Acts 14: The Successes in Galatia

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(Map courtesy of website http://gbgm-umc.org/umw/corinthians/maps.stm)(For another good map and JB Phillips' paraphrase of Acts 14 click here.)

1 From Pisidian Antioch Paul and Barnabas proceeded eastward to the city of Iconium, where they continued to proclaim the good news (gospel) about Jesus the Messiah. And again they began where they believed the soil to be the most fertile and ready, the local synagogue.



From the definite article “the synagogue” it would appear that there was only one gathering place for Jewish worship in Iconium (modern Turkish Konya). Obviously ESV’s and NIV’s “Jewish” is unnecessary, since the Greek text has only “the synagogue”, and what would a synagogue be if not Jewish?



The town, the Latin form of whose name is Iconium, existed long before the ancient Phrygians settled it. It is known already from texts written towards the end of the Hittite empire (c. 1220 BC), where it appears as Ikuwaniya.

“With Augustus’ reorganization of provinces in 25 B.C., Iconium became part of Galatia. But while Rome chose Antioch of Pisidia and Lystra as bastions of its authority in the area, Iconium remained largely Greek in temper and somewhat resistant to Roman influence” (NIV Commentary)

2 Luke tells us that "the unbelieving Jews stirred up the Gentiles and poisoned their minds against the brothers." The expression “the unbelieving Jews” indicates that some at least from the synagogue had believed the gospel message spoken by Paul and Barnabas, as indeed v. 1 says. The initial wave of opposition took the form of slander, injected in the minds of the non-Jews in the city in order to poison their minds and keep them from believing the message.



Luke’s source does not provide him with the specifics as to what the slander was. It had to be something that would be inflammatory to non-Jews, not just to Jews. The best refutation of slander is not words alone but upright, noble and courageous behavior. And it is this which Luke focuses on in the rest of the chapter. The contrast between the behavior of the missionaries and that of the mobs is stark.



3 Luke, like Paul, tends to use “God” for the Father and “Lord” for Jesus. Therefore, Luke characterizes the missionaries’ message as “the message of his (Jesus’) grace”, meaning His gracious gift of salvation through His death and resurrection. It should be understood that “grace” as opposed to “law” will be an issue in these churches in the coming years, as evidenced by Paul’s letter to the Galatians. Confirmation of the message boldly preached came in the form of miracles. Luke’s source again does not specify what these miracles were. “Later when writing his Galatian converts …, Paul appeals to these mighty works performed by the Spirit as evidence that the Gospel as he preached it and as they received it was fully approved by God (cf. Gal 3:4-5)” (NIV Comm.). The IVP Acts Commentary observes:

These miracles at Iconium place the work of Paul and Barnabas in continuity with the mission of Jesus and "the Twelve" and bear witness to unbelieving Jews that the salvation blessings Israel experienced in the past and hoped for at the end of the age are now not only theirs but also the Gentiles' (Acts 2:22; 5:12; 15:12; Ex 7:3; Ps 135:9; Acts 2:12/Joel 2:30; Gal 3:4-5).

But although both Luke and Paul claim that the miracles show the truth of the message, Jews were on good ground to question this assumption, because of warning passages in the Torah, such as Deut. 13:1-5 (LXX σημεῖον ἢ τέρας). Deceivers also will perform miracles to lure Israel away from fidelity to God.



5 The plot is not just by unbelieving Jews, but by Gentiles (pagans) as well. The gospel always divides people. If your goal is complete unity of thinking on religious matters, you will not want the gospel to be preached. It doesn’t say “You’re okay; I’m okay. Whatever you believe is okay”! It presumes the possibility of validating one of two competing religious claims. It believes that one claim can be right and another wrong.



The mention of stoning shows, however, that there is strong Jewish influence, since stoning as a form of execution is uniquely Israelite/Jewish.



6 Sometimes discretion is the better part of valor! there is a time to stand still bravely, and a time to pick up and run for your life.



Only in Acts 14:4, 6, 14 does Luke depart from his usual restriction of the term “apostles” to refer to the Twelve. He does not even use it of Paul, much less of Barnabas. On the use of “apostles” for Paul and Barnabas, see NIV Comm: “ While Barnabas was neither one of the Twelve nor a claimant to any special revelation, he was probably one of the 120 (cf. Acts 1:15) and may have been a witness of Jesus’ resurrection. Yet as with most titles of the NT, Luke, like Paul himself (cf. 2Co 8:23; Gal 1:19; Phil 2:25), not only used “apostle” in the restricted sense of a small group of highly honored believers who had a special function within the church but also in the broader sense of messengers of the Gospel.” See also With. Acts 419f.



8-10 Lystra also was an old city, mentioned in the same Hittite document (c. 1220 BC) that mentioned Ikuwaniya-Iconium. It has not yet been identified archeologically, although several candidates have been suggested. “That Paul began the ministry at Lystra by preaching to a crowd may imply that no synagogue was available for him to preach in. “ (NIV Comm.).



