The two chapters of the book of Acts (chapters 13–14) recount Paul’s first missionary outreach. The efforts of spreading the Gospel of the Kingdom of God to the Gentiles did not occur without conflict and suffering, as can be seen from the narrative flow of the material. According to Spencer (1997:131), each of the above two chapters (Ac 13–14) is divided into three units. The opening and closing scenes record Paul’s commission in and return to the city of Antioch. In between, each scene is marked by conflict and, in some cases, violence. Paul’s ministry begins with a contest with the Jewish sorcerer, Elymas, in Cyprus. His preaching in the city of Pisidia results in his expulsion from the region (Allen 2006:62). Nearly stoned in Iconium, he is stoned and left for dead in the city of Lystra. At Paul’s conversion, God says that Paul is going to be his instrument of carrying the Gospel to the Gentiles and he would suffer for Jesus’ name (Ac 9:15–16), and this preliminary campaign is the narrative fulfilment of that prophecy (Parsons 2008:181).

The book of Acts chapter 13 begins with the commissioning of Paul and Barnabas by the church at Syrian Antioch under the influence of the Holy Spirit (13:1–3) (Krodel 1981:47; cf Goheen 2000:183). The importance of the Christian community at Antioch has already been noted at Acts 11:19 which says:

For Parsons, ‘the leadership of this congregation consists of teacher-prophets, who give Spirit-inspired exhortation and instruction’ (Parsons 2008:184). Parsons (2008:184) further indicates that the prophets from Antioch had already been mentioned at Acts 11:27, and through this is the first mention in Acts of ‘teachers’, the verb ‘teach’ occurs frequently in the book of Acts (for instance: 1:1; 4:2, 18; 5:21, 25, 28, 42; 15:1, 35; 18:11, 25; 20:20; 21:21, 28; 28:31), most notably at Acts 11:26, in which Barnabas and Paul are depicted as teaching the congregation residing in the city of Antioch.

There are two things which are noteworthy about the list of five prophet-teachers given in Acts 13:2–3 (Schnabel 2008:74). The diversity of the church in the city of Antioch is evidenced by this short list. Barnabas is already familiar to the audience as a Levite and native of Cyprus (Ac 4:36). Like Joseph, Barsabbas was called Justus (Ac 1:23), and John called Marcus (Ac 12:12), Simeon is another Jewish Christian with a Latin surname, Niger (Johnson 1992:220). ‘Niger’ is the Latin name for ‘black’, and it is possible this Simeon was from the North Africa (Barrett 1994:603). Lucius is originally from Cyrene and perhaps among those broad-minded enough to evangelize among the Gentiles (Ac 11:20). Manaen was of aristocratic Jewish stock, having been brought up in the court of Herod Antipas (Lk 3:1; Ac 4:27 and comments on Ac 11:27–30). Members of this group of prophet-teachers, rounded out by Saul of Tarsus, are no less diverse in their social and economic backgrounds than were the Twelve disciples whom Jesus originally called.

According to Fitzmyer (1992:41), the second important feature is the role of the Holy Spirit in the commissioning of Paul and Barnabas. ^‘While they were worshipping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, “Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them”’ (Ac 13:2) (Schnabel 2008:74). Those who were worshiping the Lord and fasting could refer either to the aforementioned leaders (Barrett 1994:604), but more probably refers to the larger Antioch congregation (Polhill 1992:290), since in other situation the entire community ratifies decisions (Ac 1:15; 6:2, 5; 14:27; 15:22) (Krodel 1981:228).

Luke wants to make it clear that just as the Holy Spirit was involved at the beginning of the public ministry of both Jesus (Lk 3) and the apostles (Ac 1), the church in Antioch sets Saul and Barnabas apart under the direction of the Holy Spirit (Ac 13:2) (Bavinck 1960:280; Johnson 1987:53; Schnabel 2008:74). For only the third time in the book of Acts (8:29; 10:19), the Holy Spirit is depicted as speaking in direct discourse as a character in the narrative (Skreslet 2006:50), as opposed to other characters reporting what the Holy Spirit said (Ac 11:12; 21:11) or the narrator reporting that the Holy Spirit spoke through someone else (Ac 21:4) (Krodel 1981:68):

