Acts 21

Located in the latter part of Acts, this chapter marks the end of Paul's third missionary journey and records his arrest in Jerusalem. In the preceding chapter 20, Paul bade farewell to the Ephesian elders at Miletus; chapter 21 opens with the sea voyage that followed.

Outline

• Verses 1–6 Sailing by way of Coos, Rhodes, and Patara, Paul lands at Tyre and stays seven days. The disciples at Tyre, through the Spirit, tell him not to go up to Jerusalem. Paul and his companions kneel and pray on the shore before parting.
• Verses 7–14 Passing through Ptolemais, they stay at Caesarea in the house of Philip the evangelist, who has four unmarried daughters who prophesy. The prophet Agabus binds his own hands and feet with Paul's girdle and declares that the owner of the girdle will be bound at Jerusalem and delivered into the hands of the Gentiles. The people plead with Paul not to go, but he declares that he is prepared to die.
• Verses 15–16 Arranging to lodge with Mnason of Cyprus, they go up to Jerusalem.
• Verses 17–26 Paul reports to James and the elders on his ministry among the Gentiles. The elders tell him that many thousands of Jewish believers who are zealous for the law have a mistaken impression of him, and they advise him to undergo purification (a ritual cleansing) together with four men who have taken a vow. The earlier decision concerning Gentile believers is also restated.
• Verses 27–36 Jews from Asia seize Paul in the temple, mistakenly supposing that he had brought Trophimus the Ephesian into the temple. The chief captain arrives with soldiers, binds Paul with two chains, and has him taken into the castle (the barracks).
• Verses 37–40 Paul addresses the chief captain in Greek. The chief captain had taken him for the Egyptian who had stirred up a revolt. Paul identifies himself as a Jew of Tarsus in Cilicia, a citizen of that city, and, standing on the stairs, begins a speech in the Hebrew tongue. The speech itself continues in chapter 22.

Key Verses

• Acts 21:13 "I am ready not to be bound only, but also to die at Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus." This verse shows Paul's resolve to go forward even though he knows suffering awaits him.
• Acts 21:14 "The will of the Lord be done." Those who had tried to dissuade Paul now commit him to God.

People and Places

• Paul: The central figure of the chapter.
• Philip: "Philip the evangelist, which was one of the seven," first introduced in Acts 6. He is a different person from Philip of the Twelve.
• Agabus: A prophet who came down from Judea; he also appears in Acts 11.
• James: A leader of the church in Jerusalem, commonly identified as James the brother of the Lord.
• Trophimus: A man of Ephesus. The mistaken belief that Paul had brought him into the temple sparked the riot.
• The chief captain: The commander of the Roman garrison in Jerusalem. In chapter 23 his name is given as Claudius Lysias.
• Places: Tyre, Ptolemais, Caesarea, Jerusalem, the Temple in Jerusalem, Tarsus

Points for Reflection

• The Spirit's prompting and the warnings: The disciples at Tyre told Paul through the Spirit not to go, yet Paul said he was going "bound in the spirit" (Acts 20:22). Interpretations differ over this tension. Many interpreters hold that the Spirit revealed the coming suffering, while the counsel "do not go" was the people's own conclusion. Others hold that Paul did not heed the warning.
• Participation in the purification rite: Some connect Paul's compliance with the elders' advice to 1 Corinthians 9:20, "unto the Jews I became as a Jew." Others regard it as an excessive compromise. Many interpreters take the vow involving the shaving of the head to be a Nazirite vow.
• Philip's daughters: Verse 9 is cited by proponents of various positions in discussions of the ordination of women and women's public ministry.
• Connections within the New Testament: Verse 25 restates the decision of the Council of Jerusalem (Acts 15). The arrest in this chapter leads to Paul's imprisonment at Caesarea and his journey to Rome.
• Historical background: Warning inscriptions forbidding Gentiles to enter the inner courts of the temple have been discovered. The Jewish historian Josephus also recounts the story of an Egyptian agitator.

In the Korean Church

Verse 13 is frequently cited in sermons on devotion and suffering, as well as in sermons connected with the sending of missionaries.