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Acts 13: 42 - 14: 28.
A | 13: 42-51. ANTIOCH (In Pisidia).--The Light to lighten the Gentiles.
B | 13: 51 - 14: 5. ICONIUM.--Jews and Greeks believe. Threat to stone.
C | 14: 6-20. LYSTRA.--The miracles and the witness against idolatry.
D | 14: 20-21. DERBE.--Many taught.
C | 14: 21. LYSTRA.--The return journey.
B | 14: 21. ICONIUM.--The return journey.
A | 14: 21-23. ANTIOCH.--Confirming and commending.
A1 | 14: 24. PISIDIA.--Passed throughout.
B1 | 14: 24. PAMPHYLIA.--They came to.
C1 | 14: 25. PERGA.--The word preached.
D1 | 14: 25-26. ATTALIA.--From thence they sailed.
A | 14: 26-28. ANTIOCH (In Syria).--The door of faith unto the Gentiles.
In Acts 13: 42: "When the Jews were gone out" we have an anticipation of
Acts 28:, where "the Jews departed" and the door of faith was closed to Israel, until
the fullness of the Gentiles be come in. As Israel's door begins to swing to, the door for
the Gentile swings open. Again, in Acts 13: 43, the "congregation (synagogue) breaks
up", while in Acts 14: 27 we read: "And when they had gathered (sunagagontes) the
church together", suggesting that the synagogue of the Jews was about to give place to a
"synagogue" of all believers.
We pass by the record of Paul's visit to Iconium without comment, except to mention
that he evidently stayed there a considerable time (14: 3), and that, while the Roman
Colony at Antioch would deal with the administration of city affairs, Iconium, as an
Hellenic city, would be much more democratic. Ladies of high rank (13: 50) could be
used by the Jews in the former, but it was the mob in the latter that brought about the
apostles' expulsion.
At Lystra, we must pause for a moment, as the record becomes more detailed, and is
of evident importance. For the reader to understand the action of the people in offering
sacrifice to Barnabas and Paul, it is necessary to know that the ancients believed that their
gods often visited the earth in human form, and more than one such visit is associated
with the neighbourhood of Lystra. Dryden's translation of Ovid's Metamorphosis reads:
"Here Jove and Hermes came, but in disguise of mortal men concealed their deities."
Jove here is Jupiter, and Hermes Mercury, these being the corresponding Greek and
Latin names for the same gods. In 1909 Sir William Ramsay unearthed a statue
dedicated by the Lycaonians to the two gods, Jupiter and Mercury, showing that these
two gods were associated together in the cult of the neighbourhood.
It is not quite correct to speak of the "miracle" at Lystra in the singular, for there were
actually two; not only the miracle of the healing of the lame man, but the miracle of the
raising of Paul after being stoned and left for dead. The statement of the Acts leaves it
undecided as to whether Paul actually died, as some think, or whether he was badly
wounded and rendered unconscious, but the fact that he could rise up, go back to the city,