1 And when we had parted from them and set sail, we came by a straight course to Cos, and the next day to Rhodes, and from there to Patara. 2 And having found a ship crossing to Phoenicia, we went aboard and set sail.3 When we had come in sight of Cyprus, leaving it on the left we sailed to Syria and landed at Tyre, for there the ship was to unload its cargo. 4 And having sought out the disciples, we stayed there for seven days. And through the Spirit they were telling Paul not to go on to Jerusalem.
1. What do we know about these places that the bible says Paul traveled through?
Paul’s ship was probably a “coasting vessel”—one that traveled close to shore. Each of the places mentioned probably represents a day’s journey and the stopping place for the night. Cos and Rhodes are both islands, with port cities of the same name. Paul and his companions boarded a sturdier vessel at Patara for the 400-mile (644-km) open-sea voyage to Tyre. Patara was the main port city in Lycia; its immense harbor is now filled up with silt. ESVN
Cos. The chief city of the island of Cos. Rhodes. An island SE of Cos; also the name of its capital city. Its harbor was home to the great statue known as the Colossus of Rhodes, one of the 7 Wonders of the Ancient World. Patara. A busy port city in the extreme southern portion of Asia Minor. Paul and the others had now rounded the southwestern corner of Asia Minor. Each of the ports they stopped in represented one day’s sailing; the ship did not sail at night. Realizing he would never reach Jerusalem in time for Pentecost if he continued to hug the coast, Paul decided to risk sailing directly across the Mediterranean Sea to Tyre. The ship they embarked on would have been considerably larger than the small coastal vessels on which they had been sailing. The ship that later took Paul on his ill-fated voyage to Rome held 276 people; this one was probably of comparable size. MSBN
5 When our days there were ended, we departed and went on our journey, and they all, with wives and children, accompanied us until we were outside the city. And kneeling down on the beach, we prayed 6 and said farewell to one another. Then we went on board the ship, and they returned home. 7 When we had finished the voyage from Tyre, we arrived at Ptolemais, and we greeted the brothers and stayed with them for one day. 8 On the next day we departed and came to Caesarea, and we entered the house of Philip the evangelist, who was one of the seven, and stayed with him. 9 He had four unmarried daughters, who prophesied. 10 While we were staying for many days, a prophet named Agabus came down from Judea. 11 And coming to us, he took Paul’s belt and bound his own feet and hands and said, “Thus says the Holy Spirit, ‘This is how the Jews at Jerusalem will bind the man who owns this belt and deliver him into the hands of the Gentiles.’” 12 When we heard this, we and the people there urged him not to go up to Jerusalem. 13 Then Paul answered, “What are you doing, weeping and breaking my heart? For I am ready not only to be imprisoned but even to die in Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus.” 14 And since he would not be persuaded, we ceased and said, “Let the will of the Lord be done.”
2. Is it Paul’s intention to disobey the Holy Spirit and go on to Jerusalem anyway ?
Agabus, through the Holy Spirit, told only of Paul’s bonds and affliction, which awaited him in Jerusalem; he gave no inspired instructions to Paul about turning back or avoiding Jerusalem. The Caesarean saints did so, along with all those in Paul’s traveling party, including Luke it would seem (21:12), just as the saints of Tyre had just done previously. The saints from both cities came to the conclusion on their own that Paul should stay away from Jerusalem, a conclusion based upon the prophecy of Paul’s treatment in Jerusalem, but not because the prophecy specifically indicated that Paul should turn away from Jerusalem.
The Holy Spirit indicated to Paul and to the rest what was going to happen to Paul in Jerusalem; the saints concluded, on their own, what Paul should do about the Spirit’s revelation. And these saints were wrong, even though they were unanimous in their conclusion!
Paul’s response to their advice will convince these well-meaning saints that he was right and that going to Jerusalem was the will of God. They respond to Paul’s insistence that he is going to Jerusalem by saying, “The will of the Lord be done!” RD
The Holy Spirit is revealing to Paul what will happen to him when he goes up to Jerusalem. It is as though He is saying, “Paul, this is what you are going to face. Are you willing to do it?” God doesn’t want Paul to feel that He let him stumble unwittingly into a trap. Paul knows what awaits him, and he still is perfectly willing to go. Actually, this prophet is not telling him anything new. Back in chapter 20, when he was still in Asia Minor, he already knew that bonds and afflictions waited for him.
