The city is divided. Taking advantage of the situation, Jews and Gentiles, together with their leaders, plot to mistreat and stone the missionaries. Their "plotting" manifests itself as uncontrolled irrational violence (horme; Lk 8:33; Acts 7:57; 19:29; compare Bertram 1967:470). The persecution is so fierce (Lk 18:32) that a mob intends to stone the missionaries (compare Diodorus Siculus Library of History 17.41.8).

Paul and Barnabas flee some eighteen and then sixty miles to the southeast, finding refuge in the Lycaonian Roman outposts of Lystra and Derbe. They act from prudence, not cowardice, for there they continued to preach the good news.

The gospel's opponents stirred up and poisoned souls against messengers of the truth, creating division and spawning a bloodthirsty plot of mob violence. The gospel messengers manifested evangelistic effectiveness, persevering boldness, miraculous divine confirmation, tactical prudence and persistence in witness. Whose message should Theophilus and we believe?