Acts 14:11

11 And [when] the crowds saw what Paul had done, they raised their voices in the Lycaonian language, saying, "The gods have become like men [and] have come down to us!"

Acts 14:11 Meaning and Commentary

Acts 14:11

And when the people saw what Paul had done
In curing the lame man in so marvellous a manner, and concluding it to be a divine work, and what a mere creature could never perform:

they lift up their voices;
not in indignation and wrath, but as persons astonished:

saying in the speech of Lycaonia;
by which it should seem that Lystra was a city of Lycaonia, since the Lycaonian language was spoken in it; the Arabic version reads, "in their own tongue"; and the Syriac version, "in the dialect of the country"; very likely a dialect of the Greek tongue;

the gods are come down to us in the likeness of men;
they had a notion of deity, though a very wrong one; they thought there were more gods than one, and they imagined heaven to be the habitation of the gods; and that they sometimes descended on earth in human shape, as they supposed they now did.

Acts 14:11 In-Context

9 This man listened [while] Paul was speaking. {Paul}, looking intently at him and seeing that he had faith to be healed,

10 said with a loud voice, "Stand upright on your feet!" And he leaped up and began walking.

11 And [when] the crowds saw what Paul had done, they raised their voices in the Lycaonian language, saying, "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 {principal speaker}.

13 And the priest of the [temple] of Zeus that was just outside the city brought bulls and garlands to the gates [and] was wanting to offer sacrifice, along with the crowds.

Footnotes

• [a] *Here "[when]" is supplied as a component of the participle ("saw") which is understood as temporal
• [b] *Here "[and]" is supplied because the previous participle ("have become like") has been translated as a finite verb