Acts 21:5Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

Here again, after praying, they are separated from one another. "When we had completed these days," the writer says, that is, when they had been fulfilled. He is speaking of a fixed number of days. "They all, with wives and children, escorted us." See what consolation there was: again they pray, and in this way they part.

"To complete the days." When the days of unleavened bread were completed, they departed from Tyre. Count for me all the days with the days of unleavened bread. They came to Tyre after five days, then stayed in Tyre seven days, making twenty-two in all.

The prophecy was fulfilled which speaks to the Church in the song: "And the daughter of Tyre with gifts, and the richest of the people, shall entreat Your face" (Ps 44:13), and so forth to the end of the Psalm. For no city received the apostle, supported him, and sent him away with greater joy than Tyre. Even now they show the place in the sands where they prayed together.

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.

After taking leave of the Ephesian pastors, the Apostle Paul boarded the ship and set out toward Jerusalem with his companions, among whom was also the writer of Acts. Passing by the islands of Cos and Rhodes, they soon reached Patara, a large maritime trading city in the province of Lycia in Asia Minor. There they transferred to a merchant ship bound for Phoenicia. This ship brought them to Tyre, where the Apostle found Christians and stayed among them seven days. From some of them he received a new revelation of the Spirit of God, that bonds and afflictions awaited him in Jerusalem. From Tyre, through Ptolemais, a maritime city within the borders of Palestine, the Apostle and his companions sailed on and came to Caesarea. There, in the house of Philip the evangelist, one of the seven deacons, they remained many days.

The apostle himself had a presentiment of danger, yet in everything he relied on the higher Providence. After a week he left Tyre, accompanied by the tears and prayers of the local brethren, who, with their wives and children, escorted their great teacher.

"With wives and children": because the Christians there were few, and Paul had remained among them for a comparatively long time, they entered into the closest relations with him. It is very natural that all of them, both women and children, went to escort the dear traveler, who was knowingly going toward affliction and bonds. "They prayed": cf. Acts 20:36.

The stop in the city of Tyre was both prolonged and significant. The ancient Phoenician city of Tyre was not far from Jerusalem. Therefore the Apostle could now expect not to be late for the day of Pentecost in Jerusalem. And so he delayed in Tyre. Christians were found there who showed great sympathy toward the Apostle. Some even urged him not to go to Jerusalem, sensing that afflictions awaited him there. But the Apostle remained unshaken. When the cargo had been unloaded after a week, he and his companions went to the ship. All the Christians of Tyre warmly accompanied them. On the shore all prayed on bended knees. The parting was tender, for those departing and those remaining said farewell like friends of many years. The warning to the Apostle not to go to Jerusalem "was one of those testimonies of the Holy Spirit, given in the cities, concerning the bonds in Jerusalem, which the Apostle mentioned in his speech to the Ephesian presbyters."