The Journey From Asia Minor to Jerusalem (21:1–16)

After the tearful good-bye, Paul departs with his eight companions on a boat and travels to Jerusalem. Luke describes some of the stops along the way. Paul is able to meet with believers in a variety of locales, but he is also served twice with prophetic warnings that he will face suffering in Jerusalem.

MILETUS TO JERUSALEM

We had torn ourselves away from them (21:1). The verb expresses the difficulty and anguish both groups experienced in having to be separated. It is comparable to the weaning of a child from his mother’s breast (see Isa. 28:9 where the passive construction of the same verb is used).

COS

The shoreline of the island.

Cos (21:1). The group boards a vessel that skirts the coastline and takes them as far as the southern Asia Minor coastal city of Patara, from where they board a larger boat that takes them to Palestine.

Cos is a small island in the Aegean (112 square miles: twenty-seven miles long and between one and seven miles wide) that is part of the Sporades group of islands. At the narrowest point, it is less than five miles from the Asia Minor mainland and the city of Halicarnassus. Cos may be best known for being the location of the school of medicine founded by Hippocrates in the fifth century B.C.422

Rhodes (21:1). After spending the night in Cos, they travel another sixty miles to the island of Rhodes. This is the largest island (540 square miles) of the Sporades and the fourth largest island currently belonging to Greece. Rhodes lies twenty miles off the coast of Asia Minor. The harbor of Rhodes was the site of the great “Colossus” (a hundred-foot statue of the sun god Helios), one of the Seven Wonders of the ancient world. However, the Colossus was later destroyed by an earthquake in the third century B.C.

RHODES

“St. Paul’s Bay” at Lindos, Rhodes.

Patara (21:1). Patara is one of the principal cities of the Roman province of Lycia and the seat of the Roman proconsul. The port was an important shipping port for the Alexandrian grain vessels.423 It was located on the mouth of the Xanthus River a few miles south of the city of Xanthus. At this port, Paul finds a cargo ship that is scheduled to make a non-stop ocean crossing to Phoenicia. The four hundred-mile voyage would have taken between three and five days depending on the wind.

We landed at Tyre (21:3). On Tyre, see comments on 12:20. On Phoenicia, see comments on 11:20.

Finding the disciples there (21:4). The verb Luke uses here suggests that Paul searches for the believers. These people most likely received the gospel from the Jerusalem Christians who traveled to Phoenicia after the outbreak of persecution (11:19).

Through the Spirit they urged Paul not to go on to Jerusalem (21:4). Paul has told the Ephesian elders that he is “compelled by the Spirit” to go to Jerusalem. There is probably no contradiction here. It appears that the Spirit is telling prophets in a variety of places that Paul will face suffering and imprisonment in Jerusalem. The prophets conclude, out of their natural human concern, that Paul should not go to Jerusalem in order to avoid the persecution.424 Paul, however, is thoroughly convinced that the Spirit is leading him to go. He is willing to suffer anything for the sake of Christ.

And their wives and children accompanied us out of the city (21:5). This is a touching observation that demonstrates how Paul endears himself to entire families of believers.

Landed at Ptolemais (21:7). Paul and his companions reboard their ship and sail south down the coastline to Ptolemais, the southernmost Phoenician port.425 This city, located about eight miles north of Haifa, was known as Acco in the Old Testament era (Judg. 1:31); Ptolemy II Philadelphus (282–246 B.C.) later renamed it after himself. During the Roman era, Acco-Ptolemais came under the direct control of the Roman proconsul of Syria. Emperor Claudius refounded the city, improved its port, and settled many veterans there. Josephus regarded the city as the western boundary of Galilee.426 Under Nero, the city became a Roman colony. The Gentile population of the city was consistently hostile to the Jews. This reached a boiling point roughly nine years later at the outbreak of the Jewish war when the inhabitants of this city massacred two thousand Jews.427 As at Tyre, Paul is able to locate a group of believers and spend time with them.

PTOLEMAIS (ACCO)

Ancient ruins at this important port city.

We reached Caesarea (21:8). Staying only one day at Ptolemais, the party then makes the thirty-mile trip (probably by boat) to the beautiful port city of Caesarea (see comments on 10:1).

