The Acts of the Apostles

LANDS, NATIONS, CITIES, AND HOUSES 95
(iii. 3; iv. 14, 37; vii. 17; viii. 37), and by St.
Mark (i. 28) before him, and by St. Matthew (iii. 3
xiv. 35) along with him, of itself makes it very im-
probable that he could here have had in his mind the
special meaning which the word " regio " may have
had for the country in question. If he had had this
in his mind he would not have written rj Trepl-^^copo^,
but X'^P^ ^^' another word. Lystra could be reached
from Iconium in a day,^ Derbe from Lystra also in a
day ; yet the latter distance was greater. Both cities
were seemingly unimportant.^ St. Paul's flight thither
^ Hence in xvi. 2 " the brethren in Lystra and Iconium " could
also be mentioned together. Timothy, who belonged to Lystra,
was also known to, and respected by, the neighbouring Church of
Iconium. The combination of these two cities is not discrepant
with the other combination (xiv. 19), where Antioch and Iconium
occur together {vide supra). In xvi. 2 we have a combination
suggested by the mere proximity of the two cities, in xiv. 19 one
probably given by the united conspiracy of the Jews of the larger
cities Antioch and Iconium against the ministry of the Apostle in
the whole neighbourhood. It is strange that Derbe is not mentioned
in xvi. 2 : it follows that the churches of Iconium and Lystra were
more closely connected than those of Derbe and Lystra, and this
is explained by their greater proximity. The accuracy of the book
at once strikes the reader as he considers the following combinations:
(1) Lystra and Derbe are mentioned together as genuine
Lycaonian cities, in distinction from the Phrygian cities Antioch
and Iconium ; (2) Lystra and Iconium are mentioned together in
speaking of their churches, because the cities were very near to one
another, and because a notable Christian of the one church was
also known to the other ; (3) Antioch and Iconium are mentioned
together because the powerful bodies of Jews in those cities
guarded the interests of Judaism in the whole province.
2 In xiv. 6, 21, and xvi. 1 we read Ava-rpav [in xiv. 21 ttjv A.], in
xiv. 8 and xvi. 2, however, and in 2 Tim. iii. 11 Avcrpois. (The
inscriptions only afford us the nominative Lustra, which decides
nothing.) To conclude from this that we have here different
sources is unjustifiable, and involves a strange conception of the
;