Acts 21:23–40

²³so do what we tell you. There are four men with us who have made a vow.^{x 24}Take these men, join in their purification rites^y and pay their expenses, so that they can have their heads shaved.^z Then everyone will know there is no truth in these reports about you, but that you yourself are living in obedience to the law. ²⁵As for the Gentile believers, we have written to them our decision that they should abstain from food sacrificed to idols, from blood, from the meat of strangled animals and from sexual immorality.”^a

²⁶The next day Paul took the men and purified himself along with them. Then he went to the temple to give notice of the date when the days of purification would end and the offering would be made for each of them.^b

Paul Arrested

²⁷When the seven days were nearly over, some Jews from the province of Asia saw Paul at the temple. They stirred up the whole crowd and seized him,^{c 28}shouting, “Fellow Israelites, help us! This is the man who teaches everyone everywhere against our people and our law and this place. And besides, he has brought Greeks into the temple and defiled this holy place.”^{d 29}(They had previously seen Trophimus^e the Ephesian^f in the city with Paul and assumed that Paul had brought him into the temple.)

³⁰The whole city was aroused, and the people came running from all directions. Seizing Paul,^g they dragged him^h from the temple, and immediately the gates were shut. ³¹While they were trying to kill him, news reached the commander of the Roman troops that the whole city of Jerusalem was in an uproar. ³²He at once took some officers and soldiers and ran down to the crowd. When the rioters saw the commander and his soldiers, they stopped beating Paul.ⁱ

³³The commander came up and arrested him and ordered him to be bound^j with two^k chains.^l Then he asked who he was and what he had done. ³⁴Some in the crowd shouted one thing and some another,^m and since the commander could not get at the truth because of the uproar, he ordered that Paul be taken into the barracks.^{n 35}When Paul reached the steps,^o the violence of the mob was so great he had to be carried by the soldiers. ³⁶The crowd that followed kept shouting, “Get rid of him!”^p

Paul Speaks to the Crowd

22:3–16pp—Ac 9:1–22; 26:9–18

³⁷As the soldiers were about to take Paul into the barracks,^q he asked the commander, “May I say something to you?”

“Do you speak Greek?” he replied. ³⁸“Aren’t you the Egyptian who started a revolt and led four thousand terrorists out into the wilderness^r some time ago?”^s

³⁹Paul answered, “I am a Jew, from Tarsus^t in Cilicia,^u a citizen of no ordinary city. Please let me speak to the people.”

⁴⁰After receiving the commander’s permission, Paul stood on the steps and motioned^v to the crowd. When they were all silent, he said to them in Aramaic^a:^w