The Voyage to Tyre
1 Now when we had torn ourselves away from them and set sail, we ran a straight course and came to Cos, and the next day to Rhodes, and from there to Patara.
2 And finding a ship crossing over to Phoenicia, we went aboard and set sail.
3 When we had come in sight of Cyprus, leaving it on our left, we sailed to Syria and put in at Tyre, for the ship was to unload its cargo there.
4 Having sought out the disciples, we stayed there seven days. They kept telling Paul through the Spirit not to set foot in Jerusalem.
5 But when our days there were over, we departed and went on our way, and they all, with wives and children, escorted us until we were outside the city. And kneeling down on the beach, we prayed
6 and said farewell to one another. Then we went aboard the ship, and they returned to their own homes.
ἀποσπασθέντας (apospasthentas) — v.1: “Torn ourselves away” — the verb ἀποσπάω (apospao) literally means “to tear away” or “to rip apart.” It’s the same word used for drawing a sword from its sheath. Luke is describing a physical and emotional wrenching — the departure from the Ephesian elders at Miletus was not a clean goodbye. This single word carries forward all the grief of the previous chapter’s farewell.
vv.1–3: The sailing itinerary is again precise and consistent with known ancient trade routes. Cos, Rhodes, and Patara are island and coastal stops along the southern coast of Asia Minor. At Patara (a major port in Lycia), they transfer from a coastal vessel to an open-sea ship making the longer crossing to Phoenicia — a significant upgrade that reflects the shift from island-hopping to deep-water sailing. The detail about sighting Cyprus and “leaving it on our left” (i.e., passing it to port, on the southern route) is the kind of navigational observation only someone on the ship would make.
διὰ τοῦ πνεύματος (dia tou pneumatos) — v.4: “Through the Spirit” — this is the first of several Spirit-prompted warnings Paul receives on the way to Jerusalem. The disciples at Tyre are not giving their personal opinion; they are speaking under prophetic impulse. Yet Paul continues anyway. This creates a profound interpretive tension: is Paul disobeying the Spirit, or is the Spirit revealing what will happen without forbidding him to go? The latter seems more consistent with 20:22–23, where Paul says the Spirit both compels him toward Jerusalem and warns him of what awaits there. The Spirit reveals the cost; Paul accepts it.
vv.5–6: The scene on the beach at Tyre is a smaller echo of the Miletus farewell — the whole congregation, including women and children, walks Paul’s group out of the city to the shore, and they kneel together on the sand to pray. These beach farewells are becoming a recurring motif in Acts. Each one raises the emotional stakes: the community knows they are sending Paul toward danger, and every goodbye feels heavier than the last.
From Tyre to Caesarea
7 When we had finished the voyage from Tyre, we arrived at Ptolemais and greeted the brothers and stayed with them for one day.
8 On the next day we departed and came to Caesarea, and entering the house of Philip the evangelist, who was one of the Seven, we stayed with him.
9 Now this man had four unmarried daughters who prophesied.
10 And while we were staying for a number of days, a certain prophet named Agabus came down from Judea.
11 And coming to us and taking Paul’s belt, he bound his own feet and hands and said, “Thus says the Holy Spirit: ‘The man who owns this belt — the Jews in Jerusalem will bind him in this way and hand him over to the Gentiles.’”
12 When we heard this, both we and the local people urged him not to go up to Jerusalem.
13 Then Paul answered, “What are you doing, weeping and breaking my heart? For I am ready not only to be bound but even to die in Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus.”
14 And since he would not be persuaded, we fell silent, saying, “The will of the Lord be done.”
v.7: Ptolemais is the modern city of Akko (Acre) in Israel, about 25 miles south of Tyre. The brief stop (one day) suggests urgency — Paul is still pressing toward Jerusalem for Pentecost.
v.8: Philip “the evangelist, one of the Seven” — Luke carefully distinguishes this Philip from the apostle Philip. This is the Philip of Acts 6:5 (chosen as one of the seven deacons) and Acts 8 (who evangelized Samaria and baptized the Ethiopian eunuch). We last saw him in Acts 8:40 settling in Caesarea. Twenty years have passed. Luke is connecting threads across the entire narrative of Acts, showing the reader that the man who was a young deacon in chapter 6 is now an established figure with a household.
v.9: Philip’s four prophesying daughters are mentioned and then, remarkably, nothing they say is recorded. Luke tells us they prophesy but doesn’t give us any of their prophecies. Some scholars see this as Luke simply noting their existence for the historical record — they became well-known figures in early church tradition. The second-century writer Papias reportedly gathered traditions from them. Others note the irony that the next prophecy Luke records comes not from these resident prophets but from Agabus, who arrives from outside.
