St. Barnabas 23. Lystra and St. Timothy.
We last left St. Barnabas and St. Paul in Lystra (Ac 14:6), preaching the Gospel in the streets. As it turns out, some of the troublemakers from Antioch of Pisidia and Iconium had followed Barnabas and Paul to Lystra, and Acts tells us specifically they were Jewish (Ac 14:19). One would think that preaching about the “living God who made heaven and earth” (Ac 14:15) would be applauded by any good Jew, but apparently they were just out for blood. It may have been that day, or perhaps weeks later, but at some point the people of Lystra and these troublemakers rose up in anger and stoned Paul, then dragged him out of the city, presumably now dead (Ac 14:19).
Now on the scene was not just the Lystrians and the troublemakers. St. Timothy was there. We know this because three or four years later on Paul’s second missionary journey, he meets up with Timothy and his family in Lystra, and they were already Christians (Ac 16:1; 2 Tim 1:5), making it likely all three were converted on this first trip. Paul implies this when, about two decades later, he writes to Timothy, “You have observed my teaching, my conduct, my aim in life, my faith, my patience, my love, my steadfastness, my persecutions, my sufferings, what befell me at Antioch, at Iconium, and at Lystra, what persecutions I endured.” (2 Tim 3:10-11.)
Interesting that Paul says Timothy “observed ... what befell me at Antioch, at Iconium, and at Lystra … what persecutions I endured.” So Timothy likely not only witnessed the stoning at Lystra, but also the troubles at Antioch and Iconium. So if he “observed” at Antioch, did Timothy became one of the “companions” who accompanied Paul, Barnabas, and Thekla as reported in the traditions about St. Thekla (told two weeks ago)? Perhaps. It may be that Timothy and his family was from Lystra (implied by Ac 16:1), and Timothy only happened to be in Antioch when Paul and Barnabas were there, and so did join them for the journey back home.
There is an imaginative telling of the scene of Paul’s stoning at Lystra coming from the novel on the life of Paul called, The Apostle, by the Jewish writer Sholem Asch. He paints this scene: “On a certain day, when Paul was preaching to a small group, an angry crowd of Jews and Greeks descended on him, scattered his listeners, and dragged him off outside the gates of the city. When they came to a hollow in the ground, they flung him into it, and began to pelt him with stones. They continued to throw stones until they thought he was dead, and then returned to the city.” Asch then imagines a bloody, half-conscious Paul having a vision of St. Stephen and remembering Stephen’s stoning, feeling God’s forgiveness for Paul’s role, and joy filling his heart for being stoned for the sake of the Messiah just like Stephen. Beautiful!
Asch continues: “Lying and meditating thus, [Paul’s] heart rejoicing for what had happened to him, he felt suddenly a light hand, like the hand of an angel, passing over his body, wiping away the blood and softening his sores. Love and devotion were in the touch of the hand .... Opening his eyes he saw standing over him the likeness of a lad of 14 or 15.... ‘Who art thou, my son?’ ‘My name is Timotheus. My father is a Greek, but my mother is a daughter of Israel, whom thou preachest, and from thee I have heard of the Messiah whom He has sent, and for whose sake they have stoned thee. And I wait for him, as do all the Jews of the city. I saw what these men did to thee, and I am here to help thee.’”
And that is how Asch imagines the first meeting of Paul and Timothy. Timothy aids Paul until Barnabas finds the place of the stoning. Paul is already standing, supported by Timothy, and they take him to Timothy’s home where the women tend to his wounds. [1]
Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic Church is located in California City, CA. Visit our website at ollcalcity.org.
Dibby Allan Green has a BA in Religious Studies (Westmont College, 1978) and MA in Theology (Augustine Institute, 2019), is a lay Catholic hermit, and a parishioner of Our Lady of Lourdes Parish.