Acts 14:11 - Printer Friendly

ESV: And when the crowds saw what Paul had done, they lifted up their voices, saying in Lycaonian, “The gods have come down to us in the likeness of men!”

NIV: When the crowd saw what Paul had done, they shouted in the Lycaonian language, 'The gods have come down to us in human form!'

NASB: When the crowds saw what Paul had done, they raised their voice, saying in the Lycaonian language, 'The gods have become like men and have come down to us!'

CSB: When the crowds saw what Paul had done, they shouted, saying in the Lycaonian language, "The gods have come down to us in human form! "

NLT: When the crowd saw what Paul had done, they shouted in their local dialect, 'These men are gods in human form!'

KJV: And when the people saw what Paul had done, they lifted up their voices, saying in the speech of Lycaonia, The gods are come down to us in the likeness of men.

NKJV: Now when the people saw what Paul had done, they raised their voices, saying in the Lycaonian language, “The gods have come down to us in the likeness of men!”

Paul and Barnabas are in Lystra, sharing the story of Jesus, when Paul notices a crippled man. He sees the man has faith to be made well and tells him to stand (Acts 14:8–10). The crowd is amazed. They come up with the idea that these two men are Greek gods: that Barnabas is Zeus and Paul, who does most of the speaking, must be Hermes (Acts 14:12).

Scholars debate the details of what happens here, noting that Paul and Barnabas have a delayed understanding of what's happening (Acts 14:14). The fact that Luke explicitly mentions the crowd's language—Lycaonian—likely means Paul is preaching in tongues (1 Corinthians 14:18). That means the locals understand his message, but he cannot understand what the locals are saying in that same dialect. This may be why he doesn't seem to know what is going on until the priests arrive with sacrifices to the two "gods." However, Paul is from Tarsus, on the other side of the mountain range from Lystra; he may well speak Lycaonian.

As a classically trained Roman citizen, however, Paul will quickly interpret their motivation of a sacrifice. In Ovid's Metamorphoses, written in AD 8, Zeus and Hermes visit Phrygia, a district northwest of Lystra. They search for hospitality in a thousand different homes before an elderly couple invite them to their shack. In return, Zeus floods the neighborhood and turns their shack into a temple in the middle of the lake. The last thing the Lystrans want is to refuse hospitality for two Greek gods.

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.