παρθένοι τέσσαρες προφητεύουσαι (parthenoi tessares prophēteuousai) — v.9: “Four unmarried daughters who prophesied” — the word παρθένοι (parthenoi) means “virgins” and in context indicates they were unmarried. The participle προφητεύουσαι (prophēteuousai) is a present tense, indicating habitual or ongoing prophetic activity — this was their recognized role in the community, not an isolated event. The detail is significant for discussions about women’s roles in the early church: these women exercised one of the most authoritative spiritual gifts.
v.10: Agabus appeared earlier in Acts 11:28, where he predicted a famine under Claudius — a prediction Luke notes was fulfilled. His track record is established; he is a credible prophet.
v.11: Agabus’s acted prophecy — binding his own hands and feet with Paul’s belt — stands in the tradition of the Old Testament prophets, who frequently performed symbolic actions to dramatize their messages: Isaiah walked naked and barefoot for three years (Isaiah 20), Jeremiah wore a yoke (Jeremiah 27–28), Ezekiel lay on his side for 390 days (Ezekiel 4). The formula “Thus says the Holy Spirit” (τάδε λέγει τὸ πνεῦμα τὸ ἅγιον) directly parallels the prophetic formula “Thus says the LORD” used hundreds of times in the Old Testament. Agabus is placing himself in that lineage.
v.11: Notice a subtle inaccuracy in the prophecy’s details: Agabus says “the Jews will bind him and hand him over to the Gentiles.” In fact, the Jews will try to kill Paul, and the Romans will rescue and bind him (v.33). The broad shape of the prophecy is fulfilled, but the specific mechanics differ. This is actually evidence of historical authenticity — a fabricated prophecy would have been made to match the fulfillment exactly. Luke records the prophecy as given, without smoothing it to fit what actually happened.
συνθρύπτοντές μου τὴν καρδίαν (synthryptontes mou tēn kardian) — v.13: “Breaking my heart” — literally “crushing my heart.” The verb συνθρύπτω (synthryptō) means to shatter, to break into pieces. Paul’s courage is not cold or unfeeling. Their tears are weakening his resolve, and he says so honestly. He is not unmoved by their grief — he is choosing to go despite being deeply moved by it.
τοῦ κυρίου τὸ θέλημα γινέσθω (tou kyriou to thelēma ginestho) — v.14: “The will of the Lord be done” — this echoes Jesus’s prayer in Gethsemane (“Not my will but yours be done,” Luke 22:42). Luke is drawing a deliberate parallel: like Jesus, Paul sets his face toward Jerusalem knowing what awaits him; like Jesus’s disciples, Paul’s companions ultimately submit to the divine plan they cannot prevent. The parallel would not have been lost on Luke’s readers.
Arrival in Jerusalem
15 After these days we packed our things and went up to Jerusalem.
16 And some of the disciples from Caesarea came with us, bringing us to the home of Mnason of Cyprus, an early disciple, with whom we were to stay.
17 When we arrived in Jerusalem, the brothers received us gladly.
18 And on the following day Paul went in with us to James, and all the elders were present.
19 And after greeting them, he began to report in detail, one thing after another, what God had done among the Gentiles through his ministry.
20 And when they heard it, they began glorifying God. Then they said to him, “You see, brother, how many tens of thousands there are among the Jews who have believed, and they are all zealous for the Law.
21 But they have been informed about you, that you are teaching all the Jews who are among the Gentiles to abandon Moses, telling them not to circumcise their children and not to walk according to the customs.
22 What then is to be done? They will certainly hear that you have come.
23 Therefore do what we tell you: we have four men who have taken a vow upon themselves.
24 Take these men, purify yourself along with them, and pay their expenses so that they may shave their heads. Then everyone will know that there is nothing to what they have been told about you, but that you yourself also walk in an orderly manner, keeping the Law.
25 But as for the Gentiles who have believed, we wrote to them our decision that they should abstain from what has been sacrificed to idols, from blood, from what has been strangled, and from sexual immorality.”
26 Then Paul took the men, and the next day, having purified himself along with them, he went into the temple, giving notice of the completion of the days of purification, until the offering was presented for each one of them.
