Acts 21:30

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.

And they took Paul, and drew him out of the temple: and forthwith the doors were shut. Paul was evidently at this time in the first of the inner courts, probably in the neighbourhood of the Nazarite chambers, and certainly not with Trophimus this was clearly a gratuitous supposition on the part of his enemies. They had been seen together in the city, perhaps in the Court of the Gentiles; they were known from old memories in Ephesus to be close friends, and so the rumour got abroad. It is easy to understand how it was repeated from mouth to mouth, in the first instance perhaps as a probability, then as a fact. ‘The doors' which were shut were most likely those on the eastern side, made of Corinthian brass, very strong and massive. It has been suggested that these great gates were closed to intimate that the worship and sacrifice in the temple were temporarily suspended, in order that it might be ascertained whether or no the temple had been profaned.

It is, however, more likely that these doors were shut, and Paul thrust out, to guard against the possibility of the temple floors being stained with blood and thus polluted in the event of Paul and his supposed companion being summarily put to death by the people. This was done by the Levites in charge of the ‘House.'