1But know this: that in the last days, grievous times will come. 2For men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, 3without natural affection, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, fierce, not lovers of good, 4traitors, headstrong, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, 5holding a form of godliness but having denied its power. Turn away from these, also. 6For some of these are people who creep into houses and take captive gullible women loaded down with sins, led away by various lusts, 7always learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth. 8Even as Jannes and Jambres opposed Moses, so these also oppose the truth, men corrupted in mind, who concerning the faith are rejected. 9But they will proceed no further. For their folly will be evident to all men, as theirs also came to be.
10But you followed my teaching, conduct, purpose, faith, patience, love, steadfastness, 11persecutions, and sufferings—those things that happened to me at Antioch, Iconium, and Lystra. I endured those persecutions. The Lord delivered me out of them all. 12Yes, and all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution. 13But evil men and impostors will grow worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived. 14But you remain in the things which you have learned and have been assured of, knowing from whom you have learned them. 15From infancy, you have known the holy Scriptures which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. 16Every Scripture is God-breathed and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for instruction in righteousness, 17that each person who belongs to God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.
Iconium (modern Konya in Turkey) is located on a high plateau in south-central Turkey. The city was considered to be in Phrygia, according to the Spartan general and historian Xenophon (c. 428–354 B.C.; Anabasis 1.2.13-14, 19). An ideal climate made the city an agricultural center of wheat, apricots, and plums. It also had a choice location. Five roads emanated from Iconium, connecting the city to Ephesus and Antioch and other cities in Asia Minor, establishing the city as a crossroads for trade in the region.
The origin of the city is not precisely known, except that the name Iconium is originally Phrygian, who derived from the people group originally called Bryges from Thrace, who emigrated to central-western Asia Minor. According to Herodotus, this people group migrated from Thrace through the Hellespont, as allies of Troy, into an opaquely-defined zone in central-western Asia Minor, where they came to be called Phrygians. The exact era of the original migration is not known, but is before the 12th century B.C. The language of the Phrygians is similar to Greek, as Plato noted similarity of Greek and Phrygian words in his Cratylus (401a); neo-Phrygian definitely utilizes the Greek script.
After the city was Hellenized upon the conquest by Alexander in 334 B.C., a legend emerged that the city began after a universal flood, where afterward Zeus and Athena took plots of mud, and breathed into them the breath of life, making them the "icons" (Greek eikon) of the gods, hence the name "Icon-ium." Passing on to the Seleucid hegemony from 312 B.C. until the Roman period in 65 B.C., the city was briefly renamed Claudiconium, after the Roman Emperor Claudius in A. D. 41, evidencing the strong Roman political orientation.
During the first missionary journey (Acts 13:1-14:21), Paul having first preached in Antioch Pisidia, was forced to depart from there, shaking the dust off his feet (Acts 13:51) because of their stark rejection of the Gospel. Proceeding to Iconium, Paul, as his modus operandi (Acts 13:15), entered the synagogue, and during the time of exhortation open to the floor, preached Christ, with the result that both Jews and Gentiles believed (Acts 14:1). Some believed in Iconium, but unbelieving Jews stirred up the Gentiles, dividing the city. When threatened with stoning by the unbelieving elements, which included rulers, Paul and Barnabas fled to cities of Lycaonia, Lystra and Derbe (Acts 14:2-6). Iconium-based unbelieving Jews followed Paul to Lystra, stoned him, dragged him out of the city, and left him for dead (Acts 14:19). After ministering in Lystra and Derbe, Paul and Barnabas came back the way they came, confirming the believers and appointing elders in Iconium (Acts 14:21b-23).
Paul recounts in 2 Timothy 3.11 his "persecutions and sufferings," but affirms resolutely that the Lord delivered him "out of them all."
Interestingly in the post-Apostolic period, the 2nd-century apocryphal Acts of Paul claims fanciful, legendary reports about Paul and a virgin, Thecla, in Iconium. The apocryphal work is a religious romance, where Thecla, becomes a disciple of Paul, endures miraculous deliverances from both martyr's flames and wild animals, and follows Paul, who is mis-portrayed as an ascetic. The work is comically self-contradictory as Thecla, though a devoted disciple of Paul, must baptize herself, rather than be baptized by Paul who converted her.