The work for which Paul and Barnabas are to be set apart recurs at the end of the missionary journey when they return to Antioch to be commended for the work that they had completed. ‘From Attalia they sailed back to Antioch, where they had been committed to the grace of God for the work they had now completed’ (Ac 14:26). References to ‘work’ then forms an inclusion to this unit (Polhill 1992:290) and events recorded in between in two chapters (13–14) of the book of Acts clarifying that this work is related to the opening of ‘a door of faith for the Gentiles’ (Ac 14:27) (Schnabel 2008:89). That Paul and his company have been divinely called to perform this ‘work’ of the Gentile mission will later be reinforced by the reference in Acts 16:10 that Paul and his companions sought to cross over to Macedonia, convinced that God had called them to proclaim the Good News to the residents of Macedonian Philippi and Thessalonica.

The Antioch believers respond with three actions before sending Paul and Barnabas to fulfil their work: they fasted, prayed and laid their hands on them (Ac 13:3a). Prayers and fasting are common expressions of Jewish (Neh 1:4; Jr 14:12; Mt 6:5, 16) and Christian piety (Johnson 1992:221). While corporate prayer is quite common in Acts (1:24; 6:6; 8:15; 12:12; 14:23; 21:5), there are only three references to fasting, two in Acts 13:2–3 and one in Acts 14:23 (Krodel 1981:54). All three refer to the church at Antioch fasting in connection with the appointment of church leaders. The church that selflessly gave to relieve fasting imposed by famine (Ac 11:27–30) now engages in fasting for religious purposes. Finally, the church in Antioch laid their hands on Paul and Barnabas, a gesture of transmitting authority (Ac 6:6; 8:17–19; 9:17) (Fitzmyer 1989:14). This laying on of hands reminds one of God’s instructions to Moses for the laying on of hands for the Levite priests in Numbers 8. In the case of Acts 13, it is the authority of Holy Spirit who sent Paul and Barnabas to undertake the work associated with the Gentile mission (Mutavhatsindi 2008:25). Though other Gentiles like the Ethiopian¹ eunuch and the household of Cornelius² had converted already to Christianity, and while Paul and Barnabas would regularly proclaim the Christian message in Jewish synagogues, here in Acts 13:1–3 they are commissioned to the full-time and intentional pursuit of the Gentile mission (Schnabel 2008:74; cf. Horrell 2004:34). For Tannehill, the commissioning of Paul and Barnabas echoes the beginning of the missions of both Jesus and the apostles (Paul & Barnabas 1990:161). Like the mission of Jesus and the apostles, the mission of Paul and Barnabas is preceded by prayer (Ac 13:2a; cf. Lk 3:21; Ac 1:14) and directed by the Holy Spirit (Ac 13:2b; cf. Lk 3:22; Ac 2:1–4). ‘Fasting is also an important element in the preparation for Jesus’ mission (Lk 4:1–2; cf. Ac 13:1, 3), though it is missing from the apostles’ mission’ (Parsons 2008:186).

As his strategy, Paul concentrated on the district or provincial capitals, each of which stands for a whole region (Bosch 1991:130). For David Bosch, these ‘metropolises’ are the main centres as far as communication, culture, commerce, politics and religion are concerned (1991:130). Paul frequently speaks of his mission as being directed towards various countries and geographical regions (Gal 1:17, 21; Rom 15:19, 23, 26, 28; 2 Cor 10:16) (Bosch 1991:130; cf. Hultgren 1985:133). The two apostles Paul and Barnabas were faithfully dedicated to the work assigned to them by the Holy Spirit, and they propagated the Word of God in many cities like Cyprus, Pisidia, Iconium and so on. ‘The cities were where power was. They were also the places where changes could occur’ (Meeks 1983:15). The cities which figured prominently in Paul’s ministry were centres of administration, centres of Greek culture, even centres of Jewish influence and centres of commerce and trade (Dubose 1978:46).

