1In Iconium, they entered together into the synagogue of the Jews, and so spoke that a great multitude both of Jews and of Greeks believed. 2But the disbelieving Jews stirred up and embittered the souls of the Gentiles against the brothers. 3Therefore they stayed there a long time, speaking boldly in the Lord, who testified to the word of his grace, granting signs and wonders to be done by their hands. 4But the multitude of the city was divided. Part sided with the Jews and part with the apostles. 5When some of both the Gentiles and the Jews, with their rulers, made a violent attempt to mistreat and stone them, 6they became aware of it and fled to the cities of Lycaonia, Lystra, Derbe, and the surrounding region. 7There they preached the Good News.
8At Lystra a certain man sat, impotent in his feet, a cripple from his mother’s womb, who never had walked. 9He was listening to Paul speaking, who, fastening eyes on him and seeing that he had faith to be made whole, 10said with a loud voice, “Stand upright on your feet!” He leaped up and walked. 11When the multitude saw what Paul had done, they lifted up their voice, saying in the language of Lycaonia, “The gods have come down to us in the likeness of men!” 12They called Barnabas “Jupiter”, and Paul “Mercury”, because he was the chief speaker. 13The priest of Jupiter, whose temple was in front of their city, brought oxen and garlands to the gates, and would have made a sacrifice along with the multitudes.
14But when the apostles, Barnabas and Paul, heard of it, they tore their clothes and sprang into the multitude, crying out, 15“Men, why are you doing these things? We also are men of the same nature as you, and bring you good news, that you should turn from these vain things to the living God, who made the sky, the earth, the sea, and all that is in them; 16who in the generations gone by allowed all the nations to walk in their own ways. 17Yet he didn’t leave himself without witness, in that he did good and gave you rains from the sky and fruitful seasons, filling our hearts with food and gladness.”
18Even saying these things, they hardly stopped the multitudes from making a sacrifice to them. 19But some Jews from Antioch and Iconium came there, and having persuaded the multitudes, they stoned Paul and dragged him out of the city, supposing that he was dead.
20But as the disciples stood around him, he rose up, and entered into the city. On the next day he went out with Barnabas to Derbe.
21When they had preached the Good News to that city and had made many disciples, they returned to Lystra, Iconium, and Antioch, 22strengthening the souls of the disciples, exhorting them to continue in the faith, and that through many afflictions we must enter into God’s Kingdom. 23When they had appointed elders for them in every assembly, and had prayed with fasting, they commended them to the Lord on whom they had believed.
24They passed through Pisidia and came to Pamphylia. 25When they had spoken the word in Perga, they went down to Attalia. 26From there they sailed to Antioch, from where they had been committed to the grace of God for the work which they had fulfilled. 27When they had arrived and had gathered the assembly together, they reported all the things that God had done with them, and that he had opened a door of faith to the nations. 28They stayed there with the disciples for a long time.
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.