Lystra is identified by some with the village of Gi-listra lying about 35 kilometers southwest of Konya and slightly north of Hatunsaray. Another possibility is the village of llistra just west of Karaman. It was in the southerly area of Roman Galatia called Lycaonia. Although Lystra had little commercial or strategic importance, Caesar Augustus located some veteran Roman soldiers in the city about 6 B.C. for protection against the tribes from the Taurus Mountains to the south. This action may shed light on Paul’s comment that he had been beset with danger from robbers: soldiers were necessary there because the roads between the sea coast and central Anatolia were favorite haunts of bandits up until recent times.
A complicated incident is reported in Acts concerning the visit of Paul and Barnabas to Lystra. Paul noticed in the group gathered to listen to him a lame man whose bearing impressed him. Some extraordinary strength passed from Paul to the man who thereupon was cured. The miracle caused a commotion in the crowd, and people began shouting in their native language, Lycaonian, that the strangers had supernatural powers, that they were gods. The account here suggests that Paul understood and spoke that language in addition to Greek and Hebrew.
There was a temple to Zeus just outside the town; the priest was informed of the miracle and the people’s interpretation of it, and so he at once prepared a welcome suitable for gods descended to earth. Barnabas was called Jupiter (was he the taller of the two?), Paul Mercury because he was the spokesman. The idea of being worshipped was of course blasphemy to Paul and Barnabas who acted promptly by denying the identification, stating their Christian beliefs, and tearing their clothes to avert any evil that might come of the presumption. But the crowd was excited and some of the Jews from Antioch and Iconium who had been waiting to do violence to Paul and Barnabas took this chance to turn the love to hatred. The crowd became a mob, stoning Paul who was saved only by his friends forming a circle around him (Acts 14:8-20).
It is worth noting that Paul was never a coward. When he had a difference of opinion he held to his position although it meant that he and Barnabas parted company. Although he had been almost killed in Iconium and Lystra he returned to those places shortly afterwards.
When Paul was in Lystra on his second missionary journey (Acts 16:1-3) he met a young disciple named Timothy. Timothy’s mother was Eunice, a Christian Jew, and his father was a Gentile. Timothy may have been part of the circle that protected Paul when he was stoned there earlier, but that cannot be proven. Timothy was well regarded by the church in Lystra and became a close friend of Paul and, upon circumcision, his companion through most of that journey. He was also at Ephesus with Paul on his third journey, with him at Corinth (Acts 18:5), and a companion of his in prison, probably in Rome (Hebrews 13:23).
The history of Lystra, outside its mention in the New Testament, appears to be undistinguished. There is a Hittite inscription about a King Larbanas that mentions a place called Lusna which may be Lystra, but that has not been established. What ruins there are at both Gilistra and Ilistra now have not been studied so almost nothing is known other than that the city was a Roman colony and that it conformed to the general history of the area.
The Sacrifice at Lystra by Raphael, 1515.
Ancient Lystra was a city of Lycaonia. Its modern name is Klistra and it is located in Turkey. Lystra is mentioned in the Bible in Acts 14:6-21; It was the home of Timothy.
The nature of the place is best illustrated by Luke’s account of the visit to Lystra that Paul and Barnabas made in the A.D. 40s. Affter Paul healed the cripple, according to the account in Acts (14:8-18), they were greeted by the local inhabitants who called out to them in Lycaonian. These people identified them as the local gods who, through a form of local syncretisim, were identified with the Greek gods Zeus and Hermes. This is of some interest because the local Zeus, Zeus Ampelites, was portrayed on reliefs as an elderly bearded figure, and because he is sometimes depicted with a young male assistant.
The identification by the people of Lystra of Barnabas as Zeus and Paul as Hermes “as he was the bringer of the word” suggests that they thought that the two men were functioning in the way that they envisaged their own gods as acting: the bearded Zeus was the initiator of the action and Hermes was his agent in carrying out the action. This further suggests that the people may have thought that Barnabas resembled their Zeus, while Paul resembled his helper.
This passage is therefore of considerable importance as evidence for the physical appearance of Paul at this stage in his career as well as for the nature of life at Lystra in this period (Anchor Bible Dictionary, IV: 427).