A Commentary in Simple English on The Acts of the Apostles

Verses 1-16: from Miletus to Jerusalem

(Verse 1) At the end of Chapter 20, we left Paul and his party at Miletus. The elders from Ephesus had come with him to the ship. Now Paul and his friends ‘tore themselves away from them.’ When the ship sailed it had a good wind from the north or north west. This helped it along to the south. It was not a straight journey! There were many islands and the ship had to sail between them and the coast. To the west, they might see the island of Patmos. See Revelation 1:9. So the ship came to the town of Cos, on the island which is also called Cos. Another day’s sailing would then bring the ship to the port of Rhodes. This was on the island which was called Rhodes. Paul’s ship went more to the east now.

Rhodes was an important port. The city of Rhodes was only built in the year 408 BC. See Genesis 10:4, 1 Chronicles 1:7 and Ezekiel 27:15. The Colossus of Rhodes was a great figure. It was about 35 metres high. It was used as a lighthouse at the entrance to the harbour. It had stood there for about 350 years, but later an earthquake destroyed it.

Probably the next day, the ship sailed from Rhodes. It went another 100Km east to Patara which was the port for the city of Xanthus. Paul’s plan was probably to sail the next day to the port city of Myra. This was the next big port to the east. It would be a good place to find a ship to take them to Syria. (Verse 2) In fact, they found a ship at Patara which had goods loaded on it ready to take to Syria. So they had saved at least one day and perhaps more. They did not go on to Myra. (Verse 3) With a good north-west wind to help the ship along, the journey from Patara to Tyre might only take two days. [21.1] This was open sea. The journey was about 550Km. There were no islands, except for Cyprus, in this part of the Mediterranean Sea. They could sail safely at night. At night the light of a full moon probably helped the sailors.

Tyre in Syria was another very old port and city. It may not be as old as Sidon, which is further north up the coast. These were the two great ports of the Phoenicians. Joshua 12:29 is the first Bible verse which speaks about Tyre. There are longer passages about Tyre in Isaiah 23 and Ezekiel 26-28. It is still a port and city now. We know from 11:19 that the Good News had reached Phoenicia some years before.

The ship had to unload, so Paul was able to stay in Tyre for a week. (Verse 4) Paul found a group of Christians in the city. Like the Christians in other cities, they warned Paul about the danger that he must expect in Jerusalem. They did this as the Holy Spirit led them. (Verse 5) The Christians at Tyre had only known Paul for a week, but they all came to see him leave. They knelt and prayed on the beach. (Verse 6) So Paul went on his journey, with his party.

(Verse 7) From Tyre it was about 50Km south to the next great port. At that time its name was Ptolemais. This name came from one of the kings of Egypt whose name was Ptolemy. Its old name was Acco. Today it is call Akka or Acre. You will find the name in Judges 1:31. [21.2] Although the ship was only here for one day, Paul was able to find a group of Christians.

(Verse 8) Another day at sea on the ship brought Paul and his group to Caesarea Maritima. This was the port which Herod the Great had built; the Romans took it over after his death. We have not read about Caesarea in Acts since 18:22. Even then, Paul only passed through Caesarea on his way to Jerusalem. Quite likely he returned that way too. That was about five years before this visit to Jerusalem.

It was in 8:40 that we read about Philip, who had made his home in Caesarea. That was some years before the visit by Paul. We cannot doubt that Philip had gathered a group of Christians in the city. It is quite likely that Cornelius (Chapter 10) had either died or, as a soldier, had to move away from Caesarea. Paul and his group stayed in Philip’s house. (Verse 9) It is said that some years later, Philip and his family moved their home to Ephesus.

(Verse 10) Paul’s journey so far had gone well. Caesarea was about 74Km from Jerusalem. This was by road, and would take more than two full days. There was time to spare before the Jewish feast of Pentecost in Jerusalem.

Once again we meet Agabus. See note [11.4] and 11:27 and 28. Agabus came down from Judea. You always talked about ‘up to Jerusalem’ and ‘down from Jerusalem’. (Verse 11) Of course, Agabus may have heard that Paul was in Caesarea. He may have made the journey there just to see Paul. Agabus took Paul’s belt and used it to tie up his own hands and feet. Sometimes the Old Testament prophets had acted their messages. See 1 Kings 11:29-31; Isaiah 20:2-4 and Ezekiel 4:1-3. Now Agabus acts the message which he has for Paul. This mostly agrees with what other prophets have already told Paul. Agabus says that the Jews will tie Paul up and that they will hand him over to the Romans.

Agabus does not say: ‘Paul should not go to Jerusalem’. None of the prophets had said that Paul would die. We may feel that Paul was ready to die for Christ; see 20:24. What was worse than death to him was two years in prison, when he could not travel and spread the Good News. The messages that the prophets gave him helped him to be ready for this.