Stayed at the house of Philip the evangelist (21:8). Luke refers to Philip here as an “evangelist,” the only time he uses the word in the book of Acts (see comments on 8:5; see also Eph. 4:11; 2 Tim. 4:5). No doubt part of the reason for this designation is based on the astonishing ways God used him to reach many Samaritans (8:4–25) and the Ethiopian official (8:26–40). Following his ministry to the Ethiopian and evangelistic work in Azotus, Philip traveled to Caesarea (8:40). Apparently he settled in the city, married (if he was not married earlier), and raised a family. Perhaps many in the city of Caesarea have come to know Christ as a result of Philip’s ministry. Whatever his means of generating income, it has been adequate for him to purchase a home that is large enough to host this group of nine men. In the spirit of Christian hospitality, Philip opens his home to this group. Philip probably proves to be an important source of information to Luke about the early days of the church in Jerusalem.

Four unmarried daughters who prophesied (21:9). The church historian Eusebius, quoting an Ephesian church leader from the second century, reports that Philip later moved with his daughters to Hierapolis in Asia Minor (near Colosse and Laodicea). Two of the daughters never married and remained in Hierapolis until their deaths; another daughter “lived in the Holy Spirit and rests in Ephesus.”428 The fact that Philip’s daughters prophesy further demonstrates the fulfillment of Joel 2:28 (“your sons and your daughters will prophesy”) that Peter quoted in his message on the day of Pentecost nearly twenty-five years earlier. Women continued to exercise prophetic gifts, as seen in the church at Corinth (1 Cor. 11:5).

A prophet named Agabus came down from Judea (21:10). The Jerusalem prophet, Agabus, now meets with Paul a second time. Whereas in the first instance, he predicted the coming of a severe famine (11:27–28), this time he predicts Paul’s arrest in Jerusalem.

He took Paul’s belt (21:11). Agabus acts out what he believes the Spirit to be telling him about Paul’s impending arrest and custody. The way he does this is reminiscent of how Old Testament prophets sometimes delivered their messages, as, for example, Isaiah did when he went around stripped and barefoot for three years as a sign of what Assyria would do to the Egyptian and Cushite captives.429

ANCIENT BELT BUCKLES

These Roman-era buckles were discovered in the excavations at Masada.

And will hand him over to the Gentiles (21:11). The words were not fulfilled precisely as they are recorded here. When the Jews seized Paul, the Romans actually intervened and took him into their custody. Ultimately, however, the Jewish leaders were responsible for Paul’s Roman custody, and in this way the prophecy was fulfilled.

Breaking my heart (21:13). The Caesarean Christians are deeply upset that Paul will shortly be facing persecution in Jerusalem and do their best to dissuade him from going to the capital city. Although compelled by the Spirit and determined to go, despite the threat of suffering, Paul is affected by their pleas. The word used here is found in the context of women pounding on clothes with stones as they wash them to get them clean.430 Nevertheless, he remains obedient to the leading of the Spirit of God.

We got ready and went up to Jerusalem (21:15). The term used for getting ready (episkeuazō) is used by some ancient authors for saddling and packing horses for a trip.431 It may imply that the group made the sixty-four-mile journey to Jerusalem on horseback.

The home of Mnason (21:16). The group travels to the home of an apparently wealthy Jerusalem believer named Mnason, who has a house sufficiently large to accommodate Paul’s entourage of nine plus some from Caesarea.432 Mnason came from the island of Cyprus (like Barnabas) and is most assuredly a Jew. He is strong enough in his faith not to worry about opening his home up to Gentiles from Macedonia and Asia Minor and face the dangers of ritual impurity (from a Jewish perspective). His commitment to Christ has given him a new perspective on Gentiles. It is possible that his name is a shortened and Grecized form of the Jewish name Menahem or Manasseh.433

One of the early disciples (21:16). This can be viewed one of three ways: (1) He is one of the disciples of Jesus during his earthly ministry and may have been one of the 120 in 1:15; (2) he is one of the early converts of the preaching of the apostles in Jerusalem; or (3) he is one of the converts of Paul and Barnabas in their missionary journey to Cyprus. One of the first two options is most likely. As one who has been a foundational member of the Jerusalem church, Mnason proves to be an important source of information to Luke for his writing during this visit. This value is all the greater for Luke’s first volume if Mnason had been a disciple of Jesus.

