[The posts which follow make extensive use of The Acts of the Apostles, by Madame Cecilia, (Religious of St Andrew's Convent, Streatham), with an Imprimi potest dated 16 October 1907 (Westminster); Burns, Oates & Washbourne Ltd. (London). With grateful prayers for the author and her team:
REQUIEM æternam dona eis, Domine, et lux perpetua luceat eis. Requiescant in pace. Amen.ETERNAL rest grant unto them, O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon them. May they rest in peace. Amen.]
Acts XIV : 7-19
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[8] This same heard Paul speaking. Who looking upon him, and seeing that he had faith to be healed,
[9] Said with a loud voice: Stand upright on thy feet. And he leaped up, and walked.
[10] And when the multitudes had seen what Paul had done, they lifted up their voice in the Lycaonian tongue, saying: The gods are come down to us in the likeness of men;
[11] And they called Barnabas, Jupiter: but Paul, Mercury; because he was chief speaker.
[12] The priest also of Jupiter that was before the city, bringing oxen and garlands before the gate, would have offered sacrifice with the people.
[13] Which, when the apostles Barnabas and Paul had heard, rending their clothes, they leaped out among the people, crying,
[14] And saying: Ye men, why do ye these things? We also are mortals, men like unto you, preaching to you to be converted from these vain things, to the living God, who made the heaven, and the earth, and the sea, and all things that are in them:
[15] Who in times past suffered all nations to walk in their own ways.
[16] Nevertheless he left not himself without testimony, doing good from heaven, giving rains and fruitful seasons, filling our hearts with food and gladness.
[17] And speaking these things, they scarce restrained the people from sacrificing to them.
[18] Now there came thither certain Jews from Antioch, and Iconium: and persuading the multitude, and stoning Paul, drew him out of the city, thinking him to be dead.
[19] But as the disciples stood round about him, he rose up and entered into the city, and the next day he departed with Barnabas to Derbe.
[7] Et quidam vir Lystris infirmus pedibus sedebat, claudus ex utero matris suae, qui numquam ambulaverat. [8] Hic audivit Paulum loquentem. Qui intuitus eum, et videns quia fidem haberet ut salvus fieret, [9] dixit magna voce : Surge super pedes tuos rectus. Et exilivit, et ambulabat. [10] Turbae autem cum vidissent quod fecerat Paulus, levaverunt vocem suam lycaonice, dicentes : Dii similes facti hominibus, descenderunt ad nos.
[11] Et vocabant Barnabam Jovem, Paulum vero Mercurium : quoniam ipse erat dux verbi. [12] Sacerdos quoque Jovis, qui erat ante civitatem, tauros, et coronas ante januas afferens, cum populis volebat sacrificare. [13] Quod ubi audierunt Apostoli, Barnabas et Paulus, conscissis tunicis suis exilierunt in turbas clamantes, [14] et dicentes : Viri, quid haec facitis? et nos mortales sumus, similes vobis homines, annuntiantes vobis ab his vanis converti ad Deum vivum, qui fecit caelum, et terram, et mare, et omnia quae in eis sunt : [15] qui in praeteritis generationibus dimisit omnes gentes ingredi vias suas.
[16] Et quidem non sine testimonio semetipsum reliquit benefaciens de caelo, dans pluvias et tempora fructifera, implens cibo et laetitia corda nostra. [17] Et haec dicentes, vix sedaverunt turbas ne sibi immolarent. [18] Supervenerunt autem quidam ab Antiochia et Iconio Judaei : et persuasis turbis, lapidantesque Paulum, traxerunt extra civitatem, existimantes eum mortuum esse. [19] Circumdantibus autem eum discipulis, surgens intravit civitatem, et postera die profectus est cum Barnaba in Derben.
Notes
7. sat. He probably sat daily begging in some public place. St Luke gives three details of the man’s impotence, which resemble what is recorded of the beggar at the Beautiful Gate of the Temple (see infra, iii. 2-10). There is no mention of a synagogue at Lystra ; consequently the apostle probably spoke in some public place, such as would be chosen by one who begged alms daily.
8. heard Paul, He heard him not only once, but he “ used to listen ” (ἠκουε) to St Paul,
seeing that he had faith. This was the usual condition exacted of those for whom a miracle was worked. It was by the gift of discernment of spirits that St Paul knew that this cripple had faith in Christ.
to he healed. (σωθηναι) The verb applies primarily to bodily healing, but it is used also of spiritual healing. One ancient MS. adds here, ‘‘ who was in the fear of God.”
