Acts 14:19

We have here a further account of the services and sufferings of Paul and Barnabas.

I. How Paul was stoned and left for dead, but miraculously came to himself again, Act 14:19, Act 14:20. They fell upon Paul rather than Barnabas, because Paul, being the chief speaker, galled and vexed them more than Barnabas did. Now observe here, 1. How the people were incensed against Paul; not by any injury they pretended he had done them (if they took it for an affront that he would not let them misplace divine honours upon him, when they considered themselves they would easily forgive him that wrong), but there came certain Jews from Antioch, hearing, it is likely, and vexed to hear, what respect was shown to Paul and Barnabas at Lystra; and they incensed the people against them, as factious, seditious, dangerous persons, not fit to be harboured. See how restless the rage of the Jews was against the gospel of Christ; they could not bear that it should have footing any where. 2. To what degree they were incensed by these barbarous Jews: they were irritated to such a degree that the mob rose and stoned Paul, not by a judicial sentence, but in a popular tumult; they threw stones at him, with which they knocked him down, and then drew him out of the city, as one not fit to live in it, or drew him out upon a sledge or in a cart, to bury him, supposing he had been dead. So strong is the bias of the corrupt and carnal heart to that which is evil, even in contrary extremes, that, as it is with great difficulty that men are restrained from evil on one side, so it is with great ease that they are persuaded to evil on the other side. See how fickle and mutable the minds of carnal worldly people are, that do not know and consider things. Those that but the other day would have treated the apostles as more than men now treat them as worse than brutes, as the worst of men, as the worst of male-factors. Today Hosanna, tomorrow Crucify; today sacrificed to, tomorrow sacrificed. We have an instance of a change the other way, ch. 28. This man is a murderer, Act 28:4; no doubt he is a god, Act 28:6. Popular breath turns like the wind. If Paul would have been Mercury, he might have been enthroned, nay, he might have been enshrined; but, if he will be a faithful minister of Christ, he shall be stoned, and thrown out of the city. Thus those who easily submit to strong delusions hate to receive the truth in the love of it. 3. How he was delivered by the power of God: When he was drawn out of the city, the disciples stood round about him, Act 28:20. It seems there were some here at Lystra that became disciples, that found the mean between deifying the apostles and rejecting them; and even these new converts had courage to own Paul when he was thus run down, though they had reason enough to fear that the same that stoned him would stone them for owning him. They stood round about him, as a guard to him against the further outrage of the people - stood about him to see whether he were alive or dead; and all of a sudden he rose up. Though he was not dead, yet he was ill crushed and bruised, no doubt, and fainted away; he was in a deliquium, so that it was not without a miracle that he came so soon to himself, and was so well as to be able to go into the city. Note, God's faithful servants, though they may be brought within a step of death, and may be looked upon as dead both by friends and enemies, shall not die as long as he has work for them to do. They are cast down, but not destroyed, Co2 4:9.

II. How they went on with their work, notwithstanding the opposition they met with. All the stones they threw at Paul could not beat him off from his work: They drew him out of the city (Act 14:19), but, as one that set them at defiance, he came into the city again, to show that he did not fear them; none even of these things move him. However, their being persecuted here is a known indication to them to seek for opportunities of usefulness elsewhere, and therefore for the present they quit Lystra.

1. They went to break up and sow fresh ground at Derbe. Thither the next day Paul and Barnabas departed, a city not far off; there they preached the gospel, there they taught many, Act 14:21. And it should seem that Timothy was of that city, and was one of the disciples that now attended Paul, had met him at Antioch and accompanied him in all this circuit; for, with reference to this story, Paul tells him how fully he had known the afflictions he endured at Antioch, Iconium, and Lystra, Ti2 3:10, Ti2 3:11. Nothing is recorded that happened at Derbe.

2. They returned, and went over their work again, watering what they had sown; and, having staid as long as they thought fit at Derbe, they came back to Lystra, to Iconium, and Antioch, the cities where they had preached, Act 14:21. Now, as we have had a very instructive account of the methods they took in laying the foundation, and beginning the good work, so here we have the like of their building upon that foundation, and carrying on that good work. Let us see what they did,

(1.) They confirmed the souls of the disciples; that is, they inculcated that upon them which was proper to confirm them, Act 14:22. Young converts are apt to waver, and a little thing shocks them. Their old acquaintances beg they will not leave them. Those that they look upon to be wiser than themselves set before them the absurdity, indecency, and danger, of a change. They were allured, by the prospect of preferment, to stick to the traditions of their fathers; they are frightened with the danger of swimming against the stream. All this tempts them to think of making a retreat in time; but the apostles come and tell them that this is the true grace of God wherein they stand, and therefore they must stand to it that there is no danger like that of losing their part in Christ, no advantage like that of keeping their hold of him; that, whatever their trials may be, they shall have strength from Christ to pass through them; and, whatever their losses may be, they shall be abundantly recompensed. And this confirms the souls of the disciples; it fortifies their pious resolutions, in the strength of Christ, to adhere to Christ whatever it may cost them. Note, [1.] Those that are converted need to be confirmed; those that are planted need to be rooted. Ministers' work is to establish saints as well as to awaken sinners. Non minor est virtus quam quoerere parta tueri - To retain is sometimes as difficult as to acquire. Those that were instructed in the truth must know the certainty of the things in which they have been instructed; and those that are resolved must be fixed in their resolutions. [2.] True confirmation is confirmation of the soul; it is not binding the body by severe penalties on apostates, but binding the soul. The best ministers can do this only by pressing those things which are proper to bind the soul; it is the grace of God, and nothing less, that can effectually confirm the souls of the disciples, and prevent their apostasy.

(2.) They exhorted them to continue in the faith; or, as it may be read, they encouraged them. They told them it was both their duty and interest to persevere; to abide in the belief of Christ's being the Son of God, and the Saviour of the world. Note, Those that are in the faith are concerned to continue in the faith, notwithstanding all the temptations they may be under to desert it, from the smiles or frowns of this world. And it is requisite that they should often be exhorted to do so. Those that are continually surrounded with temptations to apostasy have need to be continually attended with pressing exhortations to perseverance.

(3.) That which they insisted most upon was that we must through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God. Not only they must, but we must; it must be counted upon that all who will go to heaven must expect tribulation and persecution in their way thither. But is this the way to confirm the souls of the disciples, and to engage them to continue in the faith? One would think it would rather shock them, and make them weary. No, as the matter is fairly stated and taken entire, it will help to confirm them, and fix them for Christ. It is true they will meet with tribulation, with much tribulation; that is the worst of it: but then, [1.] It is so appointed. They must undergo it, there is no remedy, the matter is already fixed, and cannot be altered. He that has the sovereign disposal of us has determined it to be our lot that all that will live godly in Christ Jesus should suffer persecution; and he that has the sovereign command over us has determined this to be our duty, that all that will be Christ's disciples must take up their cross. When we gave up our names to Jesus Christ it was what we agreed to; when we sat down and counted the cost, if we reckoned aright, it was what we counted upon; so that if tribulation and persecution arise because of the word it is but what we had notice of before, it must be so: he performeth the thing that is appointed for us. The matter is fixed unalterably; and shall the rock be for us removed out of its place? [2.] It is the lot of the leaders in Christ's army, as well as of the soldiers. It is not only you, but we, that (if it be thought a hardship) are subject to it; therefore, as your own sufferings must not be a stumbling-block to you, so neither must ours; see Th1 3:3. Let none be moved by our afflictions, for you yourselves know that we are appointed thereunto. As Christ did not put the apostles upon any harder service than what he underwent before them, so neither did the apostles put the ordinary Christians. [3.] It is true we must count upon much tribulation, but this is encouraging, that we shall get through it; we shall not be lost and perish in it. It is a Red Sea, but the Lord has opened a way through it, for the redeemed of the Lord to pass over. We must go down to trouble, but we shall come up again. [4.] We shall not only get through it, but get through it into the kingdom of God; and the joy and glory of the end will make abundant amends for all the difficulties and hardships we may meet with in the way. It is true we must go by the cross, but it is as true that if we keep in the way, and do not turn aside nor turn back, we shall go to the crown, and the believing prospect of this will make the tribulation easy and pleasant.

