AFTER WE HAD torn ourselves away from them, we put out to sea and sailed straight to Cos. The next day we went to Rhodes and from there to Patara. 2We found a ship crossing over to Phoenicia, went on board and set sail. 3After 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. 4Finding the disciples there, we stayed with them seven days. Through the Spirit they urged Paul not to go on to Jerusalem. 5But when our time was up, we left and continued on our way. All the disciples and their wives and children accompanied us out of the city, and there on the beach we knelt to pray. 6After saying good-by to each other, we went aboard the ship, and they returned home.
7We continued our voyage from Tyre and landed at Ptolemais, where we greeted the brothers and stayed with them for a day. 8Leaving the next day, we reached Caesarea and stayed at the house of Philip the evangelist, one of the Seven. 9He had four unmarried daughters who prophesied.
10After we had been there a number of days, a prophet named Agabus came down from Judea. 11Coming 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 Jews of Jerusalem will bind the owner of this belt and will hand him over to the Gentiles.’ ”
12When we heard this, we and the people there pleaded with Paul not to go up to Jerusalem. 13Then 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.” 14When he would not be dissuaded, we gave up and said, “The Lord’s will be done.”
15After this, we got ready and went up to Jerusalem. 16Some 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.
17When we arrived at Jerusalem, the brothers received us warmly. 18The next day Paul and the rest of us went to see James, and all the elders were present. 19Paul greeted them and reported in detail what God had done among the Gentiles through his ministry.
20When 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. 21They 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. 22What shall we do? They will certainly hear that you have come, 23so do what we tell you. There are four men with us who have made a vow. 24Take these men, join in their purification rites and pay their expenses, so that they can have their heads shaved. Then everybody will know there is no truth in these reports about you, but that you yourself are living in obedience to the law. 25As 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.”
26The 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.
27When 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, 28shouting, “Men of Israel, help us! This is the man who teaches all men everywhere against our people and our law and this place. And besides, he has brought Greeks into the temple area 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 area.) 30The 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. 31While they were trying to kill him, news reached the commander of the Roman troops that the whole city of Jerusalem was in an uproar. 32He 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.
33The 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. 34Some 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. 35When Paul reached the steps, the violence of the mob was so great he had to be carried by the soldiers. 36The crowd that followed kept shouting, “Away with him!”
Original Meaning
THE SORROW OF the Ephesian elders at their parting from Paul and his company (20:37–38) was such that they had to tear themselves away from them (21:1). The travelers then get back on board the ship and set sail with the ultimate goal of reaching Jerusalem by Pentecost.
In Tyre and Caesarea (21:1–16)
AS PAUL AND his friends sail eastward, they stop first at the main port on the island of Rhodes and then at Patara on the mainland (v. 2). There they board a larger ship that travels on the high seas. After sighting Cyprus along the way, they arrive in Tyre, a city in Phoenicia (v. 3). The unloading and loading process takes a week, but they have made good time. Thus Paul’s plans to get to Jerusalem before Pentecost (20:16) remain intact. The traveling group makes contact with the church in Tyre (v. 4)—a church probably founded by Christians who “had been scattered by the persecution in connection with Stephen [some of whom] traveled as far as Phoenicia” (11:19). Paul is not acquainted with this church, for the word translated “finding” (aneurisko, v. 4) means “to learn the location of something by intentional searching.”1
“Through the Spirit” (i.e., probably through the operation of a prophetic gift) the Christians in Tyre “urged Paul not to go on to Jerusalem” (v. 4b). How do we reconcile this with Paul’s statement that his trip to Jerusalem was “compelled by the Spirit” (20:22)? The Spirit could not possibly have given two contradictory messages in such quick succession. Perhaps the solution lies in the fact that Paul himself placed the Spirit’s prediction about impending persecution alongside the compulsion of the Spirit to go to Jerusalem. What the Christians in Tyre received from the Spirit was a prophecy that Paul would have trouble in Jerusalem. Out of that they may have inferred that the Spirit was prompting Paul not to go to Jerusalem. This explains why “through the Spirit they urged Paul not to go on to Jerusalem.”
