Acts 21:30-32

21:30 The whole city was stirred up, ¹  and the people rushed together. ²  They seized ³  Paul and dragged him out of the temple courts, ⁴  and immediately the doors were shut. 21:31 While they were trying ⁵  to kill him, a report ⁶  was sent up ⁷  to the commanding officer ⁸  of the cohort ⁹  that all Jerusalem was in confusion. ¹⁰  21:32 He ¹¹  immediately took ¹²  soldiers and centurions ¹³  and ran down to the crowd. ¹⁴  When they saw ¹⁵  the commanding officer ¹⁶  and the soldiers, they stopped beating ¹⁷  Paul.

[21:30]  ¹ tn On this term see BDAG 545 s.v. κινέω 2.b.

[21:30]  ² tn Or “the people formed a mob.” BDAG 967 s.v. συνδρομή has “formation of a mob by pers. running together, running together…ἐγένετο σ. τοῦ λαοῦ the people rushed together Ac 21:30.”

[21:30]  ³ tn Grk “and seizing.” The participle ἐπιλαβόμενοι (epilabomenoi) has been translated as a finite verb due to requirements of contemporary English style. Because of the length and complexity of the Greek sentence, a new sentence was begun in the translation, and καί (kai) has not been translated here.

[21:30]  ⁴ tn Grk “out of the temple.” See the note on the word “temple” in v. 28.

[21:31]  ⁵ tn Grk “seeking.”

[21:31]  ⁶ tn Or “information” (originally concerning a crime; BDAG 1050 s.v. φάσις).

[21:31]  ⁷ tn Grk “went up”; this verb is used because the report went up to the Antonia Fortress where the Roman garrison was stationed.

[21:31]  ⁸ tn Grk “the chiliarch” (an officer in command of a thousand soldiers). In Greek the term χιλίαρχος (ciliarco") literally described the “commander of a thousand,” but it was used as the standard translation for the Latin tribunus militum or tribunus militare, the military tribune who commanded a cohort of 600 men.

[21:31]  ⁹ sn A cohort was a Roman military unit of about 600 soldiers, one-tenth of a legion.

[21:31]  ¹⁰ tn BDAG 953 s.v. συγχέω has “Pass. w. act.force be in confusion…ὅλη συγχύννεται ᾿Ιερουσαλήμ 21:31.”

[21:32]  ¹¹ tn Grk “who.” Because of the length and complexity of the Greek sentence and the tendency of contemporary English to use shorter sentences, the relative pronoun (“who”) was translated as a pronoun (“he”) and a new sentence was begun here in the translation.

[21:32]  ¹² tn Grk “taking…ran down.” The participle κατέδραμεν (katedramen) has been translated as a finite verb due to requirements of contemporary English style.

[21:32]  ¹³ sn See the note on the word centurion in 10:1.

[21:32]  ¹⁴ tn Grk “to them”; the referent (the crowd) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[21:32]  ¹⁵ tn Grk “seeing.” The participle ἰδόντες (idonte") has been taken temporally.

[21:32]  ¹⁶ tn Grk “the chiliarch” (an officer in command of a thousand soldiers). See note on the term “commanding officer” in v. 31.

[21:32]  ¹⁷ sn The mob stopped beating Paul because they feared the Romans would arrest them for disturbing the peace and for mob violence. They would let the Roman officials take care of the matter from this point on.