Paul healing a man who could not walk

In the Book of Acts, Paul and his companion Barnabas come to Lystra, a small town in what is now Turkey, and the apostle tells a man who has never walked to stand up on his feet. The man does, and the crowd draws its own conclusion. The gods have come down in human form, they decide, calling Barnabas Jupiter and Paul Mercury, and the priest of the temple outside the town brings oxen to sacrifice to them. Karel Dujardin painted the scene in 1663 in Amsterdam, on a canvas about 1.8 metres tall, far larger than the sunny pastoral pieces he was known for. He towers over the people pressing round him, his arms spread wide. The heavy stone column rising behind him points to that temple of Jupiter.