When we had departed from them and had set sail, we came with a straight course to Cos, and the next day to Rhodes, and from there to Patara. Having found a ship crossing over to Phoenicia, we went aboard, and set sail. When we had come in sight of Cyprus, leaving it on the left hand, we sailed to Syria and landed at Tyre, for the ship was there to unload her cargo. Having found disciples, we stayed there seven days. These said to Paul through the Spirit that he should not go up to Jerusalem. When those days were over, we departed and went on our journey. They all, with wives and children, brought us on our way until we were out of the city. Kneeling down on the beach, we prayed. After saying goodbye to each other, we went on board the ship, and they returned home again.
When we had finished the voyage from Tyre, we arrived at Ptolemais. We greeted the brothers and stayed with them one day. On the next day, we who were Paul’s companions departed, and came to Caesarea. We entered into the house of Philip the evangelist, who was one of the seven, and stayed with him.
Now this man had four virgin daughters who prophesied. As we stayed there some days, a certain prophet named Agabus came down from Judea. Coming to us and taking Paul’s belt, he bound his own feet and hands, and said, “The Holy Spirit says: ‘So the Jews at Jerusalem will bind the man who owns this belt, and will deliver him into the hands of the Gentiles.’ ”
When we heard these things, both we and the people of that place begged him not to go up to Jerusalem. Then Paul answered, “What are you doing, weeping and breaking my heart? For I am ready not only to be bound, but also to die at Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus.”
When he would not be persuaded, we ceased, saying, “The Lord’s will be done.”
After these days we took up our baggage and went up to Jerusalem. Some of the disciples from Caesarea also went with us, bringing one Mnason of Cyprus, an early disciple, with whom we would stay.
When we had come to Jerusalem, the brothers received us gladly. The day following, Paul went in with us to James; and all the elders were present.
John Calvin 1540 · Public Domain On vv1, 4, 5, 7, 9, 10, 12, 14, 15, 17, 18 1. Luke reckoneth up briefly the course of his…
1. Luke reckoneth up briefly the course of his sailing; and that not only to win credit to the history, that we may know what was done in every place, but that the readers may weigh with themselves the invincible and heroic fortitude which was in Paul, who would rather be tossed and troubled with such long, unlevel, and troublesome journeys, that he might serve Christ, than provide for his own quietness. Whereas he saith that they were drawn and pulled away, it is not simply referred unto the distance of places; but because the brethren stood on the shore, so long as they could see the ship wherein Paul and his companions were carried. He nameth the havens where the ship arrived, for this cause that we may know that they sailed quietly without trouble of tempest. Let us search the describers of countries touching the situation of the cities whereof he maketh mention; it is sufficient for me to show Luke’s purpose.
John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain On vv1, 4, 8, 9, 14 Not only men simply, but even our friends, and…
Not only men simply, but even our friends, and such as are endued with the Spirit of God, do sometimes go about to hinder the course of our vocation: but it is our part to go forward without all stopping or staggering, after that we are sure of our calling from God.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18 1 And it came to pass, that after we…
1 And it came to pass, that after we were gotten from them, and had launched, we came with a straight course unto Coos, and the day following unto Rhodes, and from thence unto Patara:
Ver. 1. We came with a straight course] ευθυδρομησαντες. So shall all those that make "straight paths for their feet," Heb 12:13, whose eyes look straight before them, Pro 4:25, who ponder their paths by the weights of the word, Pro 4:26.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain On vv1–18 Were gotten from them; had parted with them, as…
Were gotten from them; had parted with them, as dearest friends and relations do one from the other, with much difficulty and reluctance.
Coos; an island in the Mediterranean Sea, nigh unto Crete, where Hippocrates and Apelles are said to have been born.
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Rhodes; another island in the same sea, of great fame for the Colossus, or vast image of brass, which was there, accounted one of the wonders of the world.
Patara; a haven town of Lycia, and its metropolis.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
William Burkitt 1703 · Public Domain On vv1, 3, 5, 10, 12, 15 The latter end of the foregoing chapter acquainted us…
The latter end of the foregoing chapter acquainted us with the sorrowful and heavy parting of the elders and church of Ephesus from the holy apostle.
Now, the first verse of this chapter informs us, that it was not less sorrowful on the apostle’s and his companions’ part. So much the word here imports, after we were gotten from them, apospasthentas ap’ auton: "After we were torn from, and pulled as it were limb from limb from each other;" intimating the mutual endearments which were between them whilst together, and that inexpressible sorrow which was found amongst them at their parting.
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Verily, there is no stronger love, nor more endearing affections, betwixt any relations upon the earth, than betwixt the ministers of Christ and such of their people as they have been instrumental to bring home to God. Spiritual affections are stronger than natural; the removing of a spiritual father by death, or otherwise, is like tearing limb from limb; yea, like rending the head from the body.
Lord! with what great difficulty and deep reluctancy did the holy apostle and the church of Ephesus here part from one another! They were pulled and torn one from another, as the word imports.
William Burkitt's Expository Notes on the New Testament (1700–1703) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Henry 1710 · Public Domain On vv1, 8, 15 We may observe here,
We may observe here,
I. How much ado Paul had to get clear from Ephesus, intimated in the first words of the chapter, after we had gotten from them, that is, were drawn from them as by violence. It was a force put upon both sides; Paul was loth to leave them, and they were loth to part with him, and yet there was no remedy, but so it must be. When good people are taken away by death, they are, as it were, gotten from their friends here below, who struggled hard to have detained them if possible.
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II. What a prosperous voyage they had thence. Without any difficulty, they came with a straight course, by direct sailing, to Coos, a famous Grecian island, - the next day to Rhodes, talked of for the Colossus there, - thence to Patara, a famous port, the metropolis of Lycia (Act 21:1); here they very happily found a ship sailing over into Phenicia, the very course they were steering, Act 21:2. Providence must be acknowledged when things happen thus opportunely, and we are favoured by some little circumstances that contribute to the expediting of our affairs; and we must say, It is God that maketh our way perfect. This ship that was bound for Phenicia (that is, Tyre) they took the convenience of, went on board, and set sail for Tyre. In this voyage they discovered Cyprus, the island that Barnabas was of, and which he took care of, and therefore Paul did not visit it, but we left it on the left hand (Act 21:3), sailed upon the coast of Syria, and at length landed at Tyre, that celebrated mart of the nations, so it had been, but was now reduced; yet something of a trade it had still, for there the ship was to unlade her burden, and did so.
III. The halt that Paul made at Tyre; when he had arrived there, he was upon the coast of the land of Israel, and found now that he could compass the remainder of his journey within the time he had fixed.
1. At Tyre he found disciples, some that had embraced the gospel, and professed the Christian faith. Observe, Wherever Paul came, he enquired what disciples were there, found them out, and associated with them; for we know what is the usage with birds of a feather. When Christ was upon earth, though he went sometimes into the coast of Tyre, yet he never went thither to preach the gospel there; nor did he think fit to afford to Tyre and Sidon the advantages which Chorazin and Bethsaida had, though he knew that if they had had them they would have made a better improvement of them, Luk 10:13, Luk 10:14. But, after the enlarging of the gospel-commission, Christ was preached at Tyre, and had disciples there; and to this, some think, that prophecy concerning Tyre had reference (Isa 23:18), Her merchandise and her hire shall be holiness to the Lord.