ἐπισκευασάμενοι (episkeuasamenoi) — v.15: “We packed our things” — some manuscripts and translations render this “we made preparations” or even “we saddled our horses.” The basic meaning is “getting equipped for the journey.” The overland trip from Caesarea up to Jerusalem was about 65 miles and would have taken two to three days on foot or by animal.
ἀρχαίῳ μαθητῇ (archaiō mathētē) — v.16: Mnason is described as an “early disciple” — literally “an original disciple” or “a disciple from the beginning.” He was from Cyprus (like Barnabas) and had apparently been a believer since the earliest days of the church, possibly since Pentecost itself. By hosting Paul’s mixed Jewish-Gentile delegation, Mnason signals that at least some of the old guard in Jerusalem were sympathetic to Paul’s Gentile mission.
v.18: “Paul went in to James, and all the elders were present” — notice who is conspicuously absent: the apostles. By this point, the original twelve (minus Judas, plus Matthias) have apparently scattered from Jerusalem. James, the brother of Jesus, has become the de facto leader of the Jerusalem church, governing with a council of elders. This is a significant institutional development. The charismatic era of the apostles in Jerusalem is giving way to a more settled structure under James’s leadership.
πόσαι μυριάδες (posai myriades) — v.20: “How many tens of thousands” — μυριάς (myrias) means ten thousand. The plural “myriads” is probably hyperbolic, but it indicates that the Jewish Christian community in Jerusalem was very large — and very Torah-observant. These believers saw no contradiction between following Jesus and keeping the Law of Moses. In fact, they were “zealous” (ζηλωταί, zēlōtai) for the Law — the same word used for the revolutionary Zealot movement. Their commitment to Torah was intense.
vv.21–24: The accusation against Paul is that he teaches Jewish believers living among Gentiles to “abandon Moses” — specifically, to stop circumcising their sons and stop following Jewish customs. This is actually a misrepresentation of Paul’s position. Paul taught that Gentiles did not need to be circumcised or follow Torah (Galatians 5:2), but he did not tell Jewish believers to stop practicing their heritage. In fact, Paul himself kept the Nazirite vow (18:18), observed Jewish festivals (20:6, 16), and here agrees to sponsor a temple purification ritual. The charge is a distortion — but a distortion with enough plausibility to be dangerous.
vv.23–24: James’s proposal is a brilliant piece of public relations. By sponsoring four men in their Nazirite vow completion — paying for the sacrificial animals (two lambs, a ram, grain offerings, and drink offerings per person, per Numbers 6:14–15, which was expensive) — Paul would publicly demonstrate his continued respect for the temple and Jewish practice. It was a visible, undeniable act of Jewish piety, designed to refute the rumors.
v.25: The reference to the “decision” about Gentile believers points back to the Jerusalem Council in Acts 15. James is drawing a sharp distinction: the requirements for Jewish believers and Gentile believers are different. Jewish Christians keep the Law; Gentile Christians follow the Apostolic Decree (no idol food, no blood, no strangled animals, no sexual immorality). This dual-track arrangement was the Jerusalem church’s official position — and it created a tension that ran through the early church for decades.
v.26: Paul agrees without apparent hesitation. This has puzzled readers who know Paul’s letters, where he insists that a person is justified by faith and not by works of the Law (Galatians 2:16, Romans 3:28). But there is no contradiction if Paul distinguishes between Torah observance as a requirement for salvation (which he rejected) and Torah observance as a cultural practice for Jewish believers (which he accepted). Paul’s principle was “to the Jews I became as a Jew” (1 Corinthians 9:20). Here, in Jerusalem, among Jewish believers, he practices what he preaches.
The Riot in the Temple
27 Now when the seven days were almost completed, the Jews from the province of Asia, upon seeing him in the temple, stirred up the whole crowd and laid hands on him,
28 shouting, “Men of Israel, help! This is the man who teaches everyone everywhere against our people and the Law and this place! And besides, he has even brought Greeks into the temple and has defiled this holy place!”
29 (For they had previously seen Trophimus the Ephesian with him in the city, and they assumed that Paul had brought him into the temple.)
30 The whole city was set in motion, and the people came running together. They seized Paul and dragged him out of the temple, and immediately the gates were shut.
31 And while they were trying to kill him, a report reached the commander of the cohort that all Jerusalem was in an uproar.
32 He immediately took soldiers and centurions and ran down to them. When they saw the commander and the soldiers, they stopped beating Paul.
