Acts 14:6, 21
Lystra (Gr. Lústra, “which vanishes”). City of Lycaonia, which formed a part of the Roman province of Galatia. It was founded c 6 BC, and was inhabited by Roman veterans. Its inhabitants were citizens of Rome. The discovery of a pedestal with a Latin inscription bearing the name Lustra identifies Lystra with a site called Zoldera (fig 323). This mound is about 1.6 km northwest of Kathyn Serai, which is about 37 km as the crow flies to the south-southwest of Iconium, modern Konya. Paul and Barnabas preached there on their 1st missionary journey, and founded a church. During their ministry there they healed a paralyzed man. As a result, the pagan inhabitants of Lystra regarded the apostles as gods and made preparations to offer sacrifices to them. When the apostles refused to accept divine honors, the people were offended. Furthermore, they were agitated by the Jews of Antioch and Iconium so that they became enemies of the apostles. Paul was stoned, but recovered from his wounds (Acts 14:6-21; 2 Tit 3:1). He revisited 720 Lystra on his 2nd missionary journey (Acts 16:1, 2), and possibly also on the 3rd (Acts 18:23). Timothy was probably born in Lystra (16:1-3). Map XX, B-5. 322. Pedestal dedicated to Augustus by the colony of Lystra. 323. Mount Lystra seen from the south Litera. Translation of the: 1. Heb. mittâh, perhaps a litter in which a person could be carried (Son 3:7; fig. 324). Solomon’s litter was protected by armed men (vs 7, 8). 2. Heb. tsâb, a chariot fixed with a roof (Isa 66:20). Scattered Jews are described as returning in such vehicles back to Jerusalem. See Chariot. 324. Carriage litter of queen Hetep-heres, mother of Khufu, the builder of the Great Pyramid.
Source: Evangelical Bible Dictionary
city in central Asia Minor in the region of Lycaonia.
Visited by Paul on his first two missionary journeys. When he healed a man lame from birth, the pagan inhabitants of it took him for the god Hermes and her companion Barnabas for Zeus, the king of the gods, Acts 14, 8-22. There were Greek and Jewish residents there, Acts 16, 1.
Digital Bible Dictionary, Grupo C Service & Design Ltda., Colombia, 2003
Source: Digital Bible Dictionary
A Roman colony founded by Augustus with an aristocratic core of voting citizens, a group that would likely honor Paul’s civil standing as a Roman citizen. Not far from Lystra, in Isauria, an inscription to ‘Zeus before the entrance’ has been found, so it was probably the location of the proposed ceremony mentioned in Act 14:13. Timothy was a native of Lystra (Acts 16:1).
Source: Hispanic World Bible Dictionary
Lystra is one of the cities in central and southern Asia Minor where Paul established a church on his first missionary journey. Luke describes Paul’s experiences at Lystra in Acts 14. Due to persecution in Iconium, Paul and Barnabas fled to Lystra. The healing of a lame man at Lystra caused people to confuse Paul and Barnabas with Mercury and Jupiter and to try to worship them accordingly. After preventing it with difficulty, Paul preached a sermon to them which is partially recorded in Acts 14:15-17. The Judaizers of Antioch and the Romans raised an uproar in which Paul was stoned. From Lystra the missionaries went to Derbe and on their return journey they visited Lystra again (Acts 14:21). Paul visited Lystra again on his second missionary journey, when Timothy, a native of Lystra, was circumcised and joined Paul. Paul vividly recalls his experiences at Lystra in 2 Timothy 3:11, written near the end of his life.
The location of ancient Lystra has been asserted based on an inscription found on a promontory near the modern village of Hatunsaray, approximately forty kilometers from Iconium. This inscription was discovered and published by JR Sitlington Sterret in 1885 (The Wolfe Expedition to Asia Minor, Amarell and Upham, Boston, 1888, p. 142). This Latin inscription contains the name LVSTRA, and is now in the new archaeological museum in Konya, Turkey. The text reads: †œDivum Aug (ustum) Col(onia) lu(ia) Felix Gemina Lustra consecravit. D(ecreto) D(ecuriorum).† Numerous other inscriptions can be found in and near the modern village of Hatunsaray.
The Lystra promontory has not been excavated. It is a typical promontory of a medium-sized city. Surface explorations have indicated extensive occupation during the Hellenistic and Roman periods. During the Roman period, Lystra also minted its own coins. Lystra was also represented in the major councils of the early church: AD 325, 381, 451, 530, 692, 787, 879. of JC This would indicate that a church flourished in this place during several centuries. Future excavations on the promontory will undoubtedly shed more light on the history of Lystra.
Source: Archaeological Biblical Dictionary
City where Paul healed a lame man from birth and was therefore stoned until he was left for dead, Acts 14, 16:1, 24:7,22.
