In Iconium
14 At Iconium, Paul and Barnabas went as usual into the Jewish synagogue. There they spoke so effectively that a great number of Jews and Greeks believed. 2 But the Jews who refused to believe stirred up the other Gentiles and poisoned their minds against the brothers. 3 So Paul and Barnabas spent considerable time there, speaking boldly for the Lord, who confirmed the message of his grace by enabling them to perform signs and wonders. 4 The people of the city were divided; some sided with the Jews, others with the apostles. 5 There was a plot afoot among both Gentiles and Jews, together with their leaders, to mistreat them and stone them. 6 But they found out about it and fled to the Lycaonian cities of Lystra and Derbe and to the surrounding country, 7 where they continued to preach the gospel.
In Lystra and Derbe
8 In Lystra, there sat a man who was lame. He had been that way from birth and had never walked. 9 He listened to Paul as he was speaking. Paul looked directly at him, saw that he had faith to be healed 10, and called out, “Stand up on your feet!” At that, the man jumped up and began to walk.
11 When the crowd saw what Paul had done, they shouted in the Lycaonian language, “The gods have come down to us in human form!” 12 Barnabas, they called Zeus, and Paul they called Hermes because he was the chief speaker. 13 The priest of Zeus, whose temple was just outside the city, brought bulls and wreaths to the city gates because he and the crowd wanted to offer sacrifices to them.
14 But when the apostles Barnabas and Paul heard of this, they tore their clothes and rushed out into the crowd, shouting: 15 “Friends, why are you doing this? We too are only human, like you. We are bringing you good news, telling you to turn from these worthless things to the living God, who made the heavens and the earth and the sea and everything in them. 16 In the past, he let all nations go their own way. 17 Yet he has not left himself without testimony: He has shown kindness by giving you rain from heaven and crops in their seasons; he provides you with plenty of food and fills your hearts with joy.” 18 Even with these words, they had difficulty keeping the crowd from sacrificing to them.
19 Then some Jews came from Antioch and Iconium and won the crowd over. They stoned Paul and dragged him outside the city, thinking he was dead. 20 But after the disciples had gathered around him, he got up and went back into the city. The next day he and Barnabas left for Derbe.
The Return to Antioch in Syria
21 They preached the gospel in that city and won a large number of disciples. Then they returned to Lystra, Iconium and Antioch, 22 strengthening the disciples and encouraging them to remain true to the faith. “We must go through many hardships to enter the kingdom of God,” they said. 23 Paul and Barnabas appointed elders [Or Barnabas ordained elders; or Barnabas had elders elected] for them in each church and, with prayer and fasting, committed them to the Lord, in whom they had put their trust. 24 After going through Pisidia, they came into Pamphylia, 25 and when they had preached the word in Perga, they went down to Attalia.
26 From Attalia they sailed back to Antioch, where they had been committed to the grace of God for the work they had now completed. 27 On arriving there, they gathered the church together and reported all that God had done through them and how he had opened a door of faith to the Gentiles. 28 And they stayed there a long time with the disciples.
NOTES:
Footnotes
14:8–18 In an effort to convince his hearers that the divine
power works through his word, Paul cures the cripple. However, the pagan
tradition of the occasional appearance of gods among human beings leads the
people astray in interpreting the miracle. The incident reveals the cultural
difficulties with which the church had to cope. Note the similarity of the
miracle worked here by Paul to the one performed by Peter in Acts 3:2–10.
14:12 Zeus…Hermes: in Greek religion, Zeus was the chief of
the Olympian gods, the “father of gods and men”; Hermes was a son of Zeus and
was usually identified as the herald and messenger of the gods.
14:14 Tore their garments: a gesture of protest.
14:15–17 This is the first speech of Paul to Gentiles
recorded by Luke in Acts (cf. Acts 17:22–31). Rather than showing how
Christianity is the logical outgrowth of Judaism, as he does in speeches before
Jews, Luke says that God excuses past Gentile ignorance and then presents a natural
theology arguing for the recognition of God’s existence and presence through
his activity in natural phenomena.
14:23 They appointed presbyters: the communities are given
their own religious leaders by the traveling missionaries. The structure in
these churches is patterned on the model of the Jerusalem community (Acts
11:30; 15:2, 5, 22; 21:18).
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