Acts Chapter 14 verse 12 Holy Bible
And they called Barnabas, Jupiter; and Paul, Mercury, because he was the chief speaker.
read chapter 14 in ASV
And they gave the name of Jupiter to Barnabas, and to Paul that of Mercury, because he was the chief talker.
read chapter 14 in BBE
And they called Barnabas Jupiter, and Paul Mercury, because he took the lead in speaking.
read chapter 14 in DARBY
And they called Barnabas, Jupiter; and Paul, Mercurius, because he was the chief speaker.
read chapter 14 in KJV
read chapter 14 in WBT
They called Barnabas "Jupiter," and Paul "Mercury," because he was the chief speaker.
read chapter 14 in WEB
they were calling also Barnabas Zeus, and Paul Hermes, since he was the leader in speaking.
read chapter 14 in YLT
Pulpit Commentary
Pulpit CommentaryVerse 12. - Mercury for Mercurius, A.V. For the Latin Jupiter and Mercury the Greek original has Zeus and Hermes. Jupiter is Jovis Pater, where Jovis or Diovis or Dies (in Diespiter) is the Latin form of Zeus, gen. Δίος. Mercury is Hermes in his special character as the god of markets and trade. But the Lycaonians here thought of him in his principal character of herald and messenger of the gods, and hence the god of eloquence and speech.
Ellicott's Commentary
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers(12) They called Barnabas, Jupiter; and Paul, Mercurius.--St. Luke gives, as was natural, the Greek forms--Zeus and Hermes. The main reason for the assignment of the two names was that the listeners recognised in St. Paul the gift of eloquence, which was the special attribute of Hermes. Possibly, also, unlike as were the weak bodily presence and the many infirmities of the Apostle to the sculptured grace with which we are familiar as belonging to the sandalled messenger of the gods--young, and beautiful, and agile--there may have been something in the taller stature and more stately presence of Barnabas which impressed them with the sense of a dignity like that of Jupiter. In any case, we must remember that the master-pieces of Greek art were not likely to have found their way to a Lycaonian village, and that the Hermes of Lystra may have borne the same relation to that of Athens and Corinth as the grotesque Madonna of some Italian wayside shrine does to the masterpieces of Raphael. Real idolatry cares little about the aesthetic beauty of the objects of its worship; and the Lycaonians were genuine idolaters.The chief speaker.--Literally, the ruler of speech--taking the chief part in it.
