Is the word Christian in the Bible?
Is the word Christian in the Bible? Yes, but only 3 times. The King James Version has Christian 2 times and Christians 1 time, and all of them are in the New Testament, in Acts and in Peter’s first letter. It is not in the Gospels, where Jesus and his followers use other names, and it is not in the letters of Paul.
All three verses that use the word
The plural, and the earliest one, comes first:
- Acts 11:26: And when he had found him, he brought him unto Antioch. And it came to pass, that a whole year they assembled themselves with the church, and taught much people. And the disciples were called Christians first in Antioch.
And the two uses of the singular:
- Acts 26:28: Then Agrippa said unto Paul, Almost thou persuadest me to be a Christian.
- 1 Peter 4:16: Yet if any man suffer as a Christian, let him not be ashamed; but let him glorify God on this behalf.
Each verse shows a different stage. In Acts 11:26 the name is new and the setting is Antioch. In Acts 26:28 it comes from the mouth of King Agrippa, an outsider, who may be speaking with a hint of mockery. By 1 Peter 4:16 it has become something worth suffering for, a name a believer should not be ashamed of.
Who first used the name?
Acts 11:26 only says the disciples “were called” Christians, in the passive voice, without saying by whom. Many scholars read that as outsiders giving believers a label, much as people in Antioch named other groups after their leaders. Another point they make is that the Greek ending -ianos was a Latin pattern meaning “follower of”, which fits a name coined by city people under Roman rule rather than by the believers themselves.
What the first believers called themselves is just as telling. In Acts the common words are disciples, brethren, saints, and the Way. Christian slowly replaced them over the second century, and Roman writers such as Tacitus and Pliny use it around AD 110.
The Greek word behind Christian
All three verses use the same Greek word, Christianos. It combines Christos, the Greek translation of the Hebrew Messiah, meaning anointed one, with the ending -ianos. That ending marks a follower or supporter, the way Herodianoi meant supporters of Herod. So the word means “people of the Anointed One”, and some readers hear it as “little Christs”, though that phrase is a popular reading rather than a literal translation.
What believers were called instead
| Name | Times in the KJV | First seen |
|---|---|---|
| disciples | 244 | Isaiah 8:16 |
| saints | 96 | Deuteronomy 33:2 |
| brethren | 563 | Genesis 9:22 |
| christian | 2 | Acts 26:28 |
| christians | 1 | Acts 11:26 |
Disciple and saint are far more common than Christian, and brethren is used constantly in the letters. Christian was one name among several, and the least used.
The story behind Acts 11:26
The verse closes a short story. Barnabas, a leader of the young church, travels to Tarsus to find Saul, who would become the apostle Paul, and brings him back to Antioch. For a whole year the two teach a large group of people there. Antioch was the third-largest city of the Roman Empire, a place where Jews and Greeks lived side by side, and it is the first city where the name Christian is recorded.
Is the word Christian in the Bible used often?
With 3 mentions in 790,705 words, Christian is a good example of a term people assume is all over the Bible but is not. The same goes for other well-known religious words, such as Trinity and rapture, which are not in the King James Bible at all. The Bible also leaves out some everyday words, like cat.
To see how any word compares, type it into the Bible word checker. It shows whether the word is in the KJV, how many times it appears, and the first verse. The overall word counts are on the how many words are in the Bible page.
Frequently asked questions
Is the word Christian in the Bible?
Yes, but rarely. In the King James Bible Christian appears twice and Christians once, 3 mentions in total: Acts 11:26, Acts 26:28, and 1 Peter 4:16. All three are in the New Testament, and none is in the Gospels.
Who first called believers Christians?
Acts 11:26 says the disciples were called Christians first in Antioch. The text does not say who coined the name. Many scholars think outsiders used it first, and by the time of 1 Peter 4:16 it was an accepted name that could bring suffering.
Did Jesus use the word Christian?
No. Jesus never says Christian in the Gospels. The followers of Jesus in the first chapters of Acts call themselves disciples, brethren, saints, and followers of the Way. Christian appears only after the church had spread to Antioch in Syria.
What does Christian mean in Greek?
The Greek word is Christianos, built from Christos, the Anointed One, with a Latin-style ending meaning follower of. It would have sounded like a nickname, similar to how people later said Herodians for supporters of Herod.