When the crowd saw what Paul
had done, they shouted in the Lycaonian language, “The gods have come down to
us in human form!” Barnabas they called Zeus,
and Paul they called Hermes because he was the chief speaker. The priest
of Zeus, whose temple was just outside the city, brought bulls and wreaths to
the city gates because he and the crowd wanted to offer sacrifices to them. Acts 14:11-13
They
did. Zeus was a Greek God. The Romans had a similar counterpart known as
Jupiter. When Paul and Barnabas were in
Lystra, which would be Turkey today, a crowd thought that Zeus (the main Greek
god) and Hermes (the messenger god known as Mercury to the Romans) had come
down to do miracles. They worshipped
Paul and Barnabas for healing a man who couldn’t walk. There was obviously a worship system in place
for these gods since a priest lived in the town. It doesn’t appear the Greek and Roman god
system was much competition for Christianity, but it was around.