The two apostles Paul and Barnabas are sent out by the Holy Spirit after their commissioning, and they went down to Seleucia and from there sailed to Cyprus (Fitzmyer 1992:41). It is conceivable that Paul and Barnabas had planned the new missionary initiative with the goal of reaching Cyprus for some time (Schnabel 2008:75). The passage begins with the emphatic use of the personal pronoun ‘they’ drawing attention to the identity of Barnabas and Paul without naming them. The area of Cyprus is not new to Barnabas, it is familiar ground for him, who was a native of that island (Ac 4:36), as well as for the audience who knew that Christian missionaries had already been there (Ac 11:19). Fitzmyer further indicates that the apostles visited the established churches in Salamis and they proclaimed the message of God in the Jewish synagogues (Ac 13:5a) (Fitzmyer 1992:38). Salamis was a port city on the eastern coast of Cyprus, and here the two engage in a practice that would characterise the rest of Paul’s missionary career; they preached the Word of God in the synagogues of the Jews (see Ac 13:14; 14:1; 17:1, 10, 17; 18:4, 19; 19:8) (Parsons 2008:186). The extensive time Paul spent with the Jews is to show that because the Jews reject the Gospel, then Paul is forced to take it to the Gentiles. During that time, they had John Mark as their assistant when they preached to the Jews in Salamis (Black 1998:243; cf. Fitzmyer 1989:14; Schnabel 2008:74). When Christians do mission work, sometimes they encounter strong opposition and rejection of the Gospel and they have to be bold and defend the Gospel. For instance, when Paul and Barnabas together with John Mark traversed the length of the island to Paphos on the other coast, they found a magician and Jewish false prophet, by the name of Bar-Jesus (Ac 13:6) (Fitzmyer 1989:14). This man Bar-Jesus was in the service of a leading Roman official Sergius Paulus, described here as a proconsul (Schnabel 2008:43). The proconsul was an intelligent man and summoned Paul and Barnabas because he wanted to hear the Word of God, but Elymas the sorcerer opposed them and tried to turn the proconsul from the faith. Paul who was totally disturbed by the bad behaviour of Elymas was filled with the Holy Spirit, looked straight at him and says:

Paul’s invective leads to his curse of blindness on Elymas: ‘Now the hand of the Lord is against you. You are going to be blind for a time, not even able to see the light of the sun’ (Ac 13:11) (Krodel 1981:47). This was an especially fitting curse: as an idolater who serves as an agent of Satan, Elymas is cursed to the darkness from which he has come. For Garrett (1989:82–83), the curse echoes Deuteronomy 28:28–29, in which Moses gives a list of punishments that await the Israelites who forsake Yahweh for idolatrous allegiance to other gods:

What happened to Elymas? ‘Immediately mist and darkness came over him, and he groped about, seeking someone to lead him by the hand’ (Ac 13:11). The point of this scene for the ministry of Paul is crucial: like Jesus, Paul has demonstrated his authority over the forces of Satan and thus has proven himself worthy of the mission set before him. The scene concludes with the purpose of leading Elymas who was strongly opposed to the Word of God to blindness: ‘When the proconsul saw what had happened, he believed, for he was amazed at the teaching about the Lord’ (Ac 13:12) (Fitzmyer 1989:14). From the above scenario, we learn two things: it is clear that God punishes people who become stabling block to the conversion of others and, lastly, God sometimes uses his punishment to those who oppose his Word to bring others to repentance.

The section dealing with the preaching of the apostles and also their expulsion from the city of Pisidia is well illustrated in Acts 13:13–52. This scene has three parts which are as follows: the setting (13:13–15), the speech (13:16–41) and the aftermath (13:42–52). Here, I will elucidate each of these three parts.

When I read Acts 14:1–7, I find that it is a tightly woven summary narrative, organised also in two parallel patterns. These parallel patterns are also confirmed by Nelson (1982:60) and Talbert (2005:123). Here, I will show how these two parallel patterns of scenes in Acts 14:1–7 are structured. In Figure 2, ABCD pattern will refer to the first parallel scene and C1B1A1 pattern refers to the second parallel scene.