In the short time of one week a warm tie of love in Christ developed between Paul’s team and the Christians in Tyre, so that they come with their families to see them off. J. G. S. S. Thomson observes, “Since it was customary to stand when praying (Mark 11:25; Luke 18:11–13) the kneeling posture in public here reveals the intensity, solemnity and sincerity of the prayer for Paul’s protection and their perseverance.”2
In Ptolemais, a few miles south of Tyre, Paul and his company stay only one day but again they greet believers there (v. 7). Next they come to Caesarea, where they stay in the house of Philip—one of the Seven (6:5), who is called “the evangelist” here (21:8). We saw his giftedness as both a public evangelist through his ministry in Samaria and a personal evangelist with the Ethiopian (ch. 8). Luke notes that Philip had “four unmarried daughters who prophesied” (v. 9). Keener thinks that the word Luke uses here for Philip’s daughters (parthenoi; lit., virgins) probably indicates that they “are young, under the age of sixteen.”3
In the early church prophesy was one of the most cherished gifts (1 Cor. 14:5, 39), but in that culture unmarried women normally did not have high standing. This may be Luke’s way of pointing out that low-status people were included in positions of prominence in the church.4 Eusebius refers to these daughters twice,5 mentioning that they lived and were buried in Hierapolis, which is in Phrygia in Asia Minor. Papias, bishop of Hierapolis, said that these daughters were sources of valuable information of what happened in the early years of Christianity. Philip and his daughters may have been one of Luke’s information sources.
In Caesarea the prophet Agabus, who had predicted the famine in Judea that prompted a collection from the church in Antioch (11:28–30), predicts that Paul will be bound and handed over to the Jews (vv. 10–11). He uses the form of an acted prophecy—a familiar method used by Old Testament prophets.6 The people plead with Paul not to go to Jerusalem, though Agabus apparently does not do this (v. 12). For the first time, it seems, Paul’s traveling companions (cf. Luke’s “we”) also join in the plea. The people weep as they try to persuade Paul (v. 13a; see 20:37). Paul’s answer that they are breaking his heart shows how hard all this is on him (v. 13a). But he explains his stand: He is not only willing to be bound but also to die for the cause (v. 13b). Finally the people give up, resigning themselves to “the Lord’s will” (v. 14).
The journey from Caesarea to Jerusalem was sixty-four miles, so the company stops over somewhere along the way—we are not sure where—at the home of Mnason (v. 16). Like Barnabas, he is from Cyprus and one of the early disciples. He too may have provided Luke with valuable information about the early days of the church.
Paul Meets the Jerusalem Christians (21:17–26)
PAUL IS WARMLY received by the believers on his arrival in Jerusalem (v. 17). The next day he and his company meet James and the elders (v. 18). His report of what God has done elicits praise to God, though there is no mention of the gift Paul brought (vv. 19–20a; but cf. 24:17). The “we” sections stop here and start again only with the journey to Rome (27:1), at which point Luke again shares common experiences with Paul. In the intervening events Luke is probably a bystander.
The sensitive nature of what the believers tell Paul is evidenced by the tone in which they introduce their point (vv. 20b, 22b). For the sake of the many Christians who are zealous for the Jewish law, they think it a good idea for him to dispel misrepresentations about his stand on the law by showing a willingness to submit to the law publicly. He can do this by paying for the expenses of four fellow Christians who have taken a vow. In order to do this he must purify himself along with these people (v. 24, 26). Lest Paul misunderstand their position, they affirm that they are in agreement with the position of the Jerusalem Council regarding requirements of Gentile Christians (v. 25).
Longenecker explains the procedure that Paul subjects himself to:
Coming from abroad, Paul would have had to regain ceremonial purity by a seven day ritual of purification before he could be present at the absolution ceremony of the four Jewish Christians in the Jerusalem temple. This ritual included reporting to one of the priests and being sprinkled with water of atonement on the third and seventh days.
This is not the same as taking upon himself a Nazirite vow. Rather, Paul must “report to the priest at the start of the seven days of purification, inform him that he was providing the funds for the offerings of the four . . . men . . . and return to the temple at regular intervals during the week for the appropriate rites.”7
Is Paul being inconsistent here? We must remember that Paul himself took a vow a few years before (18:18), so we know that he was convinced about the value of vows for Christians. But what about his opposition to works of the law in the letters? This was opposition to the belief that such works were necessary for salvation. He himself was not opposed to the law per se. We must not forget what Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 9:20: “To the Jews I became like a Jew, to win the Jews. To those under the law I became like one under the law (though I myself am not under the law), so as to win those under the law.” His actions in Jerusalem are consistent with the approach expressed in this verse.
Paul Is Arrested (21:27–36)
AS PAUL WAS coming to the end of his responsibilities regarding the vows, some Jews from Asia saw him in the temple. They had earlier seen Paul in the city with Trophimus (20:4), a Gentile companion from Asia, and they assumed that he was also in the temple. Had this been true, it would have desecrated the temple, for Gentiles could go only up to the outer court of the temple (“the Court of the Gentiles”). They incited the Jewish people to attack Paul (vv. 27–29).
