Church of Antioch

The year 37 comes from a church, not a document

Syriac Orthodox tradition places Peter's preaching and the establishment of an apostolic see at Antioch at approximately 37. No contemporary source records a particular founding day.

The year is an approximate denominational tradition — not a date supplied by Acts, by Galatians, by Origen or by Eusebius.

Acts credits refugees from Cyprus and Cyrene

The earliest surviving account of the Antiochene community is Acts 11, and it gives the breakthrough to unnamed believers from Cyprus and Cyrene who preached to Greeks there — not to Peter.

Jerusalem then sent Barnabas, who later brought Saul from Tarsus. On that narrative, the community had already formed before Peter's documented visit to the city.

What Galatians actually says

Paul's letter to the Galatians independently puts Peter, called Cephas, in Antioch, where Paul says he publicly opposed him over withdrawal from meals with Gentiles. The letter does not call Peter the church's founder and does not date the visit.

The earliest identified source behind the later Petrine succession tradition is Origen, who called Ignatius the second bishop of Antioch after Peter. Modern analysis notes that this identifies Peter as an earlier leader, not explicitly as the community's founder.

Modern scholarship judges Peter's Antiochene episcopate historically implausible or unprovable, and notes contradictions in the later succession lists.