Remember that this is Dr. Luke writing. He and the others didn’t want to see Paul go to Jerusalem. The Spirit of God is revealing to Paul that he is going to be bound. Paul is not only willing to be bound but is also willing to die for Jesus in Jerusalem. He asks the believers not to cry and to break his heart. It is touching here to see the concern of the believers for the apostle Paul. My, how they loved him! And I think the will of the Lord was done. JVM
15 After these days we got ready and went up to Jerusalem. 16 And some of the disciples from Caesarea went with us, bringing us to the house of Mnason of Cyprus, an early disciple, with whom we should lodge. 17 When we had come to Jerusalem, the brothers received us gladly. 18 On the following day Paul went in with us to James, and all the elders were present.
3. Which James is this?
James. The brother of the Lord, author of the letter of James and leader of the
church in Jerusalem (see Gal 1:19 and note ; 2:9 ). He is called an apostle but was not one of the Twelve. NIVSN
James, the Lord’s half-brother, was still the recognized leader of the Jerusalem church but this church also had elder leadership. Herod Agrippa I had killed James, the brother of John, earlier, not James the half-brother of Jesus. CN
19 After greeting them, he related one by one the things that God had done among the Gentiles through his ministry. 20 And when they heard it, they glorified God. And they said to him, “You see, brother, how many thousands there are among the Jews of those who have believed.
4. How was Paul received by the leaders of the Jerusalem Church?
They were happy but had some concerns.
The Jews twisted a little what Paul was actually doing. Paul did not really teach the things that they claimed he was teaching.
We come now to another interesting passage about which good Bible expositors offer different explanations. Was Paul out or in the will of God when he went to Jerusalem and took a Jewish vow that evidently involved a sacrifice?
The believers here in Jerusalem speak of the thousands of Jewish converts to Christ. These Jews who had found their completion in Jesus Christ had not forsaken the Mosaic Law. However, they could not insist that Gentiles must come under the Law. On the other hand, Gentiles could not insist that the Jews forsake the practices of the Law—provided they were not trusting them for salvation. Those who insist that the grace of God did not force the Gentiles to keep the Mosaic Law seem to forget that the same grace permits the Jew to continue in itsprecepts if he feels it is the will of God.
For example, we know that Peter had eaten nothing contrary to Mosaic Law until he visited Paul in Antioch. Also, Jewish believers had an abhorrence of eating anything that had been sacrificed to idols. This did not bother the conscience of the Gentile. However, if the eating of such meat offended the conscience of another believer and caused him to stumble, then it was wrong. Paul makes it very clear that meat does not commend us to God. “But meat commendeth us not to God: for neither, if we eat, are we the better; neither, if we eat not, are we the worse” (1 Cor. 8:8).
Paul also wrote that if a person was brought up under certain customs, the grace of God allows him to follow those customs after he has accepted the Lord Jesus as his Savior.
“But as God hath distributed to every man, as the Lord hath called every one, so let him walk. And so ordain I in all churches. Is any man called being circumcised? let him not become uncircumcised. Is any called in uncircumcision? let him not be circumcised. Circumcision is nothing, and uncircumcision is nothing, but the keeping of the commandments of God. Let every man abide in the same calling wherein he was called” (1 Cor. 7:17–20).
Paul applies this principle in winning people for Christ. “For though I be free from all men, yet have I made myself servant unto all, that I might gain the more. And unto the Jews I became as a Jew, that I might gain the Jews; to them that are under the law, as under the law, that I might gain them that are under the law; To them that are without law, as without law, (being not without law to God, but under the law to Christ,) that I might gain them that are without law. To the weak became I as weak, that I might gain the weak: I am made all things to all men, that I might by all means save some. And this I do for the gospel’s sake, that I might be partaker thereof with you” (1 Cor. 9:19–23).
I do not think that we should criticize Paul for what he does here in Jerusalem. Grace permitted Paul to take a Jewish vow to win the Jews. If he had been a Gentile, it would have been questionable for him to adopt a foreign custom.
With that as a background, we understand Paul’s action. JVM
They explained that these Jewish Christians had some misgivings about Paul’s ministry about which they had heard. The word on the streets was that Paul was going beyond his actual practice of not requiring Gentile converts to undergo circumcision or to obey the Mosaic Law. They had heard he was telling Jewish converts not to practice circumcision or to observe the customs of Judaism. This was a false report. Paul did not teach that these customs were evil, just unnecessary for justification and sanctification.