2. Paul, finding those disciples at Tyre, tarried there seven days, they urging him to stay with them as long as he could. He staid seven days at Troas (Act 20:6), and here so many days at Tyre, that he might be sure to spend one Lord's day with them, and so might have an opportunity of preaching publicly among them; for it is the desire of good men to do good wherever they come, and where we find disciples we may either benefit them or be benefited by them.
3. The disciples at Tyre were endowed with such gifts that they could by the Spirit foretel the troubles Paul would meet with at Jerusalem; for the Holy Ghost witnessed it in every city, Act 20:23. Being a thing that would be so much talked of when it came to pass, God saw fit to have it much prophesied of before, that people's faith, instead of being offended, might be confirmed. And withal they were endowed with such graces that foreseeing his troubles, out of love to him and concern for the church, especially the churches of the Gentiles, that could ill spare him, they begged of him that he would not go up to Jerusalem, for they hoped the decree was conditional: If he go up, he will come into trouble there; as the prediction to David that the men of Keilah will deliver him up (that is, if he venture himself with them); and therefore they said to him, by the Spirit, that he should not go up, because they concluded it would be most for the glory of God that he should continue at liberty; and it was not at all their fault to think so, and consequently to dissuade him; but it was their mistake, for his trial would be for the glory of God and the furtherance of the gospel, and he knew it; and the importunity that was used with him, to dissuade him from it, renders his pious and truly heroic resolution the more illustrious.
4. The disciples of Tyre, though they were none of Paul's converts, yet showed a very great respect to Paul, whose usefulness in the church they had heard so much of when he departed from Tyre. Though they had had but seven days' acquaintance with him, yet, as if he had been some great man, they all came together, with their wives and children, solemnly to take leave of him, to beg his blessing, and to bring him as far on his way as the sea would permit them. Note, (1.) We should pay respect, not only to our own ministers, that are over us in the Lord, and admonish us, and, for their work's sake among us, esteem them highly in love, but we must, as there is occasion, testify our love and respect to all the faithful ministers of Christ, both for his sake whose ministers they are, and for their work's sake among others. (2.) We must, in a particular manner, honour those whom God hath singularly honoured, by making them eminently useful in their generation. (3.) It is good to train up children in a respect to good people and good ministers. This was particularly remarkable at Tyre, which we have not met with any where else, that they brought their wives and children to attend Paul, to do him the more honour and to receive benefit by his instructions and prayers; and as angry notice was taken of the children of the idolaters of Bethel, that mocked a prophet, so, no doubt, gracious notice was taken of the children of the disciples at Tyre, that honoured an apostle, as Christ accepted the hosannas of the little children. (4.) We should be good husbands of our opportunities, and make the utmost we can of them for the good of our souls. They brought Paul on his way, that they might have so much the more of his company and his prayers. Some refer us to Psa 45:12, as a prediction of this, The daughter of Tyre shall be there with a gift; for it is probable that they made some presents to Paul at parting, as usual to our friends that are going to sea, Act 28:10.
5. They parted with prayer, as Paul and the Ephesians elders had done, ch. 20:36. Thus Paul has taught us by example, as well as rule, to pray always, to pray without ceasing. We kneeled down on the shore and prayed. Paul prayed for himself, prayed for them, prayed for all the churches; as he was much in prayer so he was mighty in prayer. They prayed upon the shore, that their last farewell might be sanctified and sweetened with prayer. Those that are going to sea should, when they quit the shore, commit themselves to God by prayer, and put themselves under his protection, as those that hope, even when they leave the terra firma, to find firm footing for their faith in the providence and promise of God. They kneeled down on the shore, though we may suppose it either stony or dirty, and there prayed. Paul would that men should pray every where, and so he did himself; and, where he lifted up his prayer, he bowed his knees. Mr. George Herbert says, Kneeling never spoiled silk stockings.
6. They parted at last (Act 21:6): When we had taken our leave one of another, with the most affectionate embraces and expressions of love and grief, we took ship to be gone, and they returned home again, each complaining that this is a parting world. Observe how they disposed of themselves: "We, that had a journey before us, took ship, thankful that we had a ship to carry us; and those, who had no occasions to call them abroad returned home again, thankful that they had a home to go to." Rejoice Zebulun in thy going out, and Issachar in thy tents. Paul left his blessing behind him with those that returned home, and those that staid sent their prayers after those that went to sea.
IV. Their arrival at Ptolemais, which was not far from Tyre (Act 21:27): We came to Ptolemais, which some think is the same place with Accho, which we find in the tribe of Asher, Jdg 1:31. Paul begged leave to go ashore there, to salute the brethren, to enquire of their state, and to testify his good will to them; though he could not stay long with them, yet he would not pass by them without paying his respects to them, and he abode with them one day, perhaps it was a Lord's day; better a short stay than no visit.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain On vv2–18 And finding a ship sailing over unto Phoenicia,.... For…
And finding a ship sailing over unto Phoenicia,.... For it seems that the ship they went aboard at Assos, Act 20:13 went no further, at least in the way the apostle was going, than Patara; but lighting on another ship, which was bound for Phoenicia, for the city of Tyre, which bordered on the land of Israel, and indeed originally belonged to Canaan; see Act 11:19.
we went aboard; the said ship:
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and set forth; on the voyage.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain On vv1, 3, 4, 7, 8, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 18 And when we were torn away from the in…
And when we were torn away from the in - Not without doing violence both to ourselves and them.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 18 Paul and his company sail from Miletus, and come…
CHAPTER XXI.
Paul and his company sail from Miletus, and come to Coos,
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Rhodes, and Patara, 1.
Finding a Phoenician ship at Patara, they go on board, sail
past Cyprus, and land at Tyre, 2, 3.
Here they find disciples, and stay seven days, and are kindly
entertained, 4, 5.
Having bade the disciples farewell, they take ship and sail to
Ptolemais, salute the brethren, stay with them one day, come to
Caesarea, and lodge with Philip, one of the seven deacons, 6-9.
Here they tarry a considerable time, and Agabus the prophet
foretells Paul's persecution at Jerusalem, 10, 11.
The disciples endeavour to dissuade him from going; but he is
resolute, and he and his company depart, 12-16.
They are kindly received by James and the elders, who advise
Paul, because of the Jews, to show his respect for the law of
Moses, by purifying himself, with certain others that were
under a vow; with which advice he complies, 17-26.
Some of the Asiatic Jews, finding him in the temple, raise an
insurrection against him, and would have killed him had he not
been rescued by the chief captain, who orders him to be bound
and carried into the castle, 27-36.
Paul requests liberty to address the people, and is permitted,
37-40.
NOTES ON CHAP. XXI.
Verse 1. Came with a straight course] Having had, as is necessarily implied, wind and tide in their favour.