Bruce explains the seriousness of their charge: “The Roman authorities were so conciliatory of Jewish religious scruples in this regard that they authorized the death sentence for this trespass even when the offenders were Roman citizens.” Citing evidence from Josephus and Philo, Bruce says that notices in Latin and Greek were fixed to the barrier between the inner and outer courts, warning Gentiles that death was the penalty for going any further.8 “The whole city was aroused” (v. 30a), and the people dragged Paul out of the temple. The gates of the temple were shut (v. 30b), possibly to avoid defiling the temple from the chaos.
The rioters began beating Paul to death. The timely intervention of the Roman commander and some of his soldiers prevented this from happening (vv. 31–32). Paul was arrested so that he could be given a proper trial (v. 33), but because of the turmoil of the crowd he had to be carried by the soldiers (v. 35). The crowd kept shouting, “Away with him” (v. 36). Luke must surely have felt the significance of the fact that some twenty-seven years earlier, another crowd had shouted, “Away with this man!” at a spot nearby (Luke 23:18).
Bridging Contexts
PHILIP’S DAUGHTERS. LUKE’S mention of Philip’s daughters (v. 9) highlights the fact that people not regarded as being of high status did have positions of prominence in the church. The breaking of human barriers in Christ is one of the main subthemes of Acts.9 Luke has given prominence to women in different ways. They were with the disciples during the pre-Pentecostal prayer meetings of the church (1:14). Because the Grecian widows were neglected, the apostles made a major administrative advance in the church (6:1–7). Dorcas was an exemplary woman of good deeds (9:36–42). The Gentile Lydia, probably single, hosted the apostolic team in Philippi (16:15), and Priscilla was the more prominent of an exemplary husband-wife team (18:18–19). The present passage records single women exercising what the New Testament regards as a key gift for the church.10
The New Testament letters affirm that women and men are equals in God’s kingdom (see Gal. 3:28; 1 Peter 3:7) and give guidelines about the different roles each has in the church11 and home.12 These passages have been the subject of much controversy and debate, a discussion of which is beyond the scope of this commentary. Acts teaches us that women, especially women marginalized by society, have a prominent role in fulfilling the agenda of the kingdom.
Warm, open community life. In this chapter Luke gives us an unadorned description of Christian community at work, seen especially in his repetition of the response of believers to Paul. He records warm affection with weeping, embracing, and kissing (20:37), which made it difficult for Paul to leave the Ephesian elders, so much so that they had to tear themselves away (v. 1). Even the newfound friends in Tyre expressed warm affection as they came with their families to send off Paul and his team and pray on their knees on the beach. In a similar vein Paul’s team had a warm reception in Jerusalem (v. 17), along with praise to God over the reports of his ministry (v. 20a).
Prophetic insight resulted in warnings to Paul about impending persecution in Jerusalem (vv. 4, 10–12). Believers can warn others of danger through the miraculous gifts of prophecy or insight. The community’s love, however, took a different turn when believers tried to persuade Paul against going to Jerusalem (vv. 4, 12). This proved to be hard for him, for they began to weep as they pleaded with him, breaking his heart in the process (v. 13). Even his close colleagues were swayed and joined in the chorus of dissent over his plans (v. 12). This reminds us that people who love us may try to shield us from the cross. We take community life seriously, but at times our own people will take stands that must be rejected.
Paul’s response to the misplaced concern of his friends is instructive. He expressed his frustration and pain over their approach (v. 13a). The openness that walking in the light requires in order to maintain fellowship (1 John 1:7) necessitates such open expressions of pain. But Paul also explained what lay behind his decision to go ahead with his journey to Jerusalem: He was ready not only to be bound but also to die for the cause (v. 13b).
All of us, if we are obedient to Christ, will face death of some sort, for the cross is a nonnegotiable prerequisite of discipleship. Our Christian loved ones may not understand or appreciate the path we are taking. If they oppose us, it is not because they reject God’s ways but because in their misplaced love they want to help us avoid pain. We must explain what lies behind our decisions and help them understand and accept the way we have chosen. Those who respect the will of God will relent from their opposition since they fear opposing God. This is what happened in Caesarea when believers said, “The Lord’s will be done.”
As another aspect of our community commitments, we may sometimes agree to do things we feel are unnecessary for us personally but help maintain unity. Paul did this in his involvement with the four men who took a vow. He bent over backwards and submitted to the will of the body, in keeping with what he taught in Ephesians 5:21: “Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ.” But was this a mistake? Some have thought so. We would do well, of course, to heed the warning “to guard against seeing Acts 21:17–26 as too positive a model inasmuch as the whole plot backfires (vv. 27–36).”13 While it does not present a model as such, I believe it shows us how seriously Paul viewed the unity of the church and how he was willing to do everything possible to please those who were different in perspective from himself.