Paul and his circle arrive at Iconium (Kee 1997:170–171). Immediately they entered the synagogue of the Jews as usual (14:1a) (Barrett 1994:667; Culy & Parsons 2003:271). This verse invites comparison with other scenes in which Paul and company enter the synagogues of other cities. In those instances, Paul is opposed by Jews in the synagogue. The description of the scene in Iconium, however, prevents the audience from reducing Paul’s ministry to the simple formula of rejection by the Jews and success among the Gentiles (Tannehill 1990:176). Rather, Luke reports that a large number of both Jews and Gentiles believed (Ac 14:1b) (Dubose 1978:53). Furthermore, the Jews who opposed Paul turned the hearts of the Gentiles against the believers (Ac 14:2) (Schnabel 2008:85). In the midst of this strife, the apostles nonetheless stayed for a considerable amount of time and spoke boldly about the Lord who confirmed the message about his grace by causing signs and wonders to be performed through them (Ac 14:3) (Parsons 2008:197). The apostles speaking ‘boldly’ is another reference to what the rhetoricians call ‘frankness of speech’, in which:

Those involved in the Gentile mission perform signs and wonders, a phrase that links their mission to that of the seven (Ac 6:8; 8:6), the apostles (Ac 4:30; 5:12) and Jesus (Ac 2:22), underscoring Luke’s point that the Christian movement consists of the true ‘heirs’ of Moses, who also performed signs and wonders (Ac 7:36).

For Parsons (2008:198), the city is split, not along ethnic lines between Jews and Gentiles but between those who hear the Word of God and accept it and those who reject the message and persecute the messenger:

Thus, Paul’s words in Acts 13:46–47 are not to be understood in any rigid sense; division is not always along ethnic lines, certainly not in Iconium. According to Schnabel (2008:85), when the apostles learned about their plans, ‘they ran away to Lystra and Derbe, cities in Lycaonia, and to the areas around those cities. They announced the Good News there, too’ (Ac 14:6–7).

The scene in Lystra city (Ac 14:8–20) begins with Paul healing a man lame from birth (Ac 14:8–10), recalling the scene in Acts 3:1–10 in which Peter heals a lame man (cf. Lk 5:18–16). As such, it follows the typical form of a healing story: statement of the ailment (Ac 14:8) (Krodel 1981:54), the cure (14:9–10) and the reaction(s) (14:11–20). The description of the ailment (14:8) serves to highlight the miraculous nature of the healing. A man who could not use his feet, who had been lame since birth (A14:8) listened to Paul’s preaching (Krodel 1981:54). Two elements in the description of the cure prepare the audience for the Lycaonians’ identification of Paul and Barnabas as god (Strelan 2000). Firstly, Luke notes that Paul looked directly at him (Ac 14:9). That Paul’s stare has, for Luke, some elements of ‘paranormal vision’ is demonstrated by the fact that Paul is able to ‘see’ that the lame man had faith to be healed (Ac 14:9). Secondly, Paul speaks in a loud voice (Ac 14:10), echoing the view in antiquity that God spoke with frightfully loud voices (a view found also in Jewish literature; Ex 19:19; 1 Sm 7:10; Ps 18:7–15; 29:3–5; 46:6; Ezk 9:1) (Strelan 2000:495–496). Given these clues, the Lycaonians’ identification of Paul and Barnabas as gods would have been quite understandable to the authorial audience. That this identification is a misunderstanding, however, is clarified as the narrative unfolds.

According to Parsons (2008:199), reactions to the healing of the lame man vary from the Lycaonians to Paul and Barnabas to the Jews from Antioch and Iconium. As noted, when the crowd saw what Paul had done, they shouted in the Lycaonian language, ‘The gods have come down to us in human form!’ (Ac 14:11). Krodel (1981:55) is of the opinion that, in addition to (mis)apprehending the ‘clues’ of Paul’s ‘divine’ stare and ‘loud voice’, the Lycaonians were especially prone to mistake Paul and Barnabas as gods because of the widely attested and well-known story that Zeus and Hermes visited this region incognito and, after being rejected by many residents of the region, were finally given hospitality by the elderly couple, Philemon and Baucis. Parsons (2008:199) argues that, ‘Perhaps the hasty conclusion reached here by Lycaonians was an attempt to avoid making the same mistake twice’. That Luke’s audience would have recognised this intertextual echo is seen in verse 12, in which the Lycaonians specifically identified Barnabas and Paul as Zeus and Hermes, ‘Barnabas they called Zeus, and Paul they called Hermes because he was the chief speaker’ (Ac 14:12) (Schnabel 2008:87). But more seems to be going on with this story (Béchard 2000, 2001). Paul is the chosen instrument to carry Christ’s name to the Gentiles (Ac 9:15). Yet, only twice in Acts is Paul’s missionary preaching aimed at an exclusively non-Jewish audience: here in Acts 14:15–17 (Schnabel 2008:87) and later in the Areopagus speech in Athens (Ac 17:16–34).

