Charles Ellicott Commentary Acts 14:12

"And they called Barnabas, Jupiter; and Paul, Mercury, because he was the chief speaker." — Acts 14:12 (ASV)

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 recognized in St. Paul the gift of eloquence, which was the special attribute of Hermes. Possibly, also, although the Apostle's weak bodily presence and many infirmities were unlike the sculptured grace that we associate with the sandaled messenger of the gods—young, beautiful, and agile—there may have been something in the taller stature and more stately presence of Barnabas that impressed them with a sense of dignity like that of Jupiter.

In any case, we must remember that the masterpieces 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.