hide text
21:27-28 The Jews from Asia, possibly from Ephesus, were obviously unbelievers. They charged Paul with the same kind of crimes the unbelieving Jews had accused Stephen of committing (6:11, 13-14). The Jews permitted Gentiles in the outer court of the temple, the court of the Gentiles. They could not go beyond the sacred enclosure into the women's court, or into the court of Israel, much less into the court of the priests.
Jewish men like Paul who were not priests or Levites could go no farther than the court of Israel. The priests had posted notices prohibiting Gentiles from entering the sacred enclosure, the area that included the courts of the women, Israel, and the priests. These were in Latin and Greek and were on the barrier, the Soreg, at the foot of the steps leading to this area of the temple. Archaeologists have discovered two of these notices.848One reads as follows.
"No man of another nation to enter within the fence and enclosure round the temple. And whoever is caught will have himself to blame that his death ensues."849
The Romans allowed the Jews to execute any Gentile, even a Roman citizen, for proceeding beyond this low, stone barrier.850
21:29 Trophimus the Ephesian was Paul's travelling companion from Asia (20:4) The Asian Jews had previously seen them together in the city and had assumed that Paul had brought this Gentile into the sacred enclosure of the Temple.
"The possibility that Trophimus might have wandered of his own freewill into the forbidden area is about as likely as that somebody should wander into private rooms in the Kremlin for the purpose of sightseeing."851
21:30 The rumor of Paul's alleged capital offense travelled quickly throughout Jerusalem and brought a mob of zealous Jews into the Temple courtyard.
". . . the Temple was a fetish for all Jews, but for none more so than fanatically devout pilgrims from the Diaspora, who had travelled far to celebrate the festival of Pentecost in the holy city."852
Evidently the priests dragged Paul out of one of the inner courts and into the court of the Gentiles. The doors that Luke referred to separated the court of the Gentiles from the inner courts that were accessible only to Jews. The priests now closed these doors to prevent the defiling of the inner courts by the tumult and bloodshed.853
21:31-32 The Jews proceeded to beat Paul in the court of the Gentiles. News of this commotion reached the Roman commander of the Fortress of Antonia that connected with the temple area on the northwest. Herod the Great had built this fortress to house the soldiers of the Tenth Legion. The commander's name was Claudius Lysias (23:26). He was responsible for the 1,000 soldiers stationed there. When he saw the riot, he summoned soldiers and centurions (commanders of 100 soldiers each) and ran down the steps of the fortress and into the court of the Gentiles. Levites constituted the Temple police (cf. 4:1), but these Roman troops were responsible to keep peace in the whole city.854The Jews stopped beating Paul when they saw the commander and the other soldiers.
"One thing Rome insisted on--civil order. A riot was an unforgivable sin both for the populace who staged it and the commander who allowed it."855
This is the sixth time in Acts that Paul's ministry had precipitated a public disturbance (cf. 14:19; 16:19-22; 17:5-8, 13; 19:25-34).
21:33-34 The commander arrested Paul assuming that he was a criminal. The two chains the Roman guards placed on Paul probably bound him to two soldiers (cf. 12:6). When the commander tried to learn who Paul was and what he had done from some members of the crowd, he received conflicting information. So he ordered Paul brought into the "barracks,"the Fortress of Antonia.
21:35-36 Stairs led up to the fortress from the city on its west side and from the temple courtyard on its south side.856Probably the stairs in verse 35 were one of the two south stairways leading from the temple courtyard into the fortress.
The anger of the Jews was evident in their desire to tear Paul apart immediately. Their cry recalls their words about Jesus some 27 years earlier (Luke 23:18; John 19:15; cf. Acts 22:22). Probably the Antonia Fortress was where the soldiers took Jesus for trial before Pilate. It was also the prison from which the angel had freed Peter (12:5).
