ANTIOCH

ANTIOCH. This capital of the Seleucid Empire was founded in 300 B.C., and was the center of Hellenistic culture on the east Mediterranean seaboard from Palestine to Asia Minor (q.v.) and inland to Mesopotamia. Its incorporation into the Roman Empire (q.v.) in the 1st c. B.C. gave it a place as the third city of the realm and capital of the “East.” Site of a Christian church from the beginnings of the faith and the place where the followers of Christ were first called Christians (e.g., Acts 11:19 ff.), traditionally its first bishop was identified as the Apostle Peter. We know from the Pauline corpus that the church there supported Paul’s anti-Judaizing policy, and at least one of the Gospels was written there. The seven letter corpus of Ignatius (q.v.) is also associated with Antioch. Its bishop was ranked as third in importance, after Rome and Alexandria (qq.v.), and recognized as such by the First Ecumenical Council (q.v.) at Nicaea (325).

Just as with Alexandria, Antioch had its own distinctive tradition of scriptural exegesis and theological approach, although unlike Alexandrians the Antiochenes tended to eschew allegory (q.v.) and favor a more literal, historical approach to the sacred texts. This had its consequences in Christology (q.v.). Antiochene writers and scholars preferred a greater emphasis on the humanity of Jesus than was generally characteristic of the Alexandrians, so much so that it sometimes appeared the unity of God and man in Christ was imperiled. Of the most notable Antiochene exegetes-Diodore of Tarsus, Theodore of Mopsuestia, Theodoret of Cyrrhus (qq.v.), for example-only the last narrowly escaped posthumous condemnation. Antiochene theology held great sway in Constantinople, and resultingly in the entire Empire, through the Cappadocian Fathers and the Antiochene bishop transferred there, Joh n Chrysostom (qq.v.).

The Christological controversies in the aftermath of the Ecumenical Council of Chalcedon (451) resulted in the loss of Antioch’s power. The Church was divided into three warring powers: Nestorians, monophysites (qq.v.), and the Orthodox-the latter known as “Melchites” (q.v.), i.e., observers of the faith of the emperors. The rise of Islam (q.v.) two hundred years later completed the sad picture and ended in the conversion of that region away from Christianity. The school of Antioch did continue, indeed, but safely beyond the borders of the Empire among the east Syrian scholars of the Nestorian church (see Assyrian Church) where Theodore of Mopsuestia was revered as the master of exegetes. Today the Orthodox Church of Antioch presides over a community of half a million souls in Syria and Lebanon, primarily, but includes adherents in southeast Turkey (q.v.), Iraq, and the Americas. Altogether Arab-speaking in its homelands, it has been trying to adapt itself to its surroundings for the past century. Given the huge majorities of Muslims there today and the rising temperature of “fundamentalistic” Muslim feelings, its future appears such as will require great heroism.