Five-minute study · Day 54 · Acts 9
Acts 9:2
A word worth stopping on: Way ὁδός hodos
Saul asked for letters to the synagogues of Damascus, so that if he found any belonging to the Way, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem. The Way. Before anyone called them Christians, before the church had buildings or councils or creeds, the earliest believers described their movement with a single Greek word: hodos. A road. A path you walk with your feet. The first name for the faith was a direction, and that choice tells you something important about how the first generation understood what they were part of.
Word study: Way
- Greek
- ὁδός
- Pronounced
- hodos
- Strong's
- G3598
- Definition
- A road, a path, a way of life, a course of conduct. Used as a proper name for the early Christian movement in Acts.
Hodos appears six times in Acts as a title for the early church (9:2, 19:9, 19:23, 22:4, 24:14, 24:22). BDAG notes that the absolute use, 'the Way' with no modifier, is distinctive. Greek philosophical schools sometimes described their teaching as a hodos, a path of life. The Stoics spoke of the way of virtue. Pythagoras described a way of life involving dietary rules and communal living.
The Jewish background is stronger. Isaiah 40:3 commands: 'Prepare ye the way of the LORD, make straight in the desert a highway for our God.' The Qumran community at the Dead Sea quoted this verse to describe their own movement. They were preparing the road for God's return. The Manual of Discipline (1QS 9.19-20) instructs members to 'prepare the way' through Torah study in the desert.
Jesus himself declared, 'I am the Way' (John 14:6). The early believers took that self-designation and turned it into their movement's name. Hengel, in 'Acts and Early Christianity,' argues the title reflects the earliest stratum of Christian self-understanding: following Jesus was a journey, a lived practice, a daily walk. The name 'Christians,' given by outsiders in Antioch (Acts 11:26), came later. The insiders called it a road.
Historical context · 30 to 50 AD
Before They Were Called Christians
The gap between the resurrection (roughly 30 AD) and the first use of 'Christians' at Antioch (roughly 44 AD) is about fourteen years. During that entire period, the movement had no external label. Outsiders in Jerusalem called them 'the sect of the Nazarenes' (Acts 24:5). The believers themselves said 'the Way.'
Acts 9:2 is set during Saul's pre-conversion period, probably around 33-35 AD. The movement is young, scattered, and dangerous enough that the high priest is issuing arrest warrants. Saul's letters authorize him to find anyone 'belonging to the Way' in Damascus's synagogues. The believers are still attending synagogue. They have not yet separated from mainstream Judaism. They are Jews who follow a particular hodos.
Damascus had a significant Jewish population. Josephus (Jewish War 2.561) claims that 10,500 Jews were killed there during the revolt of 66 AD, suggesting a community of tens of thousands. The synagogues were organized enough to have formal relations with the Jerusalem authorities. When Saul arrived with his letters, the synagogue leaders would have recognized his credentials.
The name 'the Way' disappeared from common use by the second century. 'Christian' stuck. The shift is telling. A road implies motion, direction, daily walking. A label can become static. The earliest believers chose a name that demanded movement.
For reflection
The first believers called their faith a road, something you walk. Think about your own faith over the past month. Has it felt more like walking a road or occupying a position? Roads require steps. What is one step you have been avoiding?
Hodos is concrete. Feet on ground. Direction and movement, measured in days.
Sources: BDAG Lexicon; Hengel, 'Acts and Early Christianity'; Fitzmyer, 'The Acts of the Apostles' (Anchor Bible)