Coos] An island in the Archipelago, or AEgean Sea, one of those called the Sporades. It was famous for the worship of AEsculapius and Juno; and for being the birthplace of Hippocrates, the most eminent of physicians, and Apelles, the most celebrated of painters.
Rhodes] Another island in the same sea, celebrated for its Colossus, which was one of the seven wonders of the world. This was a brazen statue of Apollo, so high that ships in full sail could pass between its legs. It was the work of Chares, a pupil of Lysippus, who spent twelve years in making it. It was 106 feet high, and so great that few people could fathom its thumb. It was thrown down by an earthquake about 224 years before Christ, after having stood sixty-six years. When the Saracens took possession of this island, they sold this prostrate image to a Jew, who loaded 900 camels with the brass of it; this was about A.D. 660, nearly 900 years after it had been thrown down.
Patara] One of the chief seaport towns of Syria.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain On vv1, 4, 7, 10, 15, 17 Act 21:1-3. And after we were gotten — Greek,…
Act 21:1-3. And after we were gotten — Greek, αποσπασθεντας, were torn away; from them — Not without doing violence both to ourselves and them; we came with a straight course to Coos — Or Cos, now commonly called Lango, one of the islands termed Cyclades, famous for the worship of Æsculapius, and the temple of Juno; and for being the birth-place of Hippocrates, an eminent physician, and Apelles, a celebrated painter; and the day following unto Rhodes — Another island in the same sea, famous for the worship of the sun, and its Colossus, a prodigiously large brazen statue, erected across the mouth of the harbour, and dedicated to Apollo, or the sun, so high that ships, in full sail, could pass between its legs. The artificers were twelve years in making it; and it was deemed one of the seven wonders of the world. Sixty-six years after its erection, and about two hundred and twenty-four years before Christ, it was thrown down by a terrible earthquake, and lay prostrate almost nine hundred years. When the Saracens took possession of the island, about A.D. 660, they sold this image to a Jew, who, it is said, loaded nine hundred camels with the brass of it. And from thence unto Patara — A noted seaport town of Lycia, beautified with many temples, of which one was dedicated to Apollo, whose oracle therein, for credit and wealth, was not much inferior to that of Delphi. Here, finding a ship bound for Phenicia, they went on board, and leaving Cyprus on the left, sailed for Syria, and arrived at Tyre, where she was to unlade — Concerning Tyre, see the notes on Isaiah 23. That there should be Christians in Tyre, was foretold Psa 87:4.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18 After we were gotten from them - After we…
After we were gotten from them - After we had left the elders at Miletus, Act 20:38. They were on their way to Jerusalem.
Unto Coos - This was a small island in the Grecian Archipelago, a short distance from the southwestern point of Asia Minor. It is now called “Stan-co.” It was celebrated for its fertility, and for the wine and silk-worms which it produced. It was about 40 miles south of Miletus.
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Unto Rhodes - This was also an island in the Grecian Archipelago. On the island was a city of the same name, which was principally distinguished for its brass Colossus, which was built by Chares of Lyndus. It stood across the mouth of the harbor, and was so high that vessels could pass between its legs. It stood for 56 years, and was then thrown down by an earthquake. It was reckoned as one of the seven wonders of the world. When the Saracens took possession of this island they sold this prostrate image to a Jew, who loaded 900 camels with the brass from it. This was 600 a.d., about 900 years after it had been thrown down. The ancient name of the island was Asteria. Its name, Rhodes, was given from the great quantity of roses which it produced.
Unto Patara - This was a maritime city of Lycia, in Asia Minor, over against Rhodes.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain On vv1, 3, 4, 8, 9, 18 Coos and Rhodes are islands in the Archipelago.
Coos and Rhodes are islands in the Archipelago.
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
John Nelson Darby 1862 · Public Domain On v1 Acts Chapter 21
Acts Chapter 21
After this time the apostle has to give account of himself, and to accomplish in a striking manner the predictions of the Lord. Brought before tribunals by the malice of the Jews, given up through their hatred into the hands of the Gentiles, it was all to turn to a testimony. Kings and rulers shall hear the gospel, but the love of many will grown cold. This in general is his position; but there were details personal to himself.
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We may remark here a leading feature in this book which has been little noticed; that is, the development of the enmity of the Jews, bringing on their final rejection, such as they were. The Acts ends with the last case presented; the work in the midst of that people is left in oblivion, and that of Paul occupies the whole scene in the historical narrative given by the Spirit. The antagonism of the Jews to the manifestation of the assembly, which took their place and blotted out the distinction between them and the Gentiles, by bringing in heaven and full sovereign grace in contrast with law, which while universal in its direction was given to a distinct people (grace of which the sinner availed himself by faith)-this antagonism, presenting itself at every step in the career of the apostle, although he acted with all possible circumspection, is aroused in its full intensity at Jerusalem, its natural centre, and manifests itself by violence and by efforts made with the Gentiles for the purpose of cutting off Paul from the earth. This rendered the apostle’s position very serious with regard to the Gentiles at Jerusalem-a city the more jealous of its religious importance from having in fact under Roman bondage lost the reality of it, through its being transformed into a spirit of rebellion against the authority which crippled it.
After the history of Christianity, viewed as connected with Judaism (in reference to the promises and their fulfilment in the Messiah), we find Paul in three different positions. First, condescending, for the purpose of conciliation, to take account of that which still existed at Jerusalem, and even addressing the Jews everywhere in their synagogues, as having administratively the first right to hear the gospel (“To the Jew first and then to the Greek”) for Jesus was the minister of the circumcision for the truth of God, to fulfil the promises made to the fathers. In this respect he never failed, and he establishes these principles clearly and dogmatically in the Epistle to the Romans. We next find him, in all the liberty of the full truth of grace and of the purposes of God, in his own especial work from which he condescended in grace. This is recorded in the Epistle to the Ephesians. In both these cases he acts under the guidance of the Holy Ghost, fulfilling the Lord’s will. Afterwards, in the third place, we see him in conflict with the hostility of legal Judaism, the emissaries of which he met continually, and into the very focus of which he at length threw himself by going to Jerusalem, in that part of his history which we are now considering. How much was of God-how much was the consequence of his own steps-is matter for consideration in this narrative. That the hand of God was in it for the good of the assembly, and in conducting His beloved servant for his own good in the end, is beyond all doubt. We have only to search out how far the will and the mind of Paul came in, as means which God used to bring about the result He intended, whether for the assembly or for His servant, or for the Jews. These thoughts are of the deepest interest, and require humble examination of that which God has set before us to instruct us on this point in the history which the Spirit Himself has given us of these things.
The first thing which strikes us at the beginning of this history is that the Holy Ghost tells him not to go to Jerusalem (chap. 21:4). This word has evident importance. Paul felt himself bound: there was something in his own mind which impelled him thither, a feeling that forced him in that direction; but the Spirit, in His positive and outward testimony forbade his going.
