And the disciples were called Christians first at Antioch (Acts 11:26).
WE ALL UNDERSTAND THIS VERSE—or do we? Obviously it means that the name “Christian” was not applied to anyone until it was given to the Israelite Disciples of Christ that day in Antioch. But WHO CALLED THEM CHRISTIANS? Did the Jews? Did the Romans? Or did GOD call them Christians?
God speaks to His people in Isaiah 62:2 — “—-And thou shalt be called by a new name, which the mouth of the Lord shall name. ” And in Isaiah 65:15 God tells Israel through the prophet Isaiah that HE will “. . . call his servants by another name.”
As good as our various English translations of the Bible may be, they are unable to bring out all that is in the Greek. In his book THE MINISTER AND HIS GREEK NEW TESTAMENT, A. T. Robertson says, regarding our English translations, “It is not possible to reproduce the delicate turns of thought, the nuances of language, in translation (to English). The freshness of the strawberry cannot be preserved in any extract.”