The plot did indeed backfire, but the Jerusalem Christians were surely grateful for the price Paul was willing to pay to express his solidarity with them. I sometimes wonder whether the ease with which commentators dub this action of Paul as a mistake indicates how far the church has strayed from viewing suffering owing to commitments as an essential ingredient of Christian community.
Moreover, Paul’s participation in the vows of the four men is consistent with his teaching in his letters. As he wrote in 1 Corinthians 9, for evangelistic purposes he was willing to change his behavior according to his audience. He advocated the same flexibility in order to preserve the unity of the body, especially because some actions that certain Christians thought were legitimate could be a stumbling block to weaker Christians (Rom. 14; 1 Cor. 8). One who has died to self has a love that “does not insist on its own way” (1 Cor. 13:5, NRSV). To Paul the unity of the church was so important that a big price was well worth paying in order to preserve it. We ought to recover this perspective in today’s church.
More on Paul and the Jews. Luke must surely have considered the interplay between Paul and the Jewish people as important, for he writes about it so many times in Acts. In this section, even though Paul was primarily called to evangelize the Gentiles, he never gave up trying to minister to Jews and to build bridges between Judaism and Christianity. The attempt here ended in disaster, but he kept trying to win them over. In fact, the last chapter of Acts gives considerable space to describing Paul’s efforts at evangelizing the Jews in Rome. There too he had the same response, with the majority of the Jews rejecting what he said so that he turned to concentrate on the Gentiles (28:28). But he never gave up trying to win the Jews.
This pattern ought to inspire us to persevere with what may be called “the establishment” and not give up on it. Perhaps we cannot derive a binding principle here. But this section helps us appreciate the efforts of those who try to bring renewal to old structures that seem confined to traditional ways of doing things and closed to considering change.
Contemporary Significance
THE PROMINENT ROLE of women in God’s agenda. How can we apply the principle evident in Luke’s writings that women and other people marginalized in society have a prominent place in God’s kingdom? We ought to follow Luke in demonstrating to such people that they are truly important to God and to the church. Our application of Scripture should be relevant to all segments of God’s people. We must show how biblical principles apply to men and women, to the rich and the poor, and to adults, youth, and children. In our illustrations, we should be representative in our use of examples.14 For us in poorer nations, where much of our literature comes from the richer nations, we should look diligently for examples from our part of the world. In multiethnic societies, we should look for examples from the different ethnic groups.
We should also avoid examples that entrench people in their prejudices. Things have become a bit sensitive recently because of an overemphasis on political correctness, and inclusive language has been used even for God. While we deplore such excesses, that should not prevent us from using language that does not eliminate one group of people (e.g., women). What was legitimate a generation ago may mean something different today, as meanings attributed to words change over time.
Having said this, we must also remember that the New Testament letters say some things about the roles of men and women that grate against the way many people are thinking today. We should be careful about radically reinterpreting these passages to mean something Paul did not mean. Insofar as our cultural backgrounds can cause us to be blind to certain facets of scriptural truth, we should always be willing to submit traditional interpretations to fresh study. But we have no mandate to reject a passage or to reinterpret it so that it ends up saying something clearly not intended by the author. This is a difficult issue, as the plethora of books with conflicting conclusions from authors, all of whom are firmly committed to the authority of Scripture, shows. But whatever our views, there should be no doubt in the minds of all biblical Christians about the equality, importance, and significance of those whom society considers unequal, unimportant, or insignificant.
Fallible Christians expressing community love. In our discussion of Acts 20 we looked at the happiness that comes from warm ties of love and commitment. These warm ties are illustrated in the present passage. But committed relationships can also bring much pain and inconvenience—experiences that may cause Christians to shun such relationships in preference for a life that guards their privacy. Yet one of the many blessings of committed relationships is the joy of being loved by fellow Christians. This joy Paul had, and it would have more than compensated for the pain that came with such commitments. In a world filled with lonely people, such love and commitment are so important.
At the same time, we also noted that even Paul’s close friends did not understand the path he was taking. Heroes are usually admired only from a distance. When they are actually doing the work that ultimately leads to their becoming heroes, it seems so costly, strange, and foolish. Their loved ones see the cross of suffering and want to spare them the pain. For example, many missionaries go out to the field against the wishes of their parents. When they find the going tough, they write home, and the parents get upset at their children or accuse the sending agency of causing them harm.
