_St. Paul's Journey from Miletus to Tyre,_ 1-6. Acts 21:1. AND IT CAME TO PASS, THAT AFTER WE WERE GOTTEN FROM THEM. The Greek word here, as Chrysostom remarks, is a very forcible expression, and signifies, ‘when we had torn ourselves away from them.' The parting between St. Paul and his Ephesian f... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 21:2. AND FINDING A SHIP SAILING OVER UNTO PHŒNICIA. Circumstances here favoured Paul. Patara was evidently the harbour whither his ship was bound from Alexandria Troas; but there was another vessel on the point of sailing for Phoenicia: thus not a day was lost.... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 21:3. NOW WHEN WE HAD DISCOVERED CYPRUS. The Greek word here rendered ‘when we had discovered,' is a nautical expression such as an eye-witness, familiar with the language of sea-Suing men, would have used; literally, having had (Cyprus) brought up to sight, made visible to us above the horizon... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 21:4. AND FINDING DISCIPLES. Literally, ‘and having found out the disciples.' There were disciples who lived at Tyre, these were searched out by Paul and his companions. There was a little Christian church in this city. See chap. Acts 11:19, where we read how those who were scattered abroad upo... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 21:5. AND WHEN WE HAD ACCOMPLISHED THOSE DAYS. That is, simply when the seven days at Tyre had come to an end. WE DEPARTED AND WENT OUR WAY. Literally, ‘and were going on our way.' ‘The imperfect tense of the Greek verb bringing before us something like a procession wending its way from the c... [ Continue Reading ]
_St. Paul completes his Journey to Jerusalem from Tyre by way of Ptolemais and Cæsarea to the Holy City,_ 7-17. Acts 21:7. AND WHEN WE HAD FINISHED OUR COURSE FROM TYRE, WE CAME TO PTOLEMAIS. More literally, ‘And we finishing our voyage, arrived at Ptolemais from Tyre.' The arrival of the apostle an... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 21:8. AND CAME TO CÆSAREA. The little company now travelled by land. Their route led them round Carmel along the coast for some thirty to forty miles to Cæsarea. This was the third visit St. Paul had paid to this city: (1) On his journey from Jerusalem to Tarsus (chap. Acts 9:30); (2) on his re... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 21:9. AND THE SAME MAN HAD FOUR DAUGHTERS, VIRGINS, WHICH DID PROPHESY. This is an example of the fulfilment of the prophecy of Joel quoted by St. Peter in the early days of the faith (Acts 2:17): ‘And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh; and your sons... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 21:10. AND AS WE TARRIED THERE MANY DAYS. ‘Many;' the Greek word thus rendered is in the comparative degree, and apparently signifies that Paul and his companions tarried in Cæsarea ‘more days' than at first they had intended. He was now only two days' easy journey from Jerusalem, which he inte... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 21:11. AND WHEN HE WAS COME UNTO US, HE TOOK PAUL'S GIRDLE AND BOUND HIS OWN HANDS AND FEET, AND SAID. The loose flowing robes worn in eastern countries are bound about the waist with a sash or girdle. Taking this from the apostle, the Christian prophet, in the dramatic way with which the old s... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 21:12. AND WHEN WE HEARD THESE THINGS, BOTH WE, AND THEY OF THAT PLACE, BESOUGHT HIM NOT TO GO UP TO JERUSALEM. The prediction of Agabus, set forth in so striking and impressive a manner, and possibly, too, because it detailed the danger in a way much more precise than appears from the text of... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 21:13. THEN PAUL ANSWERED, WHAT MEAN YE TO WEEP AND TO BREAK MY HEART? FOR I AM READY NOT TO BE BOUND ONLY, BUT TO DIE AT JERUSALEM FOR THE NAME OF THE LORD JESUS. But Paul, in spite of these reiterated prophecies, notwithstanding the loving and affectionate entreaties of his friends, saw clear... