Page 102 - Acts Student Textbook

available to "all men"—but also the theological assertion of exclusivistic salvation only in and
through faith in Christ. They had no proof Paul had defiled the temple. His whole intent had been to
appease the Jews as much as possible and defuse Jewish opposition by showing that he kept the
customs and respected his Jewish background.

People today have changed little. If they oppose truth, they will not respond favorably to efforts to
appease them even in matters where common ground may scripturally be found. Motives will be
misinterpreted, malicious intent will be assumed, even when things are done that they have no real
reason to oppose. Some people will not be peaceable no matter how peaceably they are treated.
They have their minds made up and nothing will reach them.

What where the Jews’ plans against Paul, and how did they fail? (31-36)

A major riot was in the process of developing. The disturbance reached people throughout the city. A
crowd gathered, Paul was dragged from the temple, and the doors were shut. The people were
preparing to kill Paul and were in the process of beating him. The soldier in charge of the Roman
garrison, however, heard of the uproar in the city. No doubt the Romans were especially vigilant for
trouble during feasts such as this where people gathered from around the world. Jews were known
to be rebellious and independent. The commander gathered soldiers and centurions (captains of 100
soldiers), and ran down into the crowd. Since there was more than one centurion, each presumably
with his hundred soldiers, this was a sizable force. The people stopped beating Paul when they saw
the soldiers.

The commander took Paul and bound him with two chains. He asked the people what their
accusation was against Paul, but the responses were so confused that he could not determine what
the problem was. So, he took Paul into custody and attempted to leave with him. However, as they
left, the soldiers had to physically carry Paul in order to protect him from the violence of the mob,
who followed them crying out that Paul should be done away with (killed).

The power to testify in the face of opposition (21:37-23:11)

21:37-40

Seeing he was physically protected from the mob, Paul, as he often did, determined to use this as an
opportunity to teach. So, he asked to speak to the commander. The commander, knowing nothing of
the situation, thought Paul may have been an Egyptian who had, apparently, led a rebellion of four
thousand men into the wilderness. He was surprised Paul could speak to him in Greek. Paul
responded that he was a Jew from Tarsus in Cilicia. This was a noted city and he was a citizen there.
Based on that, he asked permission to speak to the crowd. Permission was granted, so Paul stood on
the stairs,"motioned to the people with his hand." This was apparently a well-known hand gesture
for silence so that a person could speak (cf. 12:17; 13:16; 19:33; 21:40; 26:1). This may have been a
rhetorical gesture that Paul learned while studying rhetoric at Tarsus. And he spoke to the people in
“a Hebrew dialect (21:40)"- “Paul spoke to the mob in Aramaic (the Jews had learned to speak
Aramaic during their years under Persian rule). All of the places in the Gospels where Jesus' actual
words are recorded are in Aramaic. This was a cognate language to ancient Hebrew. For example, in
Nehemiah 8, where Ezra read the Law of Moses in Hebrew, Levites had to interpret it into Aramaic
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for the people (cf. Neh. 8:7).” This quieted the mob for a period (cf. 22:2).. The people finally
became silenced as they sought to hear what he had to say. Consider the love and courage it would
take to use this opportunity. Paul had been beaten with intent to kill him. He had escaped with his
life, yet he wanted to teach and convert his attackers! The speech is recorded in the next chapter.

54 Ibid, (21:40)
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