THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES - Chapter 14 - Verse 11

Verse 11. They lifted up their voices. They spoke with astonishment, such as might be expected when it was supposed that the gods had come down.

In the speech of Lycaonia. What this language was has much puzzled commentators. It was probably a mixture of the Greek and Syriac. In that region generally the Greek was usually spoken with more or less purity; and from the fact that it was not far from the regions of Syria, it is probable that the Greek language was corrupted with this foreign admixture.

The gods, etc. All the region was idolatrous. The gods which were worshipped there were those which were worshipped throughout Greece.

Are come down. The miracle which Paul had wrought led them to suppose this. It was evidently beyond human ability, and they had no other way of accounting for it than by supposing that their gods had personally appeared.

In the likeness of men. Many of their gods were heroes, whom they worshipped after they were dead. It was common among them to suppose that the gods appeared to men in human form. The poems of Homer, of Virgil etc., are filled with accounts of such appearances; and the only way in which they supposed the gods to take knowledge of human affairs, and to aid men, was by their personally appearing in this form. See Homer's Odyssey, xvii. 485; Catullus, 64, 384; Ovid's Metamorphosis, i. 212. (Kuinoel) Thus Homer says:

For in similitude of strangers oft

The gods, who can with ease all shapes assume,

Repair to populous cities, where they mark

Th'outrageous and the righteous deeds of men.—COWPER

Among the Hindoos, the opinion has been prevalent that there have been many incarnations of their gods.

{+} "lifted up" "raised" {c} "gods" Ac 18:6