Read or listen The Acts of the Apostles Chapter 21 online (ESV, Bible Gateway)

At the end of the previous chapter, Paul said goodbye to the Christians in Ephesus. The text left the impression that Paul's missionary work in the eastern Mediterranean was drawing to a close. But there was still a visit to Jerusalem ahead, which was not without danger or problems.

It was not at all certain how the Christians of the Jerusalem congregation, who respected Jewish law, would react to Paul, who preached a law-free gospel, and to the assistance he brought from the Gentile congregations to the poor in Jerusalem. In addition, there was reason to be wary of the reactions of the Jews. It was unlikely that they had forgotten the former persecutor of Christians, even more than 20 years after Paul's conversion to Christianity.

The last journey as a free man - Acts 21:1-14

Paul's last journey as a free man took him through the modern-day holiday destinations of Kos and Rhodes. Luke's travelogue clearly shows the two ways of seafaring at that time. At first, Paul and his companions travelled on coastal ships, which sailed from one port to another every day. From Patara onwards, the journey continued on a larger ship, which ventured out to sea, so far from the coast that land was no longer visible. On such a ship, Paul and his companions were able to take a shortcut south of Cyprus and directly to Syria.

At that time, navigational aids were scarce. The only way to judge a ship's location and direction was by the stars and the sun. Since ships that ventured out to sea were usually large and clumsy cargo ships, it was understandable that sailing was not a pleasant vacation but rather a dangerous adventure.

This time Paul’s sea voyage went without any difficulties. Paul and his companions quickly reached the city of Tyre, where the ship unloaded its cargo (verse 3). Whether Paul waited a week for the old cargo to be unloaded and the new to be loaded, or whether he continued the journey to Ptolemais on another ship (verse 7), remains unclear. Ptolemais was called Acre during the Crusades, and today the city is called Aere.

In Tyre, Paul met with the Christians of the city. The congregation in the city had evidently been formed when the martyrdom of Stephen had scattered some Christians from Jerusalem (Acts 11:19). The congregations of Ptolemais and Caesarea were probably also formed at the same time. All of these congregations were Hellenistic-Jewish Christians, meaning that most of their members were former Jews whose mother tongue was Greek.

Among them was Philip the evangelist, who lived in Caesarea, and who should not be confused with the apostle Philip. Philip was therefore one of Stephen's co-workers, one of the first seven deacons of the church. In Acts 8, Luke tells of Philip's work in those very regions. Luke "left" Philip specifically in Caesarea (Acts 8:40). Paul and his companions stayed with Philip for several days (verse 8).

At that time, the prophet Agabus came to Caesarea from Jerusalem. He had twenty years earlier (in Acts 11:28) predicted a famine during the reign of Emperor Claudius. Agabus already made a third prophecy about Paul's difficulties in Jerusalem (verse 11, the previous two: Acts 20:23 and 21:4).

He took Paul's belt, which was a long cloth cloth, and tied it around his hands as a sign of Paul's imprisonment in Jerusalem. He prophesied in the name of God: "Thus says the Holy Spirit" (verse 11, which corresponds to the Old Testament expression "Thus says the Lord", for example, Amos 1:3).

Why did the Holy Spirit reveal Paul's future? Verses 12 and 13 show that Paul was not going to change his plans in spite of everything. Did Paul do wrong? Hardly, rather we can say that he was ready to follow Jesus' way to Jerusalem: both were "drawn" to Jerusalem by divine compulsion.

We cannot satisfactorily explain why those three prophecies about Paul's fate were given. At their deepest, they remain a mystery. But perhaps it is not wrong to think that they were an encouragement to the Christians in these churches. Everything that Paul encountered in Jerusalem was known to God. So they dared to leave Paul in God's care (verse 14) and they certainly also prayed for the apostle.

A somewhat similar problem is why Luke mentions in verse 9 the four daughters of Philip who had the gift of prophecy. After all, the prophecy came from Agabus! One must be content with the idea: Luke tells what came to his mind. One cannot look for deep theological reasons for everything.

Jew to Jew – Acts 21:15-26

It is about a hundred kilometers from Caesarea to Jerusalem and the ascent on that journey is about 800 meters. The journey took two days. The overnight stay was at Mnason's house.

The Jerusalem church was in a very difficult situation at that time: the growing nationalism of the Jews forced caution. There was no reason to do anything that would lead to accusations of unpatrioticism. Less than ten years later, in 66 AD, nationalism led to a revolt that the Romans crushed, but not until 72 AD. Would the Jerusalem church accept Paul and his gift? Paul himself had to ask this question (Romans 15:31).

