Steven Carr

What if Paul and Barnabas had not disabused the people in Lystra that they were not Zeus and Hermes?

Would I now be writing on a anti-Zeus board about the apologetics of people claiming that Zeus and Hermes appeared to a whole village, and responding to apologetic claims that whole villages could not have had a mass group hallucination?

Would I do so by pointing out that other sects of the period, such as the long forgotten Christians, also claimed that their god appeared to a whole group of people at once, only to be met by the response that that must have been a delusion?

Thomas II

Steven,

They would have gotten into trouble!
As you know, what happened was that they came into the area of Lystra, which is close to another town called Phrygia.
The people of Phrygia were part of a legend, preserved by Ovid in
"Metamorphoses",the Story of Bacius and Philemon".
In that legend a couple of gods, Jupiter and Mercury (counterparts of Zeus and Hermes), disguised as humans,visit the town but are not welcomed by the locals, except by a couple, Philemon and his wife Bacius,who kindly share all they have with the strangers.
The visiting gods decide to teach the town a lesson, so they destroy it all, except for Philemon and Bacius' place, which they turn into a temple to be kept by Philemon and Bacius until their death. The end.
So here come Paul and Barnabas,talking the talk and apparently healing a lame or two, and the people say to themselves "Whoa,Nelly! These could be the disguised Gods all over again! Better be good to them this time!"
So they kiss up to them big time.
If Paul and Barnabas would have followed along and then would have been found a fraud for any reason, the adoration of the town would have turned into ire, and they would have made shish kebab of Paul, Barnabas, and their donkeys.