Paul Meets With the Jerusalem Church (21:17–26)

Paul and the delegates presumably make it to Jerusalem in time for the Pentecost celebration of A.D. 57. But the celebration of this festival is far less significant to Luke than the warm and supportive reception Paul receives by the Jerusalem church and the deliberations about how to handle the problem of negative perceptions about Paul and his ministry by many Jewish believers in Jerusalem.

MODERN JERUSALEM

The Muslim Dome of the Rock is in the foreground.

The brothers received us warmly (21:17). In light of the turmoil that will follow, Luke stresses the fact that Paul and his eight Gentile companions receive a warm reception by their fellow Christians in Jerusalem. Certainly not all Jerusalem Christians are opposed to Paul.

Went to see James, and all the elders were present (21:18). Absent is mention of any of the twelve apostles. Apparently Peter and John are away from Jerusalem in other places of service as are the other apostles. James has surfaced as the most prominent leader of the Jerusalem church (on James, see comments on 12:17; on elders, see comments on 11:30). Some have suggested that James is now functioning as a president over a kind of Christian “sanhedrin” with as many as seventy elders, but this is speculative.434

Paul and his group probably present to the leaders the collection of funds for the relief of the poor and suffering Jerusalem Christians.435 What Paul hopes to be the high point of his visit to Jerusalem is quickly overshadowed by the controversy brewing about him and his attitude toward the Jewish law.

When they heard this, they praised God (21:20). The leadership of the Jerusalem church is solidly in support of Paul and the ministry he has among the Gentiles. This is not a begrudging support; they genuinely give thanks to God for the many Gentiles who have become Christians and for the numerous communities of believers that have been established throughout Asia Minor, Macedonia, and Achaia.

How many thousands of Jews have believed (21:20). God has not only been powerfully at work through Paul, but also through the Jerusalem believers. Evangelistic efforts have resulted in thousands of Jews embracing Jesus as the Messiah. This is certainly fantastic news for Paul, who a year or so earlier had told the Romans, “Brothers, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for the Israelites is that they may be saved” (Rom. 10:1) and that he could wish himself cut off from Christ if it would lead to the people of Israel turning their hearts to Jesus (Rom. 9:3). Paul no doubt “praised God” for this encouraging result.

All of them are zealous for the law (21:20). These new believers have not yet matured in their faith to the point that they share the same outlook as their leaders on the law. The difficulty is compounded further by the ongoing presence of the Pharisaic Jewish believers who had already troubled the churches at Antioch and south Galatia some eight to ten years earlier. These “Judaizers,” no doubt, had made efforts to orient the new believers toward their position in the “battle for the law” being waged within Judean Christianity. The position of James and the elders was also increasingly difficult in light of the fervency about fidelity to the law in prevailing Jewish culture.

You teach all the Jews … to turn away from Moses (21:21). The principal charge is that Paul is literally teaching “apostasy from Moses.” Of the specific charges that are levelled, there is no indication in Paul’s letters that Jewish Christian parents should no longer circumcise their children nor is there any indication that Paul is actively teaching that Jewish Christians should altogether cease being Torah-observant. As long as circumcision is not performed as a rite that is essential for salvation, Paul has no difficulty with Jews continuing to practice this procedure. Paul, of course, has actually been the one responsible for Timothy’s circumcision—and Timothy is present in the delegation (16:3).

These Jerusalem Jewish Christians apparently are living by the conviction that when people receive Jesus as the Messiah and are indwelt by the Spirit, they need to continue (if Jews) or take on (if Gentiles) the Jewish law with its rites and observances. Their position is not as extreme as the “Judaizers” who contend that obedience to the law, especially circumcision, is essential for salvation (15:1, 5).

These Jewish believers have heard that Paul is radically opposed to what they regard as a fundamental part of their Christian life. Their assumptions regarding Paul are only partly, not entirely, wrong. Paul probably does not insist on Torah observance for converted Jews in the Gentile cities and, no doubt, some begin to live on a principle of freedom from the law.

