Acts 21:30
A plain-spoken deep dive on this verse. Read the chapter →
The whole city was stirred up, and the people rushed together. They seized Paul and dragged him out of the temple, and at once the gates were shut.
Commentaries
Excerpts gathered from published commentaries to ground the reading.
took Paul, and drew him out of the temple; and forthwith the doors were shut--that the murder they meant to perpetrate might not pollute that holy place.
Open source ↗We have, with a great deal of pleasure, attended the apostle in his travels throughout the Gentile nations to preach the gospel, and have seen a great harvest of souls gathered in to Christ; there we have seen likewise what persecutions he endured; yet still out of them all the Lord presently delivered him, Ti2 3:11. But now we are to attend him to Jerusalem, and there into lasting bonds; the days of his service now seem to be over, and nothing to remain but days of suffering, days of darkness, for they are many. It is a thousand pities that such a workman should be laid aside; yet so it is, and we must not only acquiesce, as his friends then did, saying, "The will of the Lord be done;" but we must believe, and shall find reason to do so, that Paul in the prison, and at the bar, is as truly glorifying God, and serving Christ's interest, as Paul in the pulpit was. In this chapter we have, I. A journal of Paul's voyage from Ephesus to Caesarea, the next sea-port to Jerusalem, some places he touched at, and his landing there (Act 21:1-7). II. The struggles he had with his friends at Caesarea, who mightily opposed his going up to Jerusalem, but could not prevail (Act 21:8-14). III. Paul's journey from Caesarea to Jerusalem, and the kind entertainment which the Christians there gave him (Act 21:15-17). IV. His compliance with the persuasions of the brethren there, who advised him so far to compliment the Jews as to go and purify that it might appear he was no such enemy to the Mosaic rites and ceremonies as he was reported to be (Act 21:18-26). V. The turning of this very thing against him by the Jews, and the apprehending of him in the temple as a criminal thereupon (Act 21:27-30). VI. The narrow escape he had of being pulled to pieces by the rabble, and the taking of him i…
Open source ↗21:30 This supposed desecration of the Temple aroused the fury of the Jewish populace. The Temple . . . gates were closed because they thought the Temple had been defiled by a Gentile.
Open source ↗Cross-references
Other passages the community most often connects to this one. Tap to read.
For this reason the Jews seized me in the temple courts and tried to kill me.
In my frequent journeys, I have been in danger from rivers and from bandits, in danger from my countrymen and from the Gentiles, in danger in the city and in the country, in danger on the sea and among false brothers,
When Jesus had entered Jerusalem, the whole city was stirred and asked, “Who is this?”
When King Herod heard this, he was disturbed, and all Jerusalem with him.
And Jehoiada the priest ordered the commanders of hundreds in charge of the army, “Bring her out between the ranks, and put to the sword anyone who follows her.” For the priest had said, “She must not be put to death in the house of the LORD.”
Soon the whole city was in disarray. They rushed together into the theatre, dragging with them Gaius and Aristarchus, Paul’s traveling companions from Macedonia.
They got up, drove Him out of the town, and led Him to the brow of the hill on which the town was built, in order to throw Him over the cliff.