The apostle’s intention had been to go to Rome. The apostle of the Gentiles sent forth to preach the gospel to every creature, there was nothing of self in this project that was not according to grace (Rom 1:13-15). Nevertheless God had not allowed him to go thither. He was obliged to write his Epistle to them without seeing them. Heaven is the metropolis of Christianity. Rome and Jerusalem must have no place with Paul, except as to bearing with the one in affection, and being ready, when he might, to evangelise the other. Act 19:21, which is translated “in the spirit,” only means the spirit of Paul. He purposed, in his own mind, saying, “When I have been there, I must also see Rome.” Afterwards he charge himself with the offerings of the saints in Achaia and Macedonia. He wished to prove his affection for the poor of his own people (Gal 2:10). This was all well. I do not know if it was a function suited to an apostle. It was an evidently Jewish feeling, which set peculiar value on the poor of Jerusalem, and so far on Jerusalem itself. A Jew would rather be poor at Jerusalem than rich among the Gentiles. Poor Christians were there no doubt from the time of their conversion, but that was the origin of this system (compare Neh 11:2 and Act 24:17). All this belonged to relationship with Judaism (Rom 15:25-28). Paul loved the nation to which he belonged after the flesh, and which had been the people beloved of God and was still His people although rejected for a time, the remnant having now to enter the kingdom of God through Christianity. This attachment of Paul to them (which had its right and deeply affecting side, but which on another side had to do with the flesh) led him into the centre of Judaism. He was the messenger of the heavenly glory, which brought out the doctrine of the assembly composed of Jews and Gentiles, united without distinction in the one body of Christ, thus blotting out Judaism; but his love for his nation carried him, I repeat, into the very centre of hostile Judaism-Judaism enraged against this spiritual equality. His testimony, the Lord had told him, they would not receive.
Nevertheless the hand of God was doubtless in it. Paul individually found his level.
As the instrument of God’s revelation, he proclaims in all its extent and all its force the purpose of the sovereign grace of God. The wine is not adulterated; it flows out as pure as he had received it. And he walked in a remarkable way at the height of the revelation committed to him. Still Paul individually is a man; he must be exercised and manifested, and in those exercises to which God has subjected us. Where the flesh has found its pleasure, the sphere in which it has gratified itself, it is there that, when God acts, it finds its sorrow. Yet, if God saw fit to prove His servant and manifest him to himself, He stood by him, and blessed him even through the trial itself-turned it into testimony, and refreshed the heart of His beloved and faithful servant. The manifestation of that in him which is not according to the Spirit, or to the height of his calling, was in love for his blessing and for that of the assembly. Blessed is he who can walk as faithfully and maintain his standing to the same degree through grace in the path of grace! Nevertheless Christ is the only model. I see no one who (in another career) so much resembled Him in His public life as Paul.
The more we search into the apostle’s walk the more we shall see this resemblance. Only that Christ was the model of perfection in obedience; in His precious servant there was the flesh. Paul would have been the first to acknowledge that perfection may be ascribed to Jesus only.
I believe then that the hand of God was in this journey of Paul’s; that in His sovereign wisdom He willed that His servant should undertake it, and also have blessing in it; but that the means employed to lead him into it according to that sovereign wisdom, was the apostle’s human affection for the people who were his kinsmen after the flesh; and that he was not led into it by the Holy Ghost acting on the part of Christ in the assembly. This attachment to his people, this human affection, met with that among the people which put it in its place. Humanly speaking, it was an amiable feeling; but it was not the power of the Holy Ghost founded on the death and resurrection of Christ. Here there was no longer Jew nor Gentile. In the living Christ it was right. Christ went on in it to the end in order that He might die; for this purpose He came.
Paul’s affection was good in itself, but as a spring of action it did not come up to the height of the work of the Spirit, who on Christ’s part had sent him afar from Jerusalem to the Gentiles in order to reveal the assembly as His body united to Him in heaven. Thus the Jews hearkened to him till it came to that word, and then they cried out and raised the tumult which caused Paul to be made prisoner. [33] He suffered for the truth, but where that truth had no access according to Christ’s own testimony: “they will not receive thy testimony concerning me.” It was necessary however that the Jews should manifest their hatred to the gospel, and give this final proof of their inveterate opposition to the ways of God in grace.
At the same time, whatever may have been the subsequent labours of the apostle (if there were any the Holy Ghost does not make mention of them: Paul sees the Jews in his own house, and receives all who come to him; but) the page of the Spirit’s history closes here. This history is ended. The apostolic mission to the Gentiles in connection with the founding of the assembly is
concluded. Rome is but the prison of the apostle of the truth, to whom the truth had been committed. Jerusalem rejects him, Rome imprisons him and puts him to death as it had done to Jesus, whom the blessed apostle had to resemble in this also according to his desire in Php 3:1-21; for Christ and conformity to Him was his only object. It was given him to find this conformity in his service, as it was so strongly in his heart and soul, with the necessary difference between a ministry which was not to break the bruised reed nor lift up its voice in the street, and one which in testimony was to bring forth judgment to the Gentiles.
The mission of the twelve to the Gentiles, going out from Jerusalem (Mat 28:1-20), never took place, so far as any record of it by the Holy Ghost goes. [34] Jerusalem detained them. They did not even go over the cities of Israel. The ministry of the circumcision was given to Peter, that of the Gentiles to Paul in connection with the doctrine of the assembly and of a glorious Christ-a Christ whom he no longer knew after the flesh. Jerusalem, to which the apostle was drawn by his affection, rejected both him and his mission. His ministry to the Gentiles, so far as the free effect of the power of the Spirit, ended likewise. Ecclesiastical history may perhaps tell us more; nevertheless God has taken care to bury it in profound darkness Nothing farther is owned by the Spirit. We hear no more of the apostles at Jerusalem; and Rome, as we have seen, had none, so far as the Holy Ghost informs us, excepting that the apostle of the Gentiles was a prisoner there and finally put to death. Man has failed everywhere on earth. The religious and political centres of the world-centres, according to God, as to the earth-have rejected the testimony, and put the testifier to death; but the result has been that Heaven has maintained its rights inviolate and in their absolute purity. The assembly the true heavenly and eternal metropolis of glory and of the ways of God-the assembly which had its place in the counsels of God before the world was-the assembly which answers to His heart in grace as united to Christ in glory-remains the object of faith. It is revealed according to the mind of God, and perfectly such as it is in His mind, until, as the heavenly Jerusalem, it shall be manifested in glory, in connection with the accomplishment of the ways of God on the earth, in the re-establishment of Jerusalem as the centre of His earthly dealings in grace, His throne, His metropolis in the midst even of the Gentiles, and in the disappearance even of Gentile power, the seat and centre of which was Rome.
Let us now examine the thoughts of the apostle, and that which took place historically. Paul wrote from Corinth to Rome, when he had this journey in view. Christianity had flowed towards that centre of the world, without any apostle whatsoever having planted it there. Paul follows it. Rome is, as it were, a part of his apostolic domain which escapes him (Rom 1:13-15). He returns to the subject in chapter IS. If he might not come (for God will not begin with the capital of the world-compare the destruction of Hazor in Canaan, Jos 11:11), he will at least write to them on the ground of his universal apostleship to the Gentiles. Some Christians were already established there: so God would have it. But they were in some sort, of his province. Many of them had been personally in connection with him. See the number and character of the salutations at the end of the epistle, which have a peculiar stamp, making the Roman Christians in great part the children of Paul.
