1He came to Derbe and Lystra; and behold, a certain disciple was there, named Timothy, the son of a Jewess who believed, but his father was a Greek. 2The brothers who were at Lystra and Iconium gave a good testimony about him. 3Paul wanted to have him go out with him, and he took and circumcised him because of the Jews who were in those parts, for they all knew that his father was a Greek. 4As they went on their way through the cities, they delivered the decrees to them to keep which had been ordained by the apostles and elders who were at Jerusalem. 5So the assemblies were strengthened in the faith, and increased in number daily.
6When they had gone through the region of Phrygia and Galatia, they were forbidden by the Holy Spirit to speak the word in Asia. 7When they had come opposite Mysia, they tried to go into Bithynia, but the Spirit didn’t allow them. 8Passing by Mysia, they came down to Troas. 9A vision appeared to Paul in the night. There was a man of Macedonia standing, begging him and saying, “Come over into Macedonia and help us.” 10When he had seen the vision, immediately we sought to go out to Macedonia, concluding that the Lord had called us to preach the Good News to them. 11Setting sail therefore from Troas, we made a straight course to Samothrace, and the day following to Neapolis; 12and from there to Philippi, which is a city of Macedonia, the foremost of the district, a Roman colony. We were staying some days in this city.
13On the Sabbath day we went outside of the city by a riverside, where we supposed there was a place of prayer, and we sat down and spoke to the women who had come together. 14A certain woman named Lydia, a seller of purple, of the city of Thyatira, one who worshiped God, heard us. The Lord opened her heart to listen to the things which were spoken by Paul. 15When she and her household were baptized, she begged us, saying, “If you have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come into my house and stay.” So she persuaded us.
16As we were going to prayer, a certain girl having a spirit of divination met us, who brought her masters much gain by fortune telling. 17Following Paul and us, she cried out, “These men are servants of the Most High God, who proclaim to us a way of salvation!” 18She was doing this for many days.
But Paul, becoming greatly annoyed, turned and said to the spirit, “I command you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her!” It came out that very hour. 19But when her masters saw that the hope of their gain was gone, they seized Paul and Silas and dragged them into the marketplace before the rulers. 20When they had brought them to the magistrates, they said, “These men, being Jews, are agitating our city 21and advocate customs which it is not lawful for us to accept or to observe, being Romans.”
22The multitude rose up together against them and the magistrates tore their clothes from them, then commanded them to be beaten with rods. 23When they had laid many stripes on them, they threw them into prison, charging the jailer to keep them safely. 24Having received such a command, he threw them into the inner prison and secured their feet in the stocks.
25But about midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them. 26Suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken; and immediately all the doors were opened, and everyone’s bonds were loosened. 27The jailer, being roused out of sleep and seeing the prison doors open, drew his sword and was about to kill himself, supposing that the prisoners had escaped. 28But Paul cried with a loud voice, saying, “Don’t harm yourself, for we are all here!”
29He called for lights, sprang in, fell down trembling before Paul and Silas, 30brought them out, and said, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?”
31They said, “Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved, you and your household.” 32They spoke the word of the Lord to him, and to all who were in his house.
33He took them the same hour of the night and washed their stripes, and was immediately baptized, he and all his household. 34He brought them up into his house and set food before them, and rejoiced greatly with all his household, having believed in God.
35But when it was day, the magistrates sent the sergeants, saying, “Let those men go.”
36The jailer reported these words to Paul, saying, “The magistrates have sent to let you go; now therefore come out and go in peace.”
37But Paul said to them, “They have beaten us publicly without a trial, men who are Romans, and have cast us into prison! Do they now release us secretly? No, most certainly, but let them come themselves and bring us out!”
38The sergeants reported these words to the magistrates, and they were afraid when they heard that they were Romans, 39and they came and begged them. When they had brought them out, they asked them to depart from the city. 40They went out of the prison and entered into Lydia’s house. When they had seen the brothers, they encouraged them, then departed.
Iconium (modern Konya in Turkey) is located on a high plateau in south-central Turkey. The city was considered to be in Phyrgia, 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 Iconimum, 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 a 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 Phyrgian 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).
Having preached Christ and miraculously healed in Lystra (14.7-10), 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 ministry 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.