11 When the multitude saw what Paul had done, they lifted up their voice, saying in the language of Lycaonia, "The gods have come down to us in the likeness of men!"
*Minor differences ignored. Grouped by changes, with first version listed as example.
Furthermore, the multitude. This history doth abundantly testify how ready and bent men are unto vanity. Paul uttered not that word abruptly, Arise; but he added it as it were a conclusion to the sermon made concerning Christ. Yet the people ascribe the praise of the miracle unto their idols, as if they had heard no word of Christ. Indeed, it is no such wonder, that the barbarous men fell unto superstition which they had learned [1] from their childhood, so soon as they saw the miracle. But this vice is too common every where, and it is so bred in us, to be perverse and wrong interpreters of the works of God. Hence come such gross dotings of superstitions in Popery, because catching rashly at miracles, they take no heed to doctrine. For which cause we must take the better heed, and be the more sober, lest we happen with the sense of the flesh to corrupt (whereunto we are so bent) the power of God, which shineth and appeareth to us for our salvation. And no marvel if the Lord would have only a few miracles wrought, and that for a short time, lest through the lust of men they should be drawn unto a far contrary end; because it is unmeet that he should set his name to be mocked of the world, which must needs be, when that which is proper to him is translated unto idols, or the unbelievers corrupt his works, to invent corrupt worshipping, while that setting the word aside, they catch at every divine power which they feign. [2] Gods like to men. This was an opinion drawn from old fables, which, notwithstanding, took the beginning of truth. [3] The books of the poets are full of these toys, that the gods were often seen upon earth in the likeness of men; and yet we may well think that this carne not of nothing, [4] but rather that profane men did turn that into fables, which the holy fathers taught in times past concerning angels. And it may be that Satan, when he had men besotted, did with diverse jugglings delude them. This is of a truth, whatsoever was God's, whensoever it went with the infidels, [5] it was corrupt by their wicked inventions. The same must we likewise think of sacrifices, wherein God did exercise his [6] even from the beginning, that they might have the external signs of godliness and of the worship of God. And after that the unbelievers invented to themselves strange gods, they abused the sacrifices unto their sacrilegious worship. When the men of Lycaonia see unwonted power in the cripple that was healed, they persuade themselves that it is a work of God; this is all well. [7] But it was evil done, in that they forge to themselves false gods in Paul and Barnabas, according to the old [wonted] error, for what is the cause that they prefer Barnabas before Paul, save only because they follow the childish surmise [fiction] concerning Mercury, the interpreter of the gods, in which they had been nourished? By which example we are taught what a mischief it is to be accustomed and acquainted with errors in youth, which can so hardly be rooted out of the mind, that even through the works of God, whereby they ought to have been redressed, they wax more hard.
1 - "Imbiberant," had imbibed.
2 - "Numen quodlibet. a se confictum," any kind of deity reigned by themselves.
3 - "Originem a veritate duxerant," had derived their origin from truth.
4 - "Non fuisse de nihilo confictum," was not reigned without some foundation.
5 - "Ubi ad infideles transiit," when it was transmitted to unbelievers, the heathen.
6 - "Fideles suos," his believing people.
7 - "Recte hactenus," so far right.
They lifted up their voices - They spoke with astonishment, such as might be expected when it was supposed that the gods had come down.
In the speech of Lycaonia - What this language was has much perplexed commentators. It was probably a mixture of the Greek and Syriac. In that region generally the Greek was usually spoken with more or less purity; and from the fact that it was not far from the regions of Syria, it is probable that the Greek language was corrupted with this foreign admixture.
The gods - All the region was idolatrous. The gods which were worshipped there were those which were worshipped throughout Greece.
Are come down - The miracle which Paul had performed led them to suppose this. It was evidently beyond human ability, and they had no other way of accounting for it than by supposing that their gods had personally appeared.
In the likeness of men - Many of their gods were heroes, whom they worshipped after they were dead. It was a common belief among them that the gods appeared to people in human form. The poems of Homer, of Virgil, etc., are filled with accounts of such appearances, and the only way in which they supposed the gods to take knowledge of human affairs, and to help people, was by their personally appearing in this form. See Homer's Odyssey, xvii. 485; Catullus, 64, 384; Ovid's Metamorph., i. 212 (Kuinoel). Thus, Homer says:
"For in similitude of strangers oft.
The gods, who can with ease all shapes assume,
Repair to populous cities, where they mark.
Th' outrageous and the righteous deeds of men."
Cowper.
Saying, in the speech of Lycaonia - What this language was has puzzled the learned not a little. Calmet thinks it was a corrupt Greek dialect; as Greek was the general language of Asia Minor. Mr. Paul Ernest Jablonski, who has written a dissertation expressly on the subject, thinks it was the same language with that of the Cappadocians, which was mingled with Syriac. That it was no dialect of the Greek must be evident from the circumstance of its being here distinguished from it. We have sufficient proofs from ancient authors that most of these provinces used different languages; and it is correctly remarked, by Dr. Lightfoot, that the Carians, who dwelt much nearer Greece than the Lycaonians, are called by Homer, βαρβαροφωνοι, people of a barbarous or strange language; and Pausanias also called them Barbari. That the language of Pisidia was distinct from the Greek we have already seen, note on Acts 13:15. We have no light to determine this point; and every search after the language of Lycaonia must be, at this distance of time, fruitless.