(4.) They ordained them elders, or presbyters, in every church. Now at this second visit they settled them in some order, formed them into religious societies under the guidance of a settled ministry, and settled that distinction between those that are taught in the word and those that teach. [1.] Every church had its governors or presidents, whose office it was to pray with the members of the church, and to preach to them in their solemn assemblies, to administer all gospel ordinances to them, and to take the oversight of them, to instruct the ignorant, warn the unruly, comfort the feeble-minded, and convince gainsayers. It is requisite that every particular church should have one or more such to preside in it. [2.] Those governors were then elders, that had in their qualification the wisdom and gravity of seniors, and had in their commission the authority and command of seniors: not to make new laws (this is the prerogative of the Prince, the great Lawgiver; the government of the church is an absolute monarchy, and the legislative power entirely in Christ), but to see to the observance and execution of the laws Christ has made; and so far they are to be obeyed and submitted to. [3.] These elders were ordained. The qualifications of such as were proposed or proposed themselves (whether the apostles or the people put them up) were judged of by the apostles, as most fit to judge; and they, having devoted themselves, were solemnly set apart to the work of the ministry, and bound to it. [4.] These elders were ordained to them, to the disciples, to their service, for their good. Those that are in the faith have need to be built up in it, and have need of the elders' help therein - the pastors and teachers, who are to edify the body of Christ.

(5.) By prayer joined with fasting they commended them to the Lord, to the Lord Jesus, on whom they believed. Note, [1.] Even when persons are brought to believe, and that sincerely, yet ministers' care concerning them is not over; there is need of watching over them still, instructing and admonishing them still; there is still that lacking in their faith which needs to be perfected. [2.] The ministers that take most care of those that believe must after all commend them to the Lord, and put them under the protection and guidance of his grace: Lord, keep them through thine own name. To his custody they must commit themselves, and their ministers must commit them. [3.] It is by prayer that they must be commended to the Lord. Christ, in his prayer (Jn. 17), commended his disciples to his Father: Thine they were, and thou gavest them to me. Father, keep them. [4.] It is a great encouragement to us, in commending the disciples to the Lord, that we can say, "It is he in whom they believed; we commit to him those who have committed themselves to him, and who know they have believed in one who is able to keep what they and we have committed to him against that day," Ti2 1:12. [5.] It is good to join fasting with prayer, in token of our humiliation for sin, and in order to add vigour to our prayers. [6.] When we are parting with our friends, the best farewell is to commend them to the Lord, and to leave them with him.

3. They went on preaching the gospel in other places where they had been, but, as it should seem had not made so many converts as that now at their return they could form them into churches; therefore thither they came to pursue and carry on conversion-work. From Antioch they passed through Pisidia, the province in which that Antioch stood; thence they came into the province of Pamphylia, the head-city of which was Perga, where they had been before (Act 13:13), and came thither again to preach the word (Act 14:25), making a second offer, to see if they were now better disposed than they were before to receive the gospel. What success they had there we are not told, but that thence they went down to Attalia, a city of Pamphylia, on the sea-coast. They staid not long at a place, but wherever they came endeavoured to lay a foundation which might afterwards be built upon, and to sow the seeds which would in time produce a great increase. Now Christ's parables were explained, in which he compared the kingdom of heaven to a little leaven, which in time leavened the whole lump - to a grain of mustard-seed, which, though very inconsiderable at first, grew to a great tree - and to the seed which a man sowed in his ground, and it sprung up he knew not how.

III. How they at length came back to Antioch in Syria, whence they had been sent forth upon this expedition. From Attalia they came by sea to Antioch, Act 14:26. And we are here told,

1. Why they came thither: because thence they had been recommended to the grace of God, and such a value did they put upon a solemn recommendation to the grace of God, though they had themselves a great interest in heaven, that they never thought they could show respect enough to those who had so recommended them. The brethren having recommended them to the grace of God, for the work which they fulfilled, now that they had fulfilled it they thought they owed them an account of it, that they might help them by their praises, as they had been helped by their prayers.

2. What account they gave them of their negociation (Act 14:27): They gathered the church together. It is probable that there were more Christians at Antioch than ordinarily met, or could meet, in one place, but on this occasion they called together the leading men of them; as the heads of the tribes are often called the congregation of Israel, so the ministers and principal members of the church at Antioch are called the church. Or perhaps as many of the people as the place would hold came together on this occasion. Or some met at one time, or in one place, and others at another. But when they had called them together, they gave them an account of two things - (1.) Of the tokens they had had of the divine presence with them in their labours: They rehearsed all that God had done with them. They did not tell what they had done (this would have savoured of vain-glory), but what God had done with them and by them. Note, The praise of all the little good we do at any time must be ascribed to God; for it is he that not only worketh in us both to will and to do, but then worketh with us to make what we do successful. God's grace can do any thing without ministers' preaching; but ministers' preaching, even Paul's, can do nothing without God's grace; and the operations of that grace must be acknowledged in the efficacy of the word. (2.) Of the fruit of their labours among the heathen. They told how God had opened the door of faith unto the Gentiles; had not only ordered them to be invited to the gospel feast, but had inclined the hearts of many of them to accept the invitation. Note, [1.] There is no entering into the kingdom of Christ but by the door of faith; we must firmly believe in Christ, or we have no part in him. [2.] It is God that opens the door of faith, that opens to us the truths we are to believe, opens our hearts to receive them, and makes this a wide door, and an effectual, into the church of Christ. [3.] We have reason to be thankful that God has opened the door of faith to the Gentiles, has both sent them his gospel, which is made known to all nations for the obedience of faith (Rom 16:26), and has also given them hearts to entertain the gospel. Thus the gospel was spread, and it shone more and more, and none was able to shut this door which God had opened; not all the powers of hell and earth.

3. How they disposed of themselves for the present: There they abode a long time with the disciples (Act 14:28), longer than perhaps at first they intended, not because they feared their enemies, but because they loved their friends, and were loth to part from them.

Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

came thither certain Jews from Antioch and Iconium--Furious zeal that would travel so far to counteract the missionaries of the Cross!

persuaded the people--"the multitudes."

and having stoned Paul--(See on Act 14:5). Barnabas they seem to have let alone; Paul, as the prominent actor and speaker, being the object of all their rage. The words seem to imply that it was the Jews who did this; and no doubt they took the lead (Act 14:19), but it was the act of the instigated and fickle multitudes along with them.

drew him out of the city--By comparing this with Act 7:58 it will be seen that the Jews were the chief actors in this scene.

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Act_14:19-28

And there came thither certain Jews … Who persuaded the people, and, having stoned Paul, drew him out of the city.

The fickleness of the Lystrians

It would not be difficult to find a parallel to this among modern converts, and it is easy to account for it. The Jews would be ready with another interpretation of the miracle. They would say that it had been accomplished, not by Divine agency, but by some diabolical magic, as once they had said at Jerusalem (Mat_12:24). The Lystrians, whose own interpretation had been disavowed by the apostles, would readily adopt the new theory suggested by those who appeared to be well acquainted with the strangers. Their feelings changed, with a revulsion as violent as that which afterwards overtook the barbarians of Malta, who first thought Paul a murderer and then a god. (J. S. Howson, D. D.)

Fickleness of the populace

One of the most curious stones in the world is found in Finland, where it occurs in many places. It is a natural barometer and actually foretells probable changes in the weather. It is called semakuir, and turns black shortly before an approaching rain, while in fine weather it is mottled with spots of white. For a long time this curious phenomenon was a mystery, but an analysis of the stone shows it to be a fossil mixed with clay and containing a portion of rock salt and nitre. This fact being known, the explanation was easy. The salt, absorbing the moisture, turned black when the conditions were favourable for rain, while the dryness of the atmosphere brought out the salt from the interior of the stone in white spots on the surface. How many men are like these rocks, variable and changeful according to their surroundings. At one moment they will applaud a certain person, or course Of action, but when their enthusiasm cools down they will seek to destroy the one they had previously exalted. It was so in the days of our Lord and the apostles, and is so still (Act_14:11-19).

The stoning of Paul

1. Stones are the answer of those who have no arguments.

2. Those who have no arguments are wont to try to inflame the passions of the people.

3. When God has a great work for a man to do, his enemies cannot take his life.

4. When a true servant of God is made to suffer in one city, he will not cease to work, but will go on to the next.

5. When a true servant of God is made to suffer, he will intermit his work as little as possible. On the morrow, if he can, he will take it up again. (S. S. Times.)

Stoning the gods

(text and 2Co_11:25):--That is no ordinary heap of stones. See, there is blood on it, the blood of one of earths best sons. Only a dozen years between the man who held the clothes of Stephens murderers and the martyr Paul, for he was a martyr then in intention, and for anything we know he literally died for the truth, For he tells us, Whether in the body or out of the body I cannot tell. Persecutors may become helpers. The pirate may yet carry lawful cargo. Do you wish it were so? Then haul down your ensign and run up the white flag and red cross. Cease to do evil, learn to do well. Sermons in stones. Yes, there are many homilies in such a blood-stained stone heap as this.

I. The way the world uses its benefactors. Stone the man who healed the cripple! That is the way we always do. Does not the world often starve its geniuses? Who expects wealth for an inventor? The history of poets and painters tells us of hunger and nakedness. Some of the books that live were written in garrets and cells. Dont expect gratitude if you are doing good. You will be better off than God if you get thanks for kindness. Look at the Cross.

