CHAPTER XIII

MISTAKEN FOR GODS

Ir was ninety miles from Antioch to Iconium. Though Paul and Barnabas naturally followed the main highway, this lay through mountainous country, winding and hilly and hard to travel. For three or four days they journeyed along the Via Sebaste on foot, between the northern mountain range (now called the Sultan Dagh) at their left and the beautiful Lake Caralis at their right, then turning eastward up through the pass which led to the broad plain of Lycaonia, at whose mouth lay the end of their journey. But imagine how long the journey seemed, after their experience at Antioch! Only a man of dauntless faith and courage, like Saint Paul, would have pressed on undismayed to further toils and dangers.

THE CITIES OF LYCAONIA

Iconium was an important town in the southeastern part of Galatia made up of the ancient territory of the Lycaonians. Streams descended from the hills in the west and watered the plain, making the neighborhood of the city fruitful and even luxuriant. But so high and dry was the district that these streams went no farther, spending themselves, like the "rivers of the desert" near Damascus, in watering the immediate neighborhood.

Opposition from the Jews. Here was a Jewish synagogue, in which, following his usual custom, Paul and Barnabas began their preaching. So effective was their ministry that "a great multitude both of Jews and

Greeks believed" (Acts 14:1). Luke adds that the divine approval was shown through "signs and wonders" which the apostles were permitted to do, which convinced those who saw them of the truth of the apostles' teaching. But it was not without opposition that their work prospered, for the "disobedient Jews" (that is, those who refused to accept or "obey" the new teaching) stirred up their Gentile neighbors to the point of exasperation, until the city was divided in its opinion, some siding with the Jews, others with the apostles. It was just as it had been in Antioch of Pisidia: the orthodox Jews were at first interested, and some believed; but soon opposition arose, and by intrigue or clever propaganda the Gentiles were roused to frenzy and mob violence. A plot was devised to abuse the apostles and stone them out of the city. But Paul and Barnabas learned of the scheme and fled, going southward toward Lystra and Derbe. There, and in the surrounding country, they continued to preach the gospel.

At Lystra. At Lystra occurred one of those “signs and wonders" which often accompanied their preaching. A certain cripple, who had never walked but had been lame from birth, sat at the side of the street and heard Paul preaching. Seeing that the man was paying close attention and seemed to have the necessary faith, Paul said to him with a loud voice so that all could hear, "Stand upon your feet!" And the man at once got up and leaped and walked about! The story reminds us of the healing of the beggar at the Beautiful Gate by Peter and John (Acts 3), and helps us to visualize the effect of the apostles' preaching accompanied by such "mighty works" of restoration.

"Zeus" and "Hermes."-In Palestine, such an event was understood to prove the presence of God's Holy

Spirit, and his favor to his people: "A great prophet has arisen among us, and God has visited his people." But among the simple, illiterate, and pagan Lycaonians, who knew nothing of the Holy Spirit, the miracle meant the outward proof that some god was present, appearing incognito and in disguise. Men had believed for thousands of years, in Greece and Asia Minor, that this was what the gods did from time to time-examples are common in the Iliad and Odyssey of Homer.

Luke tells the story as follows:

"And when the multitudes saw what Paul had done, they lifted up their voice, saying in the speech of Lycaonia, "The gods have come down in the likeness of men.' And they called Barnabas, 'Zeus,' and Paul, 'Hermes,' because he was the chief speaker.

"And the priest of Zeus, whose temple was before the city, brought oxen and garlands unto the gates and would have offered sacrifice with the multitudes. But when the apostles heard of it, they tore their clothes (in solemn adjuration) and sprang out among the crowd, crying out, 'Sirs, why do you do this? We also are men of like nature with you, and we bring you good tidings-that you should turn from this empty worship unto the living God, who made the heaven and the earth and the sea, and all that in them is. In the generations gone by he allowed all the nations to walk in their own ways; and yet he left not himself without witness, in that he did good and gave you rain from heaven and fruitful seasons, filling your hearts with food and gladness.' However, even with these words they were scarcely able to restrain the multitudes from offering sacrifice to them."-Acts 14: 11-18.

Paul stoned. It seems almost impossible to believe that the one whom they were scarcely restrained from

worshiping became the next day the object of their angry violence! Yet it is characteristic of all backward and superstitious peoples, and it is just what took place at Lystra. Not content with having driven the apostles from Antioch and Iconium, the unbelieving Jews sent emissaries to warn the other synagogues against the new teachers. These followed the same old tactics, and roused the multitudes by some adverse propagandaperhaps accusing the apostles of witchcraft and evil designs upon the city. Stirred to violence, like a frenzied, half-insane mob at a lynching, they hurled rocks, bricks, and other missiles at Paul until he fell unconscious under the blows, then dragged him out of the city and left him, supposing that he was dead.

But as the disciples gathered about him he rose up and went with them into the city. The next day he and Barnabas departed for Derbe, fully thirty miles away to the south and east, on the very border of the province. Here they preached, apparently without opposition, and "made many disciples.

THE END OF THE FIRST MISSIONARY JOURNEY

What this journey cost Saint Paul we can only surmise. Thirty miles over a rough mountain road to Derbe on the very day after he was stoned and dragged out of Lystra for dead! Still weak, perhaps, from the fever which developed at Perga, worn with the ceaseless labor of travel afoot and preaching day after day, pursued by fanatics who sought his life and attempted to undo his teaching-these were some of the conditions under which the great apostle to the Gentiles fulfilled his mission and followed in the footsteps of his Master.

"In perils oft."-Seven years later, in one of his letters to the Corinthians, he wrote an account of his trials and difficulties as a missionary:

"Of the Jews five times received I forty stripes save one. Thrice was I beaten with rods, once was I stoned, thrice I suffered shipwreck, a night and a day have I been in the deep; in journeyings often, in perils of rivers, in perils of robbers, in perils from my own race, in perils from Gentiles, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren; in labor and toil, in watchings often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness. And in addition to many things which I omit, there is that which presses upon me daily-anxiety for all the churches.” -2 Corinthians II: 24-28.

Must he not have been thinking of this first journey into the interior of Asia Minor when he wrote these words? Some of those terrible experiences are doubtless the ones which he suffered on this long overland circuit of two hundred and fifty miles, from Perga up through the mountains north and east to Derbe, in weakness, pain, and constant persecution.

Results of the journey. And yet this journey was to be far-reaching in its results. In Lystra lived a young man called Timothy, who was destined to become one of the greatest workers of the early church, Paul's own companion and "son in the faith," and his successor after his death. In Derbe, little as we hear of the mission in that place, lived Gaius, who later became one of Paul's most constant and devoted disciples. And Iconium, from which the apostles were compelled to flee for their lives, became in time one of the most influential centers of Christian work in the whole of central Asia