9. with a loud voice. In order to attract the attention of the bystanders. Thus Jesus cried with a loud voice, Lazarus, come forth (St John xi. 43).
Stand upright on thy feet. This command could not have been obeyed, except in virtue of the power of faith. The man immediately endeavoured to obey, and God rewarded bis faith by enabling him to rise.
There are several similar examples recorded in the gospel : e.g. the man sick of the palsy (St Matt. ix. 6) ; the cripple at Bethsaida (St John v. 8).
he leaped up and walked. He leaped up at one bound, but he continued to walk about (ἠλατο και περιεπατει).
10. the multitudes. From the presence of the multitude, we may infer that this miracle was worked on some solemn festival or market-day.
Lycaonian tongue. We find an allusion to the Lycaonian dialect in Stephanus Byzantinus (fifth century), who relates that “ delbia ” is the Lycaonian for “juniper-tree.” Some suppose this dialect to have been derived from the Assyrian ; others think it was a dialect drawn from the Greek and Syriac. Since St Luke expressly mentions that the crowds spoke in their own dialect, we may infer that St Paul spoke Greek, which was the language of intercommunication all over the peninsula of Asia Minor, It is more generally held that St Paul and Barnabas did not understand the Lycaonian dialect, otherwise they would at once have expostulated with the people, and would not have allowed them to prepare the victims.
On this passage Fouard has an excellent note : “ St Paul informed the Corinthians that he had the gift of tongues (1 Cor. xiv. 18), but he does not say that he could speak all tongues. We have no proof that supernatural gifts were a universal, abiding power which he could employ at will. When God judged that ' signs and wonders ' were necessary for the propagation of the Gospel ; the apostle spoke different tongues, he prophesied and worked miracles, but except on these special occasions Paul was a man like ourselves ” (St Paul: Les Origines de l'Eglise, tome ii. p. 47).
the gods are come down, etc. The Lycaonians were familiar with the idea of the gods appearing as strangers. They had certainly heard the Greek legend of Lycaon being transformed into a wolf, because, when Jupiter visited him in disguise, Lycaon, in order to discover if he really were a god, served up human flesh at the banquet, and, as a punishment, was changed into a wolf by Jupiter. The district of Lycaonia was supposed to have derived its name from this Lycaon.
Another legend, well known in Asia Minor, relates how Jupiter and Mercury visited the land in the disguise of poor strangers, and none would give them hospitality except two poor peasants, Baucis and Philemon. As a reward, their poor hut was transformed into a magnificent temple when the inundation devastated the region and ruined the inhospitable inhabitants (see Ovid, Metamorph., lib. viii. and v.).
11. they called Barnahas, Jupiter, etc. St Luke gives “Zeus” and “ Hermes,” the two Greek deities ; corresponding to the Latin divinities, Jupiter and Mercury. Jupiter was the supreme deity; he is generally represented holding a sceptre in the right hand and a thunderbolt in the left. Mercury is depicted as young and active ; he holds a purse, the emblem of commerce, and has winged heels. He is always Jupiter’s companion and messenger. It is probable that Barnabas was older and more majestic in appearance than St Paul ; hence he was taken for an incarnation of Jupiter, while St Paul, “the chief speaker,” was supposed to be Mercury.
In the Acts of Paul and Thecla there is a passage which tends to prove that St Paul’s personal attractiveness was very great. He is said to have been “ full of grace and pity ” ; now “ he looked like a man, now he had the face of an angel." Certainly he must have been extremely eloquent, and this was a characteristic of Mercury,
chief speaker. Lit. “the leader of the discourse” (ὁ ἡγουμενος του λογου). In classical mythology, Jupiter or Zeus was supposed never to utter his oracles, but always to make them known through his mouth-piece, Mercury, who is sometimes referred to as “ the prophet of Zeus,” i.e. “ the one who speaks for,” according to the original signification of the word “ prophet.”
12. The priest. The Bezan text runs thus : “And the priests of the god, ‘Zeus before the city,’ brought oxen and garlands to the gates and intended to make sacrifice beyond the usual ritual along with the multitudes .... This text has in several details the advantage of local accuracy— the plural ‘priests,’ the title ‘Zeus before the city,’ the phrase ‘the god,’ the extra sacrifice. Dr Blass rejects the Bezan reading ‘priests’ on the ground that there was only one priest of a single god ; but there was regularly a college of priests at each of the m'eat temples of Asia Minor ” (Ramsey, Paul, the Traveller and the Roman Citizen, pp. 117—118).
