Acts 14:11-20

Living Bible

¹¹ When the listening crowd saw what Paul had done, they shouted (in their local dialect, of course), “These men are gods in human bodies!” ¹² They decided that Barnabas was the Greek god Jupiter, and that Paul, because he was the chief speaker, was Mercury! ¹³ The local priest of the Temple of Jupiter, located on the outskirts of the city, brought them cartloads of flowers and prepared to sacrifice oxen to them at the city gates before the crowds.

¹⁴ But when Barnabas and Paul saw what was happening, they ripped at their clothing in dismay and ran out among the people, shouting, ¹⁵ “Men! What are you doing? We are merely human beings like yourselves! We have come to bring you the Good News that you are invited to turn from the worship of these foolish things and to pray instead to the living God, who made heaven and earth and sea and everything in them. ¹⁶ In bygone days he permitted the nations to go their own ways, ¹⁷ but he never left himself without a witness; there were always his reminders—the kind things he did such as sending you rain and good crops and giving you food and gladness.”

¹⁸ But even so, Paul and Barnabas could scarcely restrain the people from sacrificing to them!

¹⁹ Yet only a few days later, some Jews arrived from Antioch and Iconium and turned the crowds into a murderous mob that stoned Paul and dragged him out of the city, apparently dead. ²⁰ But as the believers stood around him, he got up and went back into the city!

The next day he left with Barnabas for Derbe.