II. Bigotry brutalises ignorance. Certain Jews persuaded the people. You have the history of persecution epitomised in that nineteenth verse. The priests have pulled the strings before today, and are trying to get hold of them now. Let us beware of ignorance. Education has always been the foe of priestcraft. But let us not content ourselves with our children learning everything but the Word of God. Popery has no chance so long as the Bible is understood by the people. Do not fear new ideas. There will be quite enough to throw stones at the man with a new idea without your throwing one. If a man loves God he has been promised a crown of life, and you will not like, should you see him crowned, to think of the time when you threw a stone at his head! Religion will not save you from bigotry; there are no bigots like religious ones. Let us learn to tolerate the man who loves God, seeing that we shall have to live with him forever.

III. Persecution is limited in its results. Once was I stoned. Paul lived twenty years after this, but never was stoned again. The enemy had tried to do it before, but was not able. I was stoned, not killed; at least, though left for dead, I rose up and came into the city. The foes of God may beat out our brains, but they cannot kill the truth. Paul did not give up the work to which he was called because he had to suffer. No, brave little man. He comes into Lystra again. Here was good for evil. Mark how the Christian hero makes his very sufferings useful, telling the Church, and every scar illustrated the truth that we must through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God. By and by he visited Lystra again, and found fruit remaining. How true it is that the blood of the martyr is the seed of the Church. Such men as Timothy are cheap at such a price. Let us trust God, even when we are hurt in doing good; out of our wounds there may flow that which shall heal many. (T. Champness.)

The next day he departed with Barnabas to Derbe.--

From Derbe to Antioch

I. The apostles work on the way shows that duty in them was superior--

(1) To fear. They pass through the scenes where they had endangered their lives. They counted not their lives dear unto them.

(2) To convenience. They could have reached Antioch much easier and sooner. Their work was--

1. Indoctrinating. The apostles confirmed them in the faith--

(1) By urging duty. They had embraced the faith, and there were strong influences tending to loosen their interest in it. There is no better way of strengthening our souls in the faith than by continuing our duty in relation to it. Obedience is the best interpreter of doctrine. He that doeth the will of God, etc.

(2) By inculcating principle. We must through much tribulation enter the kingdom of God. The principle is that trial is the condition of true elevation. We must sow in tears to reap in joy. The vine must be pruned to make it fruitful. Heavenly dignities are reached, not as some voyagers reach their haven while sleeping, but as heroes reach their laurels by agony. These are they that have come up out of great tribulation, etc. What a Divine work was theirs! What is the work of the mere sage, hero, politician, artist, compared with the work of making souls strong in all that is true in thought, holy in sympathy, and righteous in purpose.

2. Organising. And when they had ordained them elders in every Church. Because the oldest men are supposed to have the greatest knowledge and experience, the most influential officers in the Church are spoken of as elders. The Churches were young and inexperienced. The apostles, therefore, took from their number some of the most competent to take charge of the Churches in their own absence.

3. Dedicating. And had prayed with fasting, etc. They did not commend them to the officers they had appointed, but to the Shepherd and Bishop of souls. Probably they had no prospect of seeing them again.

II. Their work when they reached Antioch (verses 26-28).

1. This is the first missionary meeting, and therefore of special interest.

(1) The scene was Antioch, and no fact in its history was more important than this. There were many good reasons for holding the meeting here.

(a) It was a very populous place, and the meeting was likely to obtain large publicity. The two great sections of the ancient world, Jews and Gentiles, would have an opportunity of knowing something about the triumphs of this new religion.

(b) Its wealth, too, would enable it to render support to the good cause.

(c) It was, moreover, the place whence the mission had originated (Act_13:1).

(2) The deputation was Paul and Barnabas. These two men were very different. Barnabas does not seem to have had the force and fire of Paul; still, however constitutionally dissimilar, they were morally harmonious. They were missionaries. Missionary meetings should be addressed by missionaries rather than by men who have only long purses or tongues.

(3) The audience was the Church. The mission was theirs, they had probably contributed to its support, and they were bound to sustain it.

(4) The speeches were narrations. They rehearsed all that God had done. They did not deal in tricks of oratory to wake loud applause. They merely rehearsed--related what they had done; and they had wonderful things to tell.

2. The following things are taught by this first missionary meeting:--That the missionary enterprise--

(1) Is unquestionably right. It is based upon the authority of Christ, and supported by the conduct of the apostles. Go into all the world, etc.

(2) Demands our prayers. Paul and Barnabas had been recommended to the grace of God (see also Act_13:1-3). The true missionary should have the prayers of the Church.

(3) It is the cause of the Church. They gathered the Church together; not any particular officers. It was that which concerned every individual member.

(4) Has a history worth relating. These missionaries rehearsed all that God had done with them. We have a short account of their tour (chaps. 13 and 14). There is no history no interesting or valuable as that of the triumphs of the gospel--She strongest arguments for the common origin of the race and the Divinity of Christianity.

(5) Is under the special direction of God. This missionary deputation regarded Him as giving access to the Gentiles. He had opened the door. There has been an immense amount of clap trap about this. Men have spoken of war as opening the door for the gospel of peace. Violence must ever shut the door of the heart. The breaking down of the walls of China by military violence, instead of opening a door for the gospel, may only be the building up a barrier. (D. Thomas, D. D.)

The close of the first missionary journey

1. The enemy can be as active as the friend; sometimes we think can outdo him in energy. The Jews had no easy work to get to Lystra. They also had to travel the hundred and thirty miles which separated the towns. But what is that when the heart is burning with hatred?

2. Paul was but once stoned, and he never forgot it! Once was I stoned. No man can forget that experience. Those who stoned Stephen lay down their clothes at a young mans feet whose name was Saul. The wheel of Providence turns round! There is justice at the very heart of things.

3. They left Paul, supposing he had been dead. Many a time has Christianity been stoned and supposed to be dead, but the error is in the supposition. Whatever is true rises again. It may be thrown down; over it all hell may have a moments laugh--but it finds its feet again! Truth is great, and must prevail.

4. The next day Paul travelled twenty miles with Barnabas to Derbe; and the thought came to them that they would go, step for step, along the road they had come. People do not know you on one visit. Paul and Barnabas, therefore, went back, confirming, etc., with this line added: we must through much tribulation, etc. We cannot copy pathos. We must learn it by life. We may not write our sermons with ink, for then they would be but rhetorical emptiness. We must live them. Paul was suffering when he said those words. There was a subdued sob in the mans emphasis as he said this. Strangers might not detect it, but the speaker himself was conscious that a new thread--a golden one--was being run through the web of his eloquence as he exhorted the Christians to accept tribulation, not as a discredit, but as an endorsement.

5. Paul and his colleague came back to Antioch. Into no speech with which I am acquainted is so much meaning condensed as there is in verse 27. Look at it.

(1) And when they bad gathered the Church together. How easily we say these words! How much they may possibly involve! The Church did not live on the open street, or in the fine houses. The Church was a scattered people, perhaps often communicating secretly--despised amid the pomp and splendour of the Syrian Antioch. But why not tell the little missionary story on the open thoroughfare to the passers-by? Because it is useless to speak to men in an unknown tongue. Only the Church can understand the speech of the Church.

(2) They connected the whole story with God. The statement does not read that Paul put his hand upon his head, and said, Oh, what I have suffered for you! Stoning and hunger and peril and persecution--these things God has done! It is because we do not recognise that fact that we suppose ourselves to be the victims of circumstances and the butt of enemies. It is part of the Divine education. The Lord reigneth.

6. They left one impression upon the Church--how God had opened the door of faith unto the Gentiles. There is no whine in that tone! They were very heroes. Instead of saying, The way is very difficult, they said, The door is open. The stoning was a very little thing when the apostles thought that the Gentile provinces were to be added to the empire of their Lord.

7. Nor was this all. An incident happened not recorded here. Twenty years afterwards Paul wrote a letter to his own son in the faith, and in that letter he said, Thou hast fully known my … afflictions, which came unto me at Antioch, at Iconium, at Lystra, etc.; and in the loving Timothy, who would carry on his own noble work, he found a compensation for the stoning at Lystra. We do not always know what we are doing, but the Master knows, and that is enough. (J. Parker, D. D.)

The end of the first missionary journey

I. Suffering for the faith. Willingness to suffer for Christ is the highest test of devotion to Him. Persecution soon unmasks hypocrisy, while real piety has a face that appears the more beautiful and saintly.

1. The stoning of Paul. Note--

(1) The persistency of the persecution. There came Jews thither from Antioch, over a hundred miles away, and Iconium, near fifty, to carry out the purpose they had failed to execute in their own cities. The hatred of the gospel was as remarkable in the one case as was its power over the hearts of men in the other.