Because our rewards are in heaven, we usually do not have much to show by way of earthly success. Paul himself appeared to be such a failure that at the end of his life everyone had deserted him (2 Tim. 4:16). All this is hard on the emotions of God’s servants. They know there was an element of risk in what they were doing, and they cannot help but question if they have been mistaken after all. But a compulsion of the Spirit is what helps them to go on (cf. 20:22).
Yet when no one understands us, we should not reject everyone and go it alone. Rather, we should try to change people’s minds. And many do change their minds, as we see with Paul’s trip to Jerusalem. Luke himself eventually changed his mind. He joined in the pleas to Paul not to go to Jerusalem (v. 12). But he stuck with Paul not only in Jerusalem but throughout his imprisonments. At least seven years later, Paul wrote to Timothy from prison in Rome, “Only Luke is with me” (2 Tim. 4:11).
We cannot avoid the sad fact that some Christians will not understand the path we are taking. Some parents will remain opposed to the decision their children have taken to follow Christ along a difficult path. Some of those who oppose us are good, godly people. As I mentioned earlier, the great evangelical social reformer, the Earl of Shaftesbury, known as “the poor man’s Earl,” once announced that after much study he was convinced that the Salvation Army was clearly the Antichrist!15 But passion for obedience to Christ helps us to go on with our vision.
The request of the Jerusalem Christians for Paul to be involved in the funding of the vows of four brothers is another good example of fallible Christians trying to express Christian love. We cannot be certain whether this act was a mistake. But it shows us how serious Paul was about preserving unity in the body of Christ. He was willing to do everything possible to please Christians who were different from him. This perspective needs emphasis in an age where individualism has hit the church so hard that church splits are even being viewed as a desirable means of church growth! This surely is an expression of worldliness in this age where the supposed quest for self-fulfillment has devalued the importance of lasting commitments16 and where, because of the pragmatic attitude, growth at the cost of another is regarded as acceptable.
The idea of the survival of the fittest at the cost of the weak may be the law of the jungle and of the marketplace, but it is not the law of the kingdom. In a study on cooperating in world evangelism, John Stott comments, “An empirical fact is not necessarily a biblical truth. . . . We must not assume that the world is necessarily to be a model for the church.”17 Paul reacted with horror over divisions in the body of Christ. With biting irony he asked, “Is Christ divided?” (1 Cor. 1:13). The damage this does to Christian witness is immense.
Just two days before I wrote this, our daily newspaper carried a letter to the editor, presumably from a Buddhist, where the writer sarcastically expressed his feelings about divisions among the Protestants as opposed to the unity of the Roman Catholics. He ended the letter with the words, “The structure of the Christian church seems so confusing at times!”18 Paul’s willingness to submit himself to the request of the Jerusalem leaders challenges us to greater sensitivity about Christians who are different and to greater efforts at cooperation with them.
On one of Paul’s earlier visits to Jerusalem, the leaders of the church agreed that while Peter would specialize in Jewish evangelism, Paul would specialize in Gentile evangelism (Gal. 2:7–8). But that did not prevent Paul from being sensitive to the sensibilities of Jewish Christians. This is what we call the kingdom perspective. Within the one kingdom of God we may have different roles, but we work for the same King; therefore, we will help each other at personal cost to ourselves and never do things that will hurt the other. That is, the Baptist Church should not do anything to hurt the Assembly of God church down the road, and an Inter-Varsity chapter should not attempt to grow at the expense of a Navigators chapter on the same campus. Recognizing our different roles and submitting to scriptural teaching about the body of Christ, we should try to help each other whenever possible and modify our plans if we find they are hurting another Christian group.
Persevering with the establishment. Paul’s perseverance with the Jewish “establishment” should encourage us to persevere with what we today see as the establishment. As noted above, this may not be a binding principle that applies to everyone; it may have to do with each one’s individual calling. Some devout Christians, for example, leave older denominations out of a sense of outrage over the way they have compromised biblical Christianity. But other equally devout people stay on in these denominations, seeking to be agents of renewal. They will face frustration and even persecution, but that is to be expected in this fallen world (cf. Rom. 8:20). They may groan, looking forward to their ultimate redemption, which will come only in the new heaven and the new earth (8:23). Many give up because they feel it is a waste of time. But Paul was willing to “waste” his time with resistant Jews in every town he went to before going to the more receptive Gentiles and God-fearers. In most of these towns some Jews were converted.
God may be calling some Christians to attempt to facilitate a renewal of biblical Christianity within older churches that others are prone to dismiss as unredeemable. God does not call all Christians to do this. But Paul’s example of persevering with the Jews should make us reluctant to criticize those who are trying to bring renewal in older churches. In fact, even those who are not called to this work ought to pray for and encourage their brothers and sisters who have stayed.