Acts 14:21Plain English VersionPaul and Barnabas told the people there the good news about Jesus, and a lot of people believed in him. After that, Paul and Barnabas went back to Listra, and Iconium, and Antioch in Pisidia country. See the chapter |
The same thing happened in the town called Iconium. Paul and Barnabas went to the Jewish meeting house, and they talked strongly about Jesus to the people there. They told them that God is very good to people. And a big mob of people believed in Jesus. Some of them were Jews, and some of them were not Jews. But there were other Jewish people that didn’t believe in Jesus, and they talked to the other people that were not Jews, and they got them to hate the Christians. So the people of Iconium split up into 2 mobs. One mob reckoned that Paul and Barnabas were right, but the other mob reckoned those Jewish people were right. Paul and Barnabas stayed in Iconium a long time, and they kept on telling people about Jesus, and they were not frightened of anyone. And God helped Paul and Barnabas do powerful things, to show that they were telling the true story about Jesus.
“What are you doing? Why are you doing this? Don’t do it. We are just men, like you. We are telling you good news, and we are saying that you have to stop showing respect to things that are not the true God. You have to turn around and follow the God that is alive. He made the sky, and the earth, and the sea, and everything in them.
After that, some Jewish people came to that place from the towns called Antioch and Iconium, and they talked to the Listra people, and they made them get angry with Paul. Then those Jewish people threw big stones at Paul. They hit him with those stones until they thought he was dead. Then they dragged him outside the town and left him there.
Paul and Barnabas got on a ship at Attalia, and they went back to Antioch, in Syria country. Antioch was the city where they started from, some time before. It was those Antioch Christians that asked God to look after Paul and Barnabas and be good to them, and then they sent them out to tell people about Jesus. That is the reason why Paul and Barnabas went back to Antioch after they finished that work.