Acts 14:11
◄  Acts 14:11  ►
New International Version (©2011)
When the crowd saw what Paul had done, they shouted in the Lycaonian language, "The gods have come down to us in human form!"

New Living Translation (©2007)
When the crowd saw what Paul had done, they shouted in their local dialect, "These men are gods in human form!"

English Standard Version (©2001)
And when the crowds saw what Paul had done, they lifted up their voices, saying in Lycaonian, “The gods have come down to us in the likeness of men!”

New American Standard Bible (©1995)
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."

King James Bible (Cambridge Ed.)
And when the people saw what Paul had done, they lifted up their voices, saying in the speech of Lycaonia, The gods are come down to us in the likeness of men.

Holman Christian Standard Bible (©2009)
When the crowds saw what Paul had done, they raised their voices, saying in the Lycaonian language, "The gods have come down to us in the form of men!"

International Standard Version (©2012)
When the crowds saw what Paul had done, they shouted in the Lycaonian language, "The gods have become like men and have come down to us!"

NET Bible (©2006)
So when the crowds saw what Paul had done, they shouted in the Lycaonian language, "The gods have come down to us in human form!"

Aramaic Bible in Plain English (©2010)
When the crowds of people had seen this thing that Paulus had done, they raised their voices in the language of the country, and they were saying, “The gods have become like men and have come down to us.”

GOD'S WORD® Translation (©1995)
The crowds who saw what Paul had done shouted in the Lycaonian language, "The gods have come to us, and they look human."

King James 2000 Bible (©2003)
And when the people saw what Paul had done, they lifted up their voices, saying in the speech of Lycaonia, The gods are come down to us in the likeness of men.

American King James Version
And when the people saw what Paul had done, they lifted up their voices, saying in the speech of Lycaonia, The gods are come down to us in the likeness of men.

American Standard Version
And when the multitude saw what Paul had done, they lifted up their voice, saying in the speech of Lycaonia, The gods are come down to us in the likeness of men.

Douay-Rheims Bible
And when the multitudes had seen what Paul had done, they lifted up their voice in the Lycaonian tongue, saying: The gods are come down to us in the likeness of men;

Darby Bible Translation
But the crowds, who saw what Paul had done, lifted up their voices in Lycaonian, saying, The gods, having made themselves like men, are come down to us.

English Revised Version
And when the multitudes saw what Paul had done, they lifted up their voice, saying in the speech of Lycaonia, The gods are come down to us in the likeness of men.

Webster's Bible Translation
And when the people saw what Paul had done, they lifted up their voices, saying in the speech of Lycaonia, The gods have come down to us in the likeness of men.

Weymouth New Testament
So he sprang up and began to walk about. Then the crowds, seeing what Paul had done, rent the air with their shouts in the Lycaonian language, saying, "The gods have assumed human form and have come down to us."

World English Bible
When the multitude saw what Paul had done, they lifted up their voice, saying in the language of Lycaonia, "The gods have come down to us in the likeness of men!"

Young's Literal Translation
and the multitudes having seen what Paul did, did lift up their voice, in the speech of Lycaonia, saying, 'The gods, having become like men, did come down unto us;'

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

14:8-18 All things are possible to those that believe. When we have faith, that most precious gift of God, we shall be delivered from the spiritual helplessness in which we were born, and from the dominion of sinful habits since formed; we shall be made able to stand upright and walk cheerfully in the ways of the Lord. When Christ, the Son of God, appeared in the likeness of men, and did many miracles, men were so far from doing sacrifice to him, that they made him a sacrifice to their pride and malice; but Paul and Barnabas, upon their working one miracle, were treated as gods. The same power of the god of this world, which closes the carnal mind against truth, makes errors and mistakes find easy admission. We do not learn that they rent their clothes when the people spake of stoning them; but when they spake of worshipping them; they could not bear it, being more concerned for God's honour than their own. God's truth needs not the services of man's falsehood. The servants of God might easily obtain undue honours if they would wink at men's errors and vices; but they must dread and detest such respect more than any reproach. When the apostles preached to the Jews, who hated idolatry, they had only to preach the grace of God in Christ; but when they had to do with the Gentiles, they must set right their mistakes in natural religion. Compare their conduct and declaration with the false opinions of those who think the worship of a God, under any name, or in any manner, is equally acceptable to the Lord Almighty. The most powerful arguments, the most earnest and affectionate addresses, even with miracles, are scarcely enough to keep men from absurdities and abominations; much less can they, without special grace, turn the hearts of sinners to God and to holiness.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 11. - Multitudes for people, A.V.; voice for voices, A.V. In the speech of Lycaonia. It is not known what the language of Lycaonia was, whether Cappadocian, or Celtic, or Lycian; but we learn incidentally from Stephanus Byzantinus, that there was a Lycaonian language, for he tells us that Delbia (as some write the name Derbe) was the Lycaonian for ἄρκευθος, a juniper tree or berry. No other Lycaonian word is known (see "Jablouskii Disquis. de Ling. Lycaon," in Stephan., 'Thesaur.'). The Lycaoniaus doubtless understood Greek as the language of intercommunication all over Roman Asia, but among themselves would speak their native dialect. The belief that the gods were come down in the likeness of men, and that these gods were Jupiter and Hermes, or Mercury, was most natural to Lycaonians, who were conversant with, and doubtless believed, the Phrygian legend of Philemon and Baucis, who entertained hospitably Jupiter and Hermes, when no one else would take them in, and whose cottage was by the gods turned into a temple (when all the neighborhood was drowned by a flood), of which they were made priest and priestess during life, and simultaneously metamorphosed into an oak and lime tree when their life ended (Ovid, 'Metamorph.,'8:611, etc.). Ovid places the scene of the legend at Tyana, the site of which has been ascertained by Hamilton to be near Erekli, in Cappadocia, close to the borders of Lycaonia. The moral drawn in the legend itself seems to have been that which influenced the people of Lycaonia in their conduct towards the two strangers: "Cura pii dis sunt, et qui coluere coluntur," which may be Englished, "Them that honor me I will honor" (1 Samuel 2:30).

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

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.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

11-13. in the speech of Lycaonia—whether a corruption of the Greek tongue, which was well enough understood in this region, or the remains of some older tongue, is not known.

The gods are come down to us in the likeness of men—the language of an unsophisticated people. But "that which was a superstition in Lycaonia, and for which the whole "creation" groaned, became a reality at Bethlehem" [Webster and Wilkinson].

Acts 14:11 Parallel Commentaries

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The Visit to Lystra and Derbe
…10Said with a loud voice, Stand upright on your feet. And he leaped and walked. 11And when the people saw what Paul had done, they lifted up their voices, saying in the speech of Lycaonia, The gods are come down to us in the likeness of men. 12And they called Barnabas, Jupiter; and Paul, Mercurius, because he was the chief speaker. …

Ezekiel 3:5 You are not being sent to a people of obscure speech and strange language, but to the people of Israel--
Acts 8:10 and all the people, both high and low, gave him their attention and exclaimed, "This man is rightly called the Great Power of God."
Acts 14:6 But they found out about it and fled to the Lycaonian cities of Lystra and Derbe and to the surrounding country,
Acts 14:12 Barnabas they called Zeus, and Paul they called Hermes because he was the chief speaker.
Acts 28:6 The people expected him to swell up or suddenly fall dead; but after waiting a long time and seeing nothing unusual happen to him, they changed their minds and said he was a god.