What shall we do? (21:22). James and the Jerusalem elders are in a difficult situation. On the one hand, they are in agreement with Paul theologically and want to affirm his work among the Gentiles. On the other, they want to continue to reach Jerusalem and Judean Jews with the gospel of Christ and not give a cause for deeper division within the Jerusalem church.

Four men with us who have made a vow …. pay their expenses (21:23–24). James and the elders come up with a plan that they think will demonstrate to the Jewish Christian believers in Jerusalem that Paul is at least to some degree law-observant and certainly not opposed to the law in ways that they assume. The plan involves supporting four Jewish-Christian men in the fulfillment of their Nazirite vows (see Num. 6:2–21; m. Naz.).

The purpose of the Nazirite vow was to dedicate oneself to the Lord for a set period of time. A Jewish man took a Nazirite vow typically for a thirty-day period, but sometimes longer (as in the case of Samson) or shorter periods (such as seven days) were also possible. During this time the Nazirite abstained from wine (or anything from the vine), scrupulously avoided any contact with a corpse, and left his hair uncut. At the end of the period of his special consecration to the Lord, he shaved off his dedicated hair and offered it at the temple. He was also required to present an offering of a year-old male lamb, a year-old ewe lamb, a ram, a basket of bread, and various grain and drink offerings (see Num. 6:14–17). These offerings resulted in a considerable expense to the Nazirite. Paul apparently helped subsidize the cost of these sacrifices. This kind of participation in the expenses was not without precedent. Herod Agrippa I at one time paid the expenses of a group of poor Nazirites.436

Join in their purification rites (21:24). In addition to paying the expenses of the four Nazirites, James urges Paul to join in their purification rites. This probably does not mean that Paul is also completing a Nazirite vow at this time, but that he is completing a special purification ritual (see, e.g., Num. 8:21; 19:12; 31:19). Paul’s seven-day purification rite, with washings on the third and seventh days, is consistent with a Jewish understanding that a Jew who took a trip outside of the Holy Land and into Gentile territories would become ritually impure.437 Such a cleansing was essential for Paul, according to Jewish tradition, since he would be entering the temple to assist with the Nazirite ceremony. He apparently times the final sprinkling on the seventh day of his purification so that it would coincide with the completion of the Nazirite vows of the four men. Paul’s willingness to support the Nazirites and to undertake the purification rites himself illustrates his principle of becoming “all things to all men” for the sake of the gospel (1 Cor. 9:22–23).

As for the Gentile believers, we have written to them our decision (21:25). James once again reiterates that he and the elders of the Jerusalem church stand by their previous decision. What they have recommended to Paul is a practical maneuver, not a reassertion of the importance of the law for salvation. James reiterates the elements of the so-called decree, which the leadership of the Jerusalem church still affirm as essential for Gentile believers to facilitate their growth in the faith by ensuring that they have made a decisive break with idolatry and all that is associated with it.

Jews From Ephesus Provoke Hostility Against Paul (21:27–40)

The prophecy of Agabus is now to be fulfilled. Paul is bound and taken into Roman custody after he is nearly killed by a mob of Jews who wrongly think he has defiled the temple. Luke does not report on what happened to the delegates who accompany Paul. They do not appear to have been arrested; they probably return to their homes after they realize that Paul will be in custody for some time. Luke may have remained in Palestine for the next two years (A.D. 57–59), possibly gathering information for his two-volume work. He is with Paul in Caesarea (27:1) and will accompany him on his voyage to Rome.

Jews from the province of Asia (21:27). These are no doubt Jews from the city of Ephesus who have rejected Jesus as Messiah and are resentful of the influence Paul has exerted on the Jewish community of their city. It is ironic that they, not Jerusalem Jews, are the main instigators of the commotion that followed.

Defiled this holy place (21:28). The Jews from Asia Minor stir up all the other Jews in the temple precincts. They claim that Paul has led Trophimus, a Gentile believer from Ephesus, from the court of the Gentiles into the inner courts of the temple, which was prohibited to Gentiles. Paul certainly has not done this, but the charge is believable to the masses.

