Page 293 - Demo

THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES 
all the Jews who live among the Gentiles to abandon Moses and that you are telling them not to circumcise their children or to observe their
customary practices. What is to be done? They will surely hear that you have arrived. 23* So do what we tell you. We have four men who have taken a vow.e 24Take these men and purify yourself with them, and pay their expenses* that they may have their heads shaved. In this way everyone will know that there is nothing to the reports they have been given about you but that you yourself live in observance of the law. 25f As for the Gentiles who have come to believe, we sent them our decision that they abstain from meat sacri ced to idols, from blood, from the meat of strangled animals, and from unlawful marriage.”* 26So Paul took the men, and on the next day after purifying himself together with them entered the temple to give notice of the day when the puri cation would be completed and the o ering made for each of them.g
Paul’s Arrest. 27When the seven days were nearly completed, the Jews from the province of Asia noticed him in the temple, stirred up the whole crowd, and laid hands on him, 28h shouting, “Fellow Israelites, help us. This is the man who is teaching everyone everywhere against the people and the law and this
place, and what is more, he has even brought Greeks into the temple and de led this sacred place.”* 29For they had previously seen Trophimus the Ephesian in the city with him and supposed that Paul had brought him into the temple. 30The whole city was in turmoil with people rushing together. They seized Paul and dragged him out of the temple, and immediately the gates were closed. 31While they were trying to kill him, a report reached the cohort commander* that all Jerusalem was rioting. 32He immediately took soldiers and centurions and charged down on them. When they saw the commander and the soldiers they stopped beating Paul. 33The cohort commander came forward, arrested him, and ordered him to be secured with two chains; he tried to nd out
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Jerusalem today
Paul on the road to Damascus
by Gustave Doré (1866)
* [21:23–26] The leaders of the community suggest that Paul, on behalf of four members of the Jerusalem community, make the customary payment for the sacri ces o ered at the termination of the Nazirite vow (see Nm 6:1–24) in order to impress favorably the Jewish Christians in Jerusalem with his high regard for the Mosaic law. Since Paul himself had once made this vow (Acts 18:18), his respect for the law would be on public record.
* [21:24] Pay their expenses: according to Nm 6:14–15 the Nazirite had to present a yearling lamb for a holocaust, a yearling ewe lamb for a sin o ering, and a ram for a peace o ering, along with food and drink o erings, upon completion of the period of the vow.
*[21:25] Paul is informed about the apostolic decree, seemingly for the rst time (see note on Acts 15:13–35).
e. [21:23–27] 18:18; Nm 6:1–21. f. [21:25] 15:19–20, 28–29.
The allusion to the decree was probably introduced here by Luke to remind his readers that the Gentile Christians themselves were asked to respect certain Jewish practices deriving from the law.
* [21:28] The charges against Paul by the diaspora Jews are identical to the charges brought against Stephen by diaspora Jews in Acts 6:13. Brought Greeks into the temple: non-Jews were forbidden, under penalty of death, to go beyond the Court of the Gentiles. Inscriptions in Greek and Latin on a stone balustrade marked o the prohibited area.
* [21:31] Cohort commander: literally, “the leader of a thousand in a cohort.” At this period the Roman cohort commander usually led six hundred soldiers, a tenth of a legion; but the number in a cohort varied.
g. [21:26] 1 Cor 9:20. h. [21:28] Rom 15:31.
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