Acts 21:30-39

³⁰People throughout MTY the city heard that there was trouble at the Temple courtyard, and they came running there. They grabbed Paul and dragged him outside of the Temple area. The gates to the Temple courtyard were shut { The Temple guards shut the doors to the Temple courts} immediately, so that the people would not riot inside the Temple area.

³¹While they were trying to kill Paul, someone ran to the fort near the Temple and told the Roman commander that many HYP people MTY in Jerusalem were rioting at the Temple.

³²The commander quickly took some officers and a large group of soldiers and ran to the Temple area where the crowd was. When the crowd of people who were yelling and beating Paul saw the commander and the soldiers coming, they stopped beating him.

³³The commander came to where Paul was and seized him. He commanded soldiers to fasten a chain to each of Paul's arms. Then he asked the people in the crowd, “Who is this man, and what has he done?”

³⁴Some of the many people there were shouting one thing, and some were shouting something else. Because they continued shouting so loudly, the commander could not understand what they were shouting. So he commanded that Paul be taken { the soldiers to take Paul} into the barracks so that he could question him there.

³⁵The soldiers led Paul to the steps of the barracks, but many people continued to follow them, trying to kill Paul. So the commander told the soldiers to carry Paul up the steps into the barracks.

³⁶The crowd that followed kept shouting, “Kill him! Kill him!”

³⁷As Paul was about to be taken { the soldiers were about to take Paul} into the barracks, he said in Greek to the commander, “May I speak to you?” The commander said, “◄I am surprised that you can speak the Greek language!/Can you (sg) speak the Greek language?►” RHQ

³⁸“◄I thought that you (sg) were that fellow/Are you not that fellow► from Egypt RHQ who wanted to rebel against the government not long ago, and who took four thousand violent terrorists with him out into the desert, so that we could not catch him?”

³⁹Paul answered, “ No, I am not! I am a Jew. I was born in Tarsus, which is an important LIT city in Cilicia province. I ask that you (sg) let me speak to the people.”