Paul apparently possessed the gift of healing (1Cor 12:9,28,30), for he was able to bring about miraculous healings on several recorded occasions. But note that healing was not his primary mission in Lystra and Derbe: instead he was there to preach the gospel of Jesus. It was only as he saw in the audience a man who was believing the message (v. 9 “saw that he had faith to be healed”), but who was also a cripple, that he was led by the Spirit to call down God’s healing power upon the man. The physical healing in this case was just God’s way of showing what had already happened to him inside: he had been “made whole” in spirit by faith in Jesus.



11 Paul’s action was spontaneous, prompted by the Spirit (although Luke doesn’t try to state the obvious here), not following a prearranged plan. He could not have foreseen the crowd’s reaction. As it was, this was definitely not what he or Barnabas wanted. The polytheistic pagan mindset being what it was, such miraculous healing powers suggested that the two missionaries were gods in disguise! The specific pair of deities suspected, Zeus and Hermes, were both worshiped in this region, as archeological finds have demonstrated. Bible-readers need to know some Greek mythology in order to fully appreciate this story. Zeus (= Latin Jupiter) was the head of the Greek pantheon and an august figure, while Hermes (= Latin Mercury) was the messenger of the gods and therefore their “chief speaker”. Luke’s albeit abbreviated description of the sacrificial rites is completely true to what we know about pagan Anatolian worship. (If you think modern enlightenment has eliminated the worship of Zeus and his friends, see this recent article.) F. F. Bruce comments on extra-biblical evidence for the worship of Zeus and Hermes in the region of Lystra:

Sometimes minor details in the New Testament narrative have been illuminated and confirmed by archaeological research. For example, when Paul and Barnabas, in the course of their first missionary tour, visited Lystra in Asia Minor, and healed a lame man, the populace jumped to the conclusion that the gods had come down to them in the likeness of men, 'and they called Barnabas Zeus, and Paul Hermes, because he was the chief speaker' (Acts xiv. 12). Now Zeus and Hermes (whom the Romans called Jupiter and Mercury) were traditionally connected with that region; in the eighth book of his Metamorphoses (lines 626 ff.) the [Roman] poet Ovid tells a well known story of how they came to those parts incognito and received hospitality from an aged couple, Philemon and Baucis, who were well rewarded for their kindness, while their inhospitable neighbours were overwhelmed by a deluge.

But more precise evidence of the joint worship of these two deities in the vicinity of Lystra was found in 1910, when Sir William Calder discovered an inscription of c. AD 250 at Sedasa near Lystra, recording the dedication to Zeus of a statue of Hermes along with a sundial by men with Lycaonian names,' and again in 1926, when the same scholar, along with Professor W. H. Buckler, discovered a stone altar near Lystra dedicated to the 'Hearer of Prayer' (presumably Zeus) and Hermes.'

A good parallel to the phrase 'the chief speaker' (Gk., ho hegoumenos tou logou; literally, 'the leader of the speaking') is found in The Egyptian Mysteries of Iamblichus, where Hermes is described as 'the god who is the leader of the speeches' (Gk., theos ho ton logon hegemon). In their way, these 'undesigned coincidences' are as telling as the more direct confirmations of biblical statements.

Very little is known specifically about the ancient non-Greek language of Lycaonia in Roman times, but it was probably a descendant of the Luvian language known to have been spoken in that region in Hittite times. About Luvian we know quite a bit. Obviously, neither Paul nor Barnabas would have understood what was said in this language, which explains their delayed reaction, not understanding what was happening until they saw the sacrifice (v. 14). Tearing their clothes was a typically Jewish sign of mourning a death or a response to the hearing blasphemy or witnessing a sacrilegious act. But it was also a universally recognized sign of mourning or horror that even pagans in Paul's time would have understood.



Pelikan (Acts 163) calls attention to how the wild claim of the Lystrans that the gods can come down in the likeness of humans was

“the liturgical counterpart to a pagan confession of faith that was at one and the same time woefully misguided in its polytheism and idolatry (cf. Acts 19:28) and yet in some curious and twisted sense ‘not far from the kingdom of God’ (Mark 12:34) as an anticipation of the orthodox Christian doctrine that was to be confessed in the Niceno-Constantinopolitan Creed: ''And became incarnate from the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary, became human".

He adds that:

“this reference to the divine as appearing ‘in the likeness of men’ did bear at least a superficial resemblance to the Pauline language about God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh (Rom. 8:3) and about the incarnation of the preexistent Christ as being ‘born in the likeness of men and being found in human form’ (Phil. 2:7- 8). … [Yet] the early Christian apologists, above all Origen in Contra Celsum, were at great pains to differentiate the Christian doctrine of the incarnation from such pagan myths of the Olympian deities roaming the earth in search of plunder and sex.”

