The First Missionary Tour Continued

Translation

Paragraph 1. PAUL AND BARNABAS AT ICONIUM. Verses 1-7.

In the same way it happened at Iconium. The Apostles went into the synagogue and so preached that a great throng believed both of Jews and Greeks. But the Jews who had not believed stirred up the Gentiles and poisoned their minds against the brothers. Therefore Paul and Barnabas remained quite a period, speaking boldly, in dependence on the Lord, while He kept attesting the word of His grace, giving signs and wonders to be performed by their hands. However, the people of the city divided into parties, some going with the Jews and some with the Apostles. But when there broke out a hostile movement both of the Gentiles and Jews together with their rulers to abuse and stone them, the Apostles learned of it and fled to the Lycaonian cities Lystra and Derbe and the country round about, and continued preaching the gospel there.  

Advancing to the next prominent city southeastward, about seventy-five miles off, the Apostles, according to Luke, proceed in the same manner with precisely the same results. They are not frightened away at once, moreover, nor until a solid basis for a permanent church is laid, continuing probably for two or three months. ‘Here we see again, as at Antioch, how well invested Paul’s years have been in preparing so thoroughly for his great course as pioneer missionary, how constantly his native relation to the Greco-Roman world, and especially his Roman citizenship, stood him in great stead, how priceless was the value of his deep biblical learning, and how unspeakable was the worth of his personal experience in conversion and in realizing in his own mind and soul the overpowering and encouraging possession of the Holy Spirit. The comradeship of such a true brother of consolation and tower of strength as he possessed in Barnabas was also no small factor in the successes of this first missionary tour. One other feature in their equipment was furnished these early leaders that proved on special occasions of particular value, and it must neither be overlooked nor minimized. The power of performing miracles is frequently referred to and exercised, though never for selfish ends, and always in the selfsame manner as it was employed by their Master and Lord. After duly exercising all these talents and gifts to a successful degree, an ugly plot for their assassination being disclosed, they flee to the neighbor province, Lycaonia. Assassination is the last argument of desperation; when no other answer can be given, personal abuse, a blow on the mouth, strangulation, drowning, burning, stoning, crucifixion—these have been the resort of even the most enlightened and proud intellectuals. Surely, such souls at such times must be demon-possessed.  

Translation

“Stand up straight upon your feet

With that he sprang up and began to walk. The crowds, however, seeing what Paul had done, cried out in the Lycaonian language,

“The gods in human form have come down to us!”

Barnabas they began to call Zeus, and Paul, since he took the lead in speaking, Hermes. Moreover, the priest of Zeus, whose temple stood at the entrance of their city, brought bulls and garlands to the gates with the crowds and wanted to offer sacrifices. But when the Apostles Barnabas and Paul heard of it they rent their garments and ran out among the crowd exclaiming:

‘O men, why are you doing all this? We are only human, of like passions with you, and the gospel we are preaching to you is to turn from such vain things to the living God, who made the heavens and the earth and the sea and everything in them. Now, in bygone times He permitted all the nations to go their own ways, and yet He did not fail to give you witness about Himself, by His beneficence sending you rain from heaven and fruitful seasons and filling you with food and gladness to your heart’s content.”

Even with words like these they could hardly restrain the crowds from sacrificing to them.

But a party of Jews arrived from Antioch and Iconium, and when they had won over the crowds they stoned Paul and dragged him outside the city, supposing him to be dead. He, however, when the disciples gathered round him, got up and went back into the city, and the day following he went off with Barnabas to Derbe.

Translation

When they had preached the gospel to that city, and had made a large number of disciples, they went back again to Lystra and Iconium and Antioch, encouraging the minds of the disciples, urging them to hold fast to the faith, and showing them that “we can make our way into the Kingdom of God only through many an affliction.” So when they had caused elders to be chosen by vote in every church, after prayer and fasting they commended them to the Lord in whom they had already come to believe. Then they passed through Pisidia to Pamphylia, and after speaking the Word in Perga they came down to Attaleia. From there they sailed to Antioch, where they had before been commended to the grace of God for the task they had now completed. Upon their arrival they gathered the church together and reported everything that God had done working with them, and how He had opened the door of faith to the Gentiles. There they remained for some time with the disciples.

As Derbe is the frontier city of the province on the great imperial thoroughfare to Cilicia, Paul and Barnabas traveled to it, and there without further apparent hindrance continued long enough to firmly plant a church, which stood as an important link in the chain of Galatian churches that Paul later visited again and again, and to which he writes one of his greater Epistles. It would have been easy and very natural for the Apostles to continue their journey across the mountains of Cilicia and through the famous pass above Tarsus, and so around the Gulf of Issus to Syria, but they evidently thought that it were far better slowly to retrace their course westward and confirm and, if possible, strengthen the work so laboriously begun. Thus early in his great evangelistic career Paul shows that spirit of unquenchable determination to leave undone nothing which might strongly establish those who had accepted his gospel teaching. At Lystra, Iconium, and Antioch they stop in turn, boldly appearing again in the very centers where, but a few months earlier, their presence had set those communities upside down. Of course this visit proved of great advantage to the young and apparently flourishing churches. Presbyters to have responsibility and oversight were appointed, and thus the work was solidified, and prayer and fasting as at other important moments in the early church play a prominent part. They finally recross the mountains to the seacoast and at Perga gather another congregation of believers where they had not been able to stop on their way inland. Not wishing to cross to Cyprus but to take a regular merchantman direct to the Syrian capital, they go some sixteen miles west of Perga to the more important port of Attaleia and evidently arrive just in time to embark without further evangelistic activities. Returning late in the summer to Antioch after a full year’s absence, they make their report to the Church which had sent them forth. The chief note in the news brought back was that great and outstanding conviction which had developed through their Galatian experience—that God had indeed opened the door of faith unto the Gentiles. The natural effect of all this was to mightily strengthen and solidify the Church in the Syrian Capital so that it was ready for the plague of Pharisaic bigotry which was soon to visit it.