About Jesus    Steve Sweetman

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Chapters 21:1 to 21:36 

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ch. 21:1-16   ch. 21:17-26  ch. 21:37-36

On To Jerusalem (ch. 21:1 - 16)

You can see how emotional everyone was when Paul and his friends left the Ephesian elders.  Luke says that “after we had torn ourselves away from them” (the elders) “we put out to sea”.  It took these men a couple of different ships, but they ended up in Tyre Syria.  They took a route that had them pass by to the south of Cyprus.

Paul and his company stayed in Tyre for 7 days.  While there the disciples urged Paul “through the Spirit” not to go to Jerusalem.  Now the obvious question is, “did the Holy Spirit, speaking through these people, probably prophetically, tell Paul not to go to Jerusalem"?  It appears upon a quick reading of this passage that this was the case.  If this was so, why didn’t Paul obey?  If this is so then did Paul misread God’s will in the first place.  Back in chapter 20:22 we read that Paul “was compelled by the Spirit to go to Jerusalem ”.  Is there a discrepancy here?

The best way to answer this question is to acknowledge that Paul was indeed led by the Holy Spirit to go to Jerusalem (ch. 20:22). Yet we also need to note that in every city Paul went there were prophetic warnings of hardship and imprisonment for Paul when arriving in Jerusalem. (ch. 20:23)    We must then understand this present urging by the disciples of Tyre as one of these prophetic warnings.  They in turn did not want to see Paul in harm so they encouraged him not to go, but Paul being compelled by the Spirit carried on.  To sum up, the Holy Spirit warned Paul of hardship in Jerusalem , but these people in Tyre pleaded with Paul not to go.  The pleading was not Spirit led, the warnings were.

Once the ship was ready to sail again, (after 7 days) Paul and his fellow workers boarded and continued on their trip. They continued on and came to Caesarea where they stayed at Philip’s house.  Luke calls him Philip “the evangelist”.  Luke also says that he was one of “the seven”.  The seven Luke was referring to were the 7 men who were chosen by the Jerusalem church in Acts 6 to administrate the daily food distribution.  After Stephen was killed, you will remember there was a great persecution of Christians, driving most of them out of the city, including Philip.  This is the same Philip we see in Acts 8.  This Philip is not the apostle name Philip.

We note that Philip had 4 daughters who prophesied. Luke did not call these women prophets.  There is a difference between one who has a gift of prophecy and a ministry of a prophet.     

In verse 10 we see Agabus once again, who did have the ministry of a prophet. We saw him in Acts 11:28 where he foretold of a famine. Agabus spoke a prophetic word to Paul with accompanying actions.  He took Paul’s belt and tied his hands and feet and said, “the Holy Spirit says, ‘in this way the Jews of Jerusalem will bind the owner of this belt and will hand him over to the Gentiles”.  Once again this is one of those prophetic warnings Luke has mentioned.  This prophecy might have been the clearest yet.  Paul would fall into a trap set by the Jews and given over to the Gentiles.

As in the other instances, the disciples “pleaded” with Paul not to go to Jerusalem.  Once again, we need to see that it was God’s will for Paul to go to Jerusalem as seen in chapter 20 verse 22.  This is just another warning, specific as it was.  The Lord did not tell Paul not to go.  The people told Paul not to go because they did not want harm to come to their beloved brother.

What was Paul’s response?  He says, “Why are you weeping and breaking my heart?  I am ready not only to be bound, but also to die in Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus”.  We see Paul’s determination.  He told the Ephesian elders back in chapter 20:24 that he viewed his life as meaning nothing.  Here we see that what Paul said then was not just words.

We also see the inner workings of Paul’s heart.  He asks, “why are you breaking my heart”.  Paul was a man of deep emotion and feelings for his people.  His heart was often broken because things they said and did. 

