Tyndale Open Study NotesActs 21

This “we” passage (see study notes on 16:10; 20:5–15) covers Paul’s journey from Miletus to Jerusalem at the close of the third missionary journey.

• Cos was an island in the Aegean Sea with a major trade port.

• Rhodes is a large Aegean island. The Colossus, a huge statue 30 meters (100 feet) tall, once stood at the city's entrance. In Paul’s time, the statue lay where it had fallen during an earthquake over 200 years earlier. It would remain there for another 600 years.

• Patara was the main port of Lycia, located on the coast across from Rhodes.

Tyre was an important port in Phoenicia with an empire centered on sea activity and widespread trade interests (see Isaiah 23; Jeremiah 25:15–38; 47; Zechariah 9; Matthew 15:21–28; Mark 7:24–31).

• The disciples in Tyre gave Paul a warm and emotional farewell. This shows the deep fellowship (shared life and unity) among Christians.

• Through the Spirit they kept telling Paul not to go up to Jerusalem: The disciples in Tyre clearly understood the danger he would face there. Because they cared for him, they tried to persuade him not to go.

  However, Paul accepted these risks. He chose to go in order to complete the mission God had given him (compare Philippians 3:7–10). See also study note on Acts 21:11–14.

Paul visited Ptolemais, an important city on the coast of the Mediterranean, as he made his way from Tyre to Caesarea.

Philip was called an evangelist (someone who shares the good news about Jesus) because of his work in preaching the gospel (see 8:4–40; compare Ephesians 4:11; 2 Timothy 4:5).

Philip’s daughters had the gift of prophecy (the ability to speak messages from God). This showed that Joel’s prophecy (Joel 2:28–32) had been fulfilled, just as Peter had said at Pentecost (2:17–21).

Luke places female prophets (21:9) alongside a male prophet (see study note on 17:34). This shows that both women and men were used by God to speak his message in the early church.

Agabus, like the Old Testament prophets (God’s messengers before the time of Jesus), used symbolic actions (visible actions that show a message) to communicate what God had revealed to him (see “Prophetic Sign Acts” Theme Note).

Despite Agabus’s prediction of suffering and the believers’ begging Paul not to go to Jerusalem, Paul was ready even to die for the sake of the Lord Jesus. Luke emphasizes Paul’s courage, determination, and heroism as a Christian missionary who would let nothing interfere with his mission. See study note on 21:4–6.

It was important for James and all the elders (leaders) of the church in Jerusalem to hear about Paul’s successful work among the Gentiles. It was also important for the Jerusalem church, the first main church, to continue to support this mission (21:20; see 15:7–21).

Paul’s report showed that God had carried out his plan among the Gentiles through Paul’s work.

The leaders of the Jerusalem church urged Paul to strengthen his credibility. They encouraged him to demonstrate that he was not teaching Jews to abandon the laws of Moses. Meanwhile, the leaders did not force Jewish rules on Gentile converts. They had determined these terms earlier and would respect them (15:22–29).

The concerns of the Christian leaders were well-founded (21:20–25). When Paul and the other men had almost completed their vow, some Jews from Asia falsely accused Paul and raised a mob against him. They intended to kill Paul, but the Roman commander rescued him.

Greeks: It was a crime punishable by death to bring Gentiles (non-Jewish people) into the inner areas of the temple, beyond the Court of the Gentiles (see also Josephus, War 5.5.2; 6.2.4). The Jews believed Paul broke this holy law by bringing Trophimus, a Gentile from Ephesus, into the area reserved for only Jews (see also Acts 20:4; 2 Timothy 4:20).

This supposed defilement of the temple made many of the Jews very angry. They believed the temple had been made unclean by a Greek (non-Jew), so they quickly shut the temple gates.

commander: Or tribune, a Roman officer who commanded 1,000 men.

Herod the Great built the Antonia Fortress, a large military base, on the northwest corner of the Temple Mount. It housed the Roman soldiers stationed there to keep the peace.

The commander had mistaken Paul for an Egyptian false messiah who had planned to seize power from the Romans around AD 54 (roughly three years earlier; see Josephus, War 2.13.5). Paul corrected the mistake, gained permission to speak to the people, and addressed the crowd in Aramaic, the common language of Judea. He gave a strong statement of his faith in Jesus as the Messiah (Acts 22:1–21).