Acts 21:17-38

¹⁷When we had arrived in Jerusalem, the brothers welcomed us gladly.

¹⁸The next day Paul went with us to James, and all the elders were present.

¹⁹When he had greeted them, he reported one by one the things that God had done among the Gentiles through his ministry.

²⁰When they heard it, they praised God, and they said to him, “You see, brother, how many thousands have believed among the Jews. They are all determined to keep the law.

²¹They have been told about you, that you teach all the Jews who live among the Gentiles to abandon Moses, and that you tell them not to circumcise their children, and not to follow the old customs.

²²What should we do? They will certainly hear that you have come.

²³So do what we say to you. We have four men who made a vow.

²⁴Take these men and purify yourself with them, and pay their expenses for them, so that they may shave their heads. So everyone will know that the things they have been told about you are false. They will learn that you also follow the law.

²⁵But concerning the Gentiles who have believed, we wrote and gave the instructions that they should keep themselves from things sacrificed to idols, from blood, from what is strangled, and from sexual immorality.”

²⁶Then Paul took the men, and the next day, purifying himself with them, went into the temple, announcing the period of the days of purification, until the offering was offered for every one of them.

²⁷When the seven days were almost finished, some Jews from Asia, seeing Paul in the temple, stirred up the whole crowd, and laid hands on him.

²⁸They were shouting, “Men of Israel, help us. This is the man who teaches all men everywhere things that are against the people, the law, and this place. Besides, he has also brought Greeks into the temple and has defiled this holy place.”

²⁹For they had previously seen Trophimus the Ephesian with him in the city, and they thought that Paul had brought him into the temple.

³⁰All the city was excited, and the people ran together and laid hold of Paul. They dragged him out of the temple, and the doors were immediately shut.

³¹As they were trying to kill him, news came up to the chief captain of the guard that all Jerusalem was in an uproar.

³²Right away he took soldiers and centurions and ran down to the crowd. When the people saw the chief captain and the soldiers, they stopped beating Paul.

³³Then the chief captain approached and laid hold of Paul, and commanded him to be bound with two chains. Then he asked who he was and what he had done.

³⁴Some in the crowd were shouting one thing and others another. Since the captain could not tell anything because of all the noise, he ordered that Paul be brought into the fortress.

³⁵When he came to the steps, he was carried by the soldiers because of the crowd's violence.

³⁶For the crowd of people followed after and kept shouting out, “Away with him!”

³⁷As Paul was about to be brought into the fortress, he said to the chief captain, “May I say something to you?” The captain said, “Do you speak Greek?

³⁸Are you not then the Egyptian, who previously led a rebellion and led the four thousand men of the 'Assassins' out into the wilderness?”