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 21:14. WE CEASED, SAYING, THE WILL OF THE LORD BE DONE. It seems very probable that this expression of resignation to the Divine will, to which the brethren so reverently bowed, was a quotation from the Lord's Prayer, and such a use of one of its petitions suggests to us that the Christians of... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 21:15. AND AFTER THOSE DAYS WE TOOK UP OUR CARRIAGES, AND WENT UP TO JERUSALEM. There is a variety here in the Greek text. The literal translation of the word found in the Received Text (ἀποσκευασάμενοι) would be, ‘having stowed away our baggage,' that is, having stored our heavy packages away... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 21:16. THERE WENT WITH US ALSO CERTAIN OF THE DISCIPLES OF CÆSAREA, AND BROUGHT WITH THEM ONE MNASON OF CYPRUS, AN OLD DISCIPLE, WITH WHOM WE SHOULD LODGE. This rendering of the Greek words is a possible one. A simpler way, however, of translating the original, and one, too, that affords a bett... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 21:17. AND WHEN WE WERE COME TO JERUSALEM. St. Paul now arrives at Jerusalem for the fifth time since he left it on that never-to-be-forgotten journey to Damascus to persecute the believers in Jesus. This is the last recorded visit that he made to the Holy City. The probable date of this Pentec... [ Continue Reading ]
_The Reception of Paul by James and the Jerusalem EldersThey tell Paul how he should act towards the Jewish Christians present at the FeastThe Gentile Apostle acts on their Advice,_ 18-25. Acts 21:18. AND THE DAY FOLLOWING PAUL WENT IN WITH US UNTO JAMES. This James was the so-called brother of the... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 21:19. AND WHEN HE HAD SALUTED THEM, HE DECLARED PARTICULARLY WHAT THINGS GOD HAD WROUGHT AMONG THE GENTILES BY HIS MINISTRY. Both from the private (Acts 21:17) and public reception of Paul and his companions by the presiding elders and bishop of the Jerusalem Church, it is quite clear that the... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 21:20. AND WHEN THEY HEARD IT, THEY GLORIFIED THE LORD, AND SAID UNTO HIM. Thus the Jerusalem elders and James, when they heard the story of the successful missionary apostle, reverently gave thanks to Almighty God for the great work done by the hand of His servant Paul. In their minds after hi... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 21:21. AND THEY ARE INFORMED OF THEE, THAT THOU TEACHEST ALL THE JEWS WHICH ARE AMONG THE GENTILES TO FORSAKE MOSES, SAYING THAT THEY OUGHT NOT TO CIRCUMCISE THEIR CHILDREN, NEITHER TO WALK AFTER THE CUSTOMS. This was, no doubt, the general opinion current among those Jewish Christians who had... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 21:22. WHAT IS IT THEREFORE? THE MULTITUDE MUST NEEDS COME TOGETHER: FOR THEY WILL HEAR THAT THOU ART COME. ‘Seeing, now, this is the state of things, that you, Paul, are looked upon by a large number of our countrymen with jealous suspicion and dislike, let us consider what is best under the c... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 21:23. DO THEREFORE THIS THAT WE SAY UNTO THEE: WE HAVE FOUR MEN WHICH HAVE A VOW ON THEM. ‘ We,' that is, James the presiding elder and his brother-presbyters of the Jerusalem Church. The advice which was tendered, and which Paul followed, was the counsel of the whole assembly. The ‘four men'... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 21:24. THEM TAKE, AND PURIFY THYSELF WITH THEM, AND BE AT CHARGES WITH THEM, THAT THEY MAY SHAVE THEIR HEADS. Better, be at charges _for_ them; pay all the expenses consequent on their Nazarite vow. These charges were, for each of the four persons, an he-lamb for a burnt-offering, a ewe-lamb fo... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 21:25. AS TOUCHING THE GENTILES WHICH BELIEVE, WE HAVE WRITTEN AND CONCLUDED THAT THEY OBSERVE NO SUCH THING. James and the Jerusalem elders were careful after they had advised Paul to assist these poor Nazarites, and to associate himself as one zealous for the law of Moses with them in their v... [ Continue Reading ]