33 Then the commander came up and took hold of him and ordered him to be bound with two chains, and he began asking who he was and what he had done.
34 But among the crowd, some were shouting one thing and some another, and since he could not determine the facts because of the uproar, he ordered him to be brought into the barracks.
35 When Paul reached the steps, he actually had to be carried by the soldiers because of the violence of the crowd,
36 for the mass of people kept following, shouting, “Away with him!”
v.27: The irony is devastating. Paul has just completed a ritual specifically designed to prove his loyalty to the temple and the Law — and it is in the temple, during that very act of piety, that he is attacked. The attackers are not local Jerusalem Jews but Jews from the province of Asia — almost certainly from Ephesus, where Paul had spent three years and generated enormous controversy. They have traveled over 800 miles and found him here. Paul’s past has caught up with him in the one place he thought he was demonstrating his innocence.
v.28: The charge has three parts, escalating in severity: (1) teaching against the Jewish people, (2) teaching against the Law, and (3) teaching against “this place” (the temple). Then comes the explosive addition: he has brought Greeks into the temple. This last charge, if true, was a capital offense. The temple had a barrier (the soreg) separating the Court of the Gentiles from the inner courts, with inscriptions in Greek and Latin warning that any Gentile who crossed it would be personally responsible for his own death. One of these inscriptions has actually been found by archaeologists — it reads: “No foreigner may enter within the barrier and enclosure around the temple. Anyone caught doing so will have himself to blame for his death which will follow.”
v.29: Luke immediately and explicitly tells the reader that the charge was false — they had seen Trophimus (a Gentile from Ephesus) with Paul in the city and jumped to the conclusion that Paul had brought him into the temple. The verb νομίζοντες (“supposing,” “assuming”) highlights the recklessness of the accusation. A man will nearly be killed on the basis of an assumption.
ἐκλείσθησαν αἱ θύραι (ekleisthēsan hai thyrai) — v.30: “Immediately the gates were shut” — the temple Levites shut the massive gates between the inner courts and the Court of the Gentiles, probably to prevent the violence from spreading into the sacred precincts and to avoid defiling the temple with bloodshed. The detail is both practical and symbolic: the temple doors close on Paul. The man who came to demonstrate his devotion to the temple is now locked out of it. He will never enter it again.
χιλίαρχος τῆς σπείρης (chiliarchos tēs speirēs) — v.31: The “commander of the cohort” is a Roman military tribune (chiliarchos, literally “commander of a thousand”). He is the commanding officer of the garrison stationed in the Antonia Fortress, which stood at the northwest corner of the temple mount, connected to the temple courts by two flights of stairs. The fortress was specifically positioned to allow rapid Roman intervention in temple disturbances — exactly the scenario unfolding here. The tribune’s name, we will learn in 23:26, is Claudius Lysias.
v.32: The Romans' arrival saves Paul’s life. This is another instance of the pattern running through Acts: Roman authority, whatever its motives, repeatedly ends up protecting Paul from mob violence. The soldiers have to physically extract Paul from the crowd, and the beating stops only because the rioters see the military approaching.
αἶρε αὐτόν (aire auton) — v.36: “Away with him!” — the same cry that Luke records the crowd shouting at Jesus’s trial before Pilate (Luke 23:18). The parallel is unmistakable and certainly deliberate. Paul is experiencing a passion of his own, and Luke wants his readers to see it.
v.35: The detail that Paul had to be physically carried up the steps by soldiers because the crowd was so violent is another eyewitness-quality observation. Luke (if he is the “we” narrator) is watching this from somewhere nearby, seeing Paul’s feet leave the ground as the soldiers lift him above the surging mob.
Paul Addresses the Commander
37 As Paul was about to be brought into the barracks, he said to the commander, “Is it permitted for me to say something to you?” And he said, “You know Greek?
38 Then you are not the Egyptian who some time ago stirred up a revolt and led four thousand men of the Assassins out into the wilderness?”
39 Paul said, “I am a Jew, from Tarsus in Cilicia, a citizen of no insignificant city. I beg you, permit me to speak to the people.”
40 And when he had given him permission, Paul stood on the steps and motioned with his hand to the people. And when there was a great silence, he addressed them in the Hebrew language, saying:
v.37: Paul’s composure here is extraordinary. He has just been beaten by a mob, dragged from the temple, bound in chains, and carried bodily up a flight of stairs — and his first act is to politely address the Roman commander in educated Greek. The tribune is startled: a blood-covered prisoner speaking cultured Greek doesn’t match his working theory about who this man is.
