particular, the Apostolic College continued to be influenced by mean and unworthy ideas. On every occasion when they heard that the good news had been announced to the heathen, these veteran Christians manifested signs of disappointment. The man who this time triumphed over this miserable jealousy, and who prevented the narrow exclusiveness of the “Hebrews” from ruining the future of Christianity, was Barnabas. He was the most enlightened member of the Church at Jerusalem. He was the chief of the liberal and progressive party, and wished the Church to be open to all. Already he had powerfully contributed to remove the mistrust with which Paul was regarded; and this time, also, he excited a marked influence. Sent as a delegate of the apostolical body to Antioch, he examined and approved of all that had been done, and declared that the new Church had only to continue in the course upon which it had entered. Conversions were effected in great numbers. The vital and creative force of Christianity appeared to be concentrated at Antioch. Barnabas, whose zeal always inclined to action, resided there. Antioch thenceforth is his Church, and it is thence that he exercised his most influential and important ministry. Christianity has always done injustice to this man in not placing him in the first rank of her founders. Barnabas was the patron of all good and liberal ideas. His intelligent boldness often served to neutralize the obstinacy of the narrow-minded Jews who formed the conservative party of Jerusalem.

A magnificent idea germinated in this noble heart at Antioch. Paul was at Tarsus in a forced repose, which to an active man like him, was a perfect torture. His false position, his haughtiness, and his exaggerated pretensions, had neutralized many of his other and better qualities. He was uselessly wearing his life away; Barnabas knew how to apply to its true work that force which was corroding Paul in his unhealthy and dangerous solitude. For the second time, Barnabas took the hand of Paul, and led this savage character into the society of those brethren whom he avoided. He went himself to Tarsus, sought him out, and brought him to Antioch.[13.2] He did that which those obstinate old brethren of Jerusalem were never able to do. To win over this great, reticent, and susceptible soul; to accommodate oneself to the caprices and whims of a man full of fiery excitement, but very personal; to take a secondary part under him, and forgetful of oneself, to prepare the field of operations for the most favorable display of his abilities—all this is certainly the very climax of virtue; and this is what Barnabas did for Paul. Most of the glory which has accrued to the latter is really due to the modest man who led him forward, brought his merits to light, prevented more than once his faults from resulting deplorably to himself and his cause, and the illiberal views of others from exciting him to revolt; and also prevented his insignificant and unworthy personalities from interfering with the work of God.

During an entire year Barnabas and Paul co-operated actively.[13.3] This was without doubt a most brilliant and happy year in the life of Paul. The prolific originality of these two great men raised the Church of Antioch to a degree of grandeur to which no Christian Church had previously attained. Few places in the world had experienced more intellectual activity than the capital of Syria. During the Roman epoch, as in our time, social and religious questions were brought to the surface principally at the centres of population. A sort of reaction against the general immorality which later made Antioch the special abode of stylites and hermits[13.4] was already felt; and the true doctrine thus found in this city more favorable conditions for success than it had yet met.

An important circumstance proves besides, that it was at Antioch that the sect for the first time had full consciousness of its existence; for it was in this city that it received a distinct name. Hitherto its adherents had called themselves “believers,” “the faithful,” “saints,” “brothers,” or disciples; but the sect had no public and official name. It was at Antioch that the title of Christianus was devised.[13.5] The termination of the word is Latin, not Greek, which would indicate that it was selected by the Roman authority as an appellation of the police[13.6] like Herodiani, Pompeiani, CÆsariani.[13.7] In any event it is certain that such a name was formed by the heathen population. It included a misapprehension, for it implied that Christus, a translation of the Hebrew Maschiah (the Messiah), was a proper name.[13.8] Not a few of those who were unfamiliar with Jewish or Christian ideas, by this name were led to believe that Christus or Chrestus was a sectarian leader yet living.[13.9] The vulgar pronunciation of the name indeed was Chrestiani.[13.10]

The Jews did not adopt in a regular manner, at least,[13.11] the name given by the Romans to their schismatic co-religionists. They continued to call the new converts “Nazarenes” or “Nazorenes,”[13.12] undoubtedly because they were accustomed to call Jesus Han-nasri or Han-nosri, “the Nazarene;” and even unto the present day this name is still applied to them throughout the entire East.[13.13]

This was a most important moment. Solemn indeed was the hour when the new creation received its name, for that name is the direct symbol of its existence. It is by its name that an individual or a community really becomes itself as distinct from others. The formation of the word “Christian” also marks the precise date of the separation from Judaism of the Church of Jesus. For a long time to come the two religions will be confounded; but this confusion will only take place in those countries where the spread of Christianity is slow and backward. The sect quickly accepted the appellation which was applied to it, and viewed it as a title of honor.[13.14] It is really astonishing to reflect that ten years after the death of Jesus His religion had already in the capital of Syria, a name in the Greek and Latin tongues. Christianity is now completely weaned from its mother’s breast; the true sentiments of Jesus have triumphed over the indecision of its first disciples; the Church of Jerusalem is left behind; the Aramaic language, in which Jesus spoke, is unknown to a portion of His followers; Christianity speaks Greek; and the new sect is finally launched into that great vortex of the Greek and Roman world, whence it will never issue.