Luke then records that when these people could not dissuade Paul, they gave up trying and said, “the Lord’s will be done”.  Basically they simply threw their hands up in the air, somewhat frustrated and said only what they could say, that is, “God’s will be done”.

Once Paul was ready to leave, some people from Caesarea accompanied Paul and his fellow workers to Jerusalem.  By this time the number of people with Paul was fairly large.

Upon arriving in Jerusalem Paul and the others stayed at the house of a man named Mnason, who was an early convert and who also came form Cyprus.  It is interesting to note that Barnabas came from Cyprus as well, and there is a good chance that possibly Paul knew this man.

             Paul’s Arrival At Jerusalem   (ch. 21:27 - 36)

Paul and his company finally arrive in Jerusalem and on the second day go to visit James and the other elders.  Obviously this was a planned meeting since all the elders were there.  The specific mention of James makes many people feel that James was the “lead elder”, or “head elder”.  As stated earlier in this commentary one might presume that James was the “head elder”, but nowhere does the text specifically say this.  Some feel that James structured the Jerusalem church after the Jewish priesthood, that is, one chief priest, and other priest below him.  They say this because James did not forsake his Jewish tradition to the degree that Paul did.  Paul appears to structure the Gentile churches with a body of elders, not one particular man as a “head elder”. 

Luke was present at this meeting and says that Paul recounted all of the good things that the Lord did among the Gentiles through his ministry.

Luke for some reason does not say anything about the collection of money for the poor famine ravaged Jewish Christians in Judea, but at this meeting is when Paul and the others would have presented James and the elders with all the money that they had been collecting for the last year and a half or so.

The result of what Paul said was mixed.  Luke says that they “praised God” for what Paul said, but on the other hand they also told Paul that thousands of Jews were becoming Christians as well.  It was almost as if they could not take a back seat to Paul.  Paul was leading many Gentiles  to the Lord, but on the other hand, they were leading many Jewish people to the Lord too, and they wanted Paul to know this. 

Furthermore, they wanted Paul to understand that there were problems concerning his teaching among these new Jewish Christian converts.  So what’s new? The problem was concerning what Paul taught abut the Law of Moses.  They told Paul that all of these new Jewish converts  “are zealous for the Law”.  They also said, “they have been informed that you teach all the Jews who live among the Gentiles to turn away from Moses, telling them not to circumcise their children or live according to our custom. What shall we do?  They will certainly hear that you have come…” (ch. 21:21)

Notice a couple of things hear.  These elders are expressing a concern about the new Jewish converts who are zealous for the Law of Moses.  Yet it is my guess, and only a guess, that these elders had just as much concern about this issue as the new Jewish converts. 

Notice also that the issue was over Paul teaching that the Law was no longer applicable to the Jews.  They did not say that Paul should not be teaching such things to the new Gentile Christians, nor could they.  This issue had already been settled in Acts 15 with the letter written to these new Gentile Christians.  The issue at hand now was concerning the Law, what Paul was teaching, especially to Jewish Christians who lived among the Gentiles, not Gentile Christians.

The elders come up with a plan that would show the Jewish converts that Paul indeed still had respect for the Law of Moses and lived by it.  Paul agreed to this plan.  You might ask, why did Paul agree to this plan?  In 1 Cor. 9:20-23 you see where Paul says that to the Jew he becomes a Jew, and to the Gentile he becomes a Gentile.  This would be the way Paul lived in order to win people to Jesus.  He would not undermine the basics of the gospel, yet in secondary issues he could compromise. 

This was the plan the elders put forth.  There were 4 men in their congregation that participated in a vow.  Now if you were a Jewish man entering into a vow, you took that very seriously, and there were certain things you had to do to carry out this vow to its end as stipulated in the Law of Moses.  One of these things was to close off the vow with sacrifices and to shave their heads.  Part of the vow  was not to get your hair cut during the duration of the vow.

