Luke tells us that Antioch was the place where the followers of Jesus were first called “Christians.”37 It is possible that during the riots that broke out after Caligula’s death, the imperial officials in Antioch began to call those Jews who venerated the Messiah crucified by Pilate Christianoi, in order to distinguish them from the Herodianoi, the Jews who believed that Herod Agrippa, the new pro-Roman Jewish king in Judea, would restore the fortunes of Israel.