(Verse 12) Paul’s group and the Christians did try to stop Paul. (Verse 13) Paul tells them that they should not try to soften his will. Luke uses a word which is not used elsewhere in the New Testament. It is a picture of a woman who washes clothes and beats them on a stone. So (verse 14) Paul would not give up.

(Verse 15) Up to this point, the party had travelled by sea. Now they would walk to Jerusalem. They would not ride animals, but they would have some donkeys or mules to carry everything. So it all had to be packed in a different way for the animals to carry. We do not know any more than we can read here about Mnason. He was a man who would be very happy to have people who were not Jews in his home. We cannot tell whether Luke stays with the party after verse 18. He joins Paul again in 27:1. Paul and his party do not go to the home of his own family: see 23:16. At this time Luke could meet Christians in Palestine. He could talk to people who had known Jesus. He could check with them and he could write his Gospel. See Luke 1:1-4.

Verses 17-26: Paul and the Jerusalem church

(Verse 17) So Paul and his party reach Jerusalem. We guess that the apostles were not in Jerusalem. John and Peter and the others were at work elsewhere. So it is ‘the brothers’ who welcome Paul and his group. (Verse 18) Then the next day, the whole group went to see James. This, of course, is James the Lord’s brother. He was the leading man in the Jerusalem church, but the other elders of the church were there too. We should be able to think of church elders as ‘elder brothers’. Paul gave them a full report of his work among the Gentiles, that is, among people who were not Jews. (Verse 20) James and the elders praised God for this good news.

Now we know what the main reason for Paul’s visit to Jerusalem was. He had come to hand over the money which he had gathered. The churches had given this money to help poor Christians. Paul had spent several years putting it together. Now was the moment for Paul and his friends to give this to the Christians in Jerusalem. Yet Luke says nothing at all about what happened. [21.3]

Acts 6:7 told us that many of the priests at Jerusalem had become Christians. 15:5 spoke about Christians who were Pharisees. So the picture of the Jerusalem church which the elders give here is what we would expect. There are thousands of Christian Jews in Jerusalem. They are all keen to keep the Law of Moses. They are also keen that Jews in other places should keep the Law of Moses.

(Verse 21) It was not true, of course, that Paul had taught Jews not to keep Jewish ways. He did not make a great effort to teach the Jews to keep their Jewish ways. He did teach Christians who were not Jews that they should not follow Jewish ways.

There are two other things to be said about this. Jewish Christians mixed in the church with other Christians, who did not keep Jewish law. Such Jews might well be less careful to keep all their law. Also some Jews who lived with heathen around them might become less careful to keep the law. So the Jews in Jerusalem would blame Paul. It was not his fault that Jews in other places did not keep the Jewish law. But it was easy to blame him.

(Verse 22) The Jewish preachers who had been to churches like Corinth would come back to Jerusalem. There would be pilgrims from Corinth, too, who were not Christian. So there would be plenty of talk in Jerusalem. Now Paul himself had come, too. He had come with a group of men who were not Jews.

We can see why it is wise for there to be elders in each city, and indeed in each church. No doubt these elders cared very well for the Christians in Jerusalem. But the Jerusalem church was very different from all the other churches at that time. What was wise in Jerusalem would not always be right in another city. This is still true today. It has been all down the years.

(Verses 22 and 23) We cannot be quite sure that what the elders put forward was right or wise. The four men who had taken a vow must have been four of the Jerusalem Christians. We do not know very much about such vows at this time. See also 18:18. Their vow probably lasted for between one and three months. They let their hair grow for this time. Then they shaved it off. See Numbers 6:1-21. (Verse 24) The elders asked Paul to pay for the offerings which the four men had to make. The men probably were too poor to pay for these themselves. We know that there were baths at the south end of the Temple, and Paul would join the four men when they bathed there. All this would show that Paul ‘stood in line with the Law’.

Paul really had to do what the elders had asked him to do. If he had not, many people would have said: ‘What we have heard about Paul is true. He has turned away from the Law of Moses’. Paul had probably not asked the elders what he should do. We should remember this if we do ask for advice. We may look silly if we do not follow the advice that people give us. All too often, churches ask their people to come forward to help them in the work. Usually it is not the right people who offer their services. But if you have asked them, you cannot then say: ‘No, we do not want you!’

(Verse 25) As far as the elders at Jerusalem could see, there was no problem with Christians who were not Jews. A letter had been sent to them (Acts 15:23-29). That said all that was needed. That was seven or eight years before, but what the letter said was still right.