The contrast between these two ‘Gentile’ settings, however, could not be more drastic. In Athens, Paul faces a sophisticated and sceptical audience in what was still recognised as the cultural centre of the ancient world. Lycaonia, on the other hand, was regularly reckoned as one of those rural regions whose inhabitants typified the ‘superstitions and uncivilised’ behaviour of rustic mountain dwellers. Beyond locating the setting of this healing in a recognisably ‘rustic’ context, Luke provides several other hints of the remote nature of the region. He notes that the crowd speaks in the Lycaonian dialect (Ac 14:11); this is the only time that Luke refers to a local dialect. Luke also refers to a single priest of Zeus joining in the praise (Ac 14:13). The word for the ‘gates’ of the temple is used by Luke elsewhere in relation to a domestic structure (Lk 16:20; Ac 10:17; 12:13). This description suggests that the temple of Zeus in Lystra was hardly an imposing structure served by a ‘college of priests’ but was rather a rural temple-shine, which was ‘an unassuming building just slightly larger than a private dwelling’ served by a single priest (Béchard 2001:92).

The unbridled and uncritical reaction of the crowds in declaring Paul and Barnabas ‘gods’ is confirmed by the priest who is all too willing to transfer to Paul and Barnabas the accoutrements of what was evidently some festival in progress. ‘The priest of Zeus, whose temple was just outside the city, brought bulls and wreaths to the temple gates because he and the crowd wanted to offer sacrifices to them’ (Ac 14:13) (Krodel 1981:55). Later, their gullibility resurfaces when Jews from Antioch and Iconium convince them to join in the stoning of one whom they had only recently mistaken for a god (Ac 14:19) (Krodel 1981:55). Certainly, the unreflective response by these remote and rural mountain dwellers stands in sharp contrast to Luke’s description of the agora in urban Athens, populated by sceptical representatives of the philosophical schools of the Epicureans and Stoics. One might ask the following question, ‘But why present the story this way?’ According to Parsons (2008:200), many critics of Christianity in the second century accused the movement of being populated by credulous and uneducated ‘rustics’. Lucian, for example, charged, ‘If any charlatan or trickster, able to profit by occasions, comes among them, he quickly acquires sudden wealth by imposing upon such simple folk’. Parsons further indicated that such characterisation of Christianity as a movement drawing primarily on the hoi polloi extends back even into the first century (1 Cor 1:26–31) (2008:201). In this scene, Luke defends Paul (and other Christian missionaries) ‘against the charge of manipulating the uncritical naiveté of rural folk’ (Béchard 2001:86). In order to do so, he employs (with variation) the literary topos of the self-disclosing sage whose commitment to wisdom and truth compels him to full disclosure in order to guard against misimpressions regarding his powers, especially among a particularly susceptible ‘rustic’ audience.

Béchard is of the opinion that the response of Paul and Barnabas to the Lycaonians’ adulations is threefold (2001:96–97): (1) they tore their clothes, (2) and rushed out to the crowd and (3) shouted:

These actions correspond closely to the literary topos of what the sage should do who finds himself the object of a crowd’s excessive admiration (Béchard 2001:97). The tearing of the garments and rushing out is obviously a symbolic gesture of ‘strong disapproval’ of what they were doing to the apostles. But Paul’s speech makes clear that more is at stake here than Paul and Barnabas’s strong disapproval of the Lycaonians’ reactions as messengers ‘telling you to turn from these worthless things to the living God’ (Ac 14:15). Rather, Paul organises his speech along the lines of God’s own self-disclosure as the ‘living God, who made the heavens and the earth and the sea and everything in them’ (Ac 14:15b). The emphasis on natural theology here anticipates a major theme developed in the Areopagus address (Ac 17:24–26). But, several other points seem relevant for this particular Gentile audience. Although God had allowed all the nations to go their own way (Ac 14:16; cf. Rm 1:28–31), nonetheless, he did not leave himself without a witness (Ac 14:17a). Rather, God did good things for them (Ac 14:17b); specifically he gave them rain from heaven and fruitful seasons (Ac 14:17c). There is epigraphic and iconographic evidence that older Hittite fertility gods of weather and vegetation were worshipped in local Zeus cults in Asia Minor, including Lycaonia, during the Roman imperial period (Breytenbach 1993:396–413, 1996:69–73). The effect of this part of the speech, then, is to declare to the Lycaonians that the ‘living God’, whom Paul and Barnabas serve, is the true ‘weather’ God, and not Zeus, for whom they have mistaken Barnabas. Paul and Barnabas declared that this God, not Zeus (nor Paul and Barnabas), ‘has shown kindness by giving you rain from heaven and crops in their seasons; he provides you with plenty of food and fills your hearts with joy’ (Ac 14:17d). So enthusiastic is the crowd, however, that even by saying these things, they barely prevented the crowd from sacrificing to them (Ac 14:18).