WARNING INSCRIPTION

A first-century inscription from the balustrade around the temple building warning Gentiles not to enter.

They dragged him from the temple, and immediately the gates were shut (21:30). Paul is apparently seized by the temple police, dragged out of the Court of Women into the Court of the Gentiles, and has the doors shut behind him.438 One cannot help but notice the irony of God’s ordained messenger to bring light to the Gentiles now being shut out of the most holy place of Judaism—the place where God mediated his grace to his people for centuries. In Paul’s view as well as Luke’s, the temple is no longer the place to receive God’s grace; God’s grace is now supremely manifested and available in the Lord Jesus Christ.

They were trying to kill him (21:31). The Jews are ostensibly within their legal rights to have Paul executed for the crime they are convinced he is guilty of, although there is no evidence in Josephus or elsewhere for anyone being killed for this offense. The Romans, however, do not look favorably on this frenzied mob justice.

The commander of the Roman troops (21:31). The commander, a chiliarch named Claudius Lysias (cf. 23:26), is in charge of a thousand Roman soldiers. Josephus informs us that a Roman cohort was always stationed at the fortress of Antonia “and at the festivals they extended along the colonnades fully armed and watched for any sign of popular discontent.”439 A cohort typically consisted of 760 infantry troops and 240 cavalry.

He at once took some officers and soldiers and ran down to the crowd (21:32). The fortress of Antonia was located just outside the northwest corner of the temple precincts. The structure rose sixty feet high with three towers reaching seventy-five feet high and a fourth, just over a hundred feet. It gave the Romans a vantage point to watch over all that happened in the temple courts. Josephus notes: “Where it joined the Temple colonnades stairs led down to both, and by these the guards descended.”440

FORTRESS OF ANTONIA

A model of the fortress, which stood in the northwest corner of the temple grounds.

Bound with two chains (21:33). Paul’s wrists are secured with manacles and he is bound to two soldiers.441

He ordered that Paul be taken into the barracks (21:34). Paul is taken up the stairs and into the fortress of Antonia.

Kept shouting, “Away with him!” (21:36). The crowd means more than merely “Get him out of here”; they desire him to be led away to his death. Paul is experiencing the same response from the crowd that Jesus faced (see Luke 23:18; John 19:15).

Do you speak Greek? (21:37). The Roman official appears surprised when Paul addresses him in Greek. It was not astonishing to him that a Jew from Palestine would know Greek. Most Jews have probably learned at least some Greek. In listening to Paul, the tribune most likely discerns that Paul knows the language as well as any native Greek speaker. This may lead the tribune to conclude that Paul is not a local Judean revolutionary.

ROMAN MILITARY DAGGER

A model of a dagger similar to what the Sicarii may have used.

From Tarsus in Cilicia (21:39). On Tarsus, see comments on 9:30.

A citizen of no ordinary city (21:39). On the surface, it seems astonishing that Paul would reveal his Tarsian citizenship to the Roman official before disclosing his Roman citizenship. Yet in the ancient world, there was significant status attached to citizenship in an important city, such as Tarsus. Mention of his civic citizenship would have increased the esteem with which the tribune held him and perhaps incline the official to accede to Paul’s request to address the people. Had Paul mentioned his Roman citizenship at this juncture and this were announced to the assembled crowd, it would only have inflamed their passions against him even more.442 Yet there was a strong Jewish community in Tarsus which, at one point, even sent legates to help provoke the Jewish rebellion against Rome.443

He said to them in Aramaic (21:40). “Aramaic” is the NIV translation of the Greek expression hebrais dialektos. This can be interpreted to mean that Paul speaks to the crowd in (Mishnaic) Hebrew,444 but it more likely means that he addresses them in the closely related Aramaic language. Aramaic is a Semitic language closely related to the Hebrew, which was widely spoken throughout ancient Palestine, Nabatea, Syria, Persia, and Parthia. It would have been the mother-tongue of Jews living in the Holy Land. Not all the crowd knows Hebrew and, if Paul were to address them in Greek, it would be a serious insult given their concerns that Paul is much too friendly with Gentiles.

NORTHWEST CORNER OF THE TEMPLE MOUNT