Acts 14: What the Passage Says

The Chapter in a Sentence

Paul and Barnabas preach in Iconium until a plot to stone them drives them to Lystra and Derbe. In Lystra Paul heals a man lame from birth, and the crowd tries to offer sacrifices to the two men as gods, which they refuse. Jews from Antioch and Iconium then turn the crowd against Paul, who is stoned and dragged out of the city, but he gets up and goes on. The two travel back through the cities they had visited, appoint elders in each church, and return to Antioch to report what God had done and how he had opened the door of faith to the Gentiles.

Claim by Claim

1. 14:1
   • At Iconium Paul and Barnabas went together into the synagogue of the Jews.
   • They spoke there in such a way that a great multitude believed.
   • Those who believed included both Jews and Greeks.
2. 14:2
   • The Jews who refused to believe stirred up the Gentiles.
   • They poisoned the Gentiles' minds against the brothers.
3. 14:3
   • Paul and Barnabas stayed there a considerable time.
   • They spoke boldly in reliance on the Lord.
   • The Lord bore witness to the word of his grace.
   • The Lord granted signs and wonders to be done by their hands.
4. 14:4
   • The multitude of the city was divided.
   • Some sided with the Jews.
   • Some sided with the apostles.
5. 14:5
   • An assault was set in motion by both Gentiles and Jews together with their rulers.
   • The purpose of the assault was to mistreat Paul and Barnabas.
   • The purpose of the assault was to stone them.
6. 14:6
   • Paul and Barnabas became aware of the plan.
   • They fled to Lystra and Derbe, cities of Lycaonia.
   • They also fled to the surrounding region.
7. 14:7
   • There they were preaching the gospel.
8. 14:8
   • A certain man sat at Lystra.
   • The man was powerless in his feet.
   • He had been lame from his mother's womb.
   • He had never walked.
9. 14:9
   • This man heard Paul speaking.
   • Paul looked intently at him.
   • Paul perceived that the man had faith to be healed.
10. 14:10
    • Paul said with a loud voice, "Stand upright on your feet."
    • The man leaped up.
    • The man walked.
11. 14:11
    • The crowds saw what Paul had done.
    • They lifted up their voices.
    • They spoke in the Lycaonian language.
    • They said that the gods had come down to them in the likeness of men.
12. 14:12
    • They called Barnabas Zeus.
    • They called Paul Hermes.
    • They called Paul Hermes because he was the chief speaker.
13. 14:13
    • The priest of Zeus, whose temple was outside the city, brought bulls and garlands to the gates.
    • The priest, together with the crowds, wanted to offer sacrifice.
14. 14:14
    • The apostles Barnabas and Paul heard of it.
    • They tore their garments.
    • They rushed out into the crowd.
    • They cried out.
15. 14:15
    • They said, "Men, why are you doing these things?"
    • They said that they themselves were men of the same nature as the crowd.
    • They said they were bringing good news that the crowd should turn from these worthless things to the living God.
    • They said the living God made the heaven, the earth, the sea, and everything in them.
16. 14:16
    • They said that in past generations God allowed all the nations to walk in their own ways.
17. 14:17
    • They said God did not leave himself without witness.
    • They said God did good.
    • They said God gave us rain from heaven and fruitful seasons.
    • They said God filled our hearts with food and gladness.
18. 14:18
    • Even by saying these things they barely restrained the crowds.
    • The crowds were kept from sacrificing to them.
19. 14:19
    • Jews came from Antioch and Iconium.
    • They persuaded the crowds.
    • They stoned Paul.
    • They dragged Paul out of the city.
    • They supposed that Paul was dead.
20. 14:20
    • The disciples stood around Paul.
    • Paul got up.
    • Paul went into the city.
    • The next day Paul departed with Barnabas to Derbe.
21. 14:21
    • They preached the gospel to that city.
    • They made many disciples.
    • They returned to Lystra, to Iconium, and to Antioch.
22. 14:22
    • They strengthened the souls of the disciples.
    • They exhorted the disciples to continue in the faith.
    • They said that we must enter the kingdom of God through much tribulation.
23. 14:23
    • They appointed elders for them in every church.
    • They prayed with fasting.
    • They commended the disciples to the Lord.
    • The disciples had believed in that Lord.
24. 14:24
    • They passed through Pisidia.
    • They came to Pamphylia.
25. 14:25
    • They spoke the word in Perga.
    • They went down to Attalia.
26. 14:26
    • From there they sailed to Antioch.
    • At Antioch they had been commended to the grace of God for the work.
    • They had completed that work.
27. 14:27
    • They arrived.
    • They gathered the church together.
    • They reported all that God had done with them.
    • They reported that God had opened a door of faith to the Gentiles.
28. 14:28
    • They stayed there a long time with the disciples.

Words Worth Explaining

Every language note in this chapter, gathered. These explain what a word meant, never what it means for the reader.

14:1

Iconium was a city in the interior of Asia Minor, on the main road running east from Pisidian Antioch; it is modern Konya in Turkey. "Greeks" here does not mean visitors from Greece but non-Jews of the Greek-speaking world; some attended the synagogue as interested outsiders, which is why they are in the room to hear Paul at all.

14:2

"Gentiles" is the standard King James word for anyone who is not Jewish, so it covers the rest of the city's population. "Brethren" means fellow believers, women included, not brothers by birth.

