Acts 21:29Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

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).

With the Apostle Paul there were several Greeks converted by him. The Apostle had supposedly taken them with him into the temple and, in the rioters' opinion, had thereby defiled it. The Jews guarded their sanctuary with extreme zeal from the intrusion of foreigners and unbelievers. There was even a special "wall of partition." On it an inscription in Greek and Latin declared that no foreigner was to pass beyond that wall under penalty of death. Thus a splendid opportunity seemed to present itself for proper vengeance on the apostate who taught apostasy.

Before this, they had seen Paul in the city with his companion Trophimus of Ephesus (Acts 20:4). They supposed that he had brought him into the court of the Israelites. Thus they presented a false suspicion as certainty about an actual fact, though it had not happened at all. They thought it, and then asserted that it had truly happened.

The attempt of the Hebrews to kill the Apostle Paul failed because the Roman authority learned in time of this cruel act of mob justice. It prevented the crime, which was outrageous also because the apostle was being beaten.

They probably began to beat the apostle while still in the temple, and so severely that the ringleaders saw the matter would end in the tortured man’s death.

Therefore they dragged him out of the temple, so as not to defile it by murder, into the court of the women or of the Gentiles. There the doors were locked, so that no one might prevent the dreadful execution.

But the authority was not asleep. It appeared in time and snatched Paul from the hands of his torturers. At the mere sight of the tribune and the soldiers, they stopped tormenting him.