Acts 14:12

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

BSB

Parallel translations

4 additional translations

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KJV

And they called Barnabas, Jupiter; and Paul, Mercurius, because he was the chief speaker.

ASV

And they called Barnabas, Jupiter; and Paul, Mercury, because he was the chief speaker.

YLT

they were calling also Barnabas Zeus, and Paul Hermes, since he was the leader in speaking.

DBT

And they called Barnabas Jupiter, and Paul Mercury, because he took the lead in speaking.

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Commentary voices

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Voices4

On this verse

After he had spoken with me he rose up from the couch, and taking the Shepherd and the virgins, he departed. But he said to me that he would send back the Shepherd and the virgins to my dwelling. Amen.

Shepherd of Hermas· Shepherd of Hermas, Similitude 10, 160patristic

Related commentary

And they called Barnabas Jupiter,....

John Gill· Exposition of the New Testament (1746-1748)reformed

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 Ovids Metamorphoses.

Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible, 1832evangelical

The outrage of the people against Paul, at the instigation of the Jews, the effect of which was that they stoned him, as they thought, to death; but he was wonderfully restored to life,

Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible, 1710puritan

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Cross-references

4 linked verses

The verses this one reaches4

Acts 19:35
Finally the city clerk quieted the crowd and declared, “Men of Ephesus, doesn’t everyone know that the city of Ephesus is guardian of the temple of the great Artemis and of her image, which fell from heaven?
1 Corinthians 9:6
Or are Barnabas and I the only apostles who must work for a living?
Galatians 4:8
Formerly, when you did not know God, you were slaves to those who by nature are not gods.
Galatians 2:1
Fourteen years later I went up again to Jerusalem, accompanied by Barnabas. I took Titus along also.

Cross-references

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The quotation web

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Original language

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Around this verse

Word doors

Rare words are the text's own signal of a deliberate thread — the fewer the occurrences, the more the places it appears belong together.

Who & where

PersonNew TestamentBarnabasThe Levite from Cyprus whom the apostles nicknamed son of encouragement; he vouched for Saul when nobody in Jerusalem would go nea…

About this book

The Ascension — Gustave Doré (engraving, public domain)

Acts — The Gospel's sequel. Jerusalem → Judea and Samaria → the ends of the earth. Three missionary journeys and the voyage to Rome.

Canon: New Testament
Author: Luke, companion of Paul — the 'we' passages begin in 16:10
Date: c. AD 62

Where the connections lead

Follow this verse’s cross-references two steps out. Each card is a verse this one points to, and beneath it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several different paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first — the text keeps returning to it. Every stop shows its own words, and every stop is a page.

Through
Acts 19:35
Finally the city clerk quieted the crowd and declared, “Men of Ephesus, doesn’t everyone know that the city of Ephesus is guardian of the temple of the great Artemis and of her image, which…
leads to
- 2 Thessalonians 2:10–11
  and with every wicked deception directed against those who are perishing, because they refused the love of the truth that would have saved them.
- Acts 14:12–13
  Barnabas they called Zeus, and Paul they called Hermes, because he was the chief speaker.
- 1 Timothy 4:2
  influenced by the hypocrisy of liars, whose consciences are seared with a hot iron.
- Ephesians 2:12
  remember that at that time you were separate from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of the promise, without hope and without God in the world.
- Acts 19:26
  And you can see and hear that not only in Ephesus, but in nearly the whole province of Asia, Paul has persuaded a great number of people to turn away. He says that man-made…

The whole web at once: see the Arc.

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Continue: Acts 14 →