JUPITER jōō’ pə tər (Ζεύς, G2416). The supreme deity of the Greeks and Romans.

The concept of Zeus, the sky-God who revealed himself by the thunderbolt, was presumably brought into Greece by migrating Hellenic tribes. In early cult worship he was associated with human sacrifice and fertility. On Crete he was the infant consort of Rhea, the mother-goddess. In Homer he was a mixture of the amorous and cruel primitive deity with a noble, supreme “all-father.” It remained for the philosophers to represent Zeus as the supreme power. He became universal reason, law, and the source of life. The other deities of the pantheon were considered manifestations of Zeus.

Barnabas was mistaken for Zeus at Lystra and was so worshiped (Acts 14:12, 13).