New Testament in a Year

¹⁸ The next day Paul went with us to visit James. All the spiritual leaders ^[a] were present. ¹⁹ After greeting them, Paul related everything God had done through his work with non-Jewish people.

²⁰ When the spiritual leaders heard about everything, they praised God. They said to Paul, “You see, brother, how many thousands of Jews are now believers, and all of them are deeply committed to Moses’ Teachings. ²¹ But they have been told that you teach all the Jews living among non-Jewish people to abandon Moses. They claim that you tell them not to circumcise their children or follow Jewish customs. ²² What should we do about this? They will certainly hear that you’re in town. ²³ So follow our advice. We have four men who have made a vow to God. ²⁴ Take these men, go through the purification ceremony with them, and pay the expenses to shave their heads. Then everyone will know that what they’ve been told about you isn’t true. Instead, they’ll see that you carefully follow Moses’ Teachings.

²⁵ ⌞To clarify this matter⌟ we have written non-Jewish believers a letter with our decision. We told them that they should not eat food sacrificed to false gods, bloody meat, or the meat of strangled animals. They also should not commit sexual sins.”

²⁶ The next day, Paul took the men and went through the purification ceremony with them. Then he went into the temple courtyard to announce the time when the purification would be over and the sacrifice would be offered for each of them.

²⁷ When the seven days were almost over, the Jews from the province of Asia saw Paul in the temple courtyard. They stirred up the whole crowd and grabbed Paul. ²⁸ Then they began shouting, “Men of Israel, help! This is the man who teaches everyone everywhere to turn against the Jewish people, Moses’ Teachings, and this temple. He has even brought Greeks into the temple courtyard and has made this holy place unclean.” ^{[b] 29} They had seen Trophimus from Ephesus with him in the city earlier and thought Paul had taken him into the temple courtyard.

³⁰ The whole city was in chaos, and a mob formed. The mob grabbed Paul and dragged him out of the temple courtyard. The courtyard doors were immediately shut.

³¹ As the people were trying to kill Paul, the officer in charge of the Roman soldiers received a report that all Jerusalem was rioting. ³² Immediately, he took some soldiers and officers and charged the crowd. When the crowd saw the officer and the soldiers, they stopped beating Paul. ³³ Then the officer went to Paul, grabbed him, and ordered him to be tied up with two chains.

The officer asked who Paul was and what he had done. ³⁴ Some of the crowd shouted one thing, while others shouted something else. The officer couldn’t get any facts because of the noise and confusion, so he ordered Paul to be taken into the barracks. ³⁵ When Paul came to the stairs of the barracks, the crowd was so violent that the soldiers had to carry him. ³⁶ The mob was behind them shouting, “Kill him!”

Paul Speaks in His Own Defense

³⁷ As the soldiers were about to take Paul into the barracks, he asked the officer, “May I say something to you?”

The officer replied to Paul, “Can you speak Greek? ³⁸ Aren’t you the Egyptian who started a revolution not long ago and led four thousand terrorists into the desert?”

³⁹ Paul answered, “I’m a Jew, a citizen from the well-known city of Tarsus in Cilicia. I’m asking you to let me talk to the people.”

⁴⁰ The officer gave Paul permission to speak. So Paul stood on the stairs of the barracks and motioned with his hand for the people to be quiet. When the mob was silent, Paul spoke to them in the Hebrew language.