The feverish activity of ideas manifested by this young Church was truly extraordinary. Great spiritual manifestations were frequent.[13.15] All believed themselves to be inspired in different ways. Some were “prophets,” others “teachers.”[13.16] Barnabas, as his name indicates,[13.17] was undoubtedly among the prophets. Paul had no special title. Among the leaders of the church at Antioch may also be mentioned Simeon, surnamed Niger, Lucius of Cirene, and Menahem, who had been the foster-brother of Herod Antipas, and was naturally quite old.[13.18] All these personages were Jews. Among the converted heathen was, perhaps, already that Evhode, who, at a certain period, seems to have occupied a leading place in the Church of Antioch.[13.19] Undoubtedly the heathen who heard the first preaching were slightly inferior, and did not shine in the public exercises of using unknown tongues, of preaching, and prophecy. In the midst of the congenial society of Antioch, Paul quickly adapted himself to the order of things. Later, he manifested opposition to the use of tongues,{13.20} and it is probable that he never practised it; but he had many visions and immediate revelations.[13.21] It was apparently at Antioch{13.22} that occurred that ecstatic trance which he describes in these terms: “I knew a man in Christ above fourteen years ago (whether in the body I cannot tell; or whether out of the body, I cannot tell—God knoweth). Such an one was caught up to the third heaven.[13.23] And I knew such a man (whether in the body or out of the body I cannot tell—God knoweth), how that he was caught up into paradise[13.24] and heard unspeakable words which it is not lawful for a man to utter.”[13.25] Paul, though in general sober and practical, shared the prevalent ideas of the day in regard to the supernatural. Like so many others, he believed that he possessed the power of working miracles;[13.26] it was impossible that the gift of the Holy Spirit, which was acknowledged to be the common right of the Church,[13.27] should be denied to him.

But men permeated with so lively a faith cannot content themselves with merely exuberant piety, but pant for action. The idea of great missions, destined to convert the heathen, and beginning in Asia Minor, seized hold of the public mind. Had such an idea been formed at Jerusalem, it could not have been realized, because the Church there was without pecuniary resources. An extensive establishment of propagandism requires a solid capital to work on. Now, the common treasury at Jerusalem was devoted to the support of the poor, and was frequently insufficient for that purpose; and to save these noble mendicants from dying with hunger, it was necessary to obtain help from all quarters.[13.28] Communism had created at Jerusalem an irremediable poverty and a thorough incapacity for great enterprises. The Church at Antioch was exempt from such a calamity. The Jews in the profane cities had attained to affluence, and in some cases had accumulated vast fortunes.[13.29] The faithful were wealthy when they entered the Church. Antioch furnished the pecuniary capital for the founding of Christianity, and it is easy to imagine the total difference in manner and spirit which this circumstance alone would create between the two churches. Jerusalem remained the city of the poor of God, of the ebionim of those simple Galilean dreamers, intoxicated, as it were, with the expectation of the kingdom of Heaven.[13.30] Antioch, almost a stranger to the words of Jesus, which it had never heard, was the church of action and of progress. Antioch was the city of Paul; Jerusalem, the seat of the old apostolic college, wrapped up in its dreamy fantasies, and unequal to the new problems which were opening, but dazzled by its incomparable privileges, and rich in its unsurpassed recollections.

A certain circumstance soon brought all these traits into bold relief. So great was the lack of forethought in this half-starved Church of Jerusalem, that the least accident threw the community into distress. Now in a country, destitute of economic organization, where commerce is almost without development, and where the sources of welfare are limited, famines are inevitable. A terrible one occurred in the reign of Claudius, in the year 44.[13.31] When its threatening symptoms appeared, the veterans at Jerusalem decided to seek succor from the members of the richer churches of Syria. An embassy of prophets was sent from Jerusalem to Antioch.[13.32] One of them, named Agab, who was in high reputation for his prophetic powers, was suddenly inspired, and announced that the famine was now at hand. The faithful were deeply moved at the evils which menaced the mother Church, to which they still deemed themselves tributary. A collection was made, at which every one gave according to his means, and Barnabas was selected to carry the funds obtained to the brethren in Judea.[13.33] Jerusalem for a long time remained the capital of Christianity. There were centred the objects peculiar to the faith, and there only were the apostles.[13.34] But a great forward step had been taken. For several years there had been only one completely organized Church, that of Jerusalem—the absolute centre of the faith, the heart from which all life proceeded and through which it circulated; but it no longer maintained this monopoly. The church at Antioch was now a perfect church. It possessed all the hierarchy of the gifts of the Holy Ghost. It was the starting-point of the missions,[13.35] and their head-quarters.[13.36] It was a second capital, or rather a second heart, which had its own proper action, exercising its force and influence in every direction.

It is easy to foresee that the second capital must soon eclipse the first. The decay of the church at Jerusalem was, indeed, rapid. It is natural that institutions founded on communism should enjoy at the beginning a period of brilliancy, for communism involves high mental exaltation; and it is equally natural that such institutions should very quickly degenerate, because communism is contrary to the instincts of human nature. During a moment of great religious excitement, a man readily believes that he can entirely sacrifice his selfish individuality and his peculiar interests; but egotism has its revenge, in proving that absolute disinterestedness engenders evils more serious than by the suppression of individual rights in property it had hoped to avoid.