Paul Goes to Jerusalem

21 We all said good-bye to them and left. We sailed straight to Cos island. The next day, we reached Rhodes, and from Rhodes we went to Patara. ² There we found a ship that was going to Phoenicia. We went aboard and sailed away. ³ We sailed near the island of Cyprus. We could see it to the north, but we sailed on to Syria. We stopped at Tyre because the ship needed to unload its cargo there. ⁴ We found some followers in Tyre, and we stayed with them for seven days. Through the Holy Spirit they warned Paul not to go to Jerusalem. ⁵ When we finished our visit, we left and continued our trip. All the followers, even the women and children, came outside the city with us. We all knelt down on the beach and prayed. ⁶ Then we said good-bye and got on the ship. The followers went back home.

⁷ We continued our trip from Tyre and arrived at Ptolemais. We greeted the believers there and stayed with them for a day. ⁸ We left Ptolemais and went to the city of Caesarea. There we went into the home of Philip and stayed with him. Philip had the work of telling the Good News. He was one of the seven helpers.^{[a] 9} He had four unmarried daughters who had the gift of prophesying. ¹⁰ After we had been there for some time, a prophet named Agabus arrived from Judea. ¹¹ He came to us and borrowed Paul’s belt. Then he used the belt to tie his own hands and feet. He said, “The Holy Spirit says, ‘This is how the Jews in Jerusalem will tie up the man who wears this belt. Then they will give him to the non-Jewish people.’”

¹² We all heard these words. So we and the people there begged Paul not to go to Jerusalem. ¹³ But he said, “Why are you crying and making me so sad? I am ready to be tied up in Jerusalem. And I am ready to die for the Lord Jesus!”

¹⁴ We could not persuade him to stay away from Jerusalem. So we stopped begging him and said, “We pray that what the Lord wants will be done.”

¹⁵ After this, we got ready and started on our way to Jerusalem. ¹⁶ Some of the followers from Caesarea went with us. They took us to the home of Mnason, a man from Cyprus. Mnason was one of the first followers. They took us to his home so that we could stay with him.

Paul Visits James

¹⁷ In Jerusalem the believers were glad to see us. ¹⁸ The next day, Paul went with us to visit James. All the elders were there, too. ¹⁹ Paul greeted them and told them everything that God had done among the non-Jewish people through him. ²⁰ When they heard this, they praised God. Then they said to Paul, “Brother, you can see that many thousands of Jews have become believers. But they think it is very important to obey the law of Moses. ²¹ These Jews have heard about your teaching. They heard that you tell the Jews who live among non-Jews to leave the law of Moses. They heard that you tell them not to circumcise their children and not to obey Jewish customs. ²² What should we do? The Jewish believers here will learn that you have come. ²³ So we will tell you what to do: Four of our men have made a promise to God. ²⁴ Take these men with you and share in their cleansing ceremony.^[b] Pay their expenses. Then they can shave their heads.^[c] Do this and it will prove to everyone that what they have heard about you is not true. They will see that you follow the law of Moses in your own life. ²⁵ We have already sent a letter to the non-Jewish believers. The letter said: ‘Do not eat food that has been offered to idols. Do not taste blood. Do not eat animals that have been strangled. Do not take part in any kind of sexual sin.’”

²⁶ Then Paul took the four men with him. The next day, he shared in the cleansing ceremony. Then he went to the Temple. Paul announced the time when the days of the cleansing ceremony would be finished. On the last day an offering would be given for each of the men.

²⁷ The seven days were almost over. But some Jews from Asia saw Paul at the Temple. They caused all the people to be upset, and they grabbed Paul. ²⁸ They shouted, “Men of Israel, help us! This is the man who goes everywhere teaching things that are against the law of Moses, against our people, and against this Temple. And now he has brought some Greek men into the Temple. He has made this holy place unclean!” ²⁹ (The Jews said this because they had seen Trophimus with Paul in Jerusalem. Trophimus was a man from Ephesus. The Jews thought that Paul had brought him into the Temple.)

³⁰ All the people in Jerusalem became very upset. They ran and took Paul and dragged him out of the Temple. The Temple doors were closed immediately. ³¹ The people were about to kill Paul. Now the commander of the Roman army in Jerusalem learned that there was trouble in the whole city. ³² Immediately he ran to the place where the crowd was gathered. He brought officers and soldiers with him, and the people saw them. So they stopped beating Paul. ³³ The commander went to Paul and arrested him. He told his soldiers to bind Paul with two chains. Then he asked, “Who is this man? What has he done wrong?” ³⁴ Some in the crowd were yelling one thing, and some were yelling another. Because of all this confusion and shouting, the commander could not learn what had happened. So he ordered the soldiers to take Paul to the army building. ^35-36 The whole mob was following them. When the soldiers came to the steps, they had to carry Paul. They did this because the people were ready to hurt him. They were shouting, “Kill him!”

³⁷ The soldiers were about to take Paul into the army building. But he spoke to the commander, “May I say something to you?”

The commander said, “Do you speak Greek? ³⁸ I thought you were the Egyptian who started some trouble against the government not long ago. He led 4,000 killers out to the desert.”

³⁹ Paul said, “No, I am a Jew from Tarsus in the country of Cilicia. I am a citizen of that important city. Please, let me speak to the people.”

⁴⁰ The commander gave permission, so Paul stood on the steps. He waved with his hand so that the people would be quiet. When there was silence, Paul spoke to them in the Jewish language.^[d]