The story ends with one last twist on the topos of the self-disclosing sage (Parsons 2008:202). At Lystra, Paul and Barnabas do not take up stones in order to deflect excessive admiration; rather, Jews came from Antioch and Iconium, and after winning over the crowd and stoning Paul, they dragged him outside the city because they thought he was dead (Ac 14:19) (Krodel 1981:55). This inversion of the stoning motif highlights the theme of Paul’s suffering for Christ’s name as indicated in God’s conversation with Ananias. God sent Ananias to go to the house of Judas on Straight Street to place his hands on Paul in order to restore his vision (Ac 9:11). God further said to Ananias who was afraid to go to Paul:

What God said of Paul now becomes a painful reality and is a note struck repeatedly in this chapter (Ac 14:22) (Krodel 1981:54). The vital question is, ‘Is Paul ritually (and actually) stoned to death as suggested by Strelan (2004:243–253)?’ The main fact is whether dead or only left for dead, efforts to destroy Paul are in vain: ‘But after the disciples had gathered around him, he got up and went back into the city. The next day he and Barnabas left for Derbe’ (Ac 14:20) (Schnabel 2008:88).

This last unit (Ac 14:21–28) begins with a reference to Paul and Barnabas preaching the Good News in the city of Derbe (Ac 14:21a) (Schnabel 2008:85), thus connecting to the previous story, which ends with Paul and Barnabas in Derbe (Ac 14:20). Not only do Paul and Barnabas preach the Gospel in Derbe, they are also involved in making a substantial number of disciples (Ac 14:21b) (Schnabel 2008:85). According to Parsons (2008:203), the word translated ‘making … disciples’ occurs elsewhere in the New Testament only in Matthew, most notably Matthew 28:19 (see also Mt 13:52; 27:57). The authorial audience, familiar with Matthew, would hear echoes of the Great Commission, in which Jesus instructs his followers to ‘make disciples of all the nations’.

After winning a large number of disciples in Derbe, the apostles then revisited Lystra, Iconium and Antioch cities with the aim of strengthening the disciples (Parsons 2008:202). Making disciples for Luke as well as Matthew involved more than evangelism and baptism (Detwiler 1995:33–41). Parsons (2008:202) argues that, ‘For the Matthean Jesus, “discipling” involved “teaching them whatsoever I have commanded you”; for the Lukan Paul, it involved “strengthening the souls of the disciples”’ (Ac 14:22a). To strengthen the Christians in Lystra, Iconium and Antioch, the apostles did two things, which have been discussed in the following sections.

It was clear in this article that Paul together with his company (Barnabas) positively accepted the vital work assigned to them by the church in Syrian Antioch of doing mission work to the Gentiles. The Holy Spirit who influenced the church to appoint Paul and Barnabas empowered them and gave them courage, and through the power of the Holy Spirit they stood for their faith even in times of difficulties. The Good News to the church in Syrian Antioch was the conversion of the Gentiles to be Christians. According to Rolland Allen (2006:10), ‘In Acts 14:26 we are told that the apostles returned to Antioch “from whence they had been committed to the grace of God for the work which they had fulfilled”’ Paul together with his companion were the instruments utilised by the Holy Spirit to reach the Gentiles with the Gospel. In conclusion, I do agree with the words of Meeks (1983:9) who says, ‘Paul was a city person. The city breathes through his language’.