Paul finally arrived in Jerusalem, having completed his third missionary travels. He knew from repeated warnings that trouble awaited him, but “constrained by the Spirit,” he made his way to Jerusalem anyway (Acts 20:22).
But it’s more than those warnings that prepare us for what awaits Paul. In Jerusalem, Luke shows the change in how others received Paul. At first, the Jerusalem believers received him with a glad-hearted welcome (Acts 21:17). From there, we see James and the elders gladly receive Paul–but with serious concerns (22:19-25)! Following this “trend,” Luke prepares us for what next awaits Paul!
We now find ourselves with Paul close to completing the Nazirite vow that James and the elders (pastors) told him to make. That vow took seven days to complete, which included a sacrifice at the Temple.
Paul in the Temple Complex
Read Acts 21:27-29
- What happens with Paul as he is close to completing his vow?
The Temple and Gentiles: Archaeologists have uncovered two signs that were posted on a barrier that surrounded the inner courts of the Temple (the outer courts allowed Gentiles, which was where the moneychangers and animal sellers had set up shop). The signs bore this message in Greek: “No foreigner may enter within the fence and enclosures that surround the Temple. Whoever is caught trespassing has only himself to blame for his ensuing death.”
- Why were Jews from Asia in the Temple (Acts 20:16)?
- How did the “Jews from Asia” (Ephesus?) come to the conclusion they made?
Trophimus, from Ephesus, was part of Paul’s the traveling contingent that brought money to help the Jerusalem congregation. Jews recognized him in the city and must have concluded that he was one of the four men with Paul in the Temple.
Polyptoton: In English, we can’t see Luke’s use of this rhetorical device, since English doesn’t have “cases” (Greek as four: nominative [subject], genitive [show possession], accusative [indirect object], and dative [direct object]). These “cases” serve different grammatical purposes. In Greek, a polyptoton uses a word, but repeats that word in a different case to call attention to that word, without it repeating in the exact same way, keeping it from losing effect.
In these verses, Luke repetitively used different cases of “Temple” to call attention to what was taking place there. He used dative (hiero, 21:27), accusative (hieron, 21:26, 28, 29), and genitive (hierou, 21:30) forms. (Note: The New Testament never uses the nominative case for “Temple.”)
What was Luke’s purpose? Through polyptoton, he was highlighting the irony of un-Temple-like deeds (sins) taking place at the Temple, the very place where God had used sacrifices in the Old covenant to forgive sins! This helps show that what was happening to Paul was sinful. Such a rhetorical device was to help us get that point in more the just an intellectual way.
Paul before the Roman Authorities
Read Acts 21:30-32
- How could “all the city” get “stirred up” over what the Jews in Asia thought Paul had done?
- What then begins to happen with Paul?
- Why would the Roman authorities get involved in a religious matter?
Read Acts 21:33-36
- Why do you think Luke specifically mentioned that Paul was “bound with two chains”? (Acts 21:11).
- Why does the “tribune of the cohort” (chiliarchos, “commander of a thousand”) take Paul to the barracks?
“Facts”: In Acts 21:34, Luke used the Greek word, asphales, to show that the Chilarchos was seeking facts instead of being satisfied with hearsay, which would be useless in court. Luke also used that word in Luke 1:4: “that you may know the certainty of what you have been taught.” By such, he contrasts the Romans who are seeking the facts against the Jews who had leaped to false conclusions.
Read Acts 21:37-38
Paul asked the Roman commander if he could ask him a question. Paul asked his question in a better Greek, and probably more formal, than most in Judea spoke, like a Jew from Alexandria would speak. This then led the commanded to respond in a question of astonishment.
- What then does the commander ask Paul?
“The Egyptian”: according to the historian Josephus, an Egyptian claimed to be a prophet and led 30,000 “men of Assassins” (sicarious, “dagger men”) to the Mount of Olives, telling them the walls of Jerusalem would fall at his word. Felix, the Roman governor, attacked the rebels and killed thousands of them; however, “the Egyptian” and some of his followers escaped into the wilderness.
Read Acts 21:39-40a
- When Paul answered the commander, how does he answer both questions the commander had?
- What does Paul receive permission to do?
Paul’s Speech to His Fellow Jews
Read Acts 21:40b-22:5
- When Paul spoke Hebrew, what took place with the crowd? What does this imply about what many in the crowd, not knowing better, thought of Paul?
- What is the main point of this part of Paul’s speech?
