And Barnabas and Saul returned from Jerusalem when they had fulfilled their ministry, and they also took with them John whose surname was Mark. Acts 12:25

After Herod’s death, Barnabas and Saul (later the Apostle Paul) left Jerusalem, taking with them John Mark. Where did they go?

Now in the church that was at Antioch there were certain prophets and teachers: Barnabas, Simeon who was called Niger, Lucius of Cyrene, Manaen who had been brought up with Herod the tetrarch, and Saul. Acts 13:1

They “returned” from Jerusalem to Antioch.

There are two Antiochs in the New Testament. One, Antioch in Pisidia, was a city in Asia Minor (modern day Turkey) that Paul and Barnabas evangelized on their first missionary journey (Acts 13:14). This is not the Antioch mentioned in Acts 13:1)

The Antioch in Acts 13:1 was in Syria (not Israel), about 300 miles north of Jerusalem and 16 miles inland from the Mediterranean Sea. This Antioch became the capital of the Roman province in Asia. It ranked third, after Rome and Alexandria, in point of importance, of the cities of the Roman Empire. Remember that the name “Christian” was first applied here to followers of Christ (Acts 11:26). As we will see in the following chapters, it was Antioch, not Jerusalem, that became the epicenter for the earliest missionary enterprises. The expansion of the faith across Europe in the first century issued forth from a missions-minded church. May all churches have a heart for missions!

A modern footnote: Few remains of the ancient city are now visible, since most of them lie buried by time. A mostly buried ancient gateway still bears the name of Paul.