The gods are come down to us in the likeness of men - From this, and from all heathen antiquity, it is evident:
1. That the heathen did not consider the Divine nature, how low soever they rated it, to be like the human nature.
2. That they imagined that these celestial beings often assumed human forms to visit men, in order to punish the evil and reward the good. The Metamorphoses of Ovid are full of such visitations; and so are Homer, Virgil, and other poets. The angels visiting Abraham, Jacob, Lot, etc., might have been the foundation on which most of these heathen fictions were built.
The following passage in Homer will cast some light upon the point: -
Και τε Θεοι, ξεινοισιν εοικοτες αλλοδαποισι,
Παντοιοι τελεθοντες, επιϚρωφωσι ποληας,
Ανθρωπων ὑβριν τε και ευνομιην εφορωντες.
Hom. Odyss. xvii. ver. 485.
For in similitude of strangers oft,
The gods, who can with ease all shapes assume,
Repair to populous cities, where they mark
The outrageous and the righteous deeds of men.
Cowper.
Ovid had a similar notion, where he represents Jupiter coming down to visit the earth, which seems to be copied from Genesis, Genesis 18:20, Genesis 18:21 : And the Lord said, Because the cry of Sodom and Gomorrah is great, and because their sin is grievous, I will go down now, and see whether they have done altogether according to the cry of it, which is come unto me: and if not, I will know.
Contigerat nostras infamia temporis aures:
Quam cupiens falsam, summo delabor Olympo.
Et deus humana lustro sub imagine terras.
Longa mora est, quantum noxae sit ubique repertum,
Enamerare: minor fuit ipsa infamia vero.
Metam. lib. i. ver. 211.
The clamours of this vile, degenerate age,
The cries of orphans, and the oppressor's rage,
Had reached the stars: "I will descend," said I,
In hope to prove this loud complaint a lie.
Disguised in human shape, I traveled round
The world, and more than what I heard, I found.
Dryden.
It was a settled belief among the Egyptians, that their gods, sometimes in the likeness of men, and sometimes in that of animals which they held sacred, descended to the earth, and traveled through different provinces, to punish, reward, and protect. The Hindoo Avatars, or incarnations of their gods, prove how generally this opinion had prevailed. Their Poorana are full of accounts of the descent of Brahma, Vishnoo, Shiva, Naradu, and other gods, in human shape. We need not wonder to find it in Lycaonia.
And when the people saw what Paul had done,.... In curing the lame man in so marvellous a manner, and concluding it to be a divine work, and what a mere creature could never perform:
they lift up their voices; not in indignation and wrath, but as persons astonished:
saying in the speech of Lycaonia; by which it should seem that Lystra was a city of Lycaonia, since the Lycaonian language was spoken in it; the Arabic version reads, "in their own tongue"; and the Syriac version, "in the dialect of the country"; very likely a dialect of the Greek tongue;
the gods are come down to us in the likeness of men; they had a notion of deity, though a very wrong one; they thought there were more gods than one, and they imagined heaven to be the habitation of the gods; and that they sometimes descended on earth in human shape, as they supposed they now did.
in the speech of Lycaonia--whether a corruption of the Greek tongue, which was well enough understood in this region, or the remains of some older tongue, is not known.
The gods are come down to us in the likeness of men--the language of an unsophisticated people. But "that which was a superstition in Lycaonia, and for which the whole "creation" groaned, became a reality at Bethlehem" [WEBSTER and WILKINSON].
When the people saw what Paul had done. It must be kept in mind that the people of Lystra were heathen, that they believed in many gods, that their legends taught them that the gods had often come down in the form of men and interfered in human affairs. Hence, it is not strange that when they witnessed this miracle, unlike anything ever seen before in their city, they exclaimed, "The gods are come down to us in the likeness of men."
In the speech of Lycaonia. Paul had preached in Greek, which was understood over all the East, but the native dialect of the Lycaonians was different, and in that they confer together.
Called Barnabas, Jupiter. The chief of the gods in the Greek and Roman Pantheon. Barnabas was no doubt a more stately man than Paul, who says that his own "bodily presence was weak and speech contemptible," and there was also a reason why they thought Paul, Mercurius. Mercury was the "interpreter of the gods." His Greek name, Hermes, is the origin of our word Hermeneutics. Paul, eloquent, persuasive, active, was thought to represent the part of Mercury.
Then the priest of Jupiter. There was a temple of Jupiter before the gates of the city, with the usual priest, and carried away by their idea, they prepared to offer sacrifices to the gods whom they supposed to have visited them.
Brought oxen and garlands. The oxen for sacrifices; the sacrifices before being offered were crowned with garlands. Floral crowns were also worn by the priest offering sacrifice.
The gods are come down - Which the heathens supposed they frequently did; Jupiter especially. But how amazingly does the prince of darkness blind the minds of them that believe not! The Jews would not own Christ's Godhead, though they saw him work numberless miracles. On the other hand, the heathens seeing mere men work one miracle, were for deifying them immediately.
*More commentary available at chapter level.