“The Jerusalem elders were in somewhat of a bind. On the one hand, they had supported Paul’s witness to the Gentiles at the Jerusalem Conference. Now they found Paul a persona non grata and his mission discredited not only among the Jewish populace, which they were seeking to reach, but also among their more recent converts. They did not want to reject Paul. Indeed, they praised God for his successes. Still they had their own mission to the Jews to consider, and for that Paul was a distinct liability.” CN
They are all zealous for the law, 21 and they have been told about you that you teach all the Jews who are among the Gentiles to forsake Moses, telling them not to circumcise their children or walk according to our customs. 22 What then is to be done? They will certainly hear that you have come. 23 Do therefore what we tell you. We have four men who are under a vow; 24 take these men and purify yourself along with them and pay their expenses, so that they may shave their heads. Thus all will know that there is nothing in what they have been told about you, but that you yourself also live in observance of the law.
5. What was this vow thing all about?
The Judaizers were spreading false reports that Paul was teaching Jewish believers to forsake their heritage. That Paul had not abandoned Jewish customs is evident from his circumcision of Timothy (16:1–3) and his own taking of a Nazirite vow . A Nazirite vow, symbolizing total devotion to God.
Numbers 6:18 And the Nazarite shall shave the head of his consecration at the entrance to the tent of meeting, and shall take the hair of the head of his consecration, and put it on the fire which is under the sacrifice of the peace-offering.
Sampson was a Nazarite as well as John the Baptist.
Numbers 6:3-5 He is to keep himself from wine and strong drink, and take no mixed wine or strong drink or any drink made from grapes, or any grapes, green or dry.4 All the time he is separate he may take nothing made from the grape-vine, from its seeds to its skin. 5 All the time he is under his oath let no blade come near his head; till the days while he is separate are ended he is holy and his hair may not be cut.
Having just returned from an extended stay in Gentile lands, Paul was considered
ceremonially unclean. He therefore needed to undergo ritual purification before participating (as their sponsor) in the ceremony marking the end of the 4 men’s vows. For the temple ceremony in which the 4 would shave their heads, and the sacrifices associated with the Nazirite vow, paying those expenses for another was considered an act of piety, and by so doing, Paul would give further proof that he had not forsaken his Jewish heritage. Shave their heads was a practice commonly associated with a Nazirite vow . James made it clear that what he was asking Paul to do by no means changed the decision of the Jerusalem Council regarding Gentiles. Since Paul was Jewish, that decision did not apply to him.
seven days. The length of the purification process. Paul had to appear at the temple on the third and seventh days. MSBN
25 But as for the Gentiles who have believed, we have sent a letter with our judgment that they should abstain from what has been sacrificed to idols, and from blood, and from what has been strangled, and from sexual immorality.” 26 Then Paul took the men, and the next day he purified himself along with them and went into the temple, giving notice when the days of purification would be fulfilled and the offering presented for each one of them. 27 When the seven days were almost completed, the Jews from Asia, seeing him in the temple, stirred up the whole crowd and laid hands on him, 28 crying out, “Men of Israel, help! This is the man who is teaching everyone everywhere against the people and the law and this place. Moreover, he even brought Greeks into the temple and has defiled this holy place.” 29 For they had previously seen Trophimus the Ephesian with him in the city, and they supposed that Paul had brought him into the temple.
6. What was the big deal about gentiles and the temple?
“No man of another nation to enter within the fence and enclosure round the temple. And whoever is caught will have himself to blame that his death ensues.”The Romans allowed the Jews to execute any Gentile, even a Roman citizen, for proceeding beyond this low, stone barrier.
7. Did Paul bring Greeks (gentiles) into the temple and what other charges did his enemies claim.
Paul’s enemies leveled 3 false charges against him. They claimed that he taught Jews to forsake their heritage—the same lie told by the Judaizers. The second charge, that Paul opposed the law, was a very dangerous one, albeit false, in this setting. Originally, Pentecost was a celebration of the firstfruits of the harvest. But by this time, it had become a celebration of Moses’ receiving the law on Mt. Sinai. Thus, the Jewish people were especially zealous for the law during this feast. The third charge, of blaspheming or defiling the temple, had helped bring about the deaths of Jesus (Mk 14:57, 58) and Stephen (6:13). All 3 charges were, of course, totally false. brought Greeks into the temple. The Asian Jews accused Paul of having brought Trophimus past the Court of the Gentiles into the part of the temple where Gentiles were forbidden. Such a charge was absurd, for it would have entailed Paul’s risking his friend’s life (the Romans had granted the Jews permission to execute any Gentile who so defiled the temple). MSBN
30 Then all the city was stirred up, and the people ran together. They seized Paul and dragged him out of the temple, and at once the gates were shut. 31 And as they were seeking to kill him, word came to the tribune of the cohort that all Jerusalem was in confusion. 32 He at once took soldiers and centurions and ran down to them. And when they saw the tribune and the soldiers, they stopped beating Paul. 33 Then the tribune came up and arrested him and ordered him to be bound with two chains. He inquired who he was and what he had done. 34 Some in the crowd were shouting one thing, some another. And as he could not learn the facts because of the uproar, he ordered him to be brought into the barracks.
