The Early Church · c. AD 57
Chapter 27
Seized in the Temple
Then Paul answered, “What are you doing, weeping and breaking my heart? For I am ready not only to be bound, but also to die at Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus.”
For parents
On the way, a prophet warns that the Jews at Jerusalem will tie Paul up and hand him over, and Paul says he is ready to die there (Acts 21:10–13). In Jerusalem, Jews from Asia stir up the crowd in the temple. The people drag Paul out and beat him, trying to kill him, until the commanding officer comes with soldiers and has him bound with two chains. At the stairs the soldiers carry him, while the crowd shouts “Away with him!” (21:27–36). In his defense, Paul says he persecuted the Way to the death, imprisoned and beat believers, and stood by approving when Stephen was killed (22:4–5, 19–20). Then the crowd shouts that he isn’t fit to live. Paul is tied up with straps to be whipped and questioned, until he asks whether it is lawful to whip a Roman who hasn’t been found guilty (22:22–29).
At , had said goodbye to the of the at . He had sent for them to come to him there. He knelt and prayed with them all, and they all wept. They threw their arms around him and kissed him. They were saddest of all because he had said they would never see his face again. Then they went with him to the ship.
We left them and set sail, heading straight for . The next day we came to , and from there to .
There we found a ship that would cross over to , and we went aboard and put out to sea. came into view. We passed it by, keeping it on our left, and sailed on to . We landed at , because that was where the ship was going to unload her cargo.
We found there, and we stayed seven days. They said to Paul, through the Spirit, that he should not go up to .
When our days there were done, we set out on our journey. They all came with their wives and children and went with us until we were out of the city. On the beach we knelt down and prayed, and we said goodbye to each other. Then we boarded the ship, and they went back home.
We finished the voyage from Tyre and arrived at . We greeted the brothers and sisters there and stayed with them for one day.
The next day, those of us who were with Paul left and came to . There we went to stay at the house of , who was one of the seven.
Philip had four daughters who were unmarried, and they .
We had been staying there for some days when a prophet called came down from . He came up to us and took Paul’s belt, and with it he tied his own feet and hands. Then he said, “The says, ‘The Jews at Jerusalem will tie up the man who owns this belt just like this, and they will hand him over to the .’”
When we heard this, we and the people who lived there begged Paul not to go up to Jerusalem.
Then Paul answered, “What are you doing, crying and breaking my heart? I am ready not just to be tied up, but even to die at Jerusalem for the name of the Lord .”
We couldn’t persuade him, so we stopped trying. “The Lord’s will be done,” we said.
After those days we packed up our baggage and went up to Jerusalem. Some of the disciples from Caesarea came along with us, bringing of Cyprus, a disciple from the early days. We would be staying with him.
When we arrived in Jerusalem, the brothers and sisters welcomed us gladly.
The next day Paul went in with us to see . All the elders were there. Paul greeted them, and then he told them, one by one, the things God had been doing among the Gentiles through his ministry.
When they heard it, they gave glory to God. “Brother,” they said to him, “you can see how many thousands among the Jews have believed, and every one of them is zealous for the law. And they have been told that you teach all the Jews who are among the Gentiles to leave behind. They’ve heard that you tell them not to their children and not to live by the customs.
“So what now? The assembly will certainly have to meet, since they will hear that you have come. Do what we tell you. We have four men who have taken a . Take them, yourself with them, and pay what it costs for them to shave their heads. Then everyone will know that there is nothing true in what they have heard about you. They will know that you yourself keep the law too, in the way you live.
“But as for the Gentiles who believe, we have written our decision: they don’t need to keep any of these things. They only need to keep away from food offered to , from blood, from anything strangled, and from sexual sin.”
Paul took the men with him. The following day he purified himself and entered the temple with them. There he announced when the days of purification would be complete, when the offering would be made for every one of them.
The seven days were nearly over when the Jews from spotted Paul in the temple. They got the whole crowd stirred up and took hold of him, shouting, “Men of Israel, help! This is the man who teaches everybody, everywhere, against the people, and the law, and this place! And on top of that, he brought Greeks into the temple and has made this holy place unclean!”
They had seen of Ephesus with Paul in the city, and they thought Paul had brought him into the temple.