When Paul arrived in Jerusalem, things seemed to be going well. The very next day, Paul met with the leader of the Jerusalem church, James, the brother of Jesus (verse 18). At that time (late 50s), the apostles had already scattered to preach the gospel outside of Jerusalem.

However, James had to realize that not all the Christians in Jerusalem were equally happy about Paul’s arrival. A significant reason for Paul’s opposition was the false rumor that Paul had been telling the Jews to abandon the Mosaic Law. Therefore, that rumor would first have to be dispelled before Paul could meet with all the Christians in Jerusalem.

James suggested that Paul pay the cost of the sacrifices of four poor Christians who had taken a Nazirite vow. The Nazirite vowed to abstain from drinking wine, cutting his hair, and defile himself with the dead for a certain period of time. At the end of the vow, the hair was cut and a sheep, lamb, or ram was sacrificed (Numbers 6:1-21).

If Paul paid the expenses, everyone would understand that Paul did not want to prevent Jewish Christians from observing the Law of Moses, much less forbid Jews from observing the Law. Sometimes an action speaks louder than a thousand words, so Paul agreed to the plan. He wanted to be a Jew to a Jew and a Greek to a Greek.

To go to the temple, Paul himself had to purify himself, since he came from a (unclean) pagan area. James wanted to maintain the unity between Gentile and Jewish Christians. Paul wanted the same, as shown by his coming to Jerusalem despite all the dangers and agreeing to James' plan.

Riot in the Temple – Acts 21:27-36

Paul’s purification rituals included visiting the temple on both the third and seventh days. On the second occasion, Jews from Asia Minor saw Paul in the temple and incited a riot, accusing him of desecrating the law and bringing a Gentile into the temple.

The charge of contempt of the law would hardly have been effective on its own, but the charge of profaning the temple was so serious that no further investigation was conducted, and the mob attacked Paul. If Paul had taken Trophimus of Ephesus into the temple, whom Paul’s opponents evidently knew to be a Christian from his home region (Ac 20:4), the crime would have been serious indeed.

Gentiles were allowed to enter the temple into the so-called Court of the Gentiles, which was not the actual temple area. From there, 12 gates led to the Court of the Women. Next to each gate was a warning tablet, which promised the death penalty for a Gentile who entered the temple. One such tablet has been found in archaeological excavations. A Gentile entering the temple area would have led to the defilement of the entire temple and major purification rituals.

Paul was dragged outside the temple because it was forbidden to kill anyone in the temple area. The closing of the gates after Paul closed off any escape route back to safety (verse 30).

Paul’s salvation came from a surprising source. In the northwest corner of the temple was the Antonia Castle, which Herod the Great had once built as a place of refuge in case a rebellion broke out in Jerusalem. In Paul’s time, the Antonia Castle was occupied by Roman soldiers, and when the tribune, commander of the military department heard that there was a riot in the city, he and his soldiers went to the scene.

The intervention of the Romans saved Paul. Paul was bound with two chains, apparently with a Roman soldier on each side. Unable to figure out what was going on, the tribune of the military unit decided to take Paul to the Antonia Palace (verse 34) for more detailed interrogation. The crowd demanded Paul’s death.

Suspected of being the leader of the rebellion - Acts 21:37-41

Paul approached the tribune and asked to speak to the crowd. The tribune was surprised by Paul’s good command of Greek. He had already formed the impression that Paul might be the wanted Egyptian Jewish rebel leader.

The Jewish historian Josephus also tells about the leader of the rebellion. According to Josephus, he was one of the leaders of the “dagger men”. The group got its name from the fact that they used to stab “unpleasant” people to death in the crowded streets. The dagger men had even killed one of the high priests. According to Josephus, this “Egyptian” had gathered a group of 30,000 men. He had led them first into the desert and from there to the Mount of Olives to await the destruction of Jerusalem - and the coming of the Messiah, whom Josephus fails to mention. The Romans had attacked the rebels, killed 400 of them and taken 200 prisoners. The rest, including the leader of the group, managed to escape.

Luke mentions the number of the rebels as 4,000. Luke’s number seems more plausible. The explanation may be very simple: the Greek number 4 is actually the letter “delta” (which corresponds to our d) and the number 30 is “lambda” (which corresponds to our l). In Greek, the two letters look very similar: delta is a triangle and lambda is a triangle that lacks a “bottom”, like an A without a cross. The two letters were very easily confused.

The tribune had therefore thought that Paul was a very dangerous criminal. He allowed Paul to speak to the crowd. Perhaps the tribune hoped to gain more information from Paul’s speech. However, his hope was in vain, for Paul spoke in Aramaic. This Hebrew family language was the language used by the common people of that time in the Palestinian region.