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Context No. 341 of 4322 · Acts

Context · Reflection

Acts 21:26-34: in context

26Then Paul took the men, and the next day purified himself and went with them into the temple, declaring the fulfillment of the days of purification, until the offering was offered for every one of them. 27When the seven days were almost completed, the Jews from Asia, when they saw him in the temple, stirred up all the multitude and laid hands on him, 28crying out, “Men of Israel, help! This is the man who teaches all men everywhere against the people, and the law, and this place. Moreover, he also brought Greeks into the temple and has defiled this holy place!” 29For they had seen Trophimus the Ephesian with him in the city, and they supposed that Paul had brought him into the temple. 30All the city was moved and the people ran together. They seized Paul and dragged him out of the temple. Immediately the doors were shut. 31As they were trying to kill him, news came up to the commanding officer of the regiment that all Jerusalem was in an uproar. 32Immediately he took soldiers and centurions and ran down to them. They, when they saw the chief captain and the soldiers, stopped beating Paul. 33Then the commanding officer came near, arrested him, commanded him to be bound with two chains, and inquired who he was and what he had done. 34Some shouted one thing and some another, among the crowd. When he couldn’t find out the truth because of the noise, he commanded him to be brought into the barracks.

This scene is thick with irony. Just before it, Paul had agreed to a humble, peace-making gesture, going through a purification rite in the temple precisely to prove false the rumor that he taught against the law of Moses. He did the wise, conciliatory thing to defuse suspicion. And it is that very act, being seen in the temple, that gets him nearly killed.

Some Jews from Asia spot him, and they leap to a conclusion. They had earlier seen Paul around the city with Trophimus, a Gentile from Ephesus, and now, seeing Paul in the temple, they suppose, the text says plainly, that he must have brought the Gentile into the sacred courts, which was forbidden. They did not check. They did not ask. They built a capital accusation on a supposition, shouted it to the crowd, and the whole city convulsed. Paul is dragged out, the temple doors slammed shut behind him, and a mob sets about beating him to death, until Roman soldiers come pounding down the stairs and pull him out, clapping him in chains. And when the commander tries to learn what Paul actually did, he cannot, because everyone is shouting something different; the truth is simply drowned in the noise.

Two things sit heavily here. Paul did the right, peaceable thing, and it still went terribly wrong, which is a hard fact that faith does not exempt us from. And a man was nearly killed over what a crowd supposed, never verified, and then defended in a roar too loud for the truth to survive. How often have I done what that mob did, condemning someone on a supposition I never bothered to check, and then held to it so confidently that the truth could not get a word in?

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