Acts 21:33-34

21:33 Then the commanding officer ¹  came up and arrested ²  him and ordered him to be tied up with two chains; ³  he ⁴  then asked who he was and what ⁵  he had done. 21:34 But some in the crowd shouted one thing, and others something else, ⁶  and when the commanding officer ⁷  was unable ⁸  to find out the truth ⁹  because of the disturbance, ¹⁰  he ordered Paul ¹¹  to be brought into the barracks. ¹² 

¹ tn Grk “the chiliarch” (an officer in command of a thousand soldiers). See note on the term “commanding officer” in v. 31.

² tn Grk “seized.”

³ tn The two chains would be something like handcuffs (BDAG 48 s.v. ἅλυσις and compare Acts 28:20).

⁴ tn Grk “and he.” Because of the length and complexity of the Greek sentence, a new sentence was begun in the translation, and καί (kai) has been replaced with a semicolon. “Then” has been supplied after “he” to clarify the logical sequence.

⁵ tn Grk “and what it is”; this has been simplified to “what.”

⁶ tn L&N 33.77 has “ἄλλοι δὲ ἄλλο τι ἐπεφώνουν ἐν τῷ ὄχλῳ ‘some in the crowd shouted one thing; others, something else’ Ac 21:34.”

⁷ tn Grk “he”; the referent (the commanding officer) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

⁸ tn This genitive absolute construction has been translated temporally; it could also be taken causally: “and since the commanding officer was unable to find out the truth.”

⁹ tn Or “find out what had happened”; Grk “the certainty” (BDAG 147 s.v. ἀσφαλής 2).

¹⁰ tn Or “clamor,” “uproar” (BDAG 458 s.v. θόρυβος).

¹¹ tn Grk “him”; the referent (Paul) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

¹² tn Or “the headquarters.” BDAG 775 s.v. παρεμβολή 2 has “barracks/headquarters of the Roman troops in Jerusalem Ac 21:34, 37; 22:24; 23:10, 16, 32.”