Read Acts 22:6-11
- What does Paul describe in this section of his speech?
Excursus: Kyrios and Doxa in Acts 22:10-11
Kyrios: the word for “Lord,” “lord,” or “sir” in the Greek. In Acts 22:10, when Paul said, “What shall I do, Lord?” that could easily mean “sir” in the Greek text of Acts. But we must remember that Paul was speaking about that event in Hebrew, not Greek! What Hebrew word would Paul have used that Luke translated as “kyrios”?
The Greek Old-Testament translation uses “kyrios” for YHWH, the personal name for God, or Adonai. Since Jews were not to speak the name YHWH because it was too holy to speak, Paul would have used Adonai, instead. However, in Hebrew, forms of Adonai can also mean “sir.”
So, from both the Hebrew and the Greek, Paul could have meant “sir” when he said, “What shall I do, kyrie?” In context, when Paul asked that question, he most likely meant “sir,” as he did not to whom he was then speaking.
But when Paul then said, “And the Lord [kyrios] said to me,” he then meant Lord as in God. Here’s where it gets interesting: In the Septuagint, kyrios was only used to refer to God, as far as your pastor could find in the Old Testament. However, since Paul would not have said YHWH, he would have said Adonai, which could also mean “sir.”
So, to find our more of what Paul was conveying in his speech, we turn to Luke’s use of “doxa” for his translation of what Paul said.
Doxa: When Paul described how he became blind, he said that the “brightness” (ESV) of the light was the cause. The Greek word for brightness is “doxa,” which can mean “brightness” but also “glory.”
In Hebrew, Paul would have used “cavod,” which was the word for the “glory” of God. Cavod did not have in it the idea of brightness but, instead, mass, weightiness, and largeness. But how do we know that Paul meant the Lord’s “glory” and not His “brightness”? To know this, we look to the Septuagint.
When the Septuagint used the same form of “doxa” (doxas) that Paul used (in Luke’s Greek translation of Paul’s speech in Hebrew) when being around the Lord, it always referred to “glory” of the Lord (Exodus 24:17, 40:34-35; 2 Chronicles 5:13 [The Septuagint has “doxa,” the Masoretic Text omits “glory,” “cavod”]; Psalm 25:8, 71:19; Isaiah 2:10, 2:19, 2:21, 6:1 [LXX only]; Tobit 3:16, 12:15; Wisdom 7:25, 9:10, Sirach 17:13, 36:19, and many others!).
Psalm 23:8-10 describes the King of Glory (doxas) as the Lord of Hosts. The Septuagint’s Esther 4:17, which is much longer than the Masoretic Text, has Mordecai using “doxas” to contrast man with God: “I do not place the glory of man above the glory of God” (Esther 4:17e, LXX). In the Old Testament Apocrypha book of Judith, she told of the Assyrians who had wanted to defile the Holy of Holies, where the Lord’s glorious (doxas) name resided (Judith 9:7).
The Septuagint’s uses of “doxas” shows us that Paul did not say (in Hebrew) that the brightness blinded him; instead, it was the “glory” of the Lord, which also happened to be bright. This was not merely a physical phenomenon (if so, then why weren’t those who were traveling with Paul, who also saw the light, not also blinded?); it was God’s presence, in the Person of Jesus Christ, which had enveloped Paul, that blinded him.
- What then would Paul being saying about Jesus through Kyrios (lord, sir) and doxa (light, glory)?
———–
Read Acts 22:12-16
- In Paul recounting his conversion, he described Ananias as “a devout man according to the law.” Luke didn’t include such a description he wrote of Paul’s conversion in chapter 9. What was Paul trying to do by adding that description?
- Discuss: Looking at Ananias’ baptismal “formula” and the others, what does God do through baptism?
- How?
- What does the idea of a name (as in the name of God) entail?
- Connect the name of God and His power to do what He does through baptism.
Read Acts 22:17-21
This next event in Paul’s life was not mentioned in the earlier account of his conversion in Acts 9. Paul reports that he returned to Jerusalem, omitting his debates with Jews in Damascus, which also had contributed to him leaving Jerusalem (Acts 9:22-26).
- What did Paul say that Jesus told him in that trance?
- What has Paul said and conveyed about Jesus so far?
- What finally sets the people over the edge with Paul?
- What does this say about how strong the Jewish worldview was in accepting Gentiles?
- Take that aversion to Gentiles and consider again the Jerusalem church council that had Paul make a sacrifice at the Temple as part of a Nazirite vow.
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