Act 21 | EE | STEP | We said ‘Goodbye’ to the leaders of the believers from Ephesus. Then we sailed on a ship straight across the sea, and we arrived at Cos. The next day, we continued on our journey to Rhodes. From there we went on to the town called Patara.

Acts 21

Paul goes to Jerusalem

1 We said ‘Goodbye’ to the leaders of the believers from Ephesus. Then we sailed on a ship straight across the sea, and we arrived at Cos. The next day, we continued on our journey to Rhodes. From there we went on to the town called Patara. ^{▼▼21:1 Cos and Rhodes are islands. Patara is a town on the coast.}

2 At Patara, we found a ship that was going to Phoenicia. So we got on to the ship and we sailed across the sea.

3 After travelling for some time, we could see the island called Cyprus. We sailed south of Cyprus, and we continued on to Syria. We arrived on the coast at the city called Tyre and we got off the ship. The ship would remain in Tyre for some days, because people had to remove the things off the ship. 4 We went round the city and we found some believers. So, we stayed with them for a week. The Holy Spirit showed these believers that trouble would come to Paul in Jerusalem. So they said to him, ‘Paul, you should not to go to Jerusalem.’

5 After a week with the believers in Tyre, it was time for us to leave them. All the believers, together with their wives and their children, went with us out of the city. At the beach, we all went down on our knees and we prayed together. 6 Then we said ‘Goodbye’ to each other and the believers returned to their homes in the city. We went and we got on the ship again, together with Paul.

7 We continued our journey across the sea. We sailed from Tyre to Ptolemais. There, we met some believers and we stayed with them for one day. 8 The next day, we left Ptolemais and we sailed to Caesarea. We stayed there with Philip. He was someone who taught people the good news about Jesus. He was one of the 7 men that the believers had chosen in Jerusalem. ^{▼▼21:8 We can read about this in Acts 6:1-6.} 9 He had 4 daughters who were not married, and they spoke messages from God.

10 We stayed with Philip in Caesarea for a few days. Then a man called Agabus arrived in the city from Judea. He was a prophet and he spoke messages from God. 11 Agabus came to where we were. He took Paul’s belt and he tied it round his own feet and hands. He said, ‘Listen to this message from the Holy Spirit. “The Jewish leaders in Jerusalem will take hold of the man who has this belt. They will tie his hands and his feet. Then they will give him to the Gentiles to be their prisoner.” ’

12 When we heard Agabus’ message, we all said many times to Paul, ‘Please do not go to Jerusalem.’ 13 But Paul answered, ‘Stop crying like this! You are making me very sad! I am ready for men in Jerusalem to take hold of me. They may tie me up, and I may even die there. I am ready for all this because I believe in the Lord Jesus.’

14 We could not cause Paul to think in a different way. So we stopped saying to him, ‘You should not go to Jerusalem.’ Instead we said to him, ‘We want the Lord God to do what he wants.’

15 We stayed in Caesarea for some days. Then we prepared ourselves to travel across land. We left there to go to Jerusalem. 16 Some of the believers from Caesarea also went with us. They took us to the house of a man called Mnason. We had decided to stay with him. His home town was on the island called Cyprus. He had been a believer from the beginning.

Paul visits James in Jerusalem

17 When we arrived in Jerusalem, the believers there were very happy to see us. 18 The next day, we went with Paul to see James. The leaders of the believers were also there. 19 Paul said ‘hello’ to them and then he told them everything about his work. God had helped him to do many good things for the Gentiles.

20 After the leaders had listened to Paul, they praised God. Then they said, ‘Brother Paul, you can see the problem. There are now many thousands of Jews who have believed in Jesus. But they also really want to obey the Law of Moses. ^{▼▼21:20 Brother is a name that a Christian may call another Christian.} 21 These Jews here have heard about what you teach Jewish people in other countries. They think that you say to them, “You do not need to obey the Law of Moses any longer. You do not need to circumcise your children. You do not need to live in the way that Jewish people usually live.”

