Zeus

Chief god of the Greek pantheon (Roman Jupiter). Zeus was initially worshiped as part of an animistic cult, as the sky god with thunder as his principal manifestation. Well before the time of Homer, however, Zeus had become the preeminent personal god of the Greek residents of Thessaly, with Mt Olympus serving as the focal point of the cult. By NT times, Zeus was considered the Greek father god who possessed supreme powers. The quotation Paul used in Acts 17:28 from Cleanthes (and/or Aratus) was originally ascribed to Zeus (“in him we live and move and have our being”).

Zeus is most significant in biblical writings as a result of Paul and Barnabas’s encounter with the priest of Zeus at Lystra (Acts 14:8–18). Because Paul and Barnabas had healed a lame man, the residents of Lystra attempted to worship them, identifying Barnabas with Zeus and Paul with Hermes, the messenger of the gods. It was not unusual that this misidentification should take place, since the Greek gods were frequently represented as taking on human appearances and intervening directly in human affairs. Unlike the true God, Zeus and his consorts were often viewed as capriciously bestowing favor or disfavor. The attribution of “divinity” to Paul and Barnabas allowed them to identify the key differences between Greek and Christian theology.