Acts 14:11

11 When the crowds saw what Paul had done, they started shouting in their own Lycaonian language, "The gods have become like men and have come down to us!"

Acts 14:11 Meaning and Commentary

Acts 14:11

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.

Acts 14:11 In-Context

9 He sat there and listened to Paul's words. Paul saw that he believed and could be healed, so he looked straight at him

10 and said in a loud voice, "Stand up straight on your feet!" The man jumped up and started walking around.

11 When the crowds saw what Paul had done, they started shouting in their own Lycaonian language, "The gods have become like men and have come down to us!"

12 They gave Barnabas the name Zeus, and Paul the name Hermes, because he was the chief speaker.

13 The priest of the god Zeus, whose temple stood just outside the town, brought bulls and flowers to the gate, for he and the crowds wanted to offer sacrifice to the apostles.