Christian Bible Dictionary
Dr. J. Dominguez
http://bible.com/dictionary/
Source: Christian Bible Dictionary
City of †¢Licaonia, in modern Turkey, about 90 km northwest of Derbe. This is where Paul and Barnabas fled when they were threatened by “the Jews and the Gentiles” in Iconium. After healing a lame man from birth in L., the people thought they were the gods †¢Jupiter (Barnabas) and †¢Mercury (Paul) (Acts 14:6-14) and tried to make sacrifices to them. There was a legend that these gods had visited that region together in ancient times. Paul was stoned and left for dead in L., but “the next day he set out with Barnabas for Derbe” (Acts 14:19-20), returning afterwards to L. On his second missionary journey Paul returned to L. and there he took “a certain disciple named Timothy” to accompany him (Acts 16:1-3). It is possible that he passed by there on his third journey, when he was † œgoing through the region of Galatia and Phrygia in order, confirming all the disciples † (Acts 18:23).
Source: Christian Bible Dictionary
type, CITY
sit, a9, 459, 202
vet, City of Lycaonia, Roman colony. Paul healed a paralytic at Lystra; the inhabitants of this city wanted to offer the apostle homage as if he were a god, and later, when he refused, they stoned him, leaving him for dead (Acts 14: 6, 21; 2 Tim. 3:11). It is at Lystra, or at Derbe, that Paul met Timothy again (Acts 16:1, 2). Identification: On a hill about 2 km northwest of Kathyn Serai, about 29 km south-southwest of Iconium (Konia).
Source: New Illustrated Bible Dictionary
Lystra was a well-located city in Lycaonia about 15 or 20 miles from Iconium. Its importance was due to the fact that Augustus had made it a Roman colony, and for this reason it became a center of education and enlightenment. Not much is known about her and nothing completely of her earliest history. Its population consisted of Lycaonians, Greeks, Jews, and the local group of Roman soldiers who formed the colony’s garrison. They worshiped many gods and were especially worshipers of nature. This fact affected all the terminology that Paul used when he spoke to them.
This place was visited by Paul three times (Acts 14:6, 21; 16:1), and probably a fourth time (Acts 18:23).
Here was the home of Timothy, who was circumcised and traveled with Paul, Acts
16:1-3.
Paul healed a lame man. The people sought to worship them (Paul and Barnabas) and then kill them, Acts 14:8-20.
Paul mentioned his sufferings had there, 2 Timothy 3:10, 11.
Source: Geographic Dictionary of the Bible
City of Lycaonia, region located to the S. of the central part of Asia Minor. It has been identified with a mound to the N. of Hatunsaray, in a fertile and well-watered area 32 km SSW. from Konya (Iconium).
The apostle Paul and Barnabas went to Lystra, in the Roman province of Galatia, when they were forced to leave Iconium because they tried to stone them. The city was a Roman colony from the time of Augustus. The natives, however, continued to speak the Lycaonic language. When Paul healed a man lame from birth, the crowd concluded that he and Barnabas were the gods Hermes and Zeus incarnate. They were barely able to prevent sacrifices from being made to them. Later, however, some Jews from Iconium and Antioch in Pisidia so agitated the inhabitants of Lystra against Paul that they stoned him and dragged him out of the city believing him to be dead. Later, when his fellow Christians surrounded him, Paul got up and went into Lystra; the next day he left for Derbe accompanied by Bernabé. (Ac 14:1, 5-20.)
After their activity in Derbe, Paul and Barnabas returned to Lystra, Iconium, and Antioch. They strengthened and encouraged the disciples of the newly founded Christian congregations in those cities and appointed them as elders. (Ac 14:21-23.)
Later, after the apostles and elders of the Jerusalem congregation had settled the issue of circumcision (c. 49 CE), Paul again visited Derbe and Lystra. The reference in Acts 16:1 to this journey seems to indicate that the young Timothy resided either in Lystra or in nearby Derbe, although it is more likely that he lived in Lystra, since Derbe is not mentioned again in relation to Timothy. , and Acts 16:2 specifically says that “the brothers from Lystra and from Iconium gave good reports about him.” (See also 2Ti 3:10, 11.) Timothy had made so much progress that Paul chose him as a traveling companion. (Ac 16:3.)
On the third missionary tour of the apostle Paul, when he visited various places in the “country of Galatia,” he may also have stopped at Lystra. (Ac 18:23.)
Source: Dictionary of the Bible
Dark city in the high plains of Lycaonia (near modern Hatunsaray), chosen by Augustus as the site of one of the numerous Roman colonies with which he tried to consolidate the new province of Galatia. The advantages offered by the place are ignored. Its remote location, and proximity to hitherto unsettled southern mountains, suggest defensive motives, as does the sizeable Latin-speaking colony implied by extant inscriptions. If it was the security of such a place that lured Paul and Barnabas in their hasty retreat from Iconium (Acts 14:6), their disappointment was great. The superstitious veneration, which the apostles themselves combated, was turned by the agitators into drastic hostility, which apparently secured official support for the stoning of Paul (v. 19). There is no suggestion of Roman order or justice. Nor does the NT speak of it being a colony. It evidently had a sizeable non-Hellenic population (v. 11), in addition to the usual Jews…