Traveling to Jerusalem
21
📚And it came about after we had left them and sailed away, that we came on a straight course to Coos, and the following day to Rhodes, and from there to Patara, 2 📚and finding a ship sailing across to Phoenicia, we went aboard and set out. 3 📚Now when we saw Cyprus, we left it on the left hand and sailed to Syria and landed at Tyre, for there the ship was to unload her freight. 4 📚And finding disciples, we stayed there seven days. They said to Paul, through the Spirit, that he should not go up to Jerusalem.21:4 God’s Spirit gave them great concern for Paul and probably revealed to them the persecution he would face there. But Paul was compelled by the same Spirit to go to Jerusalem (Acts 20:22).⚜
5 📚And when we had completed those days, we departed and went on our way. And they all brought us on our way, with wives and children, until we were out of the city. And we knelt down on the shore and prayed. 6 📚And when we had taken our leave of one another, we boarded the ship, and they returned home again.
7 📚And when we had finished our voyage from Tyre, we came to Ptolemais, and greeted the brethren and stayed with them one day. 8 📚And the next day we who were accompanying Paul left and came to Caesarea, and entered the house of Philip the evangelist, who was one of the seven 📖, and stayed with him. 9 📚And this man had four daughters, virgins, who prophesied.
10 📚And as we stayed on there many days, a certain prophet named Agabus came down from Judea. 11 📚And when he had come to us, he took Paul’s belt, and bound his own hands and feet, and said, “Thus says the Holy Spirit: ‘So the Jews at Jerusalem will bind the man who owns this belt, and deliver him into the hands of the Gentiles.’ ”
21:11 He did not tell Paul that the Holy Spirit was commanding him not to go to Jerusalem. The Holy Spirit does not contradict Himself (Acts 20:22). The Spirit through Agabus told Paul exactly what was going to happen, so that Paul might be prepared for it.⚜
12 📚And when we heard these things, both we and those from that place, begged him not to go up to Jerusalem.
21:12 Verse 4.⚜
13 📚Then Paul answered, “What do you mean by weeping and breaking my heart? For I am ready, not only to be bound, but also to die at Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus”. 14 📚And when he would not be persuaded, we kept quiet, saying, “The will of the Lord be done”.
15 📚And after those days we took our baggage and went up to Jerusalem. 16 📚Some of the disciples from Caesarea also went with us, and brought with them one Mnason of Cyprus 📖, an old disciple, whose guests we would be.
17 📚And when we arrived in Jerusalem, the brethren received us gladly.
21:17 At this time they brought the gifts of money from other churches (Rom 15:25-27; 1 Cor 16:1-4).⚜
Paul with James in Jerusalem
18 📚And the following day Paul went with us to James 📖, and all the elders were present. 19 📚And when he had greeted them, he declared in detail what things God had done among the Gentiles through his ministry.
21:19 See Acts 15:4. Jews called all other people (except Samaritans) “Gentiles”.⚜
20 📚And when they heard it they glorified the Lord, and said to Paul, “You see, brother, how many thousands of Jews there are who believe. And they are all zealous for the Law.
21:20 These were Jews who had received Christ as the Messiah of Israel, been baptized into His name, and had become Christians. But they still loved the law of Moses revealed in the Old Testament and tried to follow it even in the observances of rituals, “clean” and “unclean” foods, feast days, etc. They had not yet understood that these things were mere shadows, types and pictures of spiritual realities in Christ – Matt 5:17; Col 2:17; Heb 10:1. (One purpose of the letter to the Hebrews was to show this and to teach that the whole old covenant was no longer in force. But this letter had not been written at this time.)⚜
21 📚And they have been told about you, that you teach all the Jews who are among the Gentiles to forsake Moses, telling them that they ought not to circumcise their children, or walk according to the customs.
