Just when the seven day period was almost up, some Jews from Asia, seeing him in the temple stirred the crowd, and grabbed him, crying out, "Men of Israel, help! This is the man who teaches men everywhere in opposition to the people, the law and this place. He has now brought Greeks into the temple, defiling this holy place." They had previously seen Troph'imus the Ephesian with him in the city, and they wanted to suggest that Paul had brought him into the temple. The entire city was aroused by this, and the people ran together. Seizing Paul they dragged him out of the temple, and immediately the doors were shut. And as they tried to kill him word came to the tribune of the cohort that all Jerusalem was in confusion. He at once took soldiers and centurions, and hastened down to them; and seeing the tribune and the soldiers, they stopped beating Paul. The tribune came and arrested him, ordering that he be bound with two chains. He inquired about his identity and what he had been doing in that place. Some of the crowd shouted one thing, some another; and since the uproar prevented him learning the facts, he ordered that he be brought into the barracks. Coming up to the steps, the soldiers had to carry him because of the crowd's fury; the mob followed, crying out, "Away with him!" Just as Paul was about to be taken into the barracks, he said to the tribune, "May I tell you something?" He replied, "Do you know Greek? Are you not the Egyptian, then, who recently stirred a revolt, leading four thousand Assassins into the wilderness?" Paul replied, "I am a Jew, from Tarsus in Cili'cia, a citizen of no mean city; I beg you, let me speak to the people."
In a Nutshell
The plot against Paul's life came to Jerusalem. Paul's life is spared. The tribune realised that Paul was not the person he thought he was.
Questions
Luke wrote that Paul had set his face toward Jerusalem. The crowd cried for Paul's blood. "Away with him!" they said. How did Luke's experience of this event influence the way he wrote his gospel?
Try to imagine the roller-coaster of emotion that would have been experienced by Luke, or any other Christian, had they been there to witness this rampaging mob. Time was almost up. The seven days were almost complete and a sacrifice was about to be presented. Our imagined eye-witness holds his breath. And then, in the twinkling of an eye, it all goes "pear shaped". A mosh-pit forms in one of the temple precincts and manoeuvres Paul outside the temple gates. The doors are shut. The thoughtful scheme of the church's leaders has been nipped in the bud. Some zealous fanatics from Asia had seen Paul and wanted him executed on the spot. Apparently the law allowed Jews to kill those who had been judged guilty of desecrating the temple within the precincts, but here Luke tells us the mosh pit somehow got Paul outside the gates and so the action became subject to the Roman civil law. By writing "and immediately the gates were shut" Luke has quietly told us how Paul escaped death.
Paul, beaten to within an inch of his life, stayed spiritually alert to what was taking place. He spoke to the tribune. He is not the terrorist the tribune initially suspected him to be. So, an opportunity emerged for Paul to address the crowd. [Our imagined Christian bystander would be dumb-struck, having thought the scheme was close to completion, and then that it was all over, is now back on the roller-coaster wondering if victory is going to be grasped from the jaws of defeat]. Luke was also telling a personal story here about the renewal of his love for God as Jesus continued His work in the social context of the Roman Imperium. Jew and Gentile were discovering themselves as His disciples.