Acts 21:27Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

"When the seven days were about to be completed." See how much time he devotes to this. When some Jews were persuaded, then others attacked him. Otherwise, those first Jews too would have attacked him.

Observe the divine ordering. After some had been disabused, others attacked Paul out of fear that the rest also might be disabused. Their restless character is visible everywhere.

Although bonds fettered his hands, chains did not touch his soul. So also Paul's Epistle, full of light, affirms that ministers may be left in bonds, but faith cannot be held in bonds. Nor can preaching be restrained by torments (see 2 Tim 2:9).

Since they saw that the followers of the new grace observed the precepts of the law less and performed the temple rites less often, they feared, as it says in the Gospel, that the Romans would come and destroy their place and nation (see Jn 11:48).

Although Paul had thus pacified the Christians from among the Jews, the irreconcilable zealots for the law from among the Jews did not become more favorably disposed toward him. They became even more irritated against him.

They saw that the man who, as they said, taught others to revile the people of God, the law, and the temple, dared to take part in the worship of that temple.

They had seen with him in Jerusalem a Christian from among the Gentiles, Trophimus. In fanatical bitterness, they concluded from this that Paul had also taken a Gentile with him into the temple, and had thereby defiled the temple.

A violent disturbance broke out. Paul could be snatched from the hands of the enraged fanatics only with the help of a detachment of Roman troops. They came out from the fortress of Antonia, which adjoined the temple.

Paul fulfilled this brotherly counsel of his fellow Apostles and fellow presbyters. Yet this did not save him from the malice of the Jews. When the Asian Jews saw him in the temple, they stirred up the people, saying of the Apostle, "This is the man who teaches everyone everywhere against the people, and the law, and this place" (v. 28).

Among the vast crowd of worshipers in the temple courts there appeared several Jews from Ephesus and other cities of Asia. When they saw the apostle, whom they knew, they at once burned with the fire of furious fanaticism.

In him they saw a dreadful apostate from God, one who taught “apostasy from the law of Moses.” Now he dared, by his presence, to defile the precincts of the people’s sanctuary.

News of his presence immediately spread through the excited crowd of worshipers, and the mob was stirred. The wild Asians rushed upon the apostle and cried out frantically, “Men of Israel, help!

This is the man who teaches everyone everywhere against the people, and the law, and this place. Moreover, he has brought Greeks into the temple and has defiled this holy place.”

The seven days were coming to an end. These were the days by which the time for fulfilling the vows taken by the four men had to be completed.

After they had passed, the final release from these vows was to follow through the shaving of the head and sacrifice. These seven days had not yet ended, but were only coming to an end, when the disturbance against Paul occurred.

It ended in his bonds. The disturbance was caused by the Asian Jews, that is, Jews living in Proconsular Asia, especially in Ephesus and its surroundings; cf. v. 29.

These were not Christians from among the Jews, but unbelieving Jews. They had known Paul back in their homeland, for they recognized him here. They knew his teaching and, of course, had hated and persecuted him there already; Acts 19:9; 1 Cor 16:9.

The uprising of the Asian Jews against the Apostle Paul in the temple shows the degree to which they were filled with malice against his preaching. Summoning all the Hebrews into the public place, they accused him of hatred.

They claimed he hated his native people, the law of Moses, and even the temple itself. At the same time they offered living proof, as they supposed, that he had brought Gentiles with him into the temple.

In the latter charge there was obvious slander. In the other accusations there was no truth, but there was an appearance of it. This was enough for the disturbance to gain full force.