Acts 14

Acts 14 covers the second half of the first missionary journey of Paul and Barnabas, which begins in Acts 13. The narrative resumes as the two men, driven out of Pisidian Antioch, arrive in Iconium, and the first journey ends when they return to the church at Antioch that had sent them out.

Outline

• Verses 1–7 The two preach in the synagogue at Iconium, and many Jews and Greeks believe. Signs and wonders accompany their preaching. The people of the city are divided into two factions, and when an attempt is made to stone the apostles, the two flee to Lystra and Derbe, cities of Lycaonia.
• Verses 8–18 At Lystra, Paul heals a man who had been unable to walk from birth. The crowds then call Barnabas Zeus (KJV "Jupiter") and Paul Hermes (KJV "Mercurius") and prepare to offer sacrifice to them. The two apostles tear their clothes and cry out that they are men like them and that the people should turn to the living God. Only with difficulty do they restrain the crowds.
• Verses 19–20 Jews who have come from Antioch and Iconium stir up the crowds, who stone Paul and drag him out of the city, supposing him dead. Paul gets up, and the next day he departs for Derbe.
• Verses 21–23 After making many disciples in Derbe, they retrace their route through Lystra, Iconium, and Antioch, strengthening the disciples in the faith. They appoint elders in every church and, with prayer and fasting, commend them to the Lord.
• Verses 24–28 Passing through Pisidia and Pamphylia, they preach in Perga, then sail from Attalia back to Antioch. There they report to the church how God had opened the door of faith to the Gentiles.

Key Verses

• Acts 14:15 "turn from these vanities unto the living God" — an example of preaching that proclaimed God as Creator to a Gentile audience unacquainted with the Scriptures.
• Acts 14:22 "we must through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God" — a concise expression of how the early church, living under persecution, understood the life of faith.
• Acts 14:27 "he had opened the door of faith unto the Gentiles" — this provides the background for the deliberations of the Council of Jerusalem in the following chapter.

People and Places

• Paul, Barnabas — both men are called "apostles" in verses 4 and 14.
• Iconium — a city east of Pisidian Antioch; modern-day Konya in Türkiye.
• Lystra and Derbe — cities in the region of Lycaonia. Lystra is where Timothy later first appears (Acts 16:1).
• Perga and Attalia — a city and a port in the region of Pamphylia.
• Antioch — the Antioch of verses 19 and 21 is Pisidian Antioch, while the Antioch of verse 26 is Syrian Antioch, the city from which the two had been sent out.

Points for Reflection

• Verses 15–17 state that God bore witness to himself by giving rain and fruitful seasons. For this reason the passage is frequently cited, together with the Athens sermon in Acts 17 and Romans 1:18–25, in discussions of revelation through nature or of common grace.
• Interpretations differ over the word rendered "ordained" in verse 23 (Greek cheirotoneō, originally meaning "to raise the hand"). The Presbyterian tradition tends to read it as referring to election by the congregation, while the episcopal tradition tends to read it as appointment by the apostles. For this reason the verse is cited as a proof text in debates over church polity.
• The event of verse 19 is read alongside Paul's own statement "once was I stoned" (2 Corinthians 11:25) and his reference to the persecutions that came upon him "at Antioch, at Iconium, at Lystra" (2 Timothy 3:11). The text, however, says only "supposing he had been dead"; it does not state that Paul actually died and was raised.
• As background to the crowd's identifying the two apostles with Zeus and Hermes, interpreters mention a story by the Roman poet Ovid in which these two gods visited the land of Phrygia in human form. This, however, is an explanation drawn from outside the text.