(Verse 26) The elders plan seemed to work well at first. Paul and the four men went to one of the special baths. Then Paul went to the Temple. No doubt you had to see someone to fix a day and a time for offerings. There would have been so many offerings at the Temple. The priests would have been very busy. The feast times, like Pentecost, would be extra busy. The offerings for the four men would have to be made on the right day.

Verses 27-36: The riot in the Temple

From this point until the end of Chapter 26, the Book of Acts tells us about four speeches which Paul made. In between them, we have the story of what happened to Paul. Paul made the four speeches to different groups of people. We shall have to follow his story. Then we shall see just why he says what he does in each speech.

First in verse 27, the seven day wait is nearly over. It is nearly time for the offerings. Paul is in the inner court of the Temple. People who were not Jews could only go into the outer court. There were notices in Greek on stone tablets. These warned people who were not Jews that they could expect the Jews to kill them if they went into the inner court. The Romans allowed the Jews to do this. There was nothing else like this in the Roman Empire. In other places, only the Roman governor was allowed to put people to death.

We may guess that Alexander the metal worker (2 Timothy 4:14) may have started the trouble. If so, there were other Jews from Asia with him. (Verse 28) The first part of what they said was not true. The second part was far worse. (Verse 29) We know from 20:4 that Trophimus was one of Paul’s party. The Jews from Asia would not be likely to know any of the others. They would know Trophimus when they saw him. He was the one who came from the province of Asia. Paul would not have been so foolish as to bring his friends into the inner court of the Temple.

(Verse 30) It seems that it was not only people who were in the Temple who joined in the riot. People who were in the city ran into the Temple courts. Some of them got hold of Paul. They pulled him out of the inner court and down the steps to the outer court. It would have been the gates from the outer to the inner court which were shut. An old Jewish writer says that it took 20 men to shut some of these gates. (Verse 31) The crowd hit Paul but they had not yet killed him.

There were probably extra Roman soldiers in Jerusalem. The Romans did not want trouble at the Feast of Pentecost. There were lots of people in the city. The Roman soldiers would be in the Antonia. This was a strong building or castle next to the Temple on the north side.

There was a Roman army officer or ‘tribune’ in charge. He heard about the trouble in the Temple. (Verse 32) The soldiers were able to run down two lots of steps from Antonia into the outer court of the Temple [21.4] The Jews feared the Romans as much as they hated them. So they let go of Paul. The tribune came up to Paul and took him. He told his soldiers to put two chains on Paul. It was not against Roman law to do this. The tribune tried to find out what it was all about. He could not find out (verse 34) so he told his soldiers to get Paul into Antonia. The soldiers had to carry Paul up the steps (verse 35) because the crowd was so violent. (verse 36)

Verses 37-40: Paul and the tribune

We do not find out until 23:26 that the tribune’s name was Claudius Lysias. The soldiers were about to take Paul from the steps into Antonia, when Paul spoke to the tribune. He did not expect Paul to speak good Greek. (Verse 38) We know about the ‘revolt’ which ‘the Egyptian’ had led a few years before. The ‘terrorists’ were ‘dagger men’. They were Jews who carried knives or short swords. They hid these in their clothes. This Egyptian had let his followers down badly. When the Roman army came after him, he ran away. The tribune knew this and he thought that was why the Jews were so angry now. When Paul spoke good Greek, the tribune knew that he was not the Egyptian. [21.5]

(Verse 39) So Paul told the tribune: ’I am a Jew’.So Paul had the right to be in the Inner Court of the Temple. He came from the city of Tarsus which was in the province of Cilicia.

Then Paul said that he was ‘a citizen of no mean city’. ‘No mean city’ means a great and proud city; it means a city which has much honour. When Paul said this, the tribune thought that Paul only meant that he was a citizen of Tarsus. That would not give him any special rights. [21.6] See 22:25.

Paul asked the tribune to let him speak to the crowd from the steps. The tribune must have thought this a good thing. He did not want more trouble with the Jewish crowd. So Paul was able to speak to the crowd. He must have had a good strong voice, so that the crowd could hear. Paul did not speak to them in Greek or Latin. Luke says that he spoke in Hebrew. This may not be the language of the Old Testament. Probably it means Aramaic which was the language that the Jews mostly used in those days. We think that some Jews still spoke Hebrew. Still, in the crowd to which Paul spoke, quite a number of people would not understand Hebrew. Probably the Roman tribune did not understand what Paul said.

The crowd would be pleased to hear Paul speak in their own language. The angry noisy crowd became quiet. They were ready to listen to Paul.

The break between Chapters 21 and 22 is not much help to us. We have to remember that the chapter divisions in our Bible were added long after it was written. Here it comes in the middle of what Luke tells us.