In ancient Greek mythology, Zeus was the powerful king of the Greek Gods who could both wield and throw lightning bolts. His chief messenger was a lesser god named Hermes who, among other roles, was the god of human orators. In one famous story, Zeus and Hermes take on human form and visit a small town looking for hospitality. They found it in only one home – the home of Philemon and Baucis who invited them in. Everyone else had turned them away. So Zeus and Hermes reward Philemon and Baucis by making them a priest and priestess, and then transforming their property into a temple, while also drowning everyone else and destroying the town in a flood.
The people of Lystra would have been acquainted with this story, and according to some sources may have even claimed it as their own city’s history. When Paul and Barnabas visited the city on a missionary journey, Paul performed his first healing miracle (Acts 14:8-22). Paul’s assessment of a man crippled from birth was that he possessed faith to make him well. Paul heals the man on the basis of that faith, and when the man stands to his feet, the people are profoundly moved by the power they just witnessed. But instead of attributing that power to the one true God, they mistake Paul and Barnabas for the pagan gods, Zeus and Hermes. Interestingly, they see the quiet Barnabas as the powerful Zeus, and they see the miracle performing Paul, because he is a good orator, as the lesser god, Hermes. It’s hard to know what this actually means. But it does hint that Paul had not yet risen as an authority in a way that the pagan citizens of Lystra could discern. Or perhaps it means that Barnabas demonstrated easy to discern powerful leadership qualities that have not been overtly captured in the Bible’s pages.
At any rate, even the city’s chief priest mistakes the two for Zeus and Hermes as well, and then attempts to commence ritual sacrifices. Paul and Barnabas are negatively emotionally impacted by this and immediately tear their clothes and begin preaching that they are just men, and try to redirect the people toward the one true God. Judaizers who had opposed Paul and followed him from their previous stop then used the opportunity to turn the crowd against Paul and Barnabas. The people then stone Paul and leave him for dead outside the city’s borders. The next day, the disciples gathered around Paul, who arose and went back into the city and rejoined Barnabas and continued on his mission.
Some lessons from this story: 1) The healing was likely a real one and not a fake one because the people would have known the man who had been crippled from birth which would have made the event convincing. 2) Paul and Barnabas were not con-men. If they had been they would have accepted the praise of the people, obtained some kind of advantage and moved on before they were found out. 3) Paul believed in what he was saying and doing, otherwise he would not have gotten up after being stoned to near death and rejoined Barnabas and continued on such a dangerous mission.
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