Chapter 14
Jews and Gentiles at Iconium.[a] 1 In Iconium, they went into the Jewish synagogue and spoke so effectively that a great number of both Jews and Greeks became believers. 2 However, the Jews who refused to believe stirred up the Gentiles and poisoned their minds against the brethren. 3 Therefore, they stayed there for a considerable period of time, speaking boldly on behalf of the Lord, who confirmed the message of his grace by enabling them to work signs and wonders.
4 However, the people in the city were divided, some siding with the Jews, others with the apostles. 5 Eventually, a plot was hatched by both the Gentiles and the Jews, together with their leaders, to attack and stone them. 6 When they became aware of this, they fled to the Lycaonian cities[b] of Lystra and Derbe and to the surrounding area. 7 There they preached the good news.
At Lystra Paul and Barnabas Are Taken for Gods.[c] 8 At Lystra, there was a man who was crippled. Lame from birth, he had never once been able to walk. 9 He listened to Paul speaking. Paul looked intently at him, and, seeing that he had the faith to be healed, 10 called out to him in a loud voice, “Stand up on your feet.” The man sprang up and began to walk.
11 [d]When the crowds saw what Paul had done, they shouted in Lycaonian, “The gods have come down to us in human form!” 12 They called Barnabas Zeus, and since Paul was the chief speaker, they called him Hermes. 13 And the priest of Zeus, who was on the outskirts of the city, brought oxen and garlands to the gates, since he and the people intended to offer sacrifice.
14 However, when the apostles Barnabas and Paul learned about this, they tore their clothes[e] and rushed into the crowd, shouting, 15 “Men, why are you doing this? We are only human beings, just like you. We proclaim to you the good news so that you may turn from these idols to the living God who made heaven and earth and the sea and all that is in them.
16 “In the past, God allowed all the Gentiles to go their own way. 17 However, even then he did not leave you without a witness in doing good, for he sends you rain from heaven and crops in their seasons, and he provides you with food and fills your hearts with joy.” 18 Yet, even with these words, they were barely able to prevent the crowds from offering sacrifice to them.
19 End of the First Mission.[f] Shortly thereafter, some Jews arrived on the scene from Antioch and Iconium, and they won over the crowds. They stoned Paul and dragged him outside the town, believing that he was dead. 20 But when the disciples gathered around him, he got up and entered the city. On the next day, he and Barnabas departed for Derbe.
21 After they had proclaimed the good news in that city and gained a considerable number of disciples, they returned to Lystra and then moved on to Iconium and Antioch. 22 They strengthened the disciples and encouraged them to persevere in the faith, saying, “It is necessary for us to undergo many hardships in order to enter the kingdom of God.” 23 In each Church, they appointed presbyters for them, and with prayer and fasting they commended them to the Lord in whom they had come to believe.
24 Then they passed through Pisidia and came to Pamphylia. 25 After proclaiming the word at Perga, they went down to Attalia,[g] 26 and from there they sailed to Antioch,[h] where they had been commended to the grace of God for the work that they had completed. 27 When they arrived, they called the church together and related all that God had accomplished through them and how he had opened the door of faith to the Gentiles. 28 And they stayed there with the disciples for some time.
Footnotes
- Acts 14:1 A good number of both Jews and Gentiles accept the Gospel. But the crucial question is this: Since the Gospel is so anchored in the movement of the history of Israel, is it not a perversion to open the Church to the Gentiles? And the answer is: No. It is a new message: the word of God is for everyone.
- Acts 14:6 Lycaonian cities: Lycaonia was a district east of Pisidia, north of the Taurus Mountains, and part of the Roman province of Galatia. Lystra: a Roman colony about 20 miles from Iconium and 130 miles from Antioch. Derbe: a town about 60 miles from Lystra.
- Acts 14:8 A new problem arises for the Church: the kind of reaction shown here by a crowd of rural Gentiles, who regard the two apostles as divinities. Peter had already raised up Cornelius when the latter knelt before him (Acts 10:25). The sermon here, the first one on the Gospel to Gentiles, is a fragment. It is to be completed in light of the more fully developed discourse in Acts 17:22-31.
When addressed to Gentiles, the kerygma was profoundly different than when addressed to Jews. It urged the abandonment of dead idols in order to turn to the living God. Proofs were not taken from Scripture; rather the emphasis was on God manifesting himself to all human beings through the cycles of life and of the world. - Acts 14:11 The strange reaction of the people of Lystra to the cure performed by Paul is a result of local folklore that told tales of the gods coming to earth without being recognized. Struck by the deed performed, the people believe that the gods—in the guise of Zeus and Hermes—have visited again in the form of these two wonderworkers. Zeus was the chief of the gods and patron of the city, and Hermes was a son of Zeus and messenger of the gods (like the Roman Mercury).
- Acts 14:14 Tore their clothes: an expression of horror and revulsion at someone’s blasphemy (see Mt 26:65).
- Acts 14:19 The Gospel of Jesus has been planted in Asia Minor as a force of life. On the return of Paul and Barnabas to Antioch, the first movement of the community is to gather to hear what God has helped them to accomplish, and to give thanks, as was done on Peter’s return to Jerusalem (Acts 11:18). The Christian community in Antioch lives the good news of Jesus.
- Acts 14:25 Attalia: the finest harbor on the coast of Pamphylia (see note on Acts 13:13).
- Acts 14:26 Antioch: see note on Acts 11:19.