070607_Paul_Barnabas_at_Lystra_Stalbemt_1862.txt

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Adriaen van Stalbemt 1580 – 1662

Paul and Barnabas at Lystra
oil on copper (33 × 45 cm) 
Städelsches Kunstinstitut, Frankfurt am Main

Adriaen van Stalbemt biography

This work is linked to Acts 14:11

On their missionary journey through Asia Minor (i.e. Turkey - a Greek colony in ancient times) the apostles Paul and Barnabas arrive in the city of Lystra, where a crippled man hears Paul preach. Paul looks the cripple in the eye, sees the seed of faith there and commands the man to stand up, which he does.

The witnesses to the miracle assume the strangers to be gods. Paul must be Hermes and Barnabas Zeus, or, following the King James Version, Mercury and Jupiter. 
At once the Greek prepare to bring offerings to their gods, but Paul and Barnabas explain that they are mere mortals and object to being treated as idols. They encourage the Lystrians to switch to their one god.