Jupiter that was before the city. The temple of Jupiter, the tutelary god of Lystra, was evidently just outside the city gate, hence the name “ Zeus before the gate ” (Ζευς προπουλος).
oxen. It was customary to sacrifice oxen to Jupiter, and more rarely to Mercury (Persius, Sat, ii. 44). Lystriain coins have been found bearing a figure of a man leading two oxen.
garlands. These garlands (vittæ) were made of white wool, inter-woven with flowers and foliage. They were used to decorate the horns of the victims and the temples. “ In a word, the very doors, the very victims and altars, the very servants and priests, are crowned ” (Tertullian, de Corona, c. 10).
before the gate (ἐπι τους πυλωνας ). By this, most commentators understand the outer or folding gates ofthe “atrium” or courtyard of the house where the apostles dwelt. The same word (πυλων) is used of the outer gates of the house of Mary where St Peter went, after he had been delivered by an angel (supra, xii. 13). Classical writers also employ it in this sense. Hence various commentators adopt this explanation (e.g. a Lapide, Beeleii, Fouard, Alford, Lewin, Farrar, Lumby, etc.). It was to Jupiter, under the form of Barnabas, that the people wished to offer sacrifice, and this explains why they sought out the apostles when all was ready.
would have offered sacrifice. The priest offered sacrifice by cutting the throat of the oxen, and having caught the blood in a vessel, he then poured it upon an altar of Zeus. If this scene took place in the court-yard of a house, the priest must have come provided with a portable altar.
13. when the apostles .... had heard. They were evidently within a house or building of some kind when the news reached them. It must have been some little time after the discourse, as the sacrifice required certain preparations.
rending their clothes. This action was expressive of their horror at the proposed blasphemous act.
14. We also are mortals. The gods were regarded as immortals, endowed like men with passions and appetites, but unable to suffer or die.
these vain things. St Paul doubtless pointed to all the preparations for the sacrifice or to the temple of Jupiter. This discourse to the Lycaonians resembles his address to the Greek philosophers of Athens (infra, xvii. 23-31). In both cases he exhorted his hearers to renounce idolatry, and to rise from Nature to Nature’s God.
15. suffered all nations. Until the establishment of Christianity, the only nation who possessed the true faith was the Jewish people. Others were living in the darkness of ignorance, which was an excuse for many of their sins. Yet to all these nations, who did not belong to the theocracy of Israel, God gave the necessary means of salvation. He spoke to them exteriorly through Nature and by His Providence, and interiorly by giving them the necessary supernatural graces which would enable them to serve Him — and by the voice of conscience, the law written in their hearts (Rom. ii. 15).
16. he left not himself without testimony. Compare this with St Paul’s words : For the invisible things of him, from the creation of the world, are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made; his eternal power also and divinity (Rom. i. 20).
doing good. God never ceases to shower His benefits on mankind.
giving rains. There are two seasons when God gives rain ; thus St James speaks of the husbandman patiently bearing until he receive the early and latter rain (v. 7). To an agricultural and pastoral people like the Lycaonians such a line of argument would necessarily appeal, the more so since water was so scarce at times, that ancient writers relate that it was hardly to be had for money.
fruitful seasons. Therefore the elements and seasons are like God’s Apostles and Evangelists in the natural world, always preaching His love, wisdom, and power. And so (οὐκ ἀμαρτυρον ἑαυτον ἀφηκεν) He left not Himself without testimony (cf. Acts xvii. 27), and they who fell away into idolatry or atheism are “ without excuse ” (Wordsworth, Acts, in h. L).
filling our hearts, etc. Some MSS. read “ your hearts.” The Greeks considered the heart as the seat of man’s natural inclinations, hence of the desire for food.
17. speaking these things. The few words recorded by St Luke are merely a bare outline, and undoubtedly both St Paul and Barnabas and others of their company addressed the people.