In Rom 15:14-29 he develops his apostolic position with respect to the Romans and others. He desired also to go into Spain when he had seen the brethren at Rome a little. He wishes to impart spiritual gifts to them, but to be comforted by their mutual faith, to enjoy a little of their company. They are in connection with him; but they have their place as Christians at Rome without his ever having been there. When therefore he had seen them a little, he would go into Spain. But he was disappointed with regard to these projects. All that we are told by the Holy Ghost is that he was a prisoner at Rome. Profound silence as to Spain. Instead of going farther when he had seen them and imparted gifts, he remains two years a prisoner at Rome. It is not known whether he was set free or not. Some say yes, others no; the word says nothing.
It is here, when he had laid open his intentions and the character of his relationships in the Spirit with Rome, and when a large field opens before him in the west, that his old affection for his people and for Jerusalem intervenes-”But now I go unto Jerusalem to carry help to the saints” (Rom 15:25-28). Why not go to Rome according to the energy of the Spirit, his work being finished in Greece? (Act 21:23). God, no doubt, ordained that those things should happen at Jerusalem, and that Rome and the Romans should have this sad place with respect to the testimony of a glorified Christ and of the assembly, which the apostle rendered before the world. But as to Paul, why put rebellious Jerusalem between his evangelical desire and his work? The affection was good, and the service good-for a deacon, or a messenger of the churches: but for Paul, who had the whole west open before his evangelising thought!
For the moment Jerusalem intercepted his view. Accordingly, as we have seen, the Holy Ghost warned him on his way. He foresaw himself also the danger he was running into (Rom 15:30-32). He was sure (Act 21:29) of coming in the fulness of the blessing of the gospel of Christ; but he was not sure that he should come with joy. The thing for which he asked their prayers turned out quite otherwise than he desired. He was delivered, but as a prisoner. He took courage when he saw the brethren at Appii Forum and the Three Taverns. There was no journey into Spain either.
All this to me is very solemn. The Lord, full of grace and tenderness, was with His poor but beloved servant. In the case of such an one as Paul, it is a most affecting history, and the Lord’s ways adorable and perfect in goodness. The reality of faith is there in full; the ways of grace perfect, and perfect in tenderness also, in the Lord. He stands by His servant in the trial in which he finds himself, to encourage and strengthen him. At the same time, with regard to the desire of going to Jerusalem, he is warned by the Spirit, and its consequences are set before him; and, not turning back, he undergoes the needful discipline, which brings his soul into its place, and a full place of blessing before God. His walk finds its level as to spiritual power. He feels the power outwardly of that whereof he had felt the moral power seeking to hinder his ministry; and a chain upon his flesh answers to the liberty he had allowed it. There was justice in God’s dealings. His servant was too precious for it to be otherwise. At the same time, as to result and testimony, God ordered everything for His own glory, and with perfect wisdom as to the future welfare of the assembly. Jerusalem, as we have seen, rejects the testimony to the Gentiles, in a word the ways of God in the assembly (compare 1Th 2:14-16); and Rome becomes the prison of that testimony; while according to the Lord’s promise the testimony is carried before rulers and kings, and before Caesar himself.
I have said that grace put Paul into the position of Christ given up to the Gentiles by the hatred of the Jews. It was a great favour. The difference-besides the infinite love of the Lord who gave Himself up-was that Jesus was there in His true place before God. He had come to the Jews: that He should be delivered up was the crowning act of His devotedness and His service. It was in fact the offering Himself by the eternal Spirit. It was the sphere of His service as sent of God. Paul re-entered it: the energy of the Holy Ghost had placed him outside-”Delivering thee,” said the Lord, “from the people and from the Gentiles, to whom I now send thee to open their eyes,” etc. (Act 26:17). Jesus had taken him out from them both, to exercise a ministry that united the two in one body in Christ in heaven who had thus sent him. In his service Paul knew no one after the flesh; in Christ Jesus there was neither Jew nor Greek.
Let us resume his history. He is warned by the Holy Ghost not to go up (chap. 21:4). Nevertheless he continues his journey to Caesarea. A prophet named Agabus comes down from Judea, and announces that Paul shall be bound and given up to the Gentiles. It might be said that this did not forbid his going. It is true; yet, coming after the other, it strengthened the warning already given. When he walked in the liberty of the Spirit, warned of danger, he fled from it, while braving every peril if the testimony required it. At Ephesus he allowed himself to be persuaded not to go into the theatre.
The Holy Ghost does not usually warn of danger. He leads in the path of the Lord, and if persecution comes, He gives strength to endure it. Here Paul was continually warned. His friends entreat him not to go up. He will not be persuaded. They hold their peace, little satisfied, saying, “The will of the Lord be done.” And, I doubt not, it was His will, but for the accomplishment of purposes that Paul knew not by the intelligence given of the Holy Ghost. Only he felt pressed in spirit to go, and ready to suffer all things for the Lord.
Footnotes for Acts Chapter 21
33: And this circumstance is worthy of note, that it was Christ’s declaration that he should go to the Gentiles; to which we may add that this at the time was accompanied by the declaration, “Get thee quickly out of Jerusalem, for they will not receive thy testimony concerning Me.” So that what declared his testimony was of no avail in Jerusalem was the occasion of his being seized. On Christ’s word and his own shewing, his apostolic service was not there but elsewhere.
34: Mar 16:20 is the only passage which may be supposed to allude to what would fulfil it; and even not so as such, for that and Col 1:6 refer to all the world, and are founded on ascension, not a mission to the Gentiles only founded on resurrection.
