Acts 21:35

And when he came upon the stairs, so it was, that he was borne of the soldiers for the violence of the people. And when he came upon the stairs, so it was, that he was borne of the soldiers for the violence of the people....

27-40 In the temple, where Paul should have been protected as in a place of safety, he was violently set upon. They falsely charged him with ill doctrine and ill practice against the Mosaic ceremonies. It is no new thing for those who mean honestly and act regularly, to have things laid to their charge which they know not and never thought of. It is common for the wise and good to have that charged against them by malicious people, with which they thought to have obliged them. God often makes those a protection to his people, who have no affection to them, but only have compassion for sufferers, and regard to the public peace. And here see what false, mistaken notions of good people and good ministers, many run away with. But God seasonably interposes for the safety of his servants, from wicked and unreasonable men; and gives them opportunities to speak for themselves, to plead for the R...

Verse 35. _AND WHEN HE CAME UPON THE STAIRS_] Those mentioned in the note on Acts 21:31....

UPON THE STAIRS - The stairs which led from the temple to the castle of Antonia. Josephus says (_Jewish Wars_, book 5, chapter 5, section 8), that the castle of Antonia “was situated at the corner of two cloisters of the temple, of that on the west, and of that on the north; it was erected on a rock of 50 cubits (75 feet) in height, and was on a great precipice. On the corner where it joined to the two cloisters of the temple, it had passages down to them both, through which the guards went several ways among the cloisters with their arms, on the Jewish festivals, etc.” It was on these stairs, as the soldiers were returning, that the tumult was so great, or the crowd so dense, that they were obliged to hear Paul along to rescue him from their violence. THE VIOLENCE OF THE PEOPLE - The rush of the multitude....

EXPOSITION ACTS 21:1 _When it came to pass float we were parted from them, and had set sail _for _it came to pass, that after we were gotten from them, and had launched, _A.V.; _Cos _for _Coos_, A.V. and T.R.; _next day _for _day following, _A.V. PARTED FROM THEM (ἀποσπασθέντας)_. _"Non sine desiderio magno" (Bengel). "He shows the violence of the parting by saying, ' Having torn ourselves away '" (Chrysostom). The word is properly applied to those who have been unwillingly torn away from their friends (Schleusner and Kuinoel); "denotes the painful separation wrung from them by necessity" (Meyer) In Acts 20:30 it was used in the active voice of false teachers "drawing away" the disciples, _i.e. _Christians

AND WHEN HE CAME UPON THE STAIRS,.... Or steps, which led up to the castle; for it was built upon a very high place, as appears from the account of it in the preceding verse; to which agrees what Aristaeas g says of it in the following words; "in order to have knowledge of all things, we went up to a castle adjoining to the city, which is situated in a very high place, fortified with very high towers, built with large stones, as we supposed for the preservation of the places about the temple, if there should be any lying in wait, or tumult, or enemies should enter; so that none might be able to make way in at the walls about the temple; for in the towers of the castle lay very sharp darts and various instruments, and the place was upon a very great eminence.'' SO IT WAS THAT HE WAS BORNE OF THE SOLDIERS FOR THE VIOLENCE OF THE PEOPLE: the sense is, either that the crowd of the people w...

CHAPTER 21 _ 1. The journey from Miletus to Tyre and Ptolemais (Acts 21:1)._ 2. In Caesarea (Acts 21:8). 3. The Apostle's Arrival in Jerusalem and his visit to the Temple (Acts 21:15). 4. The Uproar in the Temple. Paul taken prisoner (Acts 21:27). Coos, Rhodes and Patara are mentioned. Then they sailed over to Phenicia and landed in Tyre. Here they found disciples. And the Holy Spirit through these disciples warned the Apostle at once that he should not go to Jerusalem. This, indeed, was very solemn. If these disciples had spoken of themselves, if it said that they were in anxiety over Paul's journey to that

OUTBURST OF JEWISH FURY AGAINST PAUL IN THE TEMPLE: HIS ARREST. A week later Paul is in the Temple to discharge his vow; whether it was discharged or not is uncertain. The sight of him there infuriates certain Jews from Asia (Ephesus was the metropolis of that province), who at once begin shouting, as they lay their hands on Paul, that he teaches everywhere a doctrine subversive of all that the Jew held dear; and that he had violated the Temple by taking a Gentile into the inner court. An inscription on the railings (Revelation 11:2 *, _cf_. Ephesians 2:14 *) denounced the penalty of death against any Gentile found there. It was a suspicion merely; Trophimus (Acts 20:4) had been seen with Paul on the streets but not

NO RETREAT (Acts 21:1-16)...

STAIRS. Greek. _anabathmos._ Only here and Acts 21:40. SO IT WAS. it befell, as in Acts 20:19. BORNE. Greek. _bastazo,_ as in Acts 15:10. OF. by. Greek. _hupo._ App-104. VIOLENCE. Greek. _bia_. See note on Acts 5:26....