(2) The fickleness of popular favour. Having persuaded the multitudes. The multitudes were in a condition easily to be persuaded. Their vanity had been wounded. They had supposed Paul and Barnabas to be gods, and having made a blunder so mortifying, their resentment was natural. Therefore, when these Jews intimated, as probably they did, that the miracle was worked through Beelzebub, the reverence of the people was changed to horror. There is no truth in the apothegm, The voice of the people is the voice of God.

(3) The stoning of Paul. Stoning was the sign which marks the deed as the Jews. Had Lystra been a Jewish city, they would have scrupulously taken the apostle outside its walls. But here they had no ceremonial punctiliousness. And after the stoning was over, they dragged the supposed lifeless body outside the gates, thus subjecting their victim not only to indignity, but to further injury.

His recovery. Observe--

(1) The fidelity of the disciples. Their affection for Paul, and their mourning for his death, are hinted at in their gathering around his body.

(2) Pauls unexpected recovery. Perhaps a miracle here is intimated; but it looks, rather, as though the apostle merely had been stunned. His work was not yet over. God had still greater things for him to do--and to suffer.

3. His departure. Paul was indomitable, He did not lose a days work because of his stoning. Such a witness for Christ is a host in himself.

II. Confirming in the faith.

1. Preaching the gospel. The missionaries were as eager for souls as ever. The cause that we suffer for becomes the more dear to our hearts. At Derbe the two appear to have met with no opposition. Paul omits it in the list of places where he suffered (2Ti_3:11).

2. Confirming the disciples.

(1) The return of the apostles. They went back to the very places out of which they had been driven. They could have gone a nearer way, but duty called them again to face danger, and they obeyed the call.

(2) Their work. They devoted themselves to the upbuilding of the disciples they had won. In this they set a lesson for the Church of today. They confirmed the converts, first, by exhortation. Such exhortations on the part of those established in the faith do young converts good. Second, by warning. That through many tribulations, etc. The apostles did not represent the Christian life as a bed of thornless roses. Their words were emphasized by the marks of Pauls recent experience. Men make the best soldiers who enlist expecting to face great dangers.

3. Organising the churches. In their up journey, a body of believers had been gathered in each place. On their way down, the apostles appointed for them elders, giving them a form of organisation apparently much like that of the synagogue. The object seems to have been not so much church government, as the securing of leaders to whom the disciples could look for encouragement and instruction. Thus the two missionaries ensured permanency to their work.

III. Reporting the progress of the faith.

1. Returning home. The return journey was a sort of triumphal tour, very different from the going. Then they were unknown--now, multitudes of disciples were eager to give them greeting. Persecutions awaited them then--blessings now. They came back, as come the husbandmen from the harvest fields, with their arms full of sheaves.

2. Reporting to the Church. The first missionary report contained--

(1) What God had done with them. They did not rehearse what they had done.

(2) How God had opened a door of faith to the Gentiles. The door the Jews had shut God had opened, and it has never been shut since. (M. C. Hazard.)

End of Pauls first missionary journey

I. Paul coming forward as the greatest missionary to the Gentiles.

1. What position he should take, how he would discharge the duties of his office, were unsettled questions when he was separated to this work. When the parties set out, their names stand Barnabas and Saul. Now the pen of Luke seems naturally to write, Paul and Barnabas.

2. He went out with the sanction of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit today, as then, calls and makes genuine missionaries; not churches, not missionary societies. We cannot say how this call may come. We are not to look for visions and voices. The knowledge of ones own powers, the circumstances of life, the trend of thought, and the outward invitation from authorised sources, it may be, may constitute a clear call of God.

3. He wrought miracles to attest his place as an ambassador of Jesus Christ. Elymas and the lame man at Lystra.

4. More remarkable, and far more lasting in its power, was Pauls true eloquence. He so spake that great multitudes believed. Now, to produce these immediate effects, we ought to remember that he did not address those to whom the gospel was a tale that had been told. This is the position of the modern Christian audience. But the mind of Paul was originally broad, penetrating, and fertile. He had been well trained, and to his native strength and careful culture must be added his marvellous experience at conversion. Yet his chief power was that which we may share--the power of the Holy Spirit.

5. Throughout the journey Paul showed the highest forms of Christian courage. The journey was attended with manifold perils. He was stoned and left for dead at Lystra. In all this he bore up bravely and patiently. He endured hardness as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. He fought the good fight of faith. In all respects, he came back to Antioch approved as a workman.

II. The rejection of Christ by the Jews. They were in all the places whither the apostles came. It was natural and necessary for the apostles to make the offer of salvation to their own countrymen first, nor was this in vain; but the fires of jealousy burst forth when they heard the Gentiles invited to come to their own feast. So Paul was compelled to take a new and definite position, saying, Lo! we turn unto the Gentiles. Unto the Gentiles! Has the Church of Christ remembered the words of Paul, and been true to his spirit? Christs ministry was chiefly to the lapsed and overlooked classes. Centuries of history show little effort on the part of the Christian body to reclaim the lost sheep wandering in the wilderness.

III. The open door among the Gentiles. At Cyprus, Sergius Paulus was eager to hear Gods Word. At Antioch, the whole city came out to hear Paul. Even the superstition that led the Lycaonians to propose Divine honours to Paul and Barnabas was in itself a force that might be turned to useful channels. The heathen were not prejudiced against the gospel as the Jews were.

IV. The establishment of churches. The new faith must have a new form. It would not do to let the zeal of first love expend itself in individualised work. There must be organisation and order. We cannot determine precisely the form of these young apostolic churches, nor is it necessary that we should. Christ left no external organisation, but gave over this work to the Holy Spirit who should come to guide into all truth. (Sermons by the Monday Club.)

The best gain of a servant of God returning home

1. Wounds received in the service of his Lord (verses 19, 20).

2. Souls gained for the kingdom of Christ (verses 21-23).

3. Psalms sung by the assistance of God (verses 26, 27).

Apostles and Crusaders on the same track

Conrad and Louis, each with an army at first of seventy thousand men, marched through part of the districts traversed by Paul and Barnabas alone and unprotected. The former came to fight the battle of the Cross with human power, and their journey was encompassed with defeat and death; the latter, too, passed through much tribulation, bus from victory to victory, for the Lord was their tower and shield. (J. S. Howson, D. D.)

And when they had preached the gospel.--

The ministers work

I. Preaching. Announcing the glad tidings; proclaiming that gospel which is the power of God unto salvation, and so securing conversions.

II. Teaching. Instructing the converts in the doctrines, displaying the privileges, and enforcing the duties of the new faith.

III. Confirmation--establishment in the faith.

IV. Exhortation. Stimulus and encouragement to higher privilege and nobler endeavour.

The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Act 14:19. There came, &c. — The sacred historian now proceeds to give us a remarkable instance of the fickleness of the multitude. Soon after Paul and Barnabas had put a stop to that undue respect which the people at Lystra would have shown them, on account of the above-mentioned miraculous cure which they had wrought, and had instructed them to worship none but the true God; certain Jews from Antioch and Iconium — Came thither, having heard, it is likely, of the respect that was shown there to Paul and Barnabas, and incensed the people against them, persuading them to disbelieve their doctrine, and representing them as impostors; perhaps as two wicked magicians, who were endeavouring to overturn every thing sacred, both among the Jews and the Gentiles; or, at least, as seditious and dangerous persons, who ought not to be harboured. In this way they soon prejudiced the minds of the populace to such a degree against them, that the very people who but just before would have adored them as deities, now rose in a tumultuous manner to put them to death as malefactors; being moved with equal ease either to adore or murder them. So short-lived are human passions not governed by reason and principle! Thus, Israel fell into idolatry within forty days from God’s giving them the law from mount Sinai. Nor could Paul expect any better treatment, when he considered that the same multitude who applauded Christ as king of the Jews, and followed him with their acclamations, about six days after, petitioned Pilate that he might be crucified! And having stoned Paul —

Not in consequence of a judicial sentence, passed by any magistrates, but in a popular tumult in the streets, they drew — Or dragged, him out of the city, supposing he had been dead — It seems, they left his body exposed to the open air, intending that he, to whom a few days before they would have sacrificed oxen, should be himself a prey to wild beasts or birds! Probably, says Dr. Doddridge, there might be something extraordinary in the appearance of his body in this circumstance, which led them to conclude he was dead while he was yet alive; for one can hardly imagine that they would have been contented with any very slight and transient inquiry whether he were dead or not. It is observable we read of no such injury offered to Barnabas, who seems to have had no share in the effects of this popular fury; probably Paul’s distinguished zeal marked him out as the object of their distinguished cruelty. Thus, in his turn, did Paul suffer the very punishment which he had been so active in bringing upon the blessed martyr, Stephen! And, doubtless, the recollection of that affair helped very much to reconcile him to what had now befallen him.

Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

6. Paul, Rescued from Death, Retraces his Route back to Antioch, Act_14:19-28.

19. Jews from Antioch—Of course our country village is soon convinced by visitors from the capital. They now are told that these two men, instead of being gods, forsooth, are nothing but a couple of itinerant apostate Jews and jugglers. The Lystrans realize their mistake with a sense of ridicule, and a feeling of indignation against the innocent apostles, whom they hold responsible for their own stupidity.

Having stoned Paul—This death by stoning is partly Jewish, and partly extemporaneous, as handiest for the mob.

Drew him out of the city—Dragging him as a dead man from their streets, that he may putrefy without.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

14:19-20 The crowd became fickle when some Jews arrived from Antioch and Iconium and easily turned the people against the apostles. • They stoned Paul and dragged him out of town: Paul later referred to this time of persecution as a lesson (2 Tim 3:11-12). • thinking he was dead: That Paul got up and went back into the town suggests that God miraculously healed him of his wounds.

Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Act 14:19. Τὸν Παῦλον, Paul) It was he who had made the speech: Act 14:12. Barnabas shared in the danger; ch. Act 15:26; yet he was less hated by them.

Bengel's Gnomon of the New Testament — English translation (T&T Clark, Edinburgh, 1860) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Act_14:19-22. This unmeasured veneration was by hostile Jews, who arrived (ἐπῆλθον) from Antioch (Act_13:14; Act_13:50) and Iconium (Act_14:1; Act_14:5-6), transformed in the fickle multitude (ventosae plebis suffragia! Hor. Ep. i. 19. 37) into a participation in a tumultuous attempt to kill Paul. Between this scene very summarily related and the preceding, no interval is, according to the correct text (see critical remarks), to be placed (in opposition to Ewald). The mobile vulgus, that ἀσταθμητότατον πρᾶγμα τῶν ἁπάντων (Dem. 383, 5), is at once carried away from one extreme to another.

καὶ πείσαντες κ.τ.λ.] and after they (the Jews who had arrived) had persuaded the multitude (to be of their party) and stoned[20] Paul (the chief speaker!), they dragged him, etc.

κυκλωσάντων] not sepeliendi causa (Bengel, Kuinoel, and others),a thought quite arbitrarily supplied; but in natural painful sympathy the Lystrians who had been converted to Christ surrounded him who was apparently dead.

ἀναστὰς εἰσῆλθεν εἰς τ. π.] is certainly conceived as a miraculous result.

Act_14:22. ΚΑῚ ὍΤΙ Κ.Τ.Λ.] comp. Act_14:27; but here so, that from ΠΑΡΑΚΑΛΟῦΝΤΕς a kindred verb (ΛΈΓΟΝΤΕς) must be borrowed. See Kühner, II. p. 605. Buttmann, neut. Gr. p. 330[E. T. 385]. Comp. Krebs, p. 225.

δεῖ] namely, ex decreto divino. Comp. Act_9:16.

ἡμᾶς] we Christians must, through many afflictions, enter into the Messianic kingdom (βασ. τ. Θεοῦ, to be established at the Parousia). Comp. Mat_10:38; Rom_8:17 f.; also the saying of Christ in Barnab. ep. 7: οἱ θέλοντές με ἰδεῖν κ. ἅψασθαί μου τῆς βασιλείας ὀφείλουσι θλιβέντες κ. παθόντες λαβεῖν με. Si ad vitam ingredi cupis, afflictiones quoque tibi necessario sufferendae sunt. Vajikra Rabba, f. 173, 4.

That, moreover, the stoning here narrated is the same as that mentioned in 2Co_11:25 (comp. Clem. Cor. I. 5 : λιθασθείς), is necessarily to be assumed, so long as we cannot wantonly admit the possibility that the author has here inserted the incident known to him from 2 Cor. only for the sake of the contrast, or because he knew not a more suitable place to insert it (so Zeller). It is, however, an entirely groundless fancy of Lange, that the apparent death in Act_14:19-20 is what is meant by the trance in 2Co_12:1 ff.

[20] Consequently in the city. It was to be a φόνος δημόλευστος ἐν πόλει (Soph. Ant. 36).

Meyer — Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament — English translation by Peter Christie, edited by Frederick Crombie (T&T Clark, 1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Act 14:19 . ἐπῆλθον δὲ : on readings to account for the interval see critical notes. Nothing in the narrative forbids some kind of interval, whilst nothing is said as to its duration. Ἰουδαῖοι : a proof of their enmity in that they undertook a long journey of some one hundred and thirty miles. πείσαντες τοὺς ὄ .: mobile vulgus . The change in their attitude need not surprise us, cf. the fickleness of the inhabitants of Malta, Act 28:6 , and, more notably still, the change of feeling in the multitudes who could cry Hosannah! and Crucify! The Scholiast, Homer, Il. , iv., 89 92, has ἄπιστοι γὰρ Λυκάονες , ὡς καὶ Ἀριστοτέλης μαρτυρεῖ . These Jews may have received help from their fellow-countrymen, some few of whom were resident in Lystra, Act 16:1 , or possibly, as McGiffert suggests, it may have been easy to incite the populace against Paul and Barnabas, because of the Apostles’ rejection of the divine honours offered to them. But probably the persuasion implies that they influenced the multitudes to regard the miracle, the reality of which they could not dispute, as the work not of beneficent gods but of evil demons. The form of punishment, λιθάσαντες , would seem at all events to point to Jewish instigation, although the stoning took place not outside but inside the city, cf. 2Co 11:25 , 2Ti 3:11 , and Wendt (1888), p. 318, as against Zeller. In Gal 6:17 the Apostle may allude to the scars marked on him by these same people (Ramsay, Zahn), cf. also Clem. Rom., Cor [271] , Act 14:6 . λιθασθείς : “Uti Paulus prius lapidationi Stephani consenserat: ita nunc veterem culpam expiat, 2Co 11:25 ” (Wetstein). On the undesigned coincidence between this narrative and the notice in 2 Tim. cf. Paley, Horæ Paulinæ , xii., 5. Hilgenfeld refers this verse to his “author to Theophilus,” but the change in the multitude and the hatred of the Jews are not surprising, but perfectly natural. ἔσυρον : perhaps as a last indignity, cf. Act 8:3 , Act 17:6 . νομίσαντες : St. Luke’s words do not require us to infer that St. Paul was rendered lifeless, and we need not suppose that he was more than stunned. But at the same time the narrative undoubtedly leads us to recognise in St. Paul’s speedy recovery from such an outrage, and his ability to resume his journey, the good hand of God upon him. We may again notice St. Luke’s reserve in dwelling on the Apostle’s sufferings, and his carefulness in refraining from magnifying the incident.

[271] Corinth, Corinthian or Corinthians.

The Expositor's Greek Testament, edited by W. Robertson Nicoll (1897–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

The devil when he is brought to the last cast, at length rageth openly, but in vain, even then when he seemeth to have the upper hand.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

Verse 19. There came thither certain Jews from Antioch] Those were, no doubt, the same who had raised up persecution against Paul and Barnabas, at Iconium and Antioch, before: they followed the apostles with implacable malice; and what they could not do themselves they endeavoured to do by others, whose minds they first perverted, and then irritated to deeds of fell purpose.

And having stoned Paul] Alas! of what real worth is popular fame? How uncertain, and how unworthy to be counted! These poor heathens acted just like the people of Malta, Ac 28:4-6. When the viper fastened on the hand of Paul, they concluded he was a murderer: when they found it did him no damage, they changed their minds, and said he was a GOD! When the Lycaonians saw the miracles that Paul did, they said he was the god Mercury: when the persecuting Jews came, they persuaded them that he was an impostor; and then they endeavoured to stone him to death.

Supposing he had been dead.] They did not leave stoning him till they had the fullest evidence that he was dead; and so, most probably, he was.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

19. There came. Paul and Barnabas can hardly stay the people from doing sacrifice; but a company of knaves do, with small ado, persuade them to stone Paul, whom of late they made a god. Whereby appeareth how much more men be bent unto superstition than unto the true worship of God, and how arrogant superstition is, which will always bear the chief sway in appointing the worship of God. The servants of God seek no other thing but to bring men under obedience of him, which is salvation and felicity alone. They challenge to themselves no lordship, they hunt after no gain; and yet the world cannot abide them. For almost all men murmur; and now and then there rise tumults. Those who are thus stubborn against God, they be too ready to believe seducers, and willingly submit themselves to their tyranny. So the Pope had liberty to deceive at his pleasure, and not only to oppress miserable souls with slavery, but also cruelly to torment them. Whatsoever he commanded it was obediently received, and even at this day, though he make impossible laws, yet dare no man once mutter against them. Nevertheless, the yoke of Christ is sweet, (Matthew 11:30,) and yet few there be who will suffer it.

