Arrested Under False Pretenses

We return to our study of the book of Acts today, picking up in the middle of chapter 21. The setting is Jerusalem, not long after Paul and his traveling companions arrived with monetary relief from the gentile churches for the impoverished Jewish Christians in the Holy City. Paul, to refute the false accusations that he was telling Jewish converts that they had to abandon all their ancestral and cultural traditions, went to the temple and performed the Jewish purification rites (Acts 21:17–26; see Rom. 15:22–29). Paul understood that Jesus had decisively purified him from sin, but he also knew his freedom in Christ, as a Jew, to continue at least some Jewish practices. He did not want to see these practices imposed on the gentiles, for that would be to require of gentiles something in addition to faith in Christ for salvation. To continue certain practices as a Jew would have no such connotation, however, since these practices had long been a part of his cultural heritage and were not being placed on him anew (see Acts 15:1–33; Rom. 14). He could freely participate in these practices not as additions to faith in Christ alone but as acts that were customary for his Jewish heritage.

Acts 21:27–36 indicates that while Paul’s actions may have assuaged the Jewish Christians’ fears that the Apostle might be rejecting his heritage entirely, it did not convince many Jews outside the church. We see that while Paul was in the temple in Jerusalem, some Jews from Asia jumped to the conclusion that he was bringing gentiles into the temple (vv. 27–29). This was a charge that Paul was bringing gentiles into courts of the temple where only Jews were allowed, beyond the outermost court where the gentiles were permitted to come to pray. Such an action was considered one of the most sacrilegious acts that could be committed.

That the accusation was false did not stop it from causing a widespread uproar in the city. The Jewish opponents of Paul dragged him out of the temple with the intention of killing him. Once the Roman tribune heard of this, he immediately dispatched soldiers to arrest Paul. The Romans who were charged by Caesar with oversight of Jerusalem took any disturbance among the Jews very seriously because of the potential for a revolt, which explains why the tribune was quick to put Paul into custody. This arrest would turn out to be the first in a series of events that would bring Paul finally to Rome.