18. certain Jews from Antioch and Iconium. This proves that St Paul and Barnabas remained some time in Lystra, as the news of their success in that town had reached the ears of the Jews of Antioch and Iconium, and they had had sufficient time to form a coalition against the apostles.
persuading the multitude. The Lycaonians were notorious for their fickleness and their faithlessness ; one day they hail the apostles as gods, and the next they are ready to stone them. The Jews must have persuaded the people that the apostles were impostors.
stoning Paul. The punishment was evidently suggested by the Jews (see verse 5) and was inflicted during a tumult. St Paul was stoned by pagans within the walls, but the Jews inflicted this punishment without their city walls, as we see when St Stephen was stoned (supra, vii. 67). St Paul, being “ the chief speaker ” was attacked, rather than Barnabas.
drew him out of the city. The most brutal insults were perpetrated upon the dead bodies of those who had been publicly executed ; the corpse was often drawn out by the heels and thrown forth without the walls for the dogs and vultures to devour.
St Paul alludes to this stoning in his epistle to the Corinthians : “ Once I was stoned ” (2 Cor. xi. 26). At Lystra he had just escaped this danger. Surely the thought of St Stephen’s martyrdom must have been before his mind when his enemies took up stones to cost at him.
thinking him to he dead. He must have been absolutely unconscious, for had his persecutors seen any signs of life they would have cast more stones to ensure his death.
Two passages in St Paul’s epistles have been connected by some commentators with the stoning at Lystra, It is thought that as St Stephen was strengthened during his martyrdom by a vision of the Son of God in glory, so St Paul, when his enemies were stoning him, was rapt even to the third heaven. And I know such a man (whether in the body or out of the body) I cannot tell, God knoweth ; That he was caught up into paradise ; and heard secret words, which it is not granted to man to utter (2 Cor, xii. 1-4). Also when St Paul says, I bear the marks of the Lord Jesus in my body (Gal. vi. 17), he is supposed by some to refer to the scars received when he was stoned at Lystra and scourged in different cities.
19. as the disciples stood round. Codex D adds “ at evening,” a detail which is probably accurate. The disciples were not strong enough to attempt to rescue their beloved teacher, but, like the devout men who buried St Stephen, they had the courage of their convictions, and were evidently about to bury St Paul. Among those who stood round we may picture Loïs, Eunice, and Timothy, whose home was at Lystra. Cf. Calling to mind that faith which is in thee unfeigned, which also dwelt first in thy grandmother Loïs, and in thy mother Eunice, and I am certain that in thee also (2 Tim. i. 5).
he rose up. This was undoubtedly a miraculous restoration to health. “ Greater this than the raising of the lame man” (St John Chrys.).
“This was one of the most marvellous of all his deliverances; after being stoned by his enemies, and dragged by them out of the city, and left for dead, he arises, and on the morrow goes forth to Derbe, perhaps on foot, a journey of some hours. There must have been something strange and perplexing to his converts, that a person endued with such marvellous powers of action as St Paul had just shown at Lystra should be subject to such severe suffering. His afflictions, combined with his miracles, might disappoint and stagger them. How natural and needful, therefore, was it that soon after these wonderful events he should preach on the topic mentioned in v. 21, that ‘through much tribulation we must enter into the kingdom of God’ ” (Wordsworth, in h. 1., p. 71).
and entered into the city. If, as is probable, this happened at evening, the crowds had dispersed, and St Paul could reach his dwelling in safety. “ He came into the city itself again ; for proof, that, if on any occasion he did retire, it was because he had sown the Word, and because it was not right to inflame their wrath” (St John Chrys., Hom., xxxi.).
the next day he departed. Doubtless they set forth very early on their journey.
Derbe. The exact position of Derbe is now unknown, but from ancient writers, notably Strabo and Stephanus Byzantinus, we gather that it was close to Laranda (the modern Karaman) and Isaurica, and that it was built on the shores of a lake which must be that known as Ak Ghieul. Hence it lay east of Lystra.
The ruins of an acropolis and other buildings have been found not far from this lake, and this may mark the site of the ancient city of Derbe. If so, it was about twenty miles from Lystra as the crow flies, but much further by the beaten track winding round the lake. Gaius, who is mentioned in ch. xx. 4 as a disciple, was a native of Derbe. At this epoch Derbe was under Antiochus, King of Commagene, whereas Lystra formed part of the Roman province of Galatia; the apostles were under a different jurisdiction in Derbe.
Totus tuus ego sum
Et omnia mea tua sunt;
Tecum semper tutus sum:
Ad Jesum per Mariam.
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