Bible Commentaries
Acts 14

Verses 1-28

XIV 1-6 At Iconium —1. This city, the modern Konieh, was a Phrygian town, 80 m. E. of Pisidian Antioch in fertile country at the foot of the Taurus. It lay on the road through the Cilician Gates to the Euphrates, and its trade had attracted a Jewish colony. Now, besides Jews, many Greeks (Hellenes, i.e. Gentiles) were converted, but not, for the narrative is very condensed, all at one meeting.

2. Animosity was aroused against the new church.

3. Yet charismata confirmed the preaching, and leading to divided opinions, 4, helped to avert immediate persecution. Perhaps a year, a.d. 47-8, was spent at Iconium.

5-6. The meaning seems to be that a stoning was plotted by the Gentile mob, and by the Jews with the rulers of their synagogue, but that it was prevented by the flight of the Apostles, who visited Lystra, and then Derbe, and the country round them. This was Lycaonia, which had its own language, different from the Phrygian of Iconium.

7-17 At Lystra —One of the colonies of veterans established by Augustus in 6 b.c., 20 m. S. of Iconium, and seemingly too small to have a synagogue for Jews. 8. St Paul noticed this attentive man. He listened to the account of Jesus the Saviour, and his miracles of healing, believed in him, and had sufficient faith to be healed, Matthew 9:28.9. The crowd could not fail to realize the greatness of the miracle.

10-11. The people in their excitement spoke their native Lycaonian. They were perhaps led to think of Jupiter (Zeus) and Mercury (Hermes) because of the legend that these two had been entertained, unawares, in Phrygia, Ovid, Metamorph. 8, 611 ff. Hermes was the spokesman of the gods.

12-13. ’The priest of the temple of Jupiter that was in front of the city’, was about to offer sacrifice, at the city gate. When the Apostles heard what was happening beside the city, they ’leapt out into the crowd’ to express their horror and prevent the sacrifice.

14-16 The Speech of the Apostles —All things to all men, they adapt the truths of natural religion, the argument of 17:24-30 and Rom 1-2, to the simple audience. 14. cf.1 Thessalonians 1:9.15-16. These verses deal with God’s apparent abandonment of men. It was only temporary and partial; cf. 17:30 and Romans 3:26. The wickedness of man, following his own will, is gently touched on compared with Romans 1:18 ff. The Gentiles had their graces, and God never left man without the means of reaching the truth. In 17:27 and Romans 2:15 the argument from conscience is brought forward; here to these nature-worshippers, the arguments from order and causality. The participles are subordinate. God does good by giving rain, thus filling our hearts with gladness.

18-19 Persecution at Lystra —Since they made a number of disciples St Paul and Barnabas were some time at Lystra, before the Jews, hearing of their success, came even from Antioch, 100 m. away. Stoning was a Jewish punishment, and the Jews, to hide their crime, brought St Paul out of the city, where the vultures would remove all trace of his body. Whether he died or not, St Luke regards his recovery as a miracle, since he could walk back and leave next day, cf.2 Timothy 3:11; 2 Corinthians 11:25. The converts came out in the evening, and surrounded him, and he regained consciousness or life. Among the disciples were Eunice and Timothy, 16:1; cf.2 Timothy 1:5.

20-27 Derbe and the Return Journey —20. Derbe was the frontier town, 30 m. from Lystra on the road east. Here ’they made many disciples’ ; cf. 20:4.

21. The shortest route to Syrian Antioch was through the Cilician Gates, but Paul wished to revisit the new communities, to exhort them to persevere in their faith in Jesus. St Luke then quotes directly; cf.Luke 24:26; Romans 8:17. The context suggests that the kingdom is that on earth, the Church.

22. In spite of the animosities that had been aroused, the return journey seems to have been entirely devoted to the organization of the new churches. The apostles ’appointed’ a college of presbyters in each community, see § 820d. They laid hands on them at the liturgical assembly after fasting and prayer, and then commended the faithful to the Lord, Jesus, in whom they now believed.

23. They did not stop to preach in mountainous Pisidia.

24. There had been no preaching at Perge before, 13:13. Attalia was its port, 16 m. away.

25. Cf. 13:2-3. 26. The missionaries are only instruments, cf.1 Corinthians 3:7-9. A door had been opened not by the works of the Law, but by faith in Jesus. For: the metaphor, cf.1 Corinthians 16:9; 2 Corinthians 2:12. This most successful mission evoked the enthusiasm of the Church at Antioch, which was reached by the winter of a.d. 48-9.