Acts 14:12 - Printer Friendly

ESV: Barnabas they called Zeus, and Paul, Hermes, because he was the chief speaker.

NIV: Barnabas they called Zeus, and Paul they called Hermes because he was the chief speaker.

NASB: And they began calling Barnabas, Zeus, and Paul, Hermes, since he was the chief speaker.

CSB: Barnabas they called Zeus, and Paul, Hermes, because he was the chief speaker.

NLT: They decided that Barnabas was the Greek god Zeus and that Paul was Hermes, since he was the chief speaker.

KJV: And they called Barnabas, Jupiter; and Paul, Mercurius, because he was the chief speaker.

NKJV: And Barnabas they called Zeus, and Paul, Hermes, because he was the chief speaker.

While teaching a crowd in Lystra about Jesus' offer of salvation, Paul heals a man born crippled (Acts 14:8–10). Stunned, the people decide that he, as the main speaker, must be Hermes and Barnabas must be Zeus. Not only is Zeus the leader of the Greek gods, "Zeus" and "Hermes" are colloquial names for the regional father and son gods of Anatolia. Two separate Greek legends describe Zeus and Hermes visiting Lystra. It is Ovid's Metamorphoses, written about forty years before, however, that might have most influenced the crowd's reaction.

In the story, Zeus and Hermes come down to earth disguised as humans and ask for lodging at a thousand homes in Phrygia. After a thousand refusals, an old couple, Baucis and her husband Philemon, invite them to stay in their home, little better than a shack. The elderly couple wash their visitors' feet, boil some salted bacon, and offer their beds to eat on. The visitors feast on olives, salad, curds and cream, eggs, liquor, the bacon, wine, dried fruit, nuts, and honeycomb. The gods cause the food to not run out and grow in quality. The couple tries to catch a goose, as well, but she recognizes Zeus and runs to him for protection, and he lets her escape.

Finally, Zeus reveals their real identities. He promises to destroy the neighborhood except these two whom he leads to a mountain. When they look back, their neighborhood is flooded, and their house sits on an island in the middle of a lake. As the couple mourns their neighbors, the shack grows into a temple. Zeus gives them a wish, and they ask to serve at his shrine and die within an hour of each other. When they die, they turn into an oak and a linden tree.

Whether the people of Lystra think Paul and Barnabas are the Greek gods or their more local versions is unknown, but they might have been eager to ready sacrifices just in case.

Acts 14:8–20 finds Paul and Barnabas in Lystra in the province of Galatia in modern-day Asia Minor. This city's reaction is the extreme opposite of what happened in Pisidian Antioch and Iconium, where they were threatened with stoning (Acts 13:50; 14:5). In Lystra, they are initially worshiped as gods. The two Christian missionaries are horrified by this reaction and do their best to stop it. Before long, however, antagonistic Jews from their previous stops arrive and convince the locals to stone Paul. God's warning that Paul would suffer greatly for Him begins to come true (Acts 9:16), but Paul considers being left for dead a small price to pay for his salvation through Jesus (Romans 8:18).

Acts 14 describes the last half of Paul's first missionary journey. He and Barnabas leave Pisidian Antioch, near central modern-day Asia Minor, and travel southeast to Iconium where they establish a new church. In Lystra, Paul heals a man born crippled. The amazed people insist Barnabas is the Greek deity Zeus, and Paul is Hermes. They attempt to offer sacrifices to them, much to the horror of the two evangelists. When antagonists from Pisidian Antioch and Iconium arrive, Paul is stoned but survives. The pair travel to Derbe, then retrace their steps, encouraging the new churches before sailing back to Syrian Antioch.

Paul's first missionary journey, recorded in Acts 13—14, gives a glimpse of issues that the church will face throughout its entire existence. When presented with Jesus's story, some will accept Him while others will not. Opposition is sometimes violent. Some integrate into church life easily, but for centuries the church has struggled with how to integrate those from vastly different cultures. This raises the crucial question of which aspects of faith and worship are biblical, making them universal, and which are cultural, and therefore optional? In Acts 15, the church leadership will start a discussion on that subject which continues even today.

The summary of the book of Acts is provided in Jesus' words in Acts 1:8: ''But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.'' In Acts 2:1–13, the Christ-followers receive the Holy Spirit. Acts 2:14—7:60 describes the rapid growth of the church in Jerusalem. Chapters 8—12 find Jewish persecution inadvertently spreading the gospel throughout Judea and Samaria. And in chapters 13—28, Paul and his companions spread the good news throughout the Roman Empire.