John Nelson Darby — Synopsis of the Books of the Bible: the New Testament (c. 1857–1862) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures 1864 · Public Domain On vv1, 17 1And it came to pass, that after we were…
D.—CONCLUSION OF THE JOURNEY, AMID ANXIOUS FOREBODINGS
Act_21:1-16
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1And it came to pass, that after we were gotten [had torn ourselves away] from them, and had launched [set sail], we came with a straight course [after a quick voyage] unto Coos1 [Cos], and the day following unto Rhodes, and from thence unto Patara: 2And finding [there] a ship sailing over unto Phenicia, we went aboard, and set forth [set sail]. 3Now when we had discovered [come in sight of] Cyprus, we left it on the left hand, and sailed into [to] Syria, and landed2 at Tyre: for there the ship was to unlade her burden [its cargo]. 4And finding [And having found the3 ] disciples, we tarried there seven days: who [these, οἵτινες] said to Paul through the Spirit, that he should not go up to [go to4 ] Jerusalem. 5And when we had accomplished those [spent the (τὰς)] days, we departed and went our way; and they all brought us on our way, with [all accompanied us, with their] wives and children, till we were out of the city: and [then] we kneeled down on the shore, and prayed. 6And when we had taken our leave [(Act_21:5) prayed, (Act_21:6) And took leave5 ] one of another, [;] we took ship; and they returned home again [but they returned to their homes]. 7And when we had finished our course from Tyre, we came [But we finished the sea-voyage, and came from Tyre] to Ptolemais, and [om. and] saluted the brethren, and abode with them one day. 8And the next day we that were of Paul’s company [And the next day we6 ] departed, and came unto Cesarea; and we entered into the house of Philip the evangelist, which [who7 ] was one of the seven; and abode with him. 9And the same [This, τούτῳ δὲ] man had four daughters, virgins, which did prophesy [who prophesied]. 10And [But] as we tarried there many [several] days, there came down from Judea a certain prophet, named Agabus. 11And when he was come [He came] unto us, he [om. he] took Paul’s girdle, and bound his own8 hands and feet, and said, Thus saith the Holy Ghost, So shall [Thus, οὕτω, will] the Jews at Jerusalem bind the man that owneth this girdle, and shall [will] deliver him into the hands of the Gentiles. 12And [But] when we heard these things [this, ταῦτα], both we, and they of that place, besought him not to go up to Jerusalem. 13Then [But] Paul answered9 , What mean ye to weep and to [What are ye doing (ποιεῖτε), that ye weep and] break mine heart? for I am ready not to be bound only, but also to die at Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus. 14And [But] when he would not be persuaded, we ceased [we forbore], saying, The will of the Lord be done. 15And after those [these, ταύτας] days we took up our carriages [we prepared ourselves10 ], and went up to Jerusalem. 16[But, δὲ] There went with us also certain of the disciples of Cesarea, and brought with them [in order to bring us to] one Mnason of Cyprus, an old disciple, with whom we should lodge.
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
Act_21:1-3. And it came to pass, that after we were gotten [had torn ourselves away] from them.—Ἀποσπαςθέντες indicates that the apostle’s final separation from his Ephesian friends must have been excessively painful. [“Pass. 1 aor. avellor, divellor.” (Wahl.).—Tr.]. Cos was the first island which the party reached, on proceeding to the south. [“The distance is about forty nautical miles.” (Conyb. and H. Vol. II. 226.—Tr.]. After sailing somewhat more than fifty miles beyond it, they reached the well known island of Rhodes, opposite to the south-western corner of Asia Minor (Caria). Patara, the next station, was an important sea-port on the extreme southern projection of the province of Lycia. The vessel which brought the company from Troas to this place, appears to have been hired by them. They left it at Patara, and embarked as passengers in a merchantship, which was going to Phenicia. [“It seems evident from the mode of expression, that they sailed the very day of their arrival; this is shown not only by the participle ἐπιβάντες, but by the omission of any such phrase as τῇ ἐπίοίση, or τῇ ἐχομένη; comp. Act_20:15.” [Conyb. etc. II. 233, and note 1).—Tr.]. They then came in sight of Cyprus, but passed it on the left hand, that is, to the north, as they were proceeding in a south-eastern direction to Syria; (ἀναφαίνεσθαι frequently occurs as a nautical term, referring to land which comes into view). [“Αναφανéντες τὴν Κύπρον, when it became visible to them, i.e., ἀναφνεῖσαν ἔχοντες τὴν Κ.” (Winer: Gr. § 39. l).—Tr.]. The geographical name Syria is here employed in the Roman sense, according to which Phenicia and Palestine were considered parts of the province of Syria. Γόμος (φορτίον) is the freight, the cargo of the vessel; ἐκεῖσε, that is, the vessel was to deposit the cargo at Tyre (ἦν ἀποφορτιζόμενον). [See Winer: Gr. § 45. 5.—“The distance between these two points (Patara and Tyre) is three hundred and forty geographical miles.” (Conyb. etc. I. 233.).—Tr.]
Act_21:4-6. And finding disciples [And having found the disciples].—The verb ἀνευρεῖν presupposes that a search had been made; hence they knew, or at least conjectured, that they would find Christians there, without, however, being acquainted with their names and residences. [“Observe the article in τοὺς ἀδελφοὺς” (Conyb. I. 236. n. 3).—Tr.]. This delay of a whole week, although the apostle had exhibited such haste in Asia Minor, was doubtless occasioned by the circumstance that the vessel occupied this time in discharging the cargo [“it may have brought grain from the Black Sea, or wine from the Archipelago” (Conyb. I. 235.—Tr.], and getting ready to sail again. Ἐξαρτίζειν τὰς ἡμ. is explere, absolvere; see Steph. Thes.
Act_21:7-9. And when we had finished our course.—The words τὸν πλοῦν διανύσαντες are not to be connected with ἀπὸ Τύρου, since the former refer to the actual termination of the entire sea-voyage from Macedonia. The last part of the voyage extended only from Tyre to Ptolemais, or Acco (Acre) the best harbor on the Syrian coast, at the mouth of the small stream called Belus, in sight of Carmel. [Ptolemais, the ancient Accho (Jdg_1:31), Akre or Acre, is thirty miles below Tyre, and eight miles north of Mount Carmel. It is now called St. Jean d’Acre by Europeans.—Tr.]. From this point the travellers proceeded by land, as it seems, and at length reached Cesarea which was only thirty-six Roman miles distant, that is, not more than a day’s journey. [“This is the third time that Paul has been at Cæsarea. He was there on his journey from Jerusalem to Tarsus (Act_9:30), and again on his return to Antioch from his second missionary progress (Act_18:22); see on Act_8:40.” (Hackett).—Tr.]. Here they met with Philip, who is already known from Act_6:5, to which passage Luke refers in the words ὄντος ἐκ τῶν ἑπτά. We were informed in Act_8:40 that he travelled from Philistäa northward as an evangelist, until he came to Cesarea, and here we now find him as a resident, and described as an εὐαγγελιστής. The latter title immediately follows his name, since he continued to labor as a herald of the Gospel, without being confined to a particular congregation, and his office in Jerusalem, as one of the Seven, had ceased in point of fact after the death of Stephen. The interpretation according to which εὐαγγελιστοῦ is connected with ὄντος, in the sense: “He was the evangelist among the Seven,” is forced, and not well sustained. [For the omission of τοῦ before ὄντος, see note 7 above, appended to the text.—Tr.].—The fact that he had four daughters who were virgins, and who had received from the Spirit the gift of pronouncing edifying discourses, is quite incidentally introduced, in connection with the name of their father; it stands in no immediate connection with the events which are here related, and no intimation whatever is given that they uttered in the presence of Paul any prediction respecting his future lot. From this circumstance, however, and from the fact that Eusebius [erroneously] relates, on the authority of Papias (Hist. Eccl. III. 39 [and III. 31; V. 24]), that the apostle Philip had four daughters who prophesied, Gieseler concluded (Stud. und Krit. 1829. p. 140), that Act_21:9 is an interpolation, which originated with some one who confounded the evangelist Philip with the apostle of the same name. But he is entirely in error; for who can prove that it was not Papias himself who confounded the two persons? Indeed, it is not here that we find the first historical notice which is not essentially connected with the events related by the historian.
