ACC ~ Acts 14 v8 - 20

OVERVIEW:

This is Paul’s first speech to pagans. He makes no mention of Jesus but only tries to convert them to monotheism: a first step in the rhythm of preaching summed up in his account of the ministry in Thessalonica. Commentators observe a progression of events similar to those in Pisidian Antioch and Iconium: initial success followed by controversy provoked by Jews, persecution and flight. Here, the persecution goes further than before: Paul is stoned, but he survives. There is an irony in these events. On the one hand, Paul, doing good, is deified by pagans and declared immortal, an appellation Paul rejects in his preaching, while, on the other, in his preaching of a Jewish message, the Jews try to kill him but fail. The Fathers focus closely on particular elements of the story and use these events to demonstrate larger truths about the faith. Bede sees Paul, like Peter and John with the lame Jewish man, demonstrating in the lame Gentile man’s physical body the spiritual effects of the gospel that God intends for the whole of humanity. Just as the lame man whom Peter and John cured prefigured the salvation of the Jews, so did this sick Lycaonian prefigured the salvation of the Gentiles (BEDE). Chrysostom too sees a spiritual truth in this physical healing: Paul could see that the man’s spirit had not been debilitated by his physical condition but that he had faith to be made well because he was already predisposed in his resolution. While the bodies of some were healed before their souls, the soul of the crippled man of Lystra was already predisposed to the hearing of the Word. The Fathers also pay close attention to the premature conclusion that Paul and Barnabas were divine (BEDE, AMMONIUS). The danger of such a conclusion among those being evangelized was part of the reason that God allowed his apostles to suffer illness (BASIL). It was not so much for the benefit of the apostles who were well aware of their humanity and outraged at this behavior (CHRYSOSTOM). Rather it was for those who did not know the creating and living God, who needs no sacrifice (LETTER TO DIOGNETUS) but who has in fact been the one who has redeemed us by entrusting himself into our hands first on the cross. Likewise he became for us the Bread of life, thus making it possible for our lives to be a return to him as self-sacrifices to him (ORIGEN). Paul begins to turn the Lycaonians from their idolatry by teaching them of God’s love as first apparent in his creation and especially in his forebearance of their ingratitude. The Lycaonians’ insistence on offering sacrifice attests, in an uninformed way, to the source of his message, while Paul’s actions after he is stoned are indeed imitations of the abundance of God’s goodness toward humanity, for the resurrection victory of Christ is one that demonstrates and brings forgiveness in action in response not just to ignorance but even to hatred and violence. This spirit of love and forgiveness lifts up Paul in his weakness in a way more marvelously than the healing of the lame man (CHRYSOSTOM).

14:8 | A Man Crippled from Birth

PREFIGURING THE GENTILES. BEDE: Just as that lame man whom Peter and John cured at the door of the temple prefigured the salvation of the Jews, so too this sick Lycaonian prefigured the people of the Gentiles, who were for a long time remote from the religion of the law and the temple. [The Lycaonians] who were brought in by the preaching of the apostle Paul, who said, “They [Peter, James and John] gave to Barnabas and me the right hand of fellowship, so that we might go to the Gentiles, but they to the circumcised.” The times [when the two cures occurred] are appropriate to the exposition, for the former [i.e., the lame man cured by Peter and John] was cured in the earliest days of the faith, when the word was not yet believed by Gentiles. The latter [i.e., the lame Lycaonian] was cured in the midst of the new joys of the converted Gentile world, when the Jews had been excluded for their lack of faith and sprinkled with the dust of damnation. COMMENTARY ON THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES 14.8.

14:9 | Faith to Be Made Well

HIS SOUL NEEDED NO HEALING. CHRYSOSTOM: Look, he paid attention, it says, to Paul’s words. Do you see the elevation of his mind? In no way did his lameness hinder his eagerness to listen. “Paul, looking intently at him and seeing,” it says, “that he had faith to be made well.” He was already predisposed in his purpose and resolution. And yet in the case of the others it was the opposite. Their bodies were healed before their souls. Not so with this man. It seems to me that Paul saw into his soul. HOMILIES ON THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES 30.

14:11 | The Apostles Considered Gods

DECEPTIVE APPEARANCES. BEDE: This was a stupid error on the part of Gentiles, who thought that everything which they saw above themselves was a god. COMMENTARY ON THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES 14.11.

14:12 | Barnabas Called Zeus

NO ONE HAS EVER SEEN GOD. AMMONIUS: In the writers of ancient stories you can find that Jove, even though he was a man, made himself a god and said that he was a god, just as many Roman and Macedonian kings styled themselves gods. There one ought to believe in what was said long ago about this, namely, that some were misled and called certain persons gods. Consequently these too were misled in regard to Barnabas and Paul. … Barnabas’s followers, in order to close their mouths and to instruct them gently, kept saying, “No one has ever seen God.” We are what we look like, not gods but human. In Jesus alone it happened that he was God and man at the same time for the principle of union. But in this case, these were only men who performed miracles through the Holy Spirit. CATENA ON THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES 14.12.

