On to Jerusalem
21 After we had torn ourselves away from them, we put out to sea and sailed straight to Kos. The next day we went to Rhodes and from there to Patara. 2 We found a ship crossing over to Phoenicia, went on board and set sail. 3 After sighting Cyprus and passing to the south of it, we sailed on to Syria. We landed at Tyre, where our ship was to unload its cargo. 4 We sought out the disciples there and stayed with them seven days. Through the Spirit they urged Paul not to go on to Jerusalem. 5 When it was time to leave, we left and continued on our way. All of them, including wives and children, accompanied us out of the city, and there on the beach we knelt to pray. 6 After saying goodbye to each other, we went aboard the ship, and they returned home.
7 We continued our voyage from Tyre and landed at Ptolemais, where we greeted the brothers and sisters and stayed with them for a day. 8 Leaving the next day, we reached Caesarea and stayed at the house of Philip the evangelist, one of the Seven. 9 He had four unmarried daughters who prophesied.
10 After we had been there a number of days, a prophet named Agabus came down from Judea. 11 Coming over to us, he took Paul’s belt, tied his own hands and feet with it and said, “The Holy Spirit says, ‘In this way the Jewish leaders in Jerusalem will bind the owner of this belt and will hand him over to the Gentiles.’”
12 When we heard this, we and the people there pleaded with Paul not to go up to Jerusalem. 13 Then Paul answered, “Why are you weeping and breaking my heart? I am ready not only to be bound, but also to die in Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus.” 14 When he would not be dissuaded, we gave up and said, “The Lord’s will be done.”
15 After this, we started on our way up to Jerusalem. 16 Some of the disciples from Caesarea accompanied us and brought us to the home of Mnason, where we were to stay. He was a man from Cyprus and one of the early disciples.
Paul’s Arrival at Jerusalem
17 When we arrived at Jerusalem, the brothers and sisters received us warmly. 18 The next day Paul and the rest of us went to see James, and all the elders were present. 19 Paul greeted them and reported in detail what God had done among the Gentiles through his ministry.
20 When they heard this, they praised God. Then they said to Paul: “You see, brother, how many thousands of Jews have believed, and all of them are zealous for the law. 21 They have been informed that you teach all the Jews who live among the Gentiles to turn away from Moses, telling them not to circumcise their children or live according to our customs. 22 What shall we do? They will certainly hear that you have come, 23 so do what we tell you. There are four men with us who have made a vow. 24 Take these men, join in their purification rites and pay their expenses, so that they can have their heads shaved. Then everyone will know there is no truth in these reports about you, but that you yourself are living in obedience to the law. 25 As for the Gentile believers, we have written to them our decision that they should abstain from food sacrificed to idols, from blood, from the meat of strangled animals and from sexual immorality.”
26 The next day Paul took the men and purified himself along with them. Then he went to the temple to give notice of the date when the days of purification would end and the offering would be made for each of them.
Paul Arrested
27 When the seven days were nearly over, some Jews from the province of Asia saw Paul at the temple. They stirred up the whole crowd and seized him, 28 shouting, “Fellow Israelites, help us! This is the man who teaches everyone everywhere against our people and our law and this place. And besides, he has brought Greeks into the temple and defiled this holy place.” 29 (They had previously seen Trophimus the Ephesian in the city with Paul and assumed that Paul had brought him into the temple.)
30 The whole city was aroused, and the people came running from all directions. Seizing Paul, they dragged him from the temple, and immediately the gates were shut. 31 While they were trying to kill him, news reached the commander of the Roman troops that the whole city of Jerusalem was in an uproar. 32 He at once took some officers and soldiers and ran down to the crowd. When the rioters saw the commander and his soldiers, they stopped beating Paul.