Act_21:10-11. A certain prophet, named Agabus.—It is, on the other hand, somewhat singular that Agabus is here introduced as if he had hitherto been entirely unknown to the reader, whereas he is already mentioned in Act_11:28, and there too described as a prophet. That passage appears to have passed unnoticed, when the present words were written.—Agabus fully conforms to the manner of the prophets of the old covenant by setting forth the matter of his prediction not only in words, but also in a symbolical action, which he performs on his own person. [Comp. 1Ki_22:11; Isa_20:2; Jer_13:1 if.; Eze_4:1 ff; Eze_5:1, etc. (Alf.).—Tr.]. He took the girdle which confined the upper garment of Paul, bound his own hands and feet with it in the presence of the apostle and of the other Christians, and then made the following statement, which he declared to be a prophecy of the Spirit (corresponding with the formula נְאֻם יְהוָֹה in the Old Testament [see Rob. Lex. p. 637.—Tr.]): that the Jews in Jerusalem would bind the owner of the girdle in like manner as he (Agabus) was now bound, and would deliver him to the Gentiles. The words παραδώσουσιν εἰς χ. ἐθν. bear a close analogy to those which Christ employs when he predicts his own sufferings. Mat_17:22; Mat_20:19.
Act_21:12-16. And when we heard these things.—The prediction, partly, because it proceeded from the inspiration of the Holy Ghost, and, partly, because it was set forth in such an impressive manner, so powerfully affected the attendants of the apostle and the Christians of Cesarea, that they united in entreating him not to attempt to proceed to Jerusalem. [Τοῦ μὴ ἀναβαίνειν, the infinitive of exhortation; comp. Act_15:20 (de Wette) and Act_27:1; see Winer: Gr. § 44. 4.—Tr.]. Their weeping was heart-rending; συνθρύπτω means to soften, to render effeminate, to crush the strength of the soul. [“They wept, and implored him not to go to Jerusalem. But the apostle himself could not so interpret the supernatural intimation. He was placed in a position of peculiar trial. A voice of authentic prophecy had been so uttered, that, had he been timid and wavering, it might easily have been construed into a warning to deter him. … But the mind of the Spirit had been so revealed to him in his own inward convictions, that he could see the Divine counsel through apparent hinderances, etc.” (Conyb. and H. II. 240).—See below, Doctr. and Eth.—Tr.]. The question: τι ποιεὶτε κλαι, etc., implies that the apostle declines to comply, and wishes them to refrain from urging him. “Forbear,” he says, “for I am willing and ready not only, etc.” [Winer, § 65. 4. ult.—Tr.]. The reply: “The will of the Lord be done!”, while it expresses submission, refers to the Redeemer in the word κυρίου, for Paul had just mentioned the name of Christ [τοῦ κυρίου Ἰησοῦ]; hence κυρίου does not stand here for θεοῦ (de Wette). Ἐπισκευασ. means: to make the necessary preparations [see note 10 above, appended to the text; Vulg. præparati.—Tr.]. Τινες is of course to be supplied by the reader before τῶν μαθητῶν [Winer: Gr. § 64. 4.—Tr.]. The attraction in the construction: ἄγοντες παρʼ ᾦ, may be thus resolved in the most simple manner: ἄγοντες παρὰ Μνάσωνα, παρ ᾧ ξεν. [See on the passage Winer: Gr. N. T. § 24. 2, and § 31. 5.—Tr.]. The chief object of these disciples in accompanying Paul and his travelling companions, accordingly, was to introduce them to Mnason, with whom they, the Christians of Cesarea, were acquainted, and to conduct them to him as his guests. Ἀρχαῖος μαθ. is equivalent to ἀπ̓ ἀρχῆς μαθ. He was undoubtedly a Hellenist by birth. [“He was possibly converted during the life of our Lord Himself, and may have been one of those Cyprian Jews(“of Cyprus”) who first made the Gospel known to the Greeks at Antioch, Act_11:20.” (Conyb. and H. II. 241.—Tr.]
DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL
1. The Christians at Tyre desired that the Apostle should not go to Jerusalem, Act_21:4; they spoke διὰ τοῦ πνεύματος, by the inspiration and the illumination of the Spirit. It is here, however, necessary to make a distinction. That Paul would be exposed to severe sufferings in Jerusalem, they knew by the illumination of the Spirit. The prophecy of Agabus, Act_21:11, and the language of the apostle himself in Act_20:23, show that it was simply the knowledge of such an issue, in case Paul went to the city, which was conveyed to them by the illumination of the Spirit. The entreaty itself, that Paul should not visit Jerusalem, where such dangers awaited him, was not dictated by the Holy Ghost, but was prompted solely by human opinions and affections. That which was human here at once connected itself with that which was divine, error with the truth, the flesh with the Spirit. So, too, the well meant, but unholy, dissuasion of Peter, connected itself with the Redeemer’s first prophecy of his sufferings, Mat_16:21-23. Nothing is more apt to lead us astray, or is more dangerous, than that mixtela carnis et Spiritus which may so easily and so insidiously occur in our thoughts, feelings, and actions.
2. The prophecy of Agabus is also remarkable, in so far as we can by means of it, measure, as it were, the degree in which the revelations which Paul received respecting his impending sufferings, became clearer and more definite, the nearer he came to Jerusalem, and the more rapidly the time of the fulfilment of that prophecy approached. Such, indeed, was the course of revelation, both under the old and under the new covenant; for prophecy corresponded in the degree of its fullness and distinctness to those normal forms or processes of development in time, to which the counsel and the work of God always adapt themselves.
3. The obscurity which attends the circumstances that occurred at Tyre (Act_21:3-4), is removed at Cesarea (Act_21:8; Act_21:11 ff.). Agabus, as the organ of the Holy Ghost, predicts that the apostle will be arrested and delivered up at Jerusalem. For this reason, the travelling companions of the latter, together with the Christians who resided in Cesarea, urgently and with tears implore the apostle to make no attempt to proceed to Jerusalem. And yet the united request of an entire assembly of Christians, comprising enlightened men, who labored faithfully and successfully for the kingdom of God, such as Philip, Timotheus, and others, exercised no decisive influence on the apostle. The will of the people, and even the unanimous wish and will of genuine Christians, cannot always be regarded as the will of God. The servant of the Lord does not exhibit a stoical indifference; the earnest entreaties and hot tears of his friends melt his heart. Still, he does not change his purpose; his resolution to suffer imprisonment and even death for the sake of Jesus, is unaltered; he speaks and acts with a calm and resolute spirit.
HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL
Act_21:1. After we were gotten [had torn ourselves away] from them, and had launched [set sail]. True friends do not separate without sorrow; still, he who cleaves to God rather than to men, is willing to depart, when he receives a divine intimation.—It is our duty to yield submissively to the guidance of God, and to believe that he will execute his will through us as his instruments, whether the path before us be easy, or be encumbered with difficulties.—Our whole life is like a voyage; fair winds at times attend us, but they may be succeeded by storms and tempests. (Starke).—The words which the Master spoke: “Behold, we go up to Jerusalem,” etc. (Luk_18:31 ff.), might now be repeated by his disciple.