Therefore, in this history is most lively painted out unto us the forwardness of the world. Paul might have reigned under the title of Mercury, with the commendation of all men; he will not be a god. Because he serveth Christ faithfully, he is stoned. His constancy is commended, to the end we may follow it. He was indeed wonderfully delivered by the Lord; but as touching himself he suffered a most cruel kind of death. Therefore, we must make like account of this testimony, which he doth also recite in the Second Epistle to the Corinthians, (2 Corinthians 11:25,) as if he had been slain. Furthermore, we need not doubt but that the common sort made insurrection against him outrageously. So that, what violence soever the wicked do to the servants of Christ, it is never called in question; the laws are whist, [silent;] judgments cease; the magistrate is asleep; there is no patron to be found.

John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.

(19) There came thither certain Jews from Antioch.—The context shows that the Pisidian Antioch is meant. The strength of the hostility is shown by the facts, (1) that the Jews of the two cities were acting in concert, and (2) that those of the former had travelled not less than one hundred and thirty miles to hinder the Apostle’s work.

Who persuaded the people.—The sudden change of feeling is almost as startling as that which transformed the hosannas of the multitudes at Jerusalem into the cry of “Crucify Him!” (Mat_21:9; Mat_27:22.) It is not difficult, however, to understand these vicissitudes of feeling in a barbarous and superstitious people. We find a like sudden change in an opposite direction in the people of Melita (Act_28:6). If the strangers who were endowed with such mysterious powers were not “gods in the likeness of men,” they might be sorcerers, or even demons, in the evil sense of that word. The Jews, ever ready to impute signs and wonders to Beelzebub, the chief of the demons (see Notes on Mat_10:34; Mat_12:24), would readily work on this feeling, and terrify the people into the cruel ferocity of panic.

Having stoned Paul.—The mode of punishment, as elsewhere, shows that it was planned and executed by Jews. They, apparently, were eager to satisfy themselves that they were inflicting punishment on a blasphemer: stoning him to death, and casting him out to be buried with the burial of an ass. And so, in one sense, as from man’s way of looking on such things, the martyr expiated the guilt of the persecutor. The blinding, stunning blows fell on him as they had fallen on Stephen. It was the one instance in St. Paul’s life of this form of suffering (2Co_11:25). The sufferings endured at Lystra stand out, at the close of his life, in the vista of past years with a marvellous distinctness (2Ti_3:11).

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

19–28. Change of feeling in the multitude. Paul is stoned. The Apostles visit Derbe, and then return, by the route by which they came, to Antioch in Syria

19. certain Jews from Antioch and Iconium] Their anger, like that of “the circumcision” in Jerusalem, was roused against the Apostles, whom they knew to be born Jews, but who were casting away the legal restraints to which they themselves clung, and so they followed them to other places and represented them no doubt as renegade Jews, and probably taught the heathen people, that what they had seen done was done by evil powers and not by beneficent ones. Some such argument they must have used. The mighty work of the cured cripple bore witness for the reality of the Apostles’ power. It was only left, therefore, to ascribe it to evil agency, as the Jews aforetime said of Christ “He casteth out devils through Beelzebub.”

who persuaded the people] Dean Howson (Life and Epp. of St Paul, i. 208) quotes from the Scholiast on Homer (Il. iv. 89–92) a passage in which the Lycaonians are described as untrustworthy, and Aristotle is given as authority for the statement. For a similar sudden change of temper in the populace, cp. the conduct of the multitude at Jerusalem just before the Crucifixion, and the sudden change of opinion in the people of Melita (Act_28:6).

and, having stoned Paul] Their jealous rage carried them to such a length that they became themselves the active agents in taking vengeance on the “chief speaker” of the two missionaries. This must be the stoning to which St Paul alludes (2Co_11:25), “Once was I stoned.” And Paley (Horæ Paulinæ, p. 69) calls attention to the close agreement between the history of St Luke and the letter of St Paul. At Iconium St Paul had just escaped stoning; at Lystra he was stoned. The two circumstances are mentioned by the historian, only the actual suffering by the Apostle himself. Nothing but truth to guide them, says Paley, could have brought the two writers so close “to the very brink of contradiction without their falling into it.”

drew him out of the city] The stoning had not been in a place set apart for such executions, for there were few Jews in Lystra, but it had been done publicly in the midst of the city, perhaps in the place of public resort where St Paul had been wont to preach.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

And there came thither certain Jews,.... Either just at the same time, or however whilst the apostles were in this city: in four manuscripts of Beza's, and in some other copies, it is read, "as they abode there, and taught, there came", &c. These Jews were inveterate enemies of the apostles, and seemed to have followed them from place to place, on purpose to oppose them, and to stir up the people against them, and to hinder the success of their ministry all they could: for these came

from Antioch; not Antioch in Syria, but in Pisidia: where they had contradicted and blasphemed the word of God, and was the reason why the apostles turned to the Gentiles, Act 13:45.

And Iconium: where also the unbelieving Jews stirred up the Gentiles against the apostles, and both of them made an assault upon them, to use them ill, Act 14:2

who persuaded the people; in the above manuscripts of Beza's, and in some other copies, are these words,

"and they disputing confidently, persuaded the people to depart from them, saying, that they said nothing true, but in all things lied;''

which though they may not be considered as the text, are a good gloss upon it: they persuaded the people not to hearken to them, told them that they were deceivers and jugglers, and instead of having honours conferred upon them, they ought to be severely punished; and to these Jews they hearkened, as appears by what follows:

and having stoned Paul; even the same persons that just before were for sacrificing to him as a god; which shows the fickleness and inconstancy of the populace, and how little they are to be depended on; for they were the Gentiles that stoned Paul, at the instigation of the Jews; though the latter might probably join with them in it: a like instance we have in the conduct of the Jews towards Christ, who cried "Hosanna" to him one day, and on another, very quickly after, with great importunity say, Crucify him, Crucify him; of this stoning, the apostle makes mention, Co2 11:25 When they had stoned him,

they drew him out of the city, supposing he had been dead; which is an addition to their barbarity and inhumanity; for they not only stoned him until he was dead, as they supposed, but they dragged his body through the streets of their city, in contempt of him, and indignation against him, and cast him out of it, where they left him as unworthy of a burial.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

19 And there came thither certain Jews from Antioch and Iconium, who persuaded the people, and, having stoned Paul, drew him out of the city, supposing he had been dead.

Ver. 19. And there came thither] The devil, when he is driven to his last shift, stirs up his instruments to use violence, which yet prevaileth not.

And having stoned Paul] At Athens, if the comedians pleased not the people, they were overwhelmed with stones. This was hard measure; yet such as ministers many times meet with. But what a strange change was here on a sudden! was there no mean between deifying and stoning? How soon turns the wind into a contrary corner! Varium et mutabile vulgus. Neutrum mode; mas mode vulgus.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

And there came thither certain Jews - Not satisfied with having expelled them from Antioch and Iconium, they still pursued them. Persecutors often exhibit a zeal and perseverance in a bad cause which it would be well if Christians evinced in a holy cause. Bad people will often travel further to do evil than good people will to do good; and wicked people often show more zeal in opposing the gospel than professed Christians do in advancing it.

Antioch and Iconium - See the notes on Act 13:14, Act 13:51.

Who persuaded the people - That they were impostors; and who excited their rage against them.

And having stoned Paul - Whom they were just before ready to worship as a god! What a striking instance of the fickleness and instability of idolaters! And what a striking instance of the instability and uselessness of mere popularity! Just before they were ready to adore him; now they sought to put him to death. Nothing is more fickle than popular favor. The unbounded admiration of a man may soon be changed into unbounded indignation and contempt. It was well for Paul that he was not seeking this popularity, and that he did not depend on it for happiness. He had a good conscience; he was engaged in a good cause; he was under the protection of God; and his happiness was to be sought from a higher source than the applause of people, “fluctuating and uncertain as the waves of the sea.” To this transaction Paul referred when he enumerated his trials in 2Co 11:25, “Once was I stoned.”

Drew him out of the city - Probably in haste, and in popular rage, as if he was unfit to be in the city, and was unworthy of a decent burial; for it does not appear that they contemplated an interment but indignantly dragged him beyond the walls of the city to leave him there. Such sufferings and trials it cost to establish that religion in the world which has shed so many blessings on man; which now crowns us with comfort; which saves us from the abominations and degradations of idolatry here, and from the pains of hell hereafter.

Supposing he had been dead - The next verse shows that he was really not dead, though many commentators, as well as the Jews, have supposed that he was, and was miraculously restored to life. It is remarkable that Barnabas was not exposed to this popular fury. But it is to be remembered that Paul was the chief speaker, and it was his special zeal that exposed him to this tumult.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Certain Jews; such as mention was made of, Act 13:50.

Persuaded the people; a strange and incredible fickleness; but that we know how the same multitude who cried Hosanna, did more suddenly alter their note, and cry against our Saviour, Crucify him, crucify him; so uncertain a thing is worldly honour.

