CULTURAL REALITY

The city of Antioch was under the rule of the Roman Empire around the
time the gospel according to Matthew was written. For Romans, Antioch was
one of the empires significant cities. It had a most densely population
wherein it is said that around 45,000 Jews lived in Antioch in the middle of
the first century.a Due to its population, the Antioch was also the most
troubled city with disease and inner conflict. The inner conflict usually arise
from extremely multi-ethnic present in the place.
In which, aside from the great number of population, the division
present in the city is also prevalent. The reason is that there are different
ethnic groups living in the city during that time, either as conquered people
or not, all under the rule of Romans. The different ethnic groups that
comprise the Antioch are Jews, which were mentioned earlier, Greeks,
Gentiles, Christians which will begin to form and grow in number later on,
and of course the Romans.
Furthermore, since Antioch can be found in a strategic place for
trading, a lot of merchants from neighboring cities can be seen in the port,
adding to people diversity in the place. The multi-ethnicity of the people in
Antioch resulted to the great multiplicity of cultures in the place. One evident
effect or the multiplicity of cultures is the many languages spoken in the said
city, languages that were used as traders, travelers, and full-time residents
interacted. In fact, it is said that, communication to and from Antioch was
possible with almost everywhere in the Roman world. b
The Jews who are most likely the intended audience of the gospel
according to Matthew has a lot of traditions and cultures which are
commonly sourced from the Old Testament. However, aside from religious
culture, Jews culture includes their election of elders that will form the socalled Council of Elders, the governing body of Antiochean Jews. This account
is written by a known historian, Josephus.a
Cultural differences is the root cause of conflicts between Jews and
Gentiles, and it was evident to these two conflicts:
The first conflict was;
Luke tells us in the Acts of the Apostles that many Christians fled to
Antioch following the death of Stephen and that they preached to the Jewish
community living there. Some went as far as to spread the good news to the
gentiles, many of whom were converted and allowed to join the sect without
undergoing circumcision. This caused eyebrows to rise. All Jews had to
undergo circumcision and Christians still regarded themselves as Jews. a
a Mcnumer, E. Antioch: Trailblazer of Christianity (2016)
b Swift, J. Antioch: The City, The Church, The Christians (2014).

And the second conflict was;

Peter visited Antioch. He is the only one of the Twelve known to have
done so. And his visit was a cause of some friction. What to have for lunch
was the cause of the stress. Food was a sticky issue. According to Jewish law,
meals had to be prepared in a certain way and some foods were forbidden
(pork and seafood, for example). James, leader of the church in Jerusalem,
had gone along with the non-circumcision of Gentile converts, but had drawn
the line at the menu. For some sects within Judaism, any contact with a
Gentile rendered one unclean. Peter had a revelation, of course, when he
learned that all foods were permissible and he had converted the Gentile
family of Cornelius in Caesarea. At Antioch, Peter apparently freely
associated with the Gentiles, but when some Jews arrived from Jerusalem,
Peter stopped taking meals with the Gentiles. Paul thought this most impolite
and went as far as to call Peter a hypocrite. Then Barnabas became upset
with Paul and we see the beginnings of a tension between these two friends,
which will eventually develop into a full-blown row.a
In fact, in the gospel according to Matthew, this kind of cultural reality
between Jews and Gentiles is also given emphasis or highlights.
With the presence of Jews, Greeks, Christians and Romans, the
existence of various religions such as Judaism, Hellenistic belief and
Christianity is obviously evident.
Thus, the city of Antioch was also pluralistic religiously. Like we see in
many of todays cities, where there is a multiplicity of cultures there is
naturally also a greater spirit of religious pluralism and tolerance (maybe
even universalism). One scholar describes it this way:
In the time of Christ, a special religious situation had grown up in
Antioch which was to make the city peculiarly fertile ground when
Christianity reached it. Antioch had shared, with other centers in which
Hellenistic religion and philosophy had flourished, the changes
characteristic of the late Hellenistic age, in which the old religious cults
and philosophies were tending to become matters of individual belief
For the sake of keeping peace and order in a city with such a diversity
of ethnicity, cultures, and religions, somewhere along the line in Antiochs
history, walls were built to fence off the various groups from one another.
Jews lived in their quarter, Greeks in theirs, Romans in theirs. These walls
a Mcnumer, E. Antioch: Trailblazer of Christianity (2016)
b Swift, J. Antioch: The City, The Church, The Christians (2014).

were symbolic of the great divides between the worldviews of the coinhabitants of Antioch.
There is also a narrative that give emphasis to the cultural diversity
driven by religious pluralism in Antioch. The account says; Later, by the time
Barnabas and Paul would arrive there, by far the biggest wall was that
which divided the Jews and the Gentiles. From a worldview perspective, the
Jews had as the center of their religious culture their faith and law. They
understood themselves as the people been chosen by the One True God,
YHWH, for a special purpose to bring Gods will to bear on the world. The
Greeks on the other hand, upheld their great civilization and wisdom as the
center of their worldview. Gaining Knowledge and cultivating the human
society was of utmost importance to them. For the Romans it was Power. For
the Jews, everything revolved around their religion their chosenness, the
supremacy of the Lord God.b

On the other hand, aside from Jews, Christians began to grow in

number as time passed by. The rise of Christianity amidst of cultural diversity
in Antioch is commendable. With the help of early Christian authorities, there
were Jews converted into Christianity and although conflict arises between
the two, it is said that Jews helped to spread the good news to the gentiles,
which were already mentioned earlier. In addition to that, the church in
Antioch was not poverty-ridden or composed of peasants. a
In fact, a historian described Christianity in Antioch this way;
The Church: Christ's body in Antioch thrived! (Were moving from the
city to the church) The amazing thing is that despite all this diversity and
pluralism of religion and culture something today we typically see as a
serious challenge to Christianitythe book of Acts tells us that the church
flourished in this environment. The gospel just broke out and spread like
wildfire! That is the opposite of what most believers think when they think
about the city. b
However, later on because of the persecution that arose over Stephen,
there were people (Christians) that scattered and traveled as far as Phoenicia
and Cyprus and Antioch, speaking the word to no one except Jews (Acts
11:19).

a Mcnumer, E. Antioch: Trailblazer of Christianity (2016)

b Swift, J. Antioch: The City, The Church, The Christians (2014).