Acts 21:14-33

¹⁴And when he remained unpersuaded, we were silent and said, “Let the will of the Lord be done.”

¹⁵Now after those days, having prepared, we went up to Jerusalem.

¹⁶Also some of the disciples from Caesarea went with us and brought with them a certain Cypriot named Mnason, a long-standing disciple, with whom we would stay as a guest.

¹⁷And when we arrived in Jerusalem, the brothers gladly received us.

¹⁸On the next day Paul was going in with us to James, and all the elders were present.

¹⁹And having greeted them, he reported one by one those things which God had done among the Gentiles through his ministry.

²⁰And hearing this, they were glorifying the Lord, saying to him, “You see, brother, how many thousands of Jews there are who have believed, and they are all zealous for the law;

²¹and they have been informed about you, that you are teaching defection from Moses, to all the Jews who are among the Gentiles, saying for them not to circumcise their children nor to walk in our customs.

²²What then? It is certainly necessary for an assembly to come together; for they will hear that you have come.

²³Therefore do this, which we say to you: There are four men with us who have taken a vow upon themselves.

²⁴Take them and purify yourself with them, and pay for them that they may have their heads shaved, and that all may know that those things of which they have been informed about you are nothing, but that you are agreeing with and keeping the law yourself.

²⁵But as for the Gentile believers, we wrote, having judged that they should keep no such thing, except that they should keep themselves from things offered to idols, from blood, and from anything strangled, and from sexual immorality.”

²⁶Then Paul, having taken the men, on the next day having been purified with them, entered into the temple, thus giving notice to the completion of the days of the purification, until the time when the offering was offered in behalf of each one of them.

²⁷Now when the seven days were about to be completed, the Jews from Asia, seeing him in the temple, were stirring up all the crowd and put their hands on him,

²⁸crying out, “Men of Israel, help us! This is the man who is teaching all people everywhere against the people and the Law and this place; and furthermore he has brought Greeks into the temple and has defiled this holy place.”

²⁹For they had seen Trophimus the Ephesian in the city with him, whom they supposed that Paul had brought into the temple.

³⁰And all the city was aroused; and there was a mob forming among the people, and taking hold of Paul they were dragging him outside the temple; and immediately the doors were shut.

³¹And seeking to kill him, a report went up to the commander of the garrison that all Jerusalem had been stirred up,

³²who immediately having taken along soldiers and centurions, ran down among them. And when they saw the commander and the soldiers, they stopped beating Paul.

³³And the commander, approaching, took hold of him, and ordered him to be bound with two chains; and he was inquiring who he might be and what he had done.