Acts 21:31-40

Amplified Bible

³¹ Now while they were trying to kill him, word came to the commander of the [Roman] garrison that all Jerusalem was in a state of upheaval. ³² So he immediately took soldiers and centurions and ran down among them. When the people saw the commander and the soldiers, they stopped beating Paul. ³³ Then the commander came up and arrested Paul, and ordered that he be bound with two chains. Then he asked who he was and what he had done. ³⁴ But some in the crowd were shouting one thing and others something else; and since he could not determine the facts because of the uproar, he ordered that Paul be taken to the barracks [in the tower of Antonia]. ³⁵ When Paul got to the steps, he was carried by the soldiers because of the violence of the mob; ³⁶ for the majority of the people kept following them, shouting, “Away with him! [Kill him!]”

³⁷ Just as Paul was about to be taken into the barracks, he asked the commander, “May I say something to you?” And the man replied, “Do you know Greek? ³⁸ Then you are not [as I assumed] the Egyptian who ^[a]some time ago stirred up a rebellion and led those 4,000 men of the Assassins out into the wilderness?” ³⁹ Paul said, “I am a Jew from ^[b]Tarsus in Cilicia (Mersin Province, Turkey), a citizen of no insignificant city; and I beg you, allow me to speak to the people.” ⁴⁰ When the commander had given him permission, Paul, standing on the steps, gestured with his hand to the people; and when there was a great hush, he spoke to them in the Hebrew dialect (Jewish Aramaic), saying,