The whole city was shaken, and the people came running together. They seized Paul and hauled him out of the temple, and straight away the doors were shut.
They were trying to kill him when news came up to the of the regiment: all Jerusalem was in an uproar. Right away he took soldiers and with him and ran down to them. When the people saw the commanding officer and the soldiers, they stopped beating Paul.
Then the commanding officer came up and arrested him. He had him bound with two chains and asked who the man was and what he had done. Some people in the crowd shouted one thing, and some shouted another. With all the noise he couldn’t find out the truth, so he ordered Paul to be brought into the .
When Paul reached the stairs, the soldiers carried him, because the crowd was so violent. The whole crowd of people kept following, shouting, “Away with him!”
As Paul was about to be brought into the barracks, he asked the commanding officer, “May I speak to you?”
“Do you know Greek?” said the officer. “Then aren’t you the Egyptian who stirred up a rebellion a while back and took the four thousand men of the Assassins off into the wilderness?”
“I am a Jew from in ,” Paul said, “a citizen of an important city. Please allow me to speak to the people.”
The commanding officer gave him permission. Standing on the stairs, Paul gestured to the people with his hand. When a great silence had fallen, he spoke to them in Hebrew.
“Brothers and fathers,” he said, “listen now to what I have to say in my defense.”
When they heard that he was speaking to them in Hebrew, they grew even quieter. Then he said:
“I am a Jew. I was born in Tarsus of Cilicia, but I was brought up here in this city, a student at the feet of . I was taught the law of our ancestors by its strictest rules, and I was zealous for God, as you all are today.
“I persecuted this to the death, tying up men and women alike and putting them in prison. The and all the of the elders are my witnesses. I got letters from them to the brothers, too. Then I traveled to to bring the believers there back to Jerusalem in chains as well, to be punished.
“I was on my way and coming close to Damascus when, about noon, all at once a great light from the sky shone around me.
“I fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to me, ‘Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?’
“‘Who are you, Lord?’ I answered. He told me, ‘I am Jesus of , whom you persecute.’
“Those who were with me did see the light, and they were afraid, but they didn’t understand the voice of the one speaking to me.
“‘What should I do, Lord?’ I asked, and the Lord told me, ‘Get up! Go into Damascus. There you will be told about all the things that are appointed for you to do.’
“I couldn’t see, because of the glory of that light. The ones who were with me led me by the hand, and that is how I came into Damascus.
“A man named came to me there. He was a devout man who kept the law, and all the Jews who lived in Damascus spoke well of him. He stood at my side and said, ‘Brother Saul, receive your sight!’ That same hour I looked up at him.
“And he said, ‘You have been appointed by the God of our ancestors to know what his will is, to see the Righteous One and hear a voice from his mouth. You will be a witness for him, telling all people what you have seen and heard. Now why do you wait? Arise, be baptized, and wash away your sins, calling on the name of the Lord.’
“Once I was back in Jerusalem, I was praying in the temple when I fell into a , and I saw him saying to me, ‘Hurry, and get out of Jerusalem quickly, because they won’t accept what you testify about me.’
“I said, ‘Lord, they know for themselves that in every I locked up those who believed in you and beat them. When the blood of your witness was shed, I was standing there too, approving of his death and guarding the cloaks of those who killed him.’
“And he said to me, ‘Be on your way, because I will send you out far from here to the Gentiles.’”
They listened to him until he said that. Then they began to shout, “Rid the earth of this fellow! He isn’t fit to live!”
As they shouted, they threw off their cloaks and threw dust into the air.
The commanding officer ordered Paul to be taken into the barracks, and he gave orders for him to be whipped as he was questioned. He wanted to find out what crime had made the crowd shout against Paul like that.
When they had tied him up with straps, Paul asked the centurion who stood by, “Is it lawful for you to whip a man who is a , and who hasn’t been found guilty?”
Hearing this, the centurion went to the commanding officer. “Watch what you are about to do!” he told him. “This man is a Roman!”
The commanding officer came and asked him, “Tell me, are you a Roman?”
“Yes,” Paul said.
“I paid a great price to buy my citizenship,” the commanding officer answered.
“But I was born a Roman,” said Paul.
At once those who were about to question him backed away from him. And when the commanding officer realized that Paul was a Roman, he was afraid too, because he had bound him.