8. Why would the Romans be concerned with a dispute between Jews?
The Romans were not that concerned with internal religious politics, but there were concerned with keeping the peace. Pax Romana, roman peace was enforced with the sword throughout the empire. A prosperous peaceful nation was good for Roman taxes. Governors who could not keep the peace ended up banished to even more remote parts of the empire than Palestine.
This captain did not know Paul at all. He didn’t cry out, “Oh, this is Paul, the great Apostle to the Gentiles.” He wasn’t looking upon him like that at all. He didn’t know who he was and actually thought that he had committed some crime; so he put him in chains.
35 And when he came to the steps, he was actually carried by the soldiers because of the violence of the crowd,36 for the mob of the people followed, crying out, “Away with him!” 37 As Paul was about to be brought into the barracks, he said to the tribune, “May I say something to you?” And he said, “Do you know Greek? 38 Are you not the Egyptian, then, who recently stirred up a revolt and led the four thousand men of the Assassins out into the wilderness?” 39 Paul replied, “I am a Jew, from Tarsus in Cilicia, a citizen of no obscure city. I beg you, permit me to speak to the people.” 40 And when he had given him permission, Paul, standing on the steps, motioned with his hand to the people. And when there was a great hush, he addressed them in the Hebrew language, saying:
9. Why would the Roman commander think Paul was an Egyptian?
The history to which Claudius Lysias refers is taken from Josephus, Ant. lib. xx. cap. 7, sec. 6, and War, lib. ii. cap. 13, sec. 5, and is in substance as follows: An Egyptian, whose name is not known, pretended to be a prophet, and told his followers that the walls of Jerusalem would fall down before them, if they would assist him in making an attack on the city. He had address enough to raise a rabble of 30,000 men, and with these advanced as far as the Mount of Olives; but Felix, the Roman governor, came suddenly upon him, with a large body of Roman troops, both infantry and cavalry: the mob was speedily dispersed, four hundred killed, two hundred taken prisoners, and the Egyptian himself, with some of his most faithful friends, escaped; of whom no account was ever afterwards heard. As Lysias found such an outcry made against Paul, he supposed that he must be some egregious malefactor, and probably that Egyptian who had escaped, as related above. Learned men agree that St. Luke refers to the same fact of which Josephus speaks. When this Egyptian impostor at first began to make great boasts and large promises, a multitude of people, to the amount at least of 30,000, weary of the Roman yoke, from which he promised them deliverance, readily arranged themselves under his banners. As he performed nothing that he promised, 26,000 of these had melted away before he reached Mount Olivet: this remnant the Romans attacked and dispersed. Josephus speaks of the number he had in the beginning; St. Luke, of those that he had when he arrived at Mount Olivet. ACC- ESVN………….ESV Study Bible Notes
- MSBN…….MacArthur NASB Study Notes
- NIVSN…..NIV Study Notes.
- JVM ….J Vernon McGee,
- ACC …. Adam Clarke’s Commentary
- BN …..Barnes Notes
- WBC…… Wycliffe Bible Commentary
- CN …… Constables Notes
- IC……….Ironside Commentary
- NET………Net Bible Study Notes.
- JFB…………..Jamieson Fausset Brown Commentary
- VWS……………..Vincent Word Studies
- CMM………….Commentary on Matthew and Mark
- BDB………….. Barclay’s Daily Study Bible (NT)
- Darby………..John Darby’s Synopsis of the OT and NT
- Johnson………Johnson’s Notes on the New Testament.
- NTCMM…………..The New Testament Commentary: Matthew and Mark.
- BKC………………….Bible Knowledge Commentary
- PCB…………………… Popular Commentary of the Bible
- SSN…………………..Scofield’s Study Notes
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