Acts 21


Acts 21 is the twenty-first chapter of the Acts of the Apostles in the New Testament of the Christian Bible. It records the end of Paul's third missionary journey and his arrival and reception in Jerusalem. The narrator and his companions play an active part in the developments in this chapter. The book containing this chapter is anonymous, but early Christian tradition uniformly affirmed that Luke composed this book as well as the Gospel of Luke.

Text

The original text was written in Koine Greek. This chapter is divided into 40 verses.

Textual witnesses

Some early manuscripts containing the text of this chapter are:
  • Codex Vaticanus
  • Codex Sinaiticus
  • Codex Bezae
  • Codex Alexandrinus
  • Codex Ephraemi Rescriptus
  • Codex Laudianus

    Locations

This chapter mentions the following places :
This "we" section resumes the record. Alexander refers to the narrator's "customary wealth of detail" in this section, including "the itemized stages of the voyage, and the redundant detail of ships and cargoes". The narrative follows Paul's journey from Miletus, stopping in Tyre, Ptolemais, and Caesarea, before heading to Jerusalem, incorporating 'prophetic warnings' and a 'solemn farewell' to 'exemplify and reinforce the tone of Paul's address' in while presenting Paul as a "martyr", who 'exhibits a properly philosophical courage in the face of death', whereas his friends 'can only acquiesce in the divine will'. It is comparable to the scene of Socrates' death with his last words: 'If so it is pleasing to God, so let it be'.

Verse 8

  • "Philip the evangelist": a different title from "Philip the deacon", as he was previously known, showing that his work of 'superintending the distribution of alms' had been 'merged' in the 'work of a missionary preacher'.

    Verse 10

  • "Agabus": most likely the same prophet from Jerusalem who came to Antioch some years before, who was mentioned in. Luke does not make any cross reference with the previous encounter and presents Agabus here "so indefinitely", because this was perhaps the first time that he had actually seen the prophet and recorded this meeting in the "we" section of the book.

    Verse 13

Paul's response echoes Peter's words to Jesus, "Lord, I am ready to go with thee both into prison, and to death".

Arrival: Paul meets James (verses 17–26)

Once in Jerusalem Paul was welcomed warmly by the 'brothers', and the next day he and his company met with James and all the elders of the Jerusalem church, during which 'Paul's detailed report on the success of his Gentile mission is greeted with enthusiasm'. Luke points out that 'since the decisions of the Apostolic Council', 'James and the Jerusalem leadership have no problem with the admission of Gentiles to the church'.

Verse 18

Paul follows James's advice which 'unwittingly precipitates the crisis James is trying to avoid'. Over the seven-day period of his purification in the temple Paul attracts the attention of some 'Jews from Asia', who presumably visit Jerusalem for the festival of Pentecost, from communities in dispute with Paul during his mission journeys. Other than perceiving Paul's teaching as 'a direct attack on the Jewish people, the law, and the temple', here they charge specifically that 'Paul has brought an uncircumcised Gentile into the holy place', which was a serious charge with the punishment of death, as shown in the inscriptions surviving from the temple precinct. Paul would have known this regulation perfectly well, and Luke makes it clear that Paul had not broken this regulation, but 'the misapprehension is enough to arouse the whole city'. Paul was in real danger of being lynched by the people, if he was not rescued in time by the commander of the Roman garrison from the Antonia fortress, which was built to overlook the temple and 'designed precisely to quell such religious riots'.

Verses 27–29

  • "Trophimus": one of Paul's companions, is called Asianoi, that is, natives of the Roman province of Asia in Acts 20:4 and also termed an "Ephesian" and a "Gentile/Greek" in Acts 21.

    Paul and the Tribune (verses 37–40)

This section 'overshadows the final scenes of Paul's career', where 'Paul has been shut out' 'from the religious centre of his own people', and must end his life in the Roman world whose doors he opened for the gospel. The tribune suspected Paul be to the same figure as the Egyptian rebel leader who caused troubles around the same period of time, but 'Paul effectively undercuts the assumption by addressing the tribune in educated Greek' and claiming to be 'a citizen of no mean city', which 'is sufficient for the moment to establish common ground' for the tribune. However, Paul's Jewishness 'comes to fore' when he addressed the crowd again 'in the Hebrew language' almost certainly means "Aramaic", 'the spoken language of Palestine' at that time.

Verse 38

  • "The Egyptian": someone who claimed to be a prophet and led many followers into the desert when Felix was the procurator in Iudaea Province, as also recorded by Josephus in his Antiquities of the Jews 20:171-172.

    Verse 39

  • "A citizen of no mean city": This statement about "Tarsus in Cilicia" is a legitimate one, as the city was much celebrated for its learning and famous for culture, at one time the rival of Alexandria and Athens, even it has on its coins the word "METROPOLIS-AUTONOMOS". Josephus says that it was the metropolis, and most renowned city among .