¹⁸ My accusers saw me in the Temple as I was completing a purification ceremony. There was no crowd around me and no rioting.

²¹ Some Jews arrested me in the Temple for preaching this, and they tried to kill me.

Paul Is Arrested

²⁶ So Paul went to the Temple the next day with the other men. They had already started the purification ritual, so he publicly announced the date when their vows would end and sacrifices would be offered for each of them.

²⁷ The seven days were almost ended when some Jews from the province of Asia saw Paul in the Temple and roused a mob against him. They grabbed him, ²⁸ yelling, “Men of Israel, help us! This is the man who preaches against our people everywhere and tells everybody to disobey the Jewish laws. He speaks against the Temple—and even defiles this holy place by bringing in Gentiles.^[a]” ²⁹ (For earlier that day they had seen him in the city with Trophimus, a Gentile from Ephesus,^[b] and they assumed Paul had taken him into the Temple.)

³⁰ The whole city was rocked by these accusations, and a great riot followed. Paul was grabbed and dragged out of the Temple, and immediately the gates were closed behind him.

¹² My accusers never found me arguing with anyone in the Temple, nor stirring up a riot in any synagogue or on the streets of the city.