Mercurius

How Nave’s arranged it

• (A pagan god; Mercury (to the Romans); Hermes (to the Greeks))
• Paul taken for, in LycaoniaActs 14:11Acts 14:12

The passages, in Bible order (2)

The same references, sorted Genesis to Revelation. The first 2 are quoted in full; the rest are one click beneath them, book by book.

1. Acts 14:11

   When the crowds saw what Paul had done, they lifted up their voices in the Lycaonian language: “The gods have come down to us in human form!”

   ›Commentary on Acts 14:111 voice

   “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 perplexed 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 ... - All the region was idolatrous.

   Everything gathered on Acts 14:11→

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2. Acts 14:12

   Barnabas they called Zeus, and Paul they called Hermes, because he was the chief speaker.

   ›Commentary on Acts 14:121 voice

   “They called Barnabas, Jupiter; and Paul, Mercurius - The heathens supposed that Jupiter and Mercury were the gods who most frequently assumed the human form; and Jupiter was accustomed to take Mercury with him on such expeditions. Jupiter was the supreme god of the heathens; and Mercury was by them considered the god of eloquence. And the ancient fable, from which I have quoted so largely above, represents Jupiter and Mercury coming to this very region, where they were entertained by Lycaon, from whom the Lycaonians derived their name. See the whole fable in the first book of Ovid’s Metamorphoses.

   Everything gathered on Acts 14:12→

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