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Acts 14:8
ESV Now at Lystra there was a man sitting who could not use his feet. He was crippled from birth and had never walked.
NIV In Lystra there sat a man who was lame. He had been that way from birth and had never walked.
NASB In Lystra a man was sitting whose feet were incapacitated. He had been disabled from his mother’s womb, and had never walked.
CSB In Lystra a man was sitting who was without strength in his feet, had never walked, and had been lame from birth.
NLT While they were at Lystra, Paul and Barnabas came upon a man with crippled feet. He had been that way from birth, so he had never walked. He was sitting
KJV And there sat a certain man at Lystra, impotent in his feet, being a cripple from his mother's womb, who never had walked:
NKJV And in Lystra a certain man without strength in his feet was sitting, a cripple from his mother’s womb, who had never walked.

What does Acts 14:8 mean?

Paul and Barnabas are in the middle of their missionary journey (Acts 13:1–3). They traveled from Syrian Antioch to the island of Cyprus, sailed north to the southern shore of modern-day Asia Minor, continued north to Pisidian Antioch, then turned east to Iconium and south to Lystra.

Lystra is in the Lycaonian region of the province of Galatia. It became a Roman colony in 25 BC, a military outpost against pirates and marauders from the Tarsus mountains to the south. It is a small town, apparently with not even enough Jews to host a synagogue. On Paul's second missionary journey, he will meet Timothy, either in Derbe or Lystra (Acts 16:1–2).

The encounter with the crippled man parallels that of John and Peter in Jerusalem (Acts 3:1–10). In the prior case, Peter told the witnesses that the power he used to heal the man was from Jesus of Nazareth, the Jewish Messiah (Acts 3:11–26). Soon after, Peter and John are questioned by the Sanhedrin and told not to speak of Jesus again (Acts 4).

In this latter case, it's possible Paul has been preaching in tongues but doesn't know the Lycaonian language (1 Corinthians 14:18). He and Barnabas don't understand what the crowd intends until they try to sacrifice to Paul and Barnabas, thinking they are the incarnations of Hermes and Zeus (Acts 14:11–18). The crowd completely reverses their view, however, when unbelieving Jews and Gentiles from Pisidian Antioch and Iconium arrive and convince the people to stone Paul and leave him for dead (Acts 14:19).

Spreading the good news of Jesus is not for the faint of heart.
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