The elders suggested that Paul pay for the closing off procedures, the main expense being buying the animals for the sacrifice.  They also suggest to Paul that he participate along with them in this Jewish custom.  When people see this, then they would know that Paul himself still indorses the Law of Moses.  The elders say it this was, “…pay their expenses … then everybody will know that there is no truth to these reports about you, but that you yourself are living in obedience to the Law. As to the Gentile believers, we have written to them…” (ch. 21:24 - 25)  The reference to writing to the Gentile believers is the Acts 15 letter. 

The question that arises in my mind is, did Paul really “live in obedience to the Law”, which was the intended perception the elders wanted the Jews to see?  I don’t think he did, at least in the way these elders would interpret living by the Law.  I think what Paul had in mind in agreeing with this plan was somewhat different than what the elders had in mind.  The elders  wanted to show the Jewish converts that Paul obeyed the Law as they did.  What Paul had in mind was simply to keep the peace, because in reality, he did not obey the Law as they did.

I believe that the elders plan was somewhat manipulative in the fact that Paul really did not live his life in accordance with the Law.  Yet the elders wanted the Jewish converts to believe he did.  Was Paul then participating in this manipulation?  Maybe not, at least in his mind.  Paul’s end goal was to keep the peace, as I have said, not to manipulate the Jews into believing something that was not true.

The next day the plan was put into action.

Paul Arrested (ch. 21:27 - 36)

The 7 days of ending this vow between these 4 men was coming to a conclusion.  Certain Jews from Asia, where Paul had his greatest success in preaching the gospel and starting churches saw him in the Temple courts.  They also saw Trophimus, an Ephesians Greek earlier with Paul in Jerusalem and assumed that Paul brought him into the Temple courts which would have been against Jewish Law.  These Jews began to cause an uproar among the Jerusalem Jews.  These men most likely recognized Paul, while the Jews in Jerusalem would not have known Paul by face since he had hardly been in their city since his youth.

The Asian Jews told the crowd at the Temple that Paul “teaches all men everywhere against our people and our law and this place.  And besides, he had brought Greeks into the Temple areas and has defiled this holy place”. (ch. 21:28)

The Jews accused Paul of 4 things, speaking against the Jews, speaking against the Law, and speaking against the Temple , and bringing a Gentile into the courts of the Temple .  The first 3 accusations are understandable from the Jewish  view point.  Paul’s understanding of the Law was that it had been replaced by the grace of God and trust in this grace. His understanding of the Temple was that God did not live in Temples made by men.  His understanding of the Jews is that the real people of God are people who trust in Jesus, whether Jew or Gentile.  The Jewish people (not Christian Jews) did not like this teaching in the least.

When this news spread people from all over Jerusalem came running to the Temple creating major turmoil.  They were in the process of killing Paul when the captain of the Roman guards heard what was happening.  The captain and some of his soldiers came and when the rioters saw them they stopped beating Paul.  They had no legal authority to take such action.

The first thing the Roman guards did was to arrest and chain Paul with 2 chains, thinking that he was the cause of this riot. (ch. 21:33)  The captain of the guards tried to figure out why the crowd was beating Paul so he asked them what the problem was.  He got conflicting answers.  Like many of the riots before, most likely many of the rioters simply joined in the riot without knowing why they were rioting.  Since the Roman captain could not get a clear answer he had Paul sent to the barracks.

It is interesting to note that Paul was chained with 2 chains as Luke says in verse 33.  If you remember the prophecy by Agabus, he tied both his hands and feet wit Paul’s belt which symbolized what would happen to Paul.  Was the 2 chains that bound Paul on his hands and feet?  Luke does not get that detailed, but it might just be the case, thus fulfilling the prophecy right down to the last detail. 

Even during the process of taking Paul to the barracks the crowd did not stop its violent behaviour. When they reached the steps of the Temple the soldiers had to carry Paul out because they could not get him through the crowd of rioters. They kept shouting, “away with him”, reminding me of the crowd shouting “crucify him”, when they arrested Jesus.