ὁ Αἰγύπτιος (ho Aigyptios) — v.38: “The Egyptian” — this is a historically attested figure. The Jewish historian Josephus describes an Egyptian false prophet who, around AD 54–58, gathered thousands of followers on the Mount of Olives and promised that the walls of Jerusalem would fall at his command, allowing them to overthrow the Roman garrison. The Roman governor Felix dispersed them with heavy casualties, but the Egyptian himself escaped and was never found. The tribune assumes he has finally caught this wanted fugitive. The number Josephus gives is 30,000 followers (likely exaggerated); Luke’s “four thousand” is probably more accurate.
τῶν σικαρίων (tōn sikariōn) — v.38: The “Assassins” — Greek σικάριοι (sikarioi), from the Latin sica (a short curved dagger). These were Jewish nationalist extremists who mingled in festival crowds and stabbed their targets — Roman sympathizers and collaborators — then melted back into the crowd feigning shock. Josephus describes them in detail. The tribune’s guess reveals the volatile political context: Jerusalem in this period was a powder keg of revolutionary fervor, messianic expectations, and anti-Roman violence.
οὐκ ἀσήμου πόλεως (ouk asēmou poleōs) — v.39: “A citizen of no insignificant city” — another litotes. Tarsus was the capital of Cilicia and a renowned center of learning, often mentioned alongside Athens and Alexandria as one of the great university cities of the Mediterranean. Paul is establishing his social credentials: I am not a desert revolutionary; I am an educated citizen of a distinguished Roman city. The phrase echoes classical Greek usage — Euripides used a nearly identical expression.
τῇ Ἑβραΐδι διαλέκτῳ (tē Hebraidi dialektō) — v.40: “The Hebrew language” — this almost certainly means Aramaic, the everyday spoken language of Palestinian Jews, rather than literary Hebrew. The distinction matters: by switching from Greek (which he used with the tribune) to Aramaic, Paul is signaling to the crowd that he is one of them — a native, a Palestinian Jew, not a foreign troublemaker. The effect is dramatic: the raging mob falls into “a great silence” (πολλὴ σιγή) the moment they hear their own language. The speech that follows (chapter 22) will be Paul’s defense before his own people.
General Notes on the Chapter
Acts 21 is the chapter where every warning is fulfilled. From Miletus (20:22–23), through Tyre (21:4), to Caesarea (21:10–11), the message has been consistent: chains and affliction await in Jerusalem. Paul has been walking toward this moment with open eyes and a breaking heart — and now it arrives. The chapter has the quality of a tragic narrative in which the reader knows what is coming and watches helplessly as the protagonist walks into it.
Luke’s parallel between Paul and Jesus intensifies dramatically in this chapter. Like Jesus, Paul sets his face toward Jerusalem despite warnings. Like Jesus, Paul is seized in the temple. Like Jesus, he is the victim of false charges. Like Jesus, the crowd cries “Away with him!” Like Jesus, he is handed over to Gentile (Roman) authority. These parallels are not accidental — Luke is showing his readers that Paul’s suffering follows the pattern established by his Lord.
The collection — Paul’s great project to unite Jewish and Gentile churches through a financial gift from the Gentile congregations to the impoverished Jerusalem believers — is conspicuously underemphasized in Luke’s account. Paul’s letters reveal that the collection was a massive undertaking and a matter of enormous personal importance (Romans 15:25–31, 2 Corinthians 8–9). Yet Luke barely mentions it. Why? Possibly because the collection’s reception was lukewarm or complicated, and Luke doesn’t want to dwell on a diplomatic failure. The awkwardness of vv.20–25 — where James and the elders immediately pivot from hearing Paul’s report to worrying about the rumors — may hint at how the visit actually felt: grateful but strained, appreciative but anxious.
The chapter also reveals the deep fault lines within early Christianity itself. The Jerusalem church’s tens of thousands of Torah-zealous Jewish believers and Paul’s Gentile mission churches represent two very different expressions of the same faith. James’s compromise proposal (the Nazirite sponsorship) is a diplomatic attempt to bridge the gap, but the gap is real and wide. The riot that erupts in the temple is triggered by outsiders (Asian Jews), but the underlying tensions between Jewish and Gentile Christianity provide the kindling. The unity that Paul’s collection was meant to symbolize remains fragile, and the events of this chapter will test it to the breaking point.