33 The commander came up and arrested him and ordered him to be bound with two chains. Then he asked who he was and what he had done. 34 Some in the crowd shouted one thing and some another, and since the commander could not get at the truth because of the uproar, he ordered that Paul be taken into the barracks. 35 When Paul reached the steps, the violence of the mob was so great he had to be carried by the soldiers. 36 The crowd that followed kept shouting, “Get rid of him!”
Paul Speaks to the Crowd
37 As the soldiers were about to take Paul into the barracks, he asked the commander, “May I say something to you?”
“Do you speak Greek?” he replied. 38 “Aren’t you the Egyptian who started a revolt and led four thousand terrorists out into the wilderness some time ago?”
39 Paul answered, “I am a Jew, from Tarsus in Cilicia, a citizen of no ordinary city. Please let me speak to the people.”
40 After receiving the commander’s permission, Paul stood on the steps and motioned to the crowd. When they were all silent, he said to them in Aramaic[Or possibly Hebrew; also in 22:2 ]:
NOTES:
Footnotes
21:1–18 The third “we-section” of Acts (see note on Acts
16:10–17).
21:8 One of the Seven: see note on Acts 6:2–4.
21:10 Agabus: mentioned in Acts 11:28 as the prophet who
predicted the famine that occurred when Claudius was emperor.
21:11 The symbolic act of Agabus recalls those of Old
Testament prophets. Compare Is 20:2; Ez 4:1; Jer 13:1.
21:14 The Christian disciples’ attitude reflects that of
Jesus (see Lk 22:42).
21:17–26 The leaders of the Jewish Christians of Jerusalem
inform Paul that the Jews there believe he has encouraged the Jews of the
diaspora to abandon the Mosaic law. According to Acts, Paul had no objection to
the retention of the law by the Jewish Christians of Jerusalem and left the
Jews of the diaspora who accepted Christianity free to follow the same
practice.
21:23–26 The leaders of the community suggest that Paul, on
behalf of four members of the Jerusalem community, make the customary payment
for the sacrifices offered at the termination of the Nazirite vow (see Nm
6:1–24) in order to impress favorably the Jewish Christians in Jerusalem with
his high regard for the Mosaic law. Since Paul himself had once made this vow
(Acts 18:18), his respect for the law would be on public record.
21:24 Pay their expenses: according to Nm 6:14–15 the
Nazirite had to present a yearling lamb for a holocaust, a yearling ewe lamb
for a sin offering, and a ram for a peace offering, along with food and drink
offerings, upon completion of the period of the vow.
21:25 Paul is informed about the apostolic decree, seemingly
for the first time (see note on Acts 15:13–35). The allusion to the decree was
probably introduced here by Luke to remind his readers that the Gentile
Christians themselves were asked to respect certain Jewish practices deriving
from the law.
21:28 The charges against Paul by the diaspora Jews are
identical to the charges brought against Stephen by diaspora Jews in Acts 6:13.
Brought Greeks into the temple: non-Jews were forbidden, under penalty of death,
to go beyond the Court of the Gentiles. Inscriptions in Greek and Latin on a
stone balustrade marked off the prohibited area.
21:31 Cohort commander: literally, “the leader of a thousand
in a cohort.” At this period the Roman cohort commander usually led six hundred
soldiers, a tenth of a legion; but the number in a cohort varied.
21:36 “Away with him!”: at the trial of Jesus before Pilate
in Lk 23:18, the people similarly shout, “Away with this man.”
21:38 The Egyptian: according to the Jewish historian Josephus,
an Egyptian gathered a large crowd on the Mount of Olives to witness the
destruction of the walls of Jerusalem that would fall at the Egyptian
“prophet’s” word. The commotion was put down by the Roman authorities and the
Egyptian escaped, but only after thousands had been killed. Four thousand
assassins: literally, sicarii. According to Josephus, these were political
nationalists who removed their opponents by assassination with a short dagger,
called in Latin a sica.
21:40 In Hebrew: meaning, perhaps, in Aramaic, which at this
time was the Semitic tongue in common use.
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