Bible Study Lesson for Acts 21:27-40: Paul Arrested

We now move into the third section of the chapter which describes Paul's arrest.

Read Acts 21:27. So these were the seven days required for purification, shaving their heads at the altar, the sacrifice of a sin offering and burnt offering for each, and announcing the completion to the priests. As we've been reading in past chapters, Paul has regularly had problems with Jews living in the provinces that he had been evangelizing in, including the province of Asia. Apparently some of these men had come to Jerusalem to celebrate Passover. What is going to happen here in Jerusalem is very similar to what happened when Paul visited Thessalonica. Read Acts 17:5-8. Here again in Acts 21 we have a mob being stirred up against Paul. In Thessalonica the Jews were claiming that Paul was saying that Jesus was king over Caesar, a logical accusation when trying to stir up Gentiles. They will use a different accusation here in Jerusalem., tailored to fit their Jewish audience.

Read Acts 21:28-29. So here the accusation is two fold, focusing on the fact that Paul has traveled widely teaching the gospel ("teaches all men everywhere") and that he supposedly advocates against orthodox Judaism and has defiled the temple area by bringing Gentiles into the Court of Israel. { Show picture of temple from "Great Events of Bible Times", pg. 155 & point out the different courts & read caption on pg. 154 describing fragment. }

Who was Trophimus? He is mentioned only two other times, one in the list of men who accompanied Paul with the money offering for the church in Jerusalem. Read Acts 20:1-4. Notice that Trophimus is from the province of Asia, as are the Jews inciting this riot. They must have recognized him. Paul mentions Trophimus one more time in his second letter to Timothy. 2 Timothy 4:20. This seems to indicate that Trophimus continued as a helper to Paul after this incident. Now did Paul take Trophimus into the forbidden area? The Bible doesn't really say, but I think it is highly unlikely, since he has shown such marked sensitivity to the Jewish beliefs up to this point. Also, if he had, the Jews should have attacked the Gentile, not the Jew (Paul), for this behavior, since Trophimus would have been expected to know the restrictions just as well.

Read Acts 21:30. { Show picture of temple again & ask group to visualize how chaotic and full of turmoil the city would have been. } The gates would have been shut at the order of the temple office to prevent further trouble inside the sacred precincts. { Point out gates around the temple area }

Read Acts 21:31-32. Apparently the Jews tried to kill Paul by beating him up with their fists. I admit I'm very surprised someone didn't just pull a knife & stick it in the poor guy! I think that must have been God's protection; with the chaos going on all around them, I would think it would be very easy to knife someone, if you really wanted to.

We are going to see more of this Roman commander in the verses & chapters ahead. We will learn his name in Acts 23:26, Clauius Lysias. I haven't read all the verses closely yet, but my sense is that he is a very capable, efficient officer. As a commander he would have lead a regiment, that is 1,000 men, and would have been stationed at the Fortress of Antonio. { Point out fortress on temple picture from "Atlas of the Bible", pg. 184 } Notice how the fortress is right next to the temple, so he would have been able to respond quickly to any disturbances occurring at the temple. Verse 32 says he took some "officers and soldiers." These officers were centurions, or leaders of a 100 men. Since Luke uses the plural here, there were probably at least 2 centurions and 200 soldiers involved in controlling the crowd. { Review how Roman soldiers dressed: show picture from "The Romans", pg. 44, and mob picture from "Wind and Fire", pg. 12 } I do not doubt for an instant that God used this commander and his men to save Paul's life, though what happens next might seem otherwise!

Read Acts 21:33. Paul was probably chained between two soldiers. This would have kept him restrained, but it also provided him with two bodyguards. The commander then asked the crowd to explain what Paul had done to deserve such treatment.

Read Acts 21:34. Sounds a lot like the mob at Ephesus doesn't it? The crowd didn't really know what was going on there, either! Read Acts 19:32. Being part of a mob is a very scary thing - you get dragged along & involved in things that you don't really understand! The mob in Jerusalem is clearly violent and in an uproar, the emotions running hot and dangerous.

Read Acts 21:35-36. My commentary provided the following information: The Fortress of Antonia was connected to the northern end of the temple area by two flights of steps. The tower overlooked the temple area.

We now move into the last and final section of this chapter, when Paul asks permission of the commander to speak to the crowd.

Read Acts 21:37-38. What jumped out at me is that Paul is surprisingly polite here; we don't have any indication that he is panicked or upset or even afraid. He just politely asks the Roman: "May I say something to you?" The Roman is apparently surprised when Paul speaks in Greek and makes an assumption about his identity, assuming that Paul is a terrorist leader. My commentary provides more information, based on what Josephus wrote: Josephus tells of an Egyptian false prophet who some years earlier had led 4,000 out to the Mount of Olives. Roman soldiers killed hundreds, but the leader escaped.

Read Acts 21:39. Paul points out that no, he isn't an Egyptian, but rather a Jew, and further more he is from Taurus. When he says "a citizen of no ordinary city" he is saying he is from a city of some renown. Taurus was an important commercial center, a university city, and a crossroads of travel. The Greek poet Euripides used the term "no ordinary city" when describing Athens. Apparently what city you held citizenship gave you a certain level of status in the Roman world.

Either because of where is he from or because of his calm, charismatic manner, the commander, amazingly, lets him speak before the crowd, chains and all!

Read Acts 21:40. So Paul, after being nearly beaten to death, climbs up on the steps of the fortress and prepares to give a sermon! This verse tells us he speaks in Aramaic here, rather than Greek; as he is speaking to Jews, speaking in their own language makes strategic sense. You have to really hand it to Paul, he never lets an opportunity to preach to a crowd slip away!!! { Put up symbol for fortress steps on flannel board }

Blessings!

Sources
Editors. Compton's Interactive Bible (software)
Philip Yancey and Tim Stafford (notes). The Student Bible. NIV Version
Editors. Great Events of Bible Times
Macdonald, Fiona. The Romans
Drane, John William. Wind and Fire: Spreading the Message of Jesus
Editors. Atlas of the Bible