Acts 14:6Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

Again, as though deliberately wishing to spread the preaching, they drive the apostles out precisely when it has had success. See: everywhere persecutions produce great benefits. The persecutors remain defeated, while the persecuted appear glorious. Then, when the apostles saw the attack, they did not delay. "They withdrew to the Lycaonian cities, Lystra and Derbe, and to the surrounding region," where the fury of the Jews could no longer act. They went not only through the cities, but also through the neighboring regions.

There is nothing strange in the saints fleeing from people who intend to lay snares for them. They considered it better to withdraw from a conflict which, according to the testimony cited, they regarded as unlawful for them.

It is not strange if the saints flee from those who are preparing to plot against them. Therefore they do not seem to be evading the testing battle of martyrdom (cf. Mt 10:23).

The apostles went to another city of the same province and at first labored for quite a long time in Lystra. Here, as is evident, there was no synagogue, and Jews did not live there in general. Therefore no better place remained for preaching the Gospel than the public assemblies in the squares and outside the city. While Paul and Barnabas were carrying on their work in this way near the city, a man lame from birth, perhaps a beggar, listened to their preaching. Paul's words made such a strong impression on him that he waited with hope not only for spiritual restoration, but also for bodily healing. Paul noticed this and, to strengthen his hope in Christ, and through him the hope of others, said to him, "Stand on your feet and walk upright." The lame man was healed.

After leaving Antioch, Paul and Barnabas came to Iconium. There the word of the apostles, confirmed by signs and wonders, converted a great multitude of Jews and Greeks to Christ. Yet the unbelieving Jews began to act so strongly against the preachers of the Gospel and the newly converted Christians that the whole city was divided. Some were on the side of the Jews, and others on the side of the apostles. At last the disturbance reached such a point that the party opposed to the apostles wanted to stone them. When the apostles learned of this, they had to flee to the Lycaonian cities of Lystra and Derbe.

At last matters reached the point where the leaders of the hostile party, both Jews and Gentiles, formed a plot to kill the apostles. They were informed of this in advance, and once more had to save themselves by flight. Leaving the tetrarchy of Iconium, they still continued along the great road. After going sixty versts, they reached the district of Antiochus IV, king of Commagene, and entered the small city of Lycaonian Lystra.

"Having learned of this": they learned in advance, before the agreed open assault against them had taken place, though probably shortly before it. This seems to be indicated by the word "fled," meaning that they departed hastily. Probably one of the Christians informed them of the danger threatening them. The apostles withdrew into Lycaonia, which was regarded as a distinct region of Asia Minor ethnographically rather than politically. They went specifically to the cities of Lystra, southeast of Iconium, and Derbe, southeast of Lystra.

The apostles' flight from Iconium shows that, after remaining there for a considerable time, they delayed their departure too long. They were already close to being killed, and by a shameful death, since stoning was regarded as such. At the same time, this also reveals how violently the Jews stirred up the people against the apostles, who were guilty of nothing. Evidently accusations were brought against them that demanded their death, and that quickly and cruelly. Before the Jews they were probably accused, like Jesus Christ Himself and the protomartyr Stephen, of blasphemy. Before the Greeks they were accused of overthrowing religion and stirring up public disorder.