Acts 21:11Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

He now also says, "The man whose belt this is, they will bind in this way." The prophets depicted the future by visible signs when they foretold captivity. Ezekiel, for example, did this, and Agabus did the same. What is grievous is that "they will deliver him into the hands of the Gentiles." See, Agabus did not say that they would bind Paul, lest it seem that he spoke by agreement with his enemies. Instead he said, "the man whose belt this is." Therefore Paul had a belt. Such was the custom of the ancients, before soft and billowing clothing came into use. Peter was girded in this way (cf. John 21:7), and so was Paul: "The man whose belt this is," it says (Acts 21:11). Elijah was clothed in the same way (4 Kgs 1:8). So too was each of the saints, because they were continually active.

But the bitter thing is that they will deliver him into the hands of the Gentiles. Note: as soon as he heard that he would have to endure many sufferings, he began to hasten. Agabus did not say that Paul would be bound, lest they think he was speaking by prior agreement. No, he said, "the man to whom this belt belongs."

Those who have the custom of saying, "Thus says the Lord God" (Isa 49:22; Jer 11:3, and elsewhere), imitate the ancient prophets. For the Holy Spirit, like the Father and the Son, is Lord and God. He cannot be separated from Those whose action is one nature and one will. Therefore we read above: "The Holy Spirit said, Separate for Me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them" (Acts 13:2), that is, to the apostolate. And Paul himself writes: "Paul, an Apostle, chosen not by men nor through man, but through Jesus Christ and God the Father" (Gal 1:1). We have said this lest anyone, following Macedonius, should happen to believe that the Holy Spirit is a creature, or has less authority than the Father or the Son. Macedonius was a fourth-century Arian bishop who denied the divinity of Christ.

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 in Jerusalem would bind the Apostle in this way and deliver him into the hands of the Gentiles. This moved the Caesarean Christians to beg the Apostle together not to go up to Jerusalem. But Paul answered 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.

Quite in the spirit and after the likeness of certain great prophets of the Old Testament, Agabus accompanies his prophecy with an expressive symbolic action (cf. Isa 20; Jer 13; Ezek 4 and others). He takes, probably removes, the belt with which Paul girded his outer garment, which was customarily broad. He binds his own hands and feet with it. Then, as a revelation to him from the Holy Spirit, he declares that bonds and delivery to the Gentiles await in Jerusalem the one to whom this belt belongs. The Jews will bind him: strictly speaking, it was the Roman tribune who put the Apostle in bonds, not the Jews (v. 33). But the impulse for this was the Jews’ disturbance against the Apostle (v. 27 and following). Thus they were the chief cause of Paul’s bonds. "They will deliver him into the hands of the Gentiles": an expression recalling the prophecy of the Lord Jesus concerning His sufferings and death (Matt 17:22; Matt 20:19).

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.