22 We need to do something about this problem. These Jewish believers will certainly hear that you are in Jerusalem. 23 We will tell you what you must do. There are 4 Jewish men in our group who have made a promise to God. 24 You must go with these men to God’s Great House. There, they will wash to make themselves clean in front of God. Join with them when they do that. Then pay the priest the money for their sacrifices. After that, the men can cut the hair off their heads. When you do that, everyone will understand about you. They will see what you have done. They will know that you yourself obey the Law of Moses. They will know that what they have heard about you is not true. 25 But it is different for the Gentiles who believe in Jesus. We have already sent a letter to them. We wrote, “Do not eat any food that people have given to their idols. Do not eat anything that still has blood in it. If people have killed an animal with a rope round its neck, do not eat its meat. Do not have sex with anyone that you are not married to.” ’

26 So the next day, Paul went with the 4 men. He joined with them when they washed to make themselves clean in front of God. Then he went into the yard of God’s Great House. He told the priest there when the 4 men would finish their promise to God. It would take 7 days. After that, each man would give an animal as a sacrifice to God. ^{▼▼21:26 These men had promised something to God. It was time now to cut their hair. This showed that they had finished the time. They had finished what they had said to God. The men had to wait for 7 days, before they went to God’s Great House. The priests there killed the animal that each man brought as a gift to God.}

27 At the end of those 7 days, some Jews from Asia region saw Paul in God’s Great House. They said some bad things against Paul to the crowd. So the people became angry and they took hold of Paul. 28 The Jews from Asia shouted, ‘People of Israel, come and help us! This is the man who goes everywhere and he teaches everyone bad things. He speaks against us, the people of Israel. He also speaks against the Law of Moses and against this Great House of God. Now he has even brought some Gentiles into this Great House of God. So now this special place is not clean in front of God any longer.’ 29 (These men had earlier seen Paul in the city with a man called Trophimus. Trophimus was a Gentile who came from Ephesus. They thought that Paul had brought Trophimus into God’s Great House. That is why they shouted bad things against Paul.) ^{▼▼21:29 Trophimus was a not a Jew so he could not go into God’s Great House.}

30 Many other people in the city heard about the trouble and they also became angry. They all ran from their homes to God’s Great House and they took hold of Paul. Then they pulled him out of God’s Great House and they closed the doors immediately. ^{▼▼21:30 The crowd wanted to kill Paul, but they could not kill him in God’s Great House. That also would have caused the House of God not to be clean in front of God.}

31 The angry crowd was trying to kill Paul. But someone sent a message to the leader of the Roman soldiers. The message was, ‘People are fighting everywhere in the city.’

32 So, the soldiers’ leader quickly took some other officers and a large group of soldiers and they ran down to the crowd. The angry crowd of people saw the leader with his soldiers. So then they stopped hitting Paul.

33 The Roman soldiers’ leader went to Paul and he took hold of him. He said to his men, ‘Tie two chains round the arms of this man.’ Then he asked the people in the crowd, ‘Who is this man and what has he done?’

34 Some people in the crowd shouted one thing and other people shouted something different. There was so much noise that the leader of the soldiers was not sure about the true facts. He did not know what had really happened. So he said to his soldiers, ‘Take this man up into our strong building!’ 35 The soldiers then led Paul as far as the steps of their building. Then they had to carry him because the crowd was so angry. 36 The crowd followed close behind Paul and the soldiers. They were shouting, ‘Kill him!’

37 While the soldiers were leading Paul into their building, he asked their leader, ‘Please can I say something to you?’

The soldiers’ leader replied, ‘Oh! Do you speak the Greek language? 38 I thought that you must be that bad man who came from Egypt. He was the one who fought against our Roman government. Some time ago, he led 4000 of his own men out into the wilderness, with their weapons.’

39 Paul answered, ‘I am a Jew and I was born in Tarsus in the region called Cilicia. So you see, I am a man from an important city. Please, let me speak to this crowd.’

40 The leader of the soldiers said to Paul, ‘Yes, you may speak to the people.’ So Paul stood still on the steps of the soldiers’ building. He raised his hands towards them so that the people became quiet. Then he spoke to them in the Jewish people’s own language.