'The gods are come down to us in the likeness of men.'--ACTS xiv. 11.
This was the spontaneous instinctive utterance of simple villagers when
they saw a deed of power and kindness. Many an English traveller and
settler among rude people has been similarly honoured. And in Lycaonia
the Apostles were close upon places that were celebrated in Greek
mythology as having witnessed the very two gods, here spoken of,
wandering among the shepherds and entertained with modest hospitality
in their huts.
The incident is a very striking and picturesque one. The shepherd
people standing round, the sudden flash of awe and yet of gladness
which ran through them, the tumultuous outcry, which, being in their
rude dialect, was unintelligible to the Apostles till it was
interpreted by the appearance of the priest of Jupiter with oxen and
garlands for offerings, the glimpse of the two Apostles--the older,
graver, venerable Barnabas, the younger, more active, ready-tongued
Paul, whom their imaginations converted into the Father of gods and
men, and the herald Mercury, who were already associated in local
legends; the priest, eager to gain credit for his temple 'before the
city,' the lowing oxen, and the vehement appeal of the Apostles, make a
picture which is more vividly presented in the simple narrative than
even in the cartoon of the great painter whom the narrative has
inspired.
But we have not to deal with the picturesque element alone. The
narratives of Scripture are representative because they are so
penetrating and true. They go to the very heart of the men and things
which they describe: and hence the words and acts which they record are
found to contain the essential characteristics of whole classes of men,
and the portrait of an individual becomes that of a class. This joyful
outburst of the people of Lycaonia gives utterance to one of the most
striking and universal convictions of heathenism, and stands in very
close and intimate relations with that greatest of all facts in the
history of the world, the Incarnation of the Eternal Word. That the
gods come down in the likeness of men is the dream of heathenism. 'The
Word was made flesh and dwelt among us,' is the sober, waking truth
which meets and vindicates and transcends that cry.