AP

Studies in Acts

Jerusalem in turmoil (Acts 21:27-30)

None of the law-observant Jewish Christians provided the occasion for Paul’s arrest. Nor any Judaizers, but Jews from the Roman province of Asia (today, western Turkey). If it were up to them, Paul would never have ended up a Roman prisoner, let alone ever gone to Rome, but they would have killed him before that time. Now the Romans saved his life.

Paul almost lynched

James’ and the elders’ intention was that Paul would have been observed in the temple approvingly by members of the as yet law-observant Jewish Christian congregation. But when the seven days of his purification were almost completed, he was also seen by fanatical enemies from Asia. All the Jews had heard his preaching there (Acts 19:10). Because they recognized Trophimus from Ephesus, they were likely from there as well (v. 29). Perhaps a few of them had also participated in the mob demonstration against Paul in the theatre of Ephesus and were still enraged that the city council had taken him under its protection at that time.

During his working years, Paul had experienced much sorrow from these Jews. Their fierce opposition against the gospel had forced him to separate from the synagogue and continue his ministry in the school of Tyrannus. After this they had plotted attacks against his life. Now that they saw him here once again, their old religious hatred immediately became inflamed again. Perhaps they could now get rid of him! Rather than alert the head of the temple guard, they took the law into their own hands. They incited a great tumult among the temple visitors, seized Paul, and shouted: “Men of Israel, help! This is the man who is teaching everyone everywhere against the people and the law and this place.”

This was the same false accusation that people had initially brought against the Lord himself (Matthew 5:17; 26:60-61), then against Stephen (Acts 6:13-14), and now against his spiritual heir, Paul. The name of the Lord Jesus was not even mentioned. They had flatly rejected everything that Paul had proclaimed in their synagogues, including his appeal to the Law and Prophets regarding Jesus and his work. The climax was that he had now committed the most serious crime that a Jew could imagine by bringing Greeks (Gentiles) into the temple, he had desecrated the holy place. 

This accusation lacked any basis. They had spotted him shortly before with the Gentile Christian, Trophimus. Not in the temple, but somewhere in the city. Nevertheless, they claimed angrily that Paul had taken him into, not the forecourt of the Gentiles, but the inner court of the Jews. For a Gentile, to enter this area was a capital crime! At regular intervals stones had been placed with the inscription: “No foreigner may go past the separation that divides the temple and the inner court. Anyone caught doing so will have himself to blame for being put to death.” The Sanhedrin was permitted to execute that punishment even against a Roman citizen, but it was a false and stupid accusation. Paul had just been busy demonstrating his respect for the temple by being levitically purified to help four Jews as they were completing their Nazirite vow. But they hated the apostle of Jesus.

Behind this blind hatred, we perceive the ancient battle line between the righteous and the wicked that permeates the Psalms. Using terms drawn from the psalter, these “godly” pilgrims were “enemies” of Paul, real “lovers of violence,” “those who spoke lies,” “men of blood and deceit,” who were putting the “righteous” on the spot.

The terrible accusations against Paul spread like a raging fire. The entire city was in turmoil, and in a short time, a mob had gathered. Such a temple desecrator and lawbreaker may not defile the holy place a moment longer but should be put to death immediately! Because it was prohibited to shed human blood in the temple, they grabbed hold of Paul and dragged him to the forecourt of the Gentiles. The gates that marked off the actual temple area from the forecourt were shut immediately.

The arrest and execution of temple desecrators was the task of the temple guard. But when people were caught committing a flagrant violation, they would look the other way when a kangaroo court took care of the matter. Just like Stephen, Paul should have been stoned outside the city, but the hatred was so fierce that people didn’t take the time to do that and instead began to flog him immediately. People wanted to kill him on the spot (v. 31). In this way, Jesus’ painful complaint was being fulfilled once again: “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it!” (Luke 13:34).

The apostle of Jesus Christ excommunicated from the temple

With this action on behalf of “their” temple, the Jews sealed their destruction and Jerusalem took a new step to its coming demise (cf. Matthew 23:38 “Look, your house is left to you desolate”). For the man behind whom the temple gates were shut was the apostle of Messiah Jesus!

This terrible event must have made a deep impression on James and the church in Jerusalem: the apostle Paul led by force from the temple and almost killed by his fellow Israelites. Would they have recognized in this incident one of the preliminary signs that according to the Lord Jesus would announce the destruction of city and temple? (Luke 21:12). According to his prediction, their generation would yet experience that (Matthew 24:1-2, 9, 34). In that case, Paul’s excommunication from the temple corresponds to the vision that Ezekiel had seen in his day. In that vision, “the glory of the God of Israel” had moved to the threshold of the temple. This had been the introduction of what, at that point, was the inevitable eviction from and destruction of his dwelling place (Ezekiel 9:3).

Paul rescued from a kangaroo court (Acts 21:31-36)

For a good understanding of what follows, people need to know that the entire temple complex was dominated by the Roman fortress of Antonia. This enormous fortress, with its 25 metres high corner towers, housed barracks, courtyards, and a luxurious palace for the governor whenever he visited Jerusalem. The castle was located at the northwest corner of the temple and stood high above the temple. From that perch, the Roman authorities could easily keep an eye on the entire temple complex and large parts of the tumultuous city. Wide steps led from the castle directly to the temple plaza, so that whenever irregularities occurred, soldiers could intervene immediately. And those disturbances occurred often during the years before the outbreak of the Jewish War in AD 66.