_Paul takes the Nazarite's VowThe Uproar in the TempleHe is arrested by the Roman Soldiery and interrogated by the Officer in Command, who allows him to address the Crowd,_ 26-40. Acts 21:26. THEN PAUL TOOK THE MEN, AND THE NEXT DAY PURIFYING HIMSELF WITH THEM, ENTERED INTO THE TEMPLE. Dr. Schaff (_... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 21:27. AND WHEN THE SEVEN DAYS WERE ALMOST ENDED. Or, literally rendered, ‘were on the point of being completed;' that is, when the seven days, ‘the days of purification,' announced to the priests as the time to which the vow of the four Nazarites would extend, and also the period of the apostl... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 21:28. CRYING OUT, MEN OF ISRAEL, HELP: THIS IS THE MAN THAT TEACHETH ALL MEN EVERYWHERE AGAINST THE PEOPLE, AND THE LAW, AND THIS PLACE. The immediate provocation no doubt was the fact of Paul being in company with one known to be a Gentile. Paul they hated; they had watched him for several da... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 21:29. (FOR THEY HAD SEEN BEFORE WITH HIM IN THE CITY TROPHIMUS AN EPHESIAN, WHOM THEY SUPPOSED PAUL HAD BROUGHT INTO THE TEMPLE.) Trophimus was one of the little band which accompanied Paul from Philippi in Macedonia to Jerusalem. Being an Ephesian, he would be well known by sight to many of t... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 21:30. AND ALL THE CITY WAS MOVED, AND THE PEOPLE RAN TOGETHER. The rumour quickly reached the quarter of ‘Zion' that the notorious Paul had been caught in an act of sacrilege in the temple, and crowds of Jews would quickly come hurrying across the bridge which led from the temple into the city... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 21:31. AND AS THEY WENT ABOUT TO KILL HIM, TIDINGS CAME ONTO THE CHIEF CAPTAIN OF THE BAND, THAT ALL JERUSALEM WAS IN AN UPROAR. Preparations apparently were actually going on to execute summary justice on the apostle. The crowds that came hurrying over the bridge no doubt hindered the arrangem... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 21:33. THEN THE CHIEF CAPTAIN CAME NEAR, AND TOOK HIM, AND COMMANDED HIM TO BE BOUND WITH TWO CHAINS. The ‘chief captain' assumed that Paul was a criminal and guilty of some very grave crime against society. He himself evidently suspected he was a well-known Egyptian rebel who had hitherto elud... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 21:34. AND SOME CRIED ONE THING, AND SOME ANOTHER, AMONG THE MULTITUDE. The same angry, confused murmur of voices and cries were heard among the crowd as at Ephesus in the amphitheater when the Jews accused Paul and his friends. The Greek words used to describe the confused cries of the populac... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 21:37. And as Paul was to be led into the castle, he said unto the chief captain, May I speak unto thee? who said, Canst thou speak Greek? At the foot of the stairs leading up to the Tower of Antonia (the Castle), the pressure of the angry throng apparently obliged the Roman guard to take up Pa... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 21:38. ART THOU NOT THAT EGYPTIAN, WHICH BEFORE THESE DAYS MADEST AN UPROAR, AND LEDDEST OUT INTO THE WILDERNESS FOUR THOUSAND MEN THAT WERE MURDERERS? The ‘Egyptian' for whom the chief captain had mistaken Paul was a notorious character in those days. Josephus in his writings mentions him twic... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 21:39. BUT PAUL SAID, I AM A MAN WHICH AM A JEW OF TARSUS, A CITY OF CILICIA, A CITIZEN OF NO MEAN CITY. If he were indeed a citizen of Tarsus, he would have real claims upon the Roman authorities for protection. Tarsus as a city stood high in public estimation. It was not only famous as a univ... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 21:40. AND WHEN HE HAD GIVEN HIM LICENCE. There is nothing to call for the surprise which some have expressed at this permission being granted by the Roman authority for the suspected Paul to speak to the crowd. He had satisfied the officer that he was not the dangerous rebel whom he had taken... [ Continue Reading ]