15-17 Paul’s abbreviated “sermon” to restrain the sacrifice required no knowledge either of Jewish scripture nor of Greek philosophy to understand. But it was true to the spirit of the Bible and to what was right in Greek philosophy. Pelikan observes that:

“his discourse at Athens [Acts 17:16-34] was primarily an exercise in the rhetoric of convincing intellectually; which may also account for ‘the more secular style of this speech,’ This discourse at Lystra came much closer to the rhetoric of persuading existentially (Acts 9:1-4; 24:1-2) when it spoke about God as (reversing the original [biological] order) (1) ‘satisfying your hearts with . .. gladness ‘, (2) ‘filling you with food’ (NRSV), and (3) giving ‘you from heaven rains and fruitful seasons.’”

This was something all ancients believed about their gods, but Paul attributes it to one God, not many—and He the totality of what can be called “god”.



Paul starts where his hearers were: not with the cross but with the idea that one God was the Creator of everyone (v. 15).



16-17 By v. 16-17 Paul does not mean that in past generations Gentiles did not need His salvation. Rather he means that in past generations the focus of his self-revelation was Israel, and the pagan nations only knew Him through the provisions of their needs through nature (rain, sunshine, fertile earth). But now this God has reached out directly to the Gentiles.



18 The speech is cut short before he can develop how God has reached out "now"—by Jesus' sacrificial death and resurrection. But then his primary purpose was to restrain them from honoring them as gods with sacrifice, and this he has achieved.



19-20 This was a close shave for Paul. We see here just how fierce and passionate was the opposition to Paul and Barnabas from the non-believing Jews of Antioch and Iconium. They pursued the two of them all the way to Lystra and stirred up violence there too. After stoning Paul and supposing him dead, they dragged his body outside the city. Why did they do this? Perhaps because a person executed for sins against the gods would defile the city if his body were allowed to remain in the limits of the city.

“Some months later, when Paul wrote the believers in Galatia (again, we assume a “South Galatian” destination for the letter), he closed by saying, “Finally, let no one cause me trouble, for I bear on my body the marks of Jesus” (Gal 6:17). Some of the marks may well have been scars caused by the stoning at Lystra. And when still later he wrote the Corinthians of his being stoned (2Co 11:25), it was Lystra he had in mind (cf. also 2Ti 3:11)” (NIV Comm.).

Young Timothy may have been among those who gathered around the apparently dead Paul (see 2Ti 3:10-11)” (cf. NIV Study Bible note).



That Paul got up and walked right back into the city of those who had stoned him not only shows unbelievable courage, but also concern that the few converts in the city should know that he had survived by God’s grace, and that their prayers for his protection had been answered.



20-21 Little is said about Derbe, but that is no measure of the importance of that visit. As the NIV commentary so rightly observes:

“Luke’s account of the ministry at Derbe is brief. All he says is that the apostles “preached the good news” there and “won a large number of disciples.” Luke spends more time talking about the larger and more influential churches in Antioch and Iconium, though the congregations in the smaller and more rural towns seem to have contributed more young men as candidates for the missionary endeavor (e.g., Timothy from Lystra [Acts 16:1-3; 20:4]; Gaius from Derbe (Acts 20.4) —a pattern not altogether different from today, where the larger churches often capture the headlines and the smaller congregations provide much of the personnel.”

22-23 are all about follow-up, the most important and underrated part of evangelism.



The IVP commentary on Acts notes:

Afterward, instead of moving straight east to Tarsus, a straight shot of 150 miles, Paul and Barnabas decide to retrace their steps. As will become Paul's practice …, the apostle will maintain contact with the churches he has planted, providing ongoing counsel and encouragement. Though Paul focused on church planting (1 Cor 3:6), the goal of his labors was to "present everyone perfect in Christ" to the Lord at his coming (Col 1:28; Rom 15:16; 1 Thess 2:17-20). So today, an evangelist or church planter who does not make provision for discipleship is like a farmer who harvests well only to see the crop spoil because it is not properly stored.

Paul and Barnabas not only followed up the converts with encouragement and good teaching, but they showed by their own courage that those who believed their message would have to have the same kind of courage. Equally important was providing the young believers with a stable and effective organizational structure: ordaining elders for each local congregation. Again, the IVP Acts notes:

The swiftness of these appointments has bothered some church-planting strategists (compare 1 Tim 5:22). But if the core of the membership came from the synagogue, they had sufficient biblical and theological background to permit rapid spiritual maturation. Further, "perhaps Paul and Barnabas were more conscious of the presence and power of the Holy Spirit in the believing communities" than we are today (Bruce 1988:280).

24-28 The return trip to Antioch is now described: retracing their steps through Antioch of Pisidia and Perge, then by ship back to Antioch in Syria. The returning missionaries then discharged their obligation to the congregation that had sent them forth and followed them with prayers by reporting all that had happened, giving them reasons to thank and praise God and the names of the converts for whom they could pray.



All in all this was an excellent start for the gospel.