Acts 21:28

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 days with some surprise as a Nazarite constantly going in and out of the second court, where was situated the chambers where the Nazarites performed their vows (Middoth, quoted by Howson, St. Paul, chap, 21), and into which no Gentile on pain of death might enter. After some days they saw him in the outer court (the court of the Gentiles), with Trophimus the Ephesian: they at once concluded he had been taking this un-circumcised Gentile with him into the inner court, where only an Israelite might penetrate. The angry men at once seized him, and, acting on a mere suspicion, directly charged him with sacrilege. But they accused him, besides, of having taught all men everywhere not only ‘against the Law and the Temple,' which was the old charge brought against Stephen and a greater than Stephen, but of having taught all men ‘against the people.' This was really the great accusation which the Jews brought in the case of Paul, and was of course based upon his well-known and famous work among the Gentile peoples, whom Paul taught everywhere were fellow-heirs with Israel of the kingdom. This levelling up of the long-despised alien, the rigid and exclusive Jew bitterly rebelled against, hence the burning hostility against Paul.

And further brought Greeks into the temple, and hath polluted this holy place. That is to say, Paul had brought Trophimus into that part of the temple interdicted to foreigners, not being Jews. The first court, called ‘the Court of the Gentiles,' could be entered by all Jew and Gentile alike.

The temple of Jerusalem in the first century of the Christian era was erected on the old area once occupied by the threshing-floor of Araunah, but greatly enlarged by means of laborious substructions after King David's death. The temples of Solomon and Zerubbabel had successively stood upon it, and now the partially new ‘house of Herod' occupied the same place.

The outer court was a square; it was known in the old prophetic books as the ‘Court of the Lord's House.' Josephus calls it ‘the Outer Temple.' In the Apocrypha and Talmud it is known as ‘the Mountain of the House.' In this enclosure Gentiles might walk. It was paved with stones of various colours, and was surrounded with a covered colonnade of great magnificence. About the south-east angle of this court was the Porch of Solomon where Jesus walked (John 10:23). It was in this great outer court that the money-changers kept their exchange tables, and where beasts for sacrifice were sold. It was here, too, that Peter and John nearly a quarter of a century before had healed the lame man (Acts 3). This outer court was connected with the city and the Mount Zion quarter by means of a bridge over the intervening valley.

Near the north-west corner of this court of the Gentiles arose that series of enclosed terraces, communicating with one another by flights of steps, on the summit of which was the sanctuary. A balustrade of stone fenced off these more sacred enclosures. This was the middle wall of partition alluded to, Ephesians 2:14. The first flight of steps led up to a platform called the Court of the Women, so named because no woman of Israel might penetrate beyond this enclosure. The Nazarite chambers led out of this terrace or court, which also it is supposed contained the treasury. It was here that St. Paul was believed to have introduced Trophimus. Above this terrace were the Court of Israel and the Court of the Priests. Here the sacrifices were offered. The temple itself, including the vestibule, the Holy Place, and the Holy of Holies, rose above all these raised terraces, and was approached by a flight of twelve steps from the Court of the Priests.