The pattern of ministry exemplified in the previous section is repeated in this. The story is told only briefly, since the course of events in Iconium was much as it had been in Pisidian Antioch, the one significant difference being that, despite persecution, Paul and Barnabas remained in the city until their very lives were in danger. Luke has expressed this somewhat awkwardly (see vv. 2 and 3)—a sign perhaps of “a clumsily retained page from a logbook” (Haenchen, p. 423, who, however, rejects this view).

14:1 Iconium was built on the edge of a high plateau overlooking plains made productive by streams from the Pisidian mountains. It was a center for agriculture, and the prosperity it drew from this was enhanced by its position at the junction of several roads (see disc. on 16:6). Iconi…