Acts 11:26 (NASB)
and when he had found him, he brought him to Antioch. And it came about that for an entire year they met with the church, and taught considerable numbers; and the
disciples were first called Christians in Antioch.
The Greek word is
Christianos - which basically means "the slaves of the Christ."
Quote:
"Throughout the New Testament, the followers of Jesus Christ referred to themselves in various ways, such as the "faithful," the "elect," the "saints," the "believers" and the "church" (the literal meaning of the original word for
church meant
ones who are called, i.e.
church actually means repentant and converted
people, not a building or a corporate organization).
Christian, from the Greek
Christianos, was originally a term used by unbelievers to describe the followers of Jesus Christ as slaves (i.e. the suffix
ianos was popularly used to specify the slaves of the one whose name with which it was compounded i.e.
Christianos meant
slaves of Christ), and was the name given to the church by the Greeks and Romans who most often intended it in a derogatory manner - although Paul, in referring to himself, made reference to that slave, or servant, label in a positive way by honorably calling himself a "a servant of Jesus Christ" (
Romans 1:1). The critical manner of using the term in those early years is perhaps the reason that, surprisingly,
Christian is found only three times in the Bible, and
Christianity does not occur at all. It was however eventually adopted by the followers of the Messiah themselves, and was thereafter used in a positive way, at least among Christians."