Acts 14:19

But there came Jews thither from Antioch and Iconium: and having persuaded the multitudes, they stoned Paul, and dragged him out of the city, supposing, that he was dead.

The enemies of the gospel traveled a distance of more than a hundred miles in order to oppose the truth. It would be commendable if advocates of the truth would be as diligent. McGarvey said, "It is difficult to comprehend the malignity of those Jews."[23] It is not difficult, however, to understand their modus operandi. They would first have enlisted the aid of the priest of Zeus, already infuriated by the defeat of his self-serving device of offering sacrifice to the apostles; then, they would have related how the apostles had been compelled to leave both Antioch and Iconium, alleging, as they did of Jesus, that the wonders the people had seen were accomplished by the power of Satan. The fickleness of human nature made the rest easy. The same mob that would have sacrificed to them as gods one day was ready to murder them on the next day.

They stoned Paul ... This was a favorite method of execution with the Jews and indicates their predominance in this attempted murder. There is no suggestion whatever of any formal charge, or any trial.

And dragged him out of the city ... Trenchard commented that

There was no need for Luke to stress the fickleness, cruelty and violence of men living under demon-controlled systems of idolatry. The simple statements of two verses (Acts 14:18,19) reveal both the hatred of religious enemies and the crazy reactions of the Lystra mob, who stoned the "god" of yesterday and dragged him out of the city.[24]

The Jews who took part in this had no scruple against profaning the streets of a pagan city by such a murderous act; but in their perpetration of an identical thing in the martyrdom of Stephen, they scrupulously refrained from killing him within the city. Satan had indeed blinded such men.

[23] J. W. McGarvey, Commentary on Acts (Cincinnati, Ohio: Standard Publishing Company, 1892), p. 44.

[24] E. H. Trenchard, A New Testament Commentary (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan Publishing House, 1969), p. 316.