Acts 21:23–40

²³So do what we tell you. We have four men who are under a vow.^{* 24}Join these men, go through the rite of purification with them, and pay for the shaving of their heads. Thus all will know that there is nothing in what they have been told about you but that you yourself observe and guard the law.^{* 25}But as for the gentiles who have become believers, 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 is strangled^u and from sexual immorality.”^{* 26}Then Paul took the men, and the next day, having purified himself, he entered the temple with them, making public the completion of the days of purification when the sacrifice would be made for each of them.^*

Paul Arrested in the Temple

²⁷When the seven days were almost completed, the Jews from Asia, who had seen him in the temple, stirred up the whole crowd. They seized him,^{* 28}shouting, “Fellow Israelites,^v help! This is the man who is teaching everyone everywhere against our people, our law, and this place; more than that, he has actually 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.^{* 30}Then all the city was aroused, and the people rushed together. They seized Paul and dragged him out of the temple, and immediately the doors were shut.^{* 31}While they were trying to kill him, word came to the tribune of the cohort that all Jerusalem was in an uproar. ³²Immediately he took soldiers and centurions and ran down to them. When they saw the tribune and the soldiers, they stopped beating Paul.^{* 33}Then the tribune came, 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 shouted 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.^{* 35}When Paul^w came to the steps, the violence of the mob was so great that he had to be carried by the soldiers. ³⁶The crowd that followed kept shouting, “Away with him!”^*

Paul Defends Himself

³⁷Just as Paul was about to be brought into the barracks, he said to the tribune, “May I say something to you?” The tribune^x replied, “Do you know Greek? ³⁸Then you are not the Egyptian who recently stirred up a revolt and led the four thousand assassins out into the wilderness?”^{* 39}Paul replied, “I am a Jew from Tarsus in Cilicia, a citizen of an important city; I beg you, let me speak to the people.”^{* 40}When he had given him permission, Paul stood on the steps and motioned to the people for silence, and when there was a great hush, he addressed them in the Hebrew^y language, saying:^*