The book of Acts should play a key role in the development of our theology because it demonstrates what the early Church believed and taught.  In other words, the book of Acts offers a firsthand look at how the disciples implemented Jesus’ mandate to go into all the world “teaching them all that I have commanded you.”[1]  If the doctrine of the Trinity and Jesus’ incarnation are foundational teachings, as modern orthodoxy claims, we should find them in abundance in the book that records the birth and development of the early Church.

In this post, we’ll examine Paul and Barnabas’ first visit to Lystra to discover whether or not the deity of Christ, his theorized incarnation, in particular, was a part of the message the apostles shared in this city in modern-day Turkey.

In Acts chapter 14, Paul and Barnabas have just fled the city of Iconium because people there tried to stone them for converting Jews and Greeks to the faith.  When they arrived in Lystra, some eighteen miles away, Scripture says that they continued to preach the gospel.[2]  What was the message they preached?  Did it include a belief in a triune God or the deity of Christ?  No, it did not.  When we review chapter 13 to see the content of their gospel message, we find that they preached Jesus as the fulfillment of God’s promise to raise up a savior from David’s descendants, but that the people and rulers, not recognizing him as the Messiah, put him to death.  Nevertheless, God raised Jesus from the dead and granted that forgiveness of sins would come through him:

Acts 13:38-39 (ESV)  Let it be known to you therefore, brothers, that through this man forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you, ³⁹ and by him everyone who believes is freed from everything from which you could not be freed by the law of Moses. (emphasis added)

Once the apostles arrived in Lystra, this was the message they continued to preach.  And when Paul saw that a man who was lame from his mother’s womb had the faith to be made well, he commanded a miracle:

Acts 14:8-10 At Lystra a man was sitting who had no strength in his feet, lame from his mother’s womb, who had never walked. ⁹ This man was listening to Paul as he spoke, who, when he had fixed his gaze on him and had seen that he had faith to be made well, ¹⁰ said with a loud voice, “Stand upright on your feet.” And he leaped up and began to walk.

This event is reminiscent of Peter and John’s encounter with a lame man at the Beautiful Gate in Jerusalem.[3]  The main difference being the religion, culture, and traditions of the people who witnessed the miracles.  In Jerusalem, the people were primarily Jews who served the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.  In Lystra, however, the people were Lycaonians (a district in Asia Minor), who had a Hellenized worldview, and who worshiped the pantheon of Greek gods.  It is through this Hellenized religious worldview that the people of Lystra interpreted Paul’s message and miracle:

Acts 14:11-13 (NASB) When the crowds saw what Paul had done, they raised their voice, saying in the Lycaonian language, “The gods have become like men and have come down to us.” ¹² And they began calling Barnabas, Zeus, and Paul, Hermes, because he was the chief speaker. ¹³ The priest of Zeus, whose temple was just outside the city, brought oxen and garlands to the gates, and wanted to offer sacrifice with the crowds. (emphasis added)

Zeus was the chief god among the pantheon, and thus the father of both gods and men.[4]  Hermes was the son of Zeus, who, among other things, was the messenger of the gods.[5]  When Paul and Barnabas miraculously healed the lame man, the people saw it as proof that the apostles were gods who had come down like men.[6]  They were so sure of this revelation that the priest who served at the temple of Zeus located just outside the city, brought oxen and garlands, as was their custom, to offer as a sacrifice to these god-men.

The Gods Have Become Like Men

How would Paul and Barnabas handle this turn of events?  Would they use the crowd’s false assumption as a segue to say that, while they were not god-men, there was a God named Jesus who came down from heaven as a man and whose death made animal sacrifices no longer necessary? Surely, this would be seen as a wide-open door to tell the people about Jesus’ incarnation!  So how did Barnabas and Paul respond?

Acts 14:14-18 (NASB) But when the apostles Barnabas and Paul heard of it, they tore their robes and rushed out into the crowd, crying out ¹⁵ and saying, “Men, why are you doing these things? We are also men of the same nature as you, and preach the gospel to you 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. (emphasis added)

The apostles immediately denied being god-men.  But instead of telling the people that Jesus is a God who became a man, they tore their robes, an expression of profound grief and dismay.[7]  Not only did they fail to declare Jesus as the God-Man, but they also cried out loudly[8] that such a belief was a vain thing.  The word vain is mataios in Greek, and it means futile, useless, vain, worthless.  Let that sink in a moment.  The apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ declared the incarnation of deity to be a vain and worthless thing.  What’s more, in verse 15, they said that the admonition to turn from the worship of God-men was part of the gospel message. 

Next, the apostles redirected the people’s worship, not to Jesus, but to the God of Creation:

Acts 14:15-17 (NASB) and saying, “Men, why are you doing these things? We are also men of the same nature as you, and preach the gospel to you 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. ¹⁶  “In the generations gone by He permitted all the nations to go their own ways; ¹⁷  and yet He did not leave Himself without witness, in that He did good and gave you rains from heaven and fruitful seasons, satisfying your hearts with food and gladness.” (emphasis added)

Paul and Barnabas, as Scripture-believing Jews, understood the Creator to be the God of their fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. They had no concept whatsoever that the Messiah was the Creator of the universe, something fourth century Christians would later come to believe.  That Paul believed God the Creator to be someone separate from Jesus is evidenced by the sermon he preached to a crowd gathered at the Areopagus in Athens just a few chapters later:[9]   

Acts 17:24-25 and 30-31 (NASB) “The God who made the world and all things in it, since He is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands; ²⁵  nor is He served by human hands, as though He needed anything, since He Himself gives to all people life and breath and all things…³⁰  “Therefore having overlooked the times of ignorance, God is now declaring to men that all people everywhere should repent, ³¹  because He has fixed a day in which He will judge the world in righteousness through a Man whom He has appointed, having furnished proof to all men by raising Him from the dead.” (emphasis added)

God is the Creator, while Jesus is the man whom God raised from the dead and appointed as judge and mediator. 

The idea that Jesus pre-existed in heaven before coming to earth as a man developed over time as the Church Fathers interpreted Scripture through their Hellenized worldview, just as the people of Lystra had done.  Unfortunately, the error committed by those at Lystra continues today as Christians interpret Scripture through their post-Biblical traditions to mean that Jesus is the God who came into the world as a man. 

If the notion that God became a man grieved Paul and Barnabas, it should grieve us as well, and motivate us to continue to share the true gospel of the man from Nazareth who was exalted to God’s right hand for doing the Father’s will.  

[1] Matthew 28:20.

[2] Acts 14:1-7, verse 7 in particular.

[3] Acts 3:1-10.

[4] Zeus, The Encyclopedia Britannica, accessed 10-22-20, https://www.britannica.com/topic/Zeus

[5] Hermes, The Encyclopedia Britannica, accessed 10-22-20, https://www.britannica.com/topic/Hermes-Greek-mythology

[6] Zeus, The Encyclopedia Britannica, accessed 10-22-20, https://www.britannica.com/topic/Zeus

[7] Sarah Oladokun, Why Did People in the Old Testament Tear Their Robes? 6-8-17, accessed 10-23-20, https://www.christiantoday.com/article/why-did-people-in-the-old-testament-tear-their-robes/109889.htm

[8] Acts 14:14, the phrase “crying out” is krazontes in the Greek, and it means, “to cry out loudly, with an urgent shriek.”

[9] The apostle Peter preached a similar message in Acts 4:23-24, 27-28.  God is the Creator, while Jesus is the servant of this God.