21:21 This accusation was false. Paul did not forbid Jewish Christians to circumcise their children or to follow the law. He did tell them and everyone else that salvation cannot come by the law (Acts 13:39; Rom 3:28; Gal 2:15-16). And he did teach Gentile Christians that they did not need to follow the customs and rituals of the Jews (Gal 5:1; 5:15; Col 2:16-17). But the most important aspects of the law – its ethics, morality, and righteousness – he taught should be fulfilled in every believer whether Jew or Gentile (Rom 8:4).⚜
22 📚What will be the consequences? The crowds will certainly come together, for they will hear that you have come. 23 📚Therefore do what we tell you. We have four men who have taken a vow. 24 📚Take them and be purified with them, and pay their expenses so that they may shave their heads. And everyone will know that those things which they were told about you are nothing, but that you yourself walk in an orderly way and keep the Law.
21:22-24 They suggested a way in which Paul could show that he was not in opposition to these Jewish believers. The “vow” was probably the same that Paul himself had previously made – the Nazirite vow. See Acts 18:18.⚜
25 📚Concerning the Gentiles who believe, we have written, and decided, that they should observe no such thing, except that they should keep themselves from things offered to idols, and from blood, and from strangled animals, and from sexual immorality”.
21:25 See Acts 15:20, 29. They were not informing Paul of something he did not know; they were assuring him that they would not demand that Gentile believers keep the law of Moses.⚜
26 📚Then Paul took the men and, the next day, purified himself with them and entered the temple to make known the completion of the days of purification, when an offering would be made for each of them.
21:26 This purification would involve reporting to the priests at the temple and having holy water sprinkled on him. The offering for each of the four men is given in Num 6:14-15. Paul himself was not now making a vow. All the offerings and sacrifices of the Old Testament spoke of Christ. He was the reality of which they were the pictures (see note at Lev 1:2). Since these four men were Christians they must have known that it was by the sacrifice of Christ alone that their sins were taken away. If they did not, can we doubt that Paul told them so very clearly? In all this affair Paul was acting according to his own words in 1 Cor 9:19-23. He was showing love and humility to those he hoped to win to higher and better truth.⚜
Paul is arrested
27 📚And when the seven days were almost over, the Jews from the province of Asia 📖 saw him in the temple, stirred up all the people and took hold of him, 28 📚crying out, “Men of Israel, help! This is the man who teaches all men everywhere against the people, and the Law, and this place. And furthermore he has also brought Greeks into the temple and polluted this holy place”. 29 📚For previously they had seen with him in the city Trophimus an Ephesian, whom they supposed Paul had brought into the temple.
21:29 Of course Paul had not brought the Gentile Trophimus into the temple. He would not thus offend the Jews he was trying to win.⚜
30 📚And the whole city was agitated, and the people ran together. And they took Paul and dragged him out of the temple, and immediately the doors were shut. 31 📚And as they set about to kill him, news came to the commander of the Roman troops that all Jerusalem was in an uproar.
21:31 Jerusalem was then ruled by the Romans.⚜
32 📚He immediately took soldiers and centurions and ran down to them. And when they saw the commander and the soldiers, they stopped beating Paul.
33 📚Then the commander approached and took him, and commanded him to be bound with two chains, and asked who he was and what he had done. 34 📚And some in the crowd cried out one thing, some another, and when he could not find out the truth because of the uproar, he commanded him to be carried into the barracks. 35 📚And when he reached the stairs, he had to be carried by the soldiers because of the violence of the people. 36 📚For the crowds of people kept following, crying out, “Away with him!”
Paul speaks to the mob at the temple
37 📚And as Paul was about to be taken into the barracks, he said to the commander, “May I speak to you?”
He said, “Can you speak Greek? 38 📚Are you not that Egyptian who some time ago stirred up a revolt and led four thousand cutthroats out into the wilderness?”
39 📚But Paul said, “I am a Jew from Tarsus in Cilicia, a citizen of no insignificant city 📖. And I ask you to let me speak to the people”.
40 📚And when he had given him permission, Paul stood on the stairs, and gestured with his hand to the people. And when there was a great silence, he spoke to them in the Hebrew tongue 📖, saying: