What is the significance of Lystra in the Bible?

Answer

The city of Lystra is notable for being the likely home of Timothy, Paul’s young disciple. “Then he came to Derbe and Lystra: and, behold, a certain disciple was there, named Timotheus, the son of a certain woman, who was a Jewess, and believed; but his father was a Greek” (Acts 16:1). Lystra was situated in Asia Minor in the region now recognized as Turkey. It was approximately a day’s journey (20 miles) from Iconium, another city that Paul visited (Acts 14:1; 2 Timothy 3:11). Lystra served as a military outpost connecting Pisidian Antioch with Iconium and Derbe. Established as a Roman colony from 6 BC, Lystra had a diverse population comprising Roman soldiers, Greeks, Jews, and native Lycaonians (International Standard Bible Encyclopedia, “Lystra”).

Paul visited Lystra during his initial and possibly subsequent missionary expeditions. During that period, Lystra was a pagan city steeped in idolatry, venerating the Greek deities. A temple dedicated to Zeus stood just outside the city. Paul’s usual custom was to preach first in the local synagogue. “And it came to pass in Iconium, that they went both together into the synagogue of the Jews, and so spake, that a great multitude both of the Jews and also of the Greeks believed” (Acts 14:1). However, Lystra might have been the first city where the apostles preached directly to Gentiles without commencing in the synagogues.

When Paul healed a man with a disability in Lystra (Acts 14:8-13), the priest of Zeus brought bulls and wreaths to offer sacrifices to Paul, thinking he was an embodiment of the god Hermes. Paul and Barnabas implored the crowd not to engage in such actions.

Saying, “Friends, why are you doing this? We too are only human, like you. We are bringing you good news, telling you to turn from these worthless things to the living God, who made the heavens and the earth and the sea and everything in them” «and saying, Sirs, why do ye these things? We also are men of like passions with you, and preach unto you that ye should turn from these vanities unto the living God, which made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and all things that are therein: », (Acts 14:15). Using all the force they could muster, the missionaries barely prevented the Lycaonians from offering the sacrifice (verse 18).

Unbelieving Jewish religious leaders had followed Paul from Antioch and Iconium, and in Lystra they quickly turned the crowd against the apostles. The people who had lauded Paul as a god now stoned him and dragged him out of the city, believing he was dead. When his friends gathered around him, Paul miraculously stood up, brushed himself off, and went back into Lystra. Many scholars believe that this stoning episode in Lystra may be the occasion Paul refers to in 2 Corinthians 12:2–4 where he alludes to being in paradise.

Many scholars believe the church in Lystra, being in south Galatia, was one of the churches to whom the letter to the Galatians was addressed. If that’s the case, then the Christians in Lystra faced a theological crisis after Paul’s departure. The truth of justification by faith rather than by human works was being denied by the Judaizers, legalistic Jews who insisted that Christians must keep the Mosaic Law—convert to Judaism first, they said, and then you are eligible to become a Christian. When Paul learned that this heresy was being taught to the Lycaonian and other Galatian churches, he composed an epistle to emphasize our liberty in Christ and to counter the perversion of the gospel that the Judaizers promoted.

The location of Lystra is thought to be where Paul and Barnabas healed a lame man (Acts 14:8–18).

The city is thought to be located near a hill close to the contemporary village of Khatyn Serai. The location is supported by an inscription found in the remains in 1885, as per the International Standard Bible Encyclopedia.