Tool Beta
The Gods of the Bible
Every named divine being in Scripture, what the text calls it, and what the ancient world thought it was.
Hermes
The Greek messenger god, whom the same crowd mistakes Paul for because he did the talking.
Acts 14:12, in every translation this tool compares.
The same crowd decides Paul is Hermes, and Luke tells you why: Paul was the one doing the talking. Hermes was the messenger and the interpreter, so the guess is exact rather than random.
Paul is taken for Hermes because he was doing the talking, the detail Luke bothers to include. DDD shows how exact the fit is. Plato already defined Hermes as hermeneus, "interpreter," and angelos, "messenger," because his whole mythic portfolio, inventor of the lyre, patron of oratory and persuasion, guide and go-between, turns on eloquence, the quality Acts 14:12 picks out in Paul ("because he was the chief speaker").
G2060, 2 occ (one is a human name in Romans 16:14)
- Acts 14:12
- DDD s.v. "Hermes," 405-410
