Acts 14:14

Acts 14:14. Which when the apostles, Barnabas and Paul, heard of. In this place, and also in Acts 14:4 of this chapter, Paul and Barnabas are styled apostles. These two distinguished and devoted men, after a long period of trial, were formally (Acts 13:2) set apart by the solemn act of the Church of Antioch, acting under the express direction of the Holy Ghost, to this high and singular position in the community of Christians. The special work for which these new apostleships were created, was the great mission to Gentile lands. St. Paul makes mention of the rank of St. Barnabas, Galatians 2:9, and even more definitely in 1 Corinthians 9:6.

(On the office of an apostle, see a short Excursus at the end of the chapter.)

They rent their clothes. This was the ordinary Jewish mode of expressing horror at hearing or seeing anything that was impious; the act consisted in tearing the garment from the neck in front down to the girdle. Preparations for this act of adoration must have been going on for some time. No doubt many of the awe-struck and amazed bystanders in the public place where the miracle of healing took place, exclaimed at once that the two strangers were the gods once more among them, and the word passed from mouth to mouth in Lystra: but the ‘speech of Lycaonia' suggested nothing to the Hebrew apostles, and the preparations were all complete, and the victims crowned with their garlands for the sacrifice, before the unsuspecting apostles were aware of the idolatrous homage which was intended for them.