Stoned Paul; the malice of Satan is every way great; if he cannot destroy the souls of these blessed apostles, by making of them to accept of Divine worship, he will do his utmost to kill their bodies.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

But there came Jews thither for and there came thither certain Jews, A.V.; and having persuaded the multitudes, they stoned for who persuaded the people, and having stoned, A.V.; and dragged for drew, A.V.; that he was dead for he had been dead, A.V. But there came Jews, etc. Observe the persistent enmity of the unbelieving Jews. The same fickleness of the multitude which led those who had cried, "Hosanna!" to turn round and say, "Crucify him!" here led those who would have worshipped Paul as a god, now to stone him as a blasphemer. This is, doubtless, the instance to which St. Paul alludes when he says "Once was I stoned,". (2Co_11:25)

Vers. 19-28. Dangers and successes.

The unstable multitude open to rapid changes of feeling. Hosanna!" to day; "Crucify him!" to-morrow. Paul"s miraculous escape a great help to the faith of disciples. Possibly his suffering a reason for speedy return to Antioch.

I THE EXPERIENCE OF THE FIRST MISSIONARY JOURNEY A PREPARATION FOR THE FUTURE.

1. The necessity of patience.

2. The importance of making the work thorough and confirming the weak.

3. The relation of aggressive work to orderly Church life. Both in the new Churches elders appointed, and at Antioch all rehearsed.

II The preciousness of RISING FAITH REQUIRES A JEALOUS WATCHFULNESS, even at the risk of personal suffering. It was dangerous for Paul and Barnabas to visit the same places again, but "the souls of the disciples" were more in their eyes than their own comfort or even safety.

1. True confirmation is a recognition of present grace.

2. The experience of the more advanced should help the new converts and the young. The Church has ranch neglected this duty.

3. Trouble must always attend faith. The blessings which we care not to fight for we shall soon lose.

4. The appointment of superintending elders is apostolic. They were doubtless from among the new Churches themselves, but chosen with discretion and in dependence on the blessing of God. All done with prayer and self-denial. The presence of the Lord the one true sanction.

III THE REHEARSAL OF SPIRITUAL SUCCESSES a great encouragement to God"s people.

1. In the gathered Church, not merely in private; for the Church is the true center from which all proceeds and to which all is brought.

2. The true missionary work is that which the Church maintains in its united capacity. Individual and isolated efforts are not so likely to be blessed.

3. The special importance of the mission of Paul and Barnabas in showing the open door of faith to the Gentiles. Such a fact could not have wielded the same influence had it not been rehearsed thus solemnly to the assembled brethren. Antioch was now the pledged source of light to the Gentile world. R.

Vers. 19, 20. Once was stoned (2Co_11:25)

The brevity of the record of the incident of these verses may, perhaps, point to the modesty of Paul. Probably the historian of the Acts of the Apostles was not at this time with Paul and Barnabas at Lystra. Paul is his informant, therefore, of what now befell him. The event was treasured, as well it might be, among the great perils and sufferings, but also among the great deliverances of Paul"s career. The event, as so briefly detailed, nevertheless teaches

I THE PERSISTENT OPPOSITION OF THE GREAT ENEMY. They of Iconium and Antioch are, after all, his agents, and, incited by him, pursue Paul and Barnabas here.

II THE EARLY FORGETFULNESS OF GOOD AND THE DEEPSEATED INGRATITUDE OF HUMAN NATURE. Those who were thus persuaded to stone Paul were of the very people who had offered, as it were the day before, to sacrifice to him as God. It is a repetition of the "Hosanna!" of yesterday being turned into the "Crucify, crucify!" of today.

III THE HEIGHT OF HUMAN AND OF CHRISTIAN FAITHFULNESS MAY VERY POSSIBLY FOR A TIME INTENSIFY OR PRODUCE DANGER. Perhaps the people of Lystra would never have been "persuaded" to stone Paul, if Paul and Barnabas had not yesterday so faithfully sought to persuade them that they were but men like themselves. And probably the emissaries of Iconium and Antioch would not have dared to face the wild enthusiasm of Lystra, with their evil insinuation and malign attempts.

IV GOD DOES NOT FORGET TO BE FAITHFUL TO THOSE WHO ARE FAITHFUL TO HIM. And Paul, who had wrought through the mighty power of God, miracles for the deliverance of others, is the subject of a miracle himself now. And it is the Divine favor, as no human minister of it served the occasion. Paul has been stoned, drawn out of the city; foe and friend take him for dead nay, perhaps he was so; if not, there was but a little "step indeed between him and death." Yet he rises up, uncalled by human voice, unhelped by human hand, and comes into the city.

V THE UNQUENCHED COURAGE OF PAUL. He does not now flee to another city." He comes into that city. He could well trust the God who had delivered him and would deliver him "in deaths oft." And he was well prepared to echo the words of the psalmist, "This God is my God for ever and ever, and he will be my Guide even unto death.

VI THAT AGAIN AND AGAIN THE ENEMY OF CHRIST MAKES A HUMILIATING FAILURE OF IT. The enemy"s work is exposed and is undone. Christ triumphs with fresh manifestation. And his truth and glory are spread. B.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Who persuaded the multitude - Moved with equal ease either to adore or murder him.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

The return Journey to Syria.

Mob violence in Lystra and the Gospel in Derbe:

v. 19. And there came thither certain Jews from Antioch and Iconium, who persuaded the people, and, having stoned Paul, drew him out of the city, supposing he had been dead.

v. 20, Howbeit, as the disciples stood round about him, he rose up, and came into the city; and the next day he departed with Barnabas to Derbe.

v. 21. And when they had preached the Gospel to that city and had taught many, they returned again to Lystra and to Iconium and Antioch,

v. 22. confirming the souls of the disciples, and exhorting them to continue in the faith, and that we must through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God.

v. 23. and when they had ordained them elders in every church, and had prayed with fasting, they commended them to the Lord, on whom they believed.

The news of that strange happening, in which men had almost been worshiped as gods, traveled quickly along the trade routes, reaching Iconium first and soon after even Antioch, in Pisidia, and the Jews immediately concluded that the two men could be no others than Paul and Barnabas whom they had persecuted. The fact that these men were carrying on their work in other cities of the province so angered some of the Jews that they did not hesitate to make the long journey to Lystra. Here they worked assiduously to persuade the multitudes, soon converting them into a mob and thus demonstrating again the uncertainty of temper and the fickleness of favor which characterizes crowds. It seems that the attack upon Paul was sudden, while he was attending to his duties. They stoned him and then dragged him out of the city, supposing him to have died, and ready to leave his body to its fate, like that of some wild beast. But when the murderers had left the scene, the disciples, some of whom had been gained also in this city, came out to investigate, and when they stood around Paul, probably considering the best way of burying him, he arose and went into the city. The Lord had held His sheltering hand over His servant and prevented the stones from having mortal effect upon his body. But it was clear to the apostle that under the circumstances he could not hope to have success in this city; the agitators were still present, and the minds of the people had been prejudiced against the Gospel. So on the very next day he set out with Barnabas for Derbe, a distance of some twenty miles, almost on the Cilician frontier. Here quick success attended their efforts: they preached the Gospel continuously, bringing the glad tidings to that city; they made many disciples, thus founding a congregation also here, where it must have been almost, if not entirely, composed of Gentiles. Paul now might easily have made the journey down to Tarsus, to strengthen himself and recuperate from the strenuous exertions of this missionary trip. But his love and solicitude for the newly gained converts moved him to make the return journey back over the same route, stopping at Lystra, at Iconium, and at Antioch, in order, in every city he confirmed, strengthened, the souls of the disciples by sound Gospel-preaching and by evangelical admonition. Since persecution had come upon them at least indirectly through the removal of Paul, he exhorted them, he earnestly urged them, to remain in, to abide in, to stay with the faith. Having accepted Christ in firm trust as their Savior, they should not permit tribulations and persecutions to take this faith out of their hearts. For that is true in general of the Christians: Through many tribulations we must enter into the kingdom of God. That is the inevitable lot of the believers, that is what they must expect in the midst of a sinful and hostile generation. The Christians of all times have need of such encouragement to be firm in the midst of cross and persecution. On the same trip also Paul and Barnabas had the congregations in each city elect, by popular vote, by a show of hands, elders in every congregation. The Christians themselves established the office of the ministry in their midst for the continual teaching of the Word of God, in order that the disciples might be kept in the faith, and that ever more souls might be won for Christ. Note: The apostles here did not make use of any hierarchical powers, but put the matter of electing their ministers into the hands of the congregations. The Christian congregation makes use of this peculiar church power and should retain this right at all times. Paul and Barnabas finally commended all the brethren to the Lord by prayer with fasting, in the keeping, in the charge, of the Lord they are safe; His care can protect them against enmity and comfort them in persecution. Those that believed the apostles committed to the Lord; for only by faith is the communication with the Lord established, only by faith can it be maintained.

Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Note here, 1. The ill requital St. Paul had for his excellent discourse to these blasphemous idolators: They stoned him to death, in their own apprehension. The sharpest and keenest edge of persecution is usually turned against the ministers of Christ, and falls heaviest on the prophets of God. The devil will do his utmost to take away their lives, who are continually endeavouring the destruction of him and his kingdom.

Note, 2. The great constancy and incredible fickleness of the common people; who one day would sacrifice to the apostles as gods, and the next day stone them to death as malefactors. What wise man will value himself by the applause of the multitude, and live upon the breath of the people, (that contingent judge of good and evil,) which rather attend the vain than the virtuous? But thus the common people dealt with Christ himself, crying one day, Hosanna! and the next day, Crucify!

Note, 3. The miraculous recovery of the apostle, after his persecutors had stoned him: He rose up, and came into the city. His recovery seems to be miraculous, else his stoning would have disabled him from walking. God had farther work for this great apostle to do; and therefore neither the wrath of men, nor the rage of the devil, could at that time cut him off.

William Burkitt's Expository Notes on the New Testament (1700–1703) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

PAUL’S MARTYRDOM

19, 20. Behold the fickle caprice of frail mortality, which has been verified in all ages and nations! Now they are all clamorous to worship the apostles for gods. In one short hour they are all clamorous for their blood, and actually stone Paul! Millions, besides Paul, have passed through this same ordeal. The very people who applaud you to the skies and worship you for a god, will cast you away and leave you to die without a friend to soothe your dying brow; yea, they will sign your death-warrant, and then will kill you. Vain is human patronage! You are a king to-day and a beggar to-morrow, without a friend beneath the skies. Take heed and fly to God, who never changes. He is your Friend, “the same yesterday, to-day, and forever!” While Paul’s mangled and bleeding body lies under the rock-pile, his spirit enjoys a visit to Paradise (2 Corinthians 12), there seeing and hearing things too glorious for mortal utterance, not as E. V. says, “unlawful to tell,” but impossible. We need heavenly language to describe heavenly glories.

William B. Godbey, Commentary on the New Testament (1896–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

19. This state of suspense was most favorable to the acceptance of Paul's own explanation of his miraculous power, and consequently to their belief of the gospel; and we can not doubt that some of the disciples, whom we afterward find there, owed their conviction, in part, to the circumstance. But with those who did not promptly embrace the faith, the same suspense made room for explanations unfavorable to conviction, and such explanations were soon given. (19) " But Jews from Antioch and Iconium came thither, and having persuaded the multitude, and stoned Paul, they dragged him out of the city, supposing that he was dead. " The readiness with which a people who had so recently offered divine honors to Paul were persuaded to stone him to death, though at first glance surprising, is but a natural result of all the circumstances. That portion of them who had been prominent in the idolatrous proceedings felt mortified at the discovery of their mistake, and were naturally inclined to excuse their own folly by throwing censure upon the innocent objects of it. The Jews stimulated this feeling by urging that Paul was an impostor, and that all the honorable women and chief men of Antioch and Iconium had united in driving him away from those cities. This enabled them to charge him with willful deception, and as their feelings were already keyed up to their utmost tension they were easily swayed to the opposite extreme, and at a nod from the Jews they were ready to dash him to pieces. That Paul, rather than Barnabas, was the victim of their wrath, resulted from the fact that both here and in the cities from which the Jews had come, he was the chief speaker. The same circumstance which had given him the inferior place in their idolatry, gave him, finally, the superior place in their hatred.

J. W. McGarvey (with Philip Y. Pendleton), Commentaries on the New Testament (The Fourfold Gospel, 1914; Acts; and the epistles) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

19, 20. Came thither Jews. These inveterate opposers followed from the late scenes of gospel triumphs, and found the Lystrians disappointed that they had not been allowed to adore Paul and Barnabas. From one extreme they were easily led to the other. If they were not gods, they were bad men. The fickle populace was easily stirred to riot, and, led by the Jews, they seized and stoned the great apostle until they supposed he was dead. This, the first bodily injury he suffered for Christ, of which we have record, is alluded to in 2 Cor. 11:25, where he gives some account of what he had endured. After the stoning, his enemies dragged him out of the city as they would a carcass. When Paul's enemies had gone, the disciples gathered around, and to their joy and surprise he rose up, and came into the city. Whether he had received a blow that rendered him unconscious and apparently dead, until he recovered from the swoon, or whether his restoration was miraculous, cannot be surely determined. As commanded by Christ, when persecuted in one city, they departed and came the next day to Derbe, to labor for a time.

B. W. Johnson's The People's New Testament with Notes (1889–1891) — public domain. Electronic text from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (CCEL) ThML edition.

General Information:

Here the words "he" and "him" refer to Paul.

persuaded the crowds

It my be helpful to explicitly state what they persuaded the crowd to do. AT: "persuaded the people not to believe Paul and Barnabas, and to turn against them" (See: Assumed Knowledge and Implicit Information)

the crowds

This may not be the same group as the "multitude" in the previous verse. Some time had passed, and this might be a different group that gathered together.

thinking that he was dead

"because they thought that he was already dead"

the disciples

These were new believers in the city of Lystra.

entered the city

"Paul re-entered Lystra with the believers"

he went to Derbe with Barnabas

"Paul and Barnabas went to the city of Derbe"

translationWords

Jew

Antioch

Iconium

stone

die

disciple

unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.

19–28. CHANGE OF FEELING IN THE MULTITUDE. PAUL IS STONED. THE APOSTLES VISIT DERBE, AND THEN RETURN, BY THE ROUTE BY WHICH THEY CAME, TO ANTIOCH IN SYRIA

19. ἀπὸ Ἀντιοχείας καὶ Ἰκονίου Ἰουδαῖοι, certain Jews from Antioch and Iconium. Their anger, like that of ‘the circumcision’ in Jerusalem, was roused against the Apostles, whom they knew to be born Jews, but whom they saw casting away the legal restraints to which they themselves clung. They therefore followed them to other places and represented them no doubt as renegade Jews, and probably taught the heathen people, that what they had seen done was done by evil powers and not by beneficent ones. Some such argument they must have used. The mighty work of the cured cripple bore witness to the reality of the Apostle’s power. It was only left, therefore, to ascribe it to evil agency, as the Jews aforetime said of Christ, ‘He casteth out devils through Beelzebub.’

πείσαντες τοὺς ὄχλους, having persuaded the multitudes. Dean Howson (Life and Epistles of St Paul, I. 208) quotes from the Scholiast on Homer (Il. IV. 89–92) the following, ἄπιστοι γὰρ Λυκάονες, ὡς καὶ Ἀριστοτέλης μαρτυρεῖ, a passage which is confirmed by the fickle conduct of the people on this occasion. For a similar sudden change of temper in the populace, cf. the conduct of the multitude at Jerusalem just before the Crucifixion, and the sudden alteration of opinion in the people of Melita (Act 28:6).

καὶ λιθάσαντες τὸν Παῦλον, and having stoned Paul. Their jealous rage carried them to such a length that they became themselves the active agents in taking vengeance on the ‘chief speaker’ of the two missionaries. This must be the stoning to which Paul alludes (2Co 11:25), ‘Once was I stoned.’ And Paley (Horæ Paulinæ, p. 69) calls attention to the close agreement between the history of St Luke and the letter of St Paul. At Iconium St Paul had just escaped stoning; at Lystra he was stoned. The two circumstances are mentioned by the historian, only the actual suffering by the Apostle himself. Nothing but truth to guide them, says Paley, could have brought the two writers so close ‘to the very brink of contradiction without their falling into it.’

ἔσυρον ἔξω τῆς πόλεως, they drew him out of the city. The stoning had not been in a place set apart for such executions, for there were few Jews in Lystra, but had been done publicly in the midst of the city, perhaps in the place of common resort where St Paul had been wont to preach.

νομίζοντες αὐτὸν τεθνηκέναι, thinking that he was dead. As they had apparently every reason to do, when the body could be dragged along the road.

Cambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges (Cambridge University Press, 1896; 21 vols, various authors incl. Carr, Maclear, Plummer, Farrar, Lumby, Moule, M. R. James, Simcox) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

19. πείσαντες τοὺς ὄχλ.] ἄπιστοι γὰρ Λυκάονες, ὡς καὶ Ἀριστοτέλης μαρτυρεῖ. Schol. on Homer, Il. δ. 88, 92.

They stoned him, not in the Jewish method, but tumultuously and in the streets, dragging him out of the city afterwards.

He refers to this stoning, 2Co 11:25, ἅπαξ ἐλιθάσθην.

Henry Alford, The Greek Testament (1849–1861) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Stoned. See on ver. 5.

Marvin R. Vincent, Word Studies in the New Testament (1887–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.