Acts 14:11

The speech of Lycaonia. Although Paul declares that he spoke with tongues (1 Cor. 14:18), yet quite apparently this gift did not include the ability to understand the speech of Lycaonia. The only consistent view to hold is that he and Barnabas did not know that the people of Lystra were about to worship them. It is an indictment of their character to suppose that they deliberately permitted the people to proceed with a plan to offer divine worship in order that they might produce a dramatic effect in rejecting such worship. The people of Lystra were undoubtedly bilingual and could understand what Paul and Barnabas said in Greek, but the missionaries could not understand what the people were saying when they laid their plans for the pagan sacrifice. Little is known of the nature of the Lycaonian language.

The gods. In NT times the belief that the gods would thus mingle among men was held, not only by the simple Lycaonians, but commonly among pagans, both in the cities and in the country. In Lycaonia there was an old legend that gave a foundation for what the people now attempted to do for Barnabas and Paul. According to this myth Zeus and Hermes (Jupiter and Mercury) had come in human guise and been received by the aged couple Philemon and Baucis, to whom they presented gifts (Ovid, Metamorphoses viii. 626-724). The legend indicates that the place where the gods were supposed to have dwelt later became a shrine for devout worshippers, who made pilgrimages to the spot and left offerings there.