14:14 | Tearing Their Garments

THE APOSTLES FREE OF THE LUST OF GLORY. CHRYSOSTOM: Look! On all occasions they are free of the lust of glory, not only not coveting but even repudiating it when offered, as Peter too said, “Why do you gaze upon us, as though by our own power or holiness we had made him to walk?” These men say the same. And Joseph also said of his dreams, “Is not their interpretation of God?” And Daniel likewise, “And to me also, not through the wisdom that is in me was it revealed.” And Paul always says this, as when he says, “And for these things who is sufficient?” And again, “Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think [aught] as of ourselves, but our sufficiency is of God.” HOMILIES ON THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES 30.

THE DEVIL DID NOT PREVAIL. CHRYSOSTOM: Notice the vehemence with which all this is done by the apostles: “They tore their garments and rushed out among the multitude, crying.” All because their very beings were turning away in horror from what had happened. For truly it was grief, a grief inconsolable—they were about to be called gods and so introduce idolatry, the very thing they came to destroy! This was the devil’s contrivance, but they did not keep quiet. For what do they say? “We are men, of like nature with you.” Immediately, from the very outset, they overthrew the evil. They did not simply say “men” but “with you.” And then, so that they should not seem to honor the gods, “we bring you good news, that you should turn from these vain things to a living God who made the heaven and the earth and the sea and all that is in them.” Notice how they do not mention the prophets at all. … This is because they had learned that one should strive not so much to say something worthy concerning God as something that is of use to one’s listeners. HOMILIES ON THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES 31.

14:15 | Turn from Vain Things

CORRECTING A WONDER WORKER. BASIL THE GREAT: We find a reason for some illnesses in the saints, such as in the apostle, for, lest he appear to go beyond the bounds of nature and lest anyone consider him to possess, in his nature, something greater and more excellent than is fitting—which was the case among the Lycaonians, who offered him crowns and bulls—he was struck with illness in order to show his nature was human. THE LONG RULES 55.4.

THE USELESSNESS OF SACRIFICES. ANONYMOUS: Now he who made heaven and earth and all that is in them and gave to us all what we need would himself have no need of any of these things he offers to those who believe that he has given them. But as for those who believe that they offer to him sacrifices through blood and incense and holocausts and that they revere him with such honors, they seem to me to be no different from those who display the same lavish munificence to deaf idols that are incapable of receiving honor. To think that they offer anything to one in need of nothing! LETTER TO DIOGNETUS 3.4-5.

MY FLESH FOR THE LIFE OF THE WORLD. ORIGEN: To sacrifice son or daughter, beast or booty is something completely foreign to us; to offer one’s very self to God and to be pleasing not by another’s work but by one’s own is something more perfect and more illustrious than all vows. Whoever does the latter is an imitator of Christ, who gave to us the earth, the sea and all that is in them, and to serve our needs he gave the sky above and the ground below, the moon and the stars. The rains, the winds and all in the world he gave to us. But after all this, he gave his very self. “So much did God love the world that he gave his only begotten Son,” “for the life of the world.” What then shall a human do of any greatness when he sacrifices himself to God after God has already sacrificed himself to him? HOMILIES ON NUMBERS 24.2.6.

14:17 | Not Without Witness

THE FREELY OFFERED BENEFITS OF CREATION. CHRYSOSTOM: Notice that [Paul’s] wish was not to increase the accusation against them but rather that they themselves should refer everything to God. … Notice how covertly he phrases the accusation. And yet if he did this, he would not have allowed them [to walk in their own ways]. He would have had to punish them for having enjoyed so many goods without acknowledging him as their provider. But he does not say this clearly. “He gave you rain from heaven.” Thus also David, “From the fruit of their corn and wine and oil were they made to abound”; and in many places when he is speaking of creation, he brings forward these benefits. Jeremiah also mentions first the creation, then the providence that is shown by the rains. Taught by those Scriptures, the apostle says, they were satisfied “with food and gladness.” With liberality is the food given, not only for sufficiency or even according to need. “With these words they scarcely restrained the people from offering sacrifice to them.” Indeed, it was especially with this that they gained admiration. Do you see that their point was to put an end to that madness? HOMILIES ON THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES 31.

14:19 | They Stoned Paul

PAUL DID NOT HATE. CHRYSOSTOM: Believe me, it is possible to suffer things now worse than what Paul suffered. Those enemies pelted him with stones, but it is now possible to pelt with words that are worse than stone. What then must one do? The same that he did. He did not hate those who cast the stones. After they dragged him out, he entered their city again, to be a benefactor to those who had done him such wrongs. If you too had endured the one who harshly insulted you and done you wrongs, you too would have been stoned. For do not say “I have done him no wrong.” For what wrong had Paul done to be stoned? He was announcing a kingdom, he was leading them away from error and bringing them to God. Such things are worthy of crowns, worthy of proclamations by heralds, worthy of ten thousand good things, not worthy of stones. And yet having suffered the opposite, he did the opposite to what was expected. For this is the splendid victory. HOMILIES ON THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES 31.

14:20 | Paul Rose and Entered the City

STRENGTH MADE PERFECT IN WEAKNESS. CHRYSOSTOM: “But when the disciples gathered about him, he rose up and entered the city.” … Here the saying is fulfilled, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my strength is made perfect in weakness.” This is greater than the raising of the lame man! … “He entered the city.” Do you see his zeal? Do you see how fervent he is, how set on fire? He entered the city itself again, to show that if he should ever withdraw, it is because he had sown the word and did not wish to inflame their anger. HOMILIES ON THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES 31.