Acts 14:5

Acts 14:5. And when there was an assault made. The Greek word hardly signifies an ‘assault,' rather a ‘sudden movement,' a ‘ hostile movement' or ‘impulse' on the part of the Jews and Gentiles; it could not have been an open attack, as the apostles avoided violence and stoning by a timely flight. In his Second Epistle to the Corinthian Church (chap. Acts 11:25), Paul writes: ‘Once was I stoned.' Paley observes here: ‘Had this meditated assault at Iconium been completed, had the history related that a stone was thrown, as it relates that preparations were made both by Jews and Gentiles to stone Paul and his companions, or even had the account of this transaction stopped without going on to inform us that “Paul and his companions were aware of the danger and fled,” a contradiction between the history and epistle would have ensued. Truth is necessarily consistent, but it is scarcely possible that independent accounts not having truth to guide them should thus advance to the very brink of contradiction without falling into it.'