The garrison stationed in the fortress consisted of a cohort of soldiers, normally one thousand men: 760 infantry and 240 horsemen. It was under the command of a tribune (a chiliarch, head of a thousand) and several centurions (head of a hundred). The commandant was named Claudius Lysias (Acts 23:26; 24:22). He was the governor’s deputy who had the task of maintaining public order in the city. Everyone knew him, of course. By means of this highly positioned officer the Lord saved Paul’s life in the nick of time. Several days later, the same tribune would assign 470 men to protect Paul once more.

Protected from a lynching party

The garrison commander saw from his guard posts in the fortress that trouble was brewing in the city. He took no risks, certainly not when at this time there were numerous Pentecost pilgrims in the city. He immediately sounded the alarm and took charge. Several centurions with their soldiers stormed down the stairs to the mob in the forecourt of the Gentiles. They came not a moment too soon. When the Jews saw the commander and his soldiers arrive, they stopped beating Paul. In this way, Claudius Lysias rescued Paul’s life by means of his prompt response. When he had come closer, and saw the man who was being flogged, he initially thought he was dealing with a dangerous person (v. 38). For that reason, he had him arrested and bound with two chains. In this way, the prophecy of Agabus was being substantially fulfilled.

The officer immediately began to treat Paul better and more justly than his Jewish brothers. He put an immediate stop to the execution. Because he thought that his arrestee was an Egyptian terrorist leader (v. 38) who spoke no Greek and whom he would not be able to understand, he tried to learn from the bystanders who Paul was and what crime he had committed. These were two fundamental questions for an orderly trial. The people shouted through each other, however. Many apparently knew nothing at all about what had happened.

Because the tribune could not get to the facts on account of the noise, he commanded that Paul be led away to the barracks in the Antonia fortress. The Jews watched in helpless rage as their prisoner was taken out of their reach before they could kill him. But the “wolves” didn’t just let their prey escape (Matthew 10:16). At the steps of the fortress, the raging mob began to protest so riotously that the soldiers had to carry Paul on their shoulders. For the entire mob came after them, screaming: “Away with him! Kill that man!” – the very same cry that had arisen with respect to the Master (Luke 23:18).

If the Roman government had not prevented it, these Jews would surely have killed the apostle. In this way, Paul was once again taken into protective custody by the world power. In Corinth, the proconsul Gallio had released him even before he had defended himself (Acts 18:12-17). In Ephesus, friendly rulers had warned him not to go to the theatre (Acts 19:31). And on his journey to Rome, the centurion Julius would later treat him very kindly. Luke was delighted to report these details to Theophilus, the high Roman official to whom he had dedicated his books. And he would have read them with satisfaction. The higher government was not (yet) anti-Christian.

Paul receives an opportunity to address the covenant people (Acts 21:37-40)

Meanwhile, Paul had been carried up the steps to the Antonia fortress, and found himself before the tribune, Claudius Lysias, safely on the platform, several feet above his tormenters. There he displayed amazing courage and spiritual strength, but at the same time, a deep love for his Jewish brothers.

A few minutes earlier, they had seized him, slapped, and beaten him. But instead of cursing them, he seized this unique opportunity to testify before this great multitude about Messiah Jesus. Shortly before he was brought into the barracks, he spoke to the garrison commander. Aware that he was addressing a superior officer as a chained arrestee, he politely asked in fluent Greek, the world language of that time: “May I ask you something?” Surprised that the prisoner could speak that language, the commander asked: Do you speak Greek? Are you then not the Egyptian who a while back unleashed a riot and together with those four thousand Sicarii took refuge in the desert? With this, he was referring to Jewish freedom fighters who belonged to the Zealots. They were called Sicarii on account of the sica (dagger) that they kept hidden in the folds of their cloaks. With them they would kill Jews who collaborated with the Romans. They would stab their victims to death with lightning speed amid the bustle of a large crowd. According to the historian Josephus, this Egyptian had identified himself as a prophet, and had invited the multitude to follow him to the Mount of Olives. Then with a single word of power he would cause the walls of Jerusalem to collapse. Since governor Felix assumed that the Egyptian wanted to make himself ruler of Jerusalem, he had killed four hundred of his followers and imprisoned two hundred. The sly fox was able to escape with four thousand followers.

The thought shot through the tribune’s mind that this dangerous Egyptian had surfaced once again. In that case, he would have made a great catch! But Paul’s excellent Greek put an immediate end to that illusion. Standing before him was no agitator, but a cultured and refined man. No, he was not that Egyptian. “I [with emphasis; ego] am a Jew, a citizen of the well-known city of Tarsus in Cilicia. Please allow me to speak to the people.” The tribune granted Paul’s request. So there stood the apostle, rescued from death in the nick of time. Covered with bumps and scrapes. His clothes torn. Chains on his wrists and ankles. Alongside him the garrison commander, Claudius Lysias, with his soldiers. High above him the Antonia fortress. Below him on the steps the tumultuous crowd, probably still calling for his death and kept in check only by the Roman military. Before him lay the impressive temple complex and at a lower elevation, the city of Jerusalem. When he raised one of his chained hands—the familiar gesture with which ancient orators signalled their audience to be quiet—the shouts gradually died out and a deathly silence fell on the temple plaza that had just been swirling in turmoil. Did something of “the fear of the Lord” fall upon the gathered multitude?

To the tribune Paul had spoken in Greek, but to his countrymen he spoke in Hebrew. With this Luke could have been referring to the cognate language of Aramaic, the language that was spoken in Israel at that time. The tribune did not understand this language (22:24), but he did not for that reason deny Paul’s request. Perhaps he was deeply impressed by the sudden turnabout, whereby the raging mob was suddenly listening silently to the man they had almost lynched.

Questions:

How is it possible that pagans sometimes do the right thing? Why are people not as totally bad as they could be all the time?

Some writers have argued that references to “the Jews” in Acts and elsewhere amount to antisemitism. How would you answer these charges?

– Alida Sewell