Acts 21:10Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

The Apostle’s words made a deep impression on the hearts of his hearers (Acts 20:36). All wept. All fell upon Paul’s neck. All kissed him. The travelers could hardly tear themselves from their hands (21:1). This scene was afterward repeated in Tyre, and finally in Caesarea Philippi. The nearer Paul came to Jerusalem, the more clearly and strikingly the fate awaiting him there appeared before him. In Caesarea, Agabus came to him. This was the same man who, fourteen or fifteen years earlier, had opened Paul’s way to Jerusalem with alms by his prophecy of famine. Now, meeting him again with alms, he bound the hands and feet of the benefactor himself with his own belt. This means, said the prophet, that this man will be bound in Jerusalem and delivered into the hands of the Gentiles.

At this time the prophet Agabus came to Caesarea from Judea (Acts 11:28). By the symbolic act of binding his own hands and feet with Paul's belt, he foretold that the Jews would bind the apostle in this way in Jerusalem and deliver him into the hands of the Gentiles. This caused the Christians of Caesarea to entreat the apostle together not to go up to Jerusalem. But Paul told them that he desired not only to be a prisoner, but was ready even to die for the name of Christ. By the feast of Pentecost he arrived in Jerusalem.

In Caesarea the Apostle Paul received a new warning of the danger threatening him. The prophet Agabus came there from Judea. Adopting the symbolic manner of the ancient prophets, he approached the Apostle Paul. He untied the belt with which Paul’s tunic was girded. Binding his own hands and feet with it, he said: "Thus says the Holy Spirit: the man whose belt this is, the Jews will bind in this way in Jerusalem and deliver him into the hands of the Gentiles." The brethren themselves already knew of the danger bound up with the impending visit. Yet until now they had not received such definite notice of it. Nor had they foreseen that a Jewish assault could end in Roman imprisonment. Hearing this, the Apostle Paul’s companions earnestly begged him to remain in Caesarea.

They stayed many days: probably the feast of Pentecost was still not very near. Thus Paul, in Caesarea as in Tyre, could remain for a considerable time. A prophet named Agabus came from Judea, in the narrow sense of the word, as distinct from Samaria and Galilee. Caesarea Stratonis was in Samaria. One may even suppose that he came from Jerusalem (Acts 14:27). This is the same prophet Agabus who, while in Antioch, foretold the famine. As a result, aid was sent through Barnabas and Paul by the Church of Antioch to the churches in Judea (Acts 11:28-30).

The prophecy of the prophet Agabus concerning Paul’s bonds recalls in many ways the ancient symbolic actions of the prophets. By these actions they made an irresistibly powerful impression on all before whom they performed them (cf. Isa 20; Jer 13; Ezek 4). So it was then, when Agabus took the belt of the Apostle Paul, bound his own hands and feet with it, and said that the one to whom this belt belonged would be bound in this way. The prophet’s identity is known. He foretold the famine in Judea, as a result of which special aid was gathered there from the Church of Antioch (cf. Acts 11:28-30). But the prophet also said that he announced this prophecy by revelation of the Spirit of God. Especially worthy of notice is that he foretold the Apostle’s delivery into the hands of the Gentiles.