14:3

"The word of his grace" is the KJV's phrase for the message Paul preached. "Grace" translates a Greek word meaning a favor freely given, something granted without being earned or owed. "Signs and wonders" is a fixed Old Testament pairing for acts that both astonish and point beyond themselves.

14:4

"Apostles" translates a Greek word meaning someone sent out with a commission, like an envoy or delegate. Luke applies it here to Barnabas as well as Paul, using it in the broader sense of missionaries sent by a church rather than only of the original twelve.

14:5

Stoning was the standard method of execution under Jewish law, carried out by a crowd throwing rocks at the condemned person, usually outside the town. Done by a mob without a trial, as threatened here, it was lynching rather than legal punishment.

14:6

Lycaonia was an inland district of Asia Minor, within the Roman province of Galatia, in what is now central Turkey. Lystra lay about eighteen miles southwest of Iconium and Derbe some sixty miles further on. Crossing into it meant leaving the jurisdiction of Iconium's officials.

14:7

"Preached the gospel" is one word in Greek, meaning to announce good news. In ordinary usage it covered the sort of announcement a herald made, such as news of a victory or of an emperor's accession.

14:8

The KJV's "impotent in his feet" uses "impotent" in its older and broader sense of lacking strength or power, with no sexual meaning attached. The word describes a man whose feet could not bear him.

14:9

The King James "stedfastly beholding him" means Paul looked straight at the man and did not look away.

14:11

Lycaonian was the local native language, distinct from the Greek that Paul and Barnabas spoke and that educated people in the region used for public business. Luke mentions it to explain why the two missionaries did not grasp what the crowd was shouting until preparations for the sacrifice were already under way.

14:12

The KJV gives the Roman names of the gods; the Greek text has Zeus and Hermes. Zeus was the chief of the gods, Hermes his messenger and spokesman, the god of eloquence, which is why the crowd assigns that role to the one doing the talking. A story told in this region held that Zeus and Hermes had once visited it disguised as travelers and been turned away by everyone except one old couple, who were rewarded while their neighbors were destroyed. That memory would make a crowd anxious not to fail the test twice.

14:13

Garlands were woolen ribbons or flower wreaths draped over the sacrificial animals and worn by those taking part, standard equipment for a public sacrifice. Oxen were expensive victims, offered for an occasion of high importance. "Which was before their city" describes the temple of Zeus standing just outside the walls, a common location for a city's patron shrine; the sacrifice is being brought to the gates because that is where the gods are thought to have arrived.

14:14

Tearing one's own clothing was a Jewish gesture of grief and horror, used at a death and also on hearing words treated as an outrage against God. Here it is an unmistakable public signal of rejection, made visible to a crowd whose language the apostles could not speak.

14:15

"Men of like passions with you" does not mean strong emotions in the modern sense. The Greek word means made of the same stuff, subject to the same nature and the same weaknesses. "Vanities" is the KJV's word for things that are empty or futile, a standard Jewish term for idols and the gods behind them.

14:16

"Suffered" in the KJV means allowed or permitted, its ordinary seventeenth century sense. It carries no idea of pain here.

14:17

"Witness" is a courtroom word: evidence given on the stand. Notice that Paul is speaking to farmers who have never read the Jewish Scriptures, so instead of quoting texts, as he does in synagogues, he argues from rain, harvest and food, things his audience can check for themselves.

14:18

"Scarce restrained" means barely managed to stop. "Scarce" here is the old adverb meaning hardly, not the modern adjective meaning in short supply.

14:19

This Antioch is Pisidian Antioch, the inland city Paul and Barnabas had been driven out of earlier, roughly a hundred miles away, and not the Syrian Antioch they had sailed from. Opponents traveled that distance to follow them.

14:21

The return route retraces their steps through the same three cities they had been expelled from, in reverse order. Antioch again means Pisidian Antioch.

14:22

"Tribulation" translates a Greek word whose root sense is pressure or crushing weight, used for hardship and persecution of any kind. The KJV's "confirming the souls" means strengthening or bracing them, not verifying anything.

14:23

"Ordained" here translates a verb that means to appoint or designate; its root refers to stretching out the hand, either to vote or to install someone. "Elders" translates a word meaning older men, the title for the group of respected figures who governed a Jewish synagogue community; the young churches borrow the structure and the name. Fasting means deliberately going without food for a set time, a Jewish practice that regularly accompanied serious prayer.

14:24

Pisidia and Pamphylia were districts of southern Asia Minor; Pisidia is the mountainous inland country, Pamphylia the coastal plain below it. Perga and Attalia in the next verse are both in Pamphylia, Attalia being the port.

14:25

Perga was an inland city of Pamphylia and Attalia the nearest seaport. "Went down" is literal: they descended from higher ground to the coast, which is how ancient writers routinely described the journey.

14:26

This is Antioch in Syria, the large city that had sent them out, not the Pisidian Antioch of the previous verses. The KJV's "recommended" does not mean spoken well of; it means handed over or entrusted, the same act described in verse 23 as commending the new churches to the Lord.

14:27

"Rehearsed" in the KJV means recounted or reported in full, with no sense of practicing. "Opened the door of faith" is a figure of speech for granting access, as a householder opens a door to admit someone.