Chapter 21:27 When the seven days were almost over, the Jews from Asia, upon seeing him in the temple, began to stir up all the crowd and laid hands on him,
Chapter 21:28 crying out, “Men of Israel, come to our aid! This is the man who preaches to all men everywhere against our people and the Law and this place; and besides he has even brought Greeks into the temple and has defiled this holy place.”
Chapter 21:29 For they had previously seen Trophimus the Ephesian in the city with him, and they supposed that Paul had brought him into the temple.
Chapter 21:30 Then all the city was provoked, and the people rushed together, and taking hold of Paul they dragged him out of the temple, and immediately the doors were shut.
Chapter 21:31 While they were seeking to kill him, a report came up to the commander of the Roman cohort that all Jerusalem was in confusion.
Chapter 21:32 At once he took along some soldiers and centurions and ran down to them; and when they saw the commander and the soldiers, they stopped beating Paul.
Chapter 21:33 Then the commander came up and took hold of him, and ordered him to be bound with two chains; and he began asking who he was and what he had done.
Chapter 21:34 But among the crowd some were shouting one thing and some another, and when he could not find out the facts because of the uproar, he ordered him to be brought into the barracks.
Chapter 21:35 When he got to the stairs, he was carried by the soldiers because of the violence of the mob;
Chapter 21:36 for the multitude of the people kept following them, shouting, “Away with him!”
Chapter 21:37 As Paul was about to be brought into the barracks, he said to the commander, “May I say something to you?” And he said, “Do you know Greek?
Chapter 21:38 “Then you are not the Egyptian who some time ago stirred up a revolt and led the four thousand men of the Assyrians out into the wilderness?”
Chapter 21:39 But Paul said, ” I am a Jew of Tarsus in Cilicia, a citizen of no insignificant city; and I beg you, allow me to speak to the people.”
Chpater 21:40 When he had given him permission, Paul, standing on the stairs, motioned to the people with his had; and when there was a great hush, he spoke to them in the Hebrew dialect, saying,
Notice the similarities between the charges that were brought against Paul and the charges that were brought against Stephen in Acts 6:13. Exactly the same! The Jews from Asia felt that Paul was against the people of Israel, the law of Israel and the temple. Paul understood that righteousness only comes through our personal intimate love relationship with Christ, who died on the cross and not all these other things. It was feast-time in Jerusalem and that caused the crowd to be larger than normal and the people were upset that Paul was defiling the temple by bringing Gentiles into the inner courts. You see, it was prohibited for Gentiles to go past a certain designated area that was posted with signs in both Greek and Latin that stated that no foreigner could enter. This was punishable by death if they were caught trespassing, even a Roman citizen.
We see in verse 31, that the mob wanted to kill Paul right there in the outer courtyard of the temple. There were Roman soldiers nearby and the commander of this cohort of men received a report that the city was in confusion. The Romans came to Paul’s rescue even though they didn’t sympathize with Paul but wanted to keep order in Jerusalem. See that they bound Paul with two chains which means there was a soldier on either side of Paul and this event must have reminded Paul of the prophecy of Agabus in Acts 21:11, which stated he, Paul, would be put in two chains. The crowd of course kept crying out “Away with him”, so in other words, they wanted him dead.
Paul did something unusual at this point. The commander must have assumed that he was some kind of terrorist, but when Paul asked to speak to him, the commander must have been amazed that Paul was educated and could speak the Greek language. Most people under attack like this would surely have been mortified, but notice the politeness of Paul. The commander once again assumed that he was an Egyptian. The Egyptian that is mentioned here and is also mentioned by the Jewish historian Josephus, was one who had led an army of four thousand to the Mount of Olives where he sought to take over the temple mount. They were quickly scattered by the Roman soldiers but the leader escaped. The commander assumed that Paul was this Egyptian. We now really see the love that Paul had for the Lord even more than his own life, when he told the commander that he wanted to address the mob that wanted to kill him. All Paul wanted to do was tell the people about Jesus Christ!!! And with that the commander gave him permission to speak to the crowd.