Act_21:2. And finding a ship sailing over unto Phenicia, etc.—“Surely the isles shall wait for me, and the ships of Tarshish first, to bring thy sons from far, their silver and their gold with them, unto the name of the Lord thy God, and to the Holy One of Israel, because he hath glorified thee.” Isa_60:9. The allusion is doubtless to merchant ships. The traders in that ship little thought that the freight which their Jewish fellow-traveller brought on board, was more precious than the purple of Tyre, the spices of Arabia, and the amber of the Hyperboreans—the precious pearl of the Gospel that saves men.
Act_21:3-4. And landed at Tyre.—And finding disciples, we tarried there seven days.—The discovery of disciples was one of the principal topics which the journals of the travelling apostles introduced. While learned men, naturalists, and lovers of the arts, inquire, when they travel, after rare objects in nature, or those which belong to art and science, the servant of Jesus, on the other hand, inquires after rare objects belonging to the kingdom of Jesus, and he is never happier than when he meets with God’s children. (Ap. Past.).—Detentions which we experience on our journeys, are often specially ordered by divine Providence for our own salvation, or for that of others. (Starke).—As the duties of the crew of the vessel detained them for some time at that spot, Paul found a favorable opportunity for strengthening the disciples at Tyre. Trade and commerce induced men to search for America, and God thus conveyed the Gospel of His Son to that country. (Rieger).—Why did he remain precisely seven days? Without doubt, because it gave him pleasure to observe a sabbath and partake of the Lord’s Supper in company with the disciples. A servant of God is far better pleased when he can spend his time among the disciples of Jesus, than when he is with the people of the world. (Ap. Past.).
Act_21:5. They all brought us on our way, with wives and children.—Parents ought to conduct their children to those places where they may be encouraged to pray and to do good in general, but not to those where they may be corrupted.—The meeting and the parting of Christians should not take place without prayer and good wishes. (Starke).—It is worthy of notice that this is the first occasion on which children are expressly mentioned in the Acts. “Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings hast thou ordained strength.” Psa_8:2. These little worshippers on the Tyrian shore remind us of Luther’s remark concerning the auxiliary army “consisting entirely of heroes,” from whom he and his associates derived aid in their conflict with the enemy. (Besser).
Act_21:6. And when we had taken our leave, etc.—Our intercourse in this world, even with those who are most dear to us, is but of short duration; the hour of parting soon comes. But in that blessed world, in which the children of God will meet with joy, they will never be separated from one another. 1Th_4:17. (Starke).
Act_21:7. We … saluted the brethren, etc.—The religious conversations of Christians strengthen their faith, increase their love, confirm their hopes, and cheer the hearts of those who have been bowed down by afflictions, 1Th_5:11. It is an unusually great pleasure, when we meet on a journey with devout persons. (Starke).
Act_21:8. Philip the evangelist, etc.—It is indeed an appropriate title which this faithful teacher here receives. When we examine the historical statements which are made respecting him in Act_6:5, and Act_8:5; Act_8:26; Act_8:40, namely, how impressively he preached the name of Jesus, and how admirably he explained the fifty-third chapter of Isaiah, we readily perceive that his fitness to be an evangelist was demonstrated by the gift which he had received of proving distinctly to men, from the revelations of the old and new covenant, that Jesus was the central point of the Gospel. May Jesus qualify us more and more perfectly to be such evangelists. (Ap. Past.). Which was one of the seven.—Here observe that Philip, an officer of the church at Jerusalem, who fled when Saul made havoc of it (Act_8:3-5), is now the host of Paul and of the seven who accompanied him, and who were bringing to the poor saints at Jerusalem the gifts of love which their brethren of the Gentiles had contributed. What devout conversations were held in the house of Philip, in which Paul and the seven who accompanied him, abode! What praises they offered to the Lord, when they considered his wonderful ways! (Besser).
Act_21:9. And the same man had four daughters, virgins, which did prophesy.—The house of the evangelist Philip, whose office as a deacon expired after the persecution (Act_8:1 ff.), became, in consequence of the fulfilment of the prophecy of Joel, Act_2:28, the honored central point of the Christian congregation of Cesarea. His four daughters, who had received the gift of prophecy and of interpretation, and who, as pure virgins, represent the chastity of the daughter of Zion, furnish new and clear evidence that all believers alike enjoy the privileges of children; and even the earlier instances of the prophetesses Miriam, Deborah, etc., prove that there is no difference in the kingdom of grace between male and female, Gal_3:28. (From Leonh. and Sp.).
Act_21:10-11. Agabus … took Paul’s girdle, and bound his own hands and feet, etc.—The knowledge of the facts which the Spirit had withheld from the daughters of Philip, is imparted by revelation to Agabus, who is probably the same person, who, on a former occasion, Act_11:28, was appointed to bring tidings of evils that were approaching.—The man that owneth this girdle, that is, who has devoted himself entirely to the service of the Lord Jesus and of His Gospel. The prophet purposely selects this image in order to represent the duty which the servants of Jesus are bound [comp. Jer_13:1-11] to fulfil, namely, to crown the beginning of their course by a glorious termination. May the Lord daily remind us, that, as we have now assumed the girdle of His service, we may always be found with our loins girt, and ready to fulfil all His good pleasure. (Ap. Past.).—And shall deliver him into the hands of the Gentiles.—The nearer the apostle approached the city of Jerusalem, the clearer were the prophecies which announced the sufferings that awaited him, even as Jesus spoke most clearly of his death on the cross during his last journey to the city in which he suffered. Our Lord is very faithful, for he does not conduct us to the scenes of our sufferings with blindfolded, but with open, eyes, and with hearts strengthened by faith. We are thus fully assured that all that befalls us, is in accordance with the holy will of the Saviour, and is intended for our own good. (Ap. Past.).
Act_21:12. Besought him not to go up to Jerusalem.—Christians are required to contend not only with the infirmities, deceitfulness, and fears of their own hearts, but also with the tender feelings of their friends, Gen_43:3-4. The purpose may be kind and affectionate, but does not always accord with the thoughts of God, Joh_20:17. (Starke).—When Luther was on his way to the city of Worms, he met with friends in every place, who warned him; and when he was near the city, his beloved friend Spalatin sent him a message, entreating him not to enter and expose himself to such dangers. His answer is well known: “Although there were as many devils in Worms, as there are tiles on the house-tops, I will still go thither.” (Besser).
Act_21:13. What mean ye to weep and to break my heart?—The Lord, who wept at the grave of Lazarus, does not demand that his disciples should extirpate all natural feeling; but it is his will that grief, however natural and just, should yield to the power of a childlike faith and of victorious hope; and He Himself is mighty in the weak. (Leonh. and Sp.).—I am ready not to be bound only, etc.—The best means for dispelling all doubts and extricating ourselves from difficulties of any kind, is an honest and sincere purpose of the heart to submit with uncomplaining willingness to Jesus, and to obey, whatever our lot may be. (Ap. Past.).—The guiding principle of the apostle Paul is expressed in the words: “Being made conformable unto his death,” Php_3:10. He desires to know “the power of His resurrection,” only through the means of “the fellowship of His sufferings.” In his view, the only path which conducted to glory, was that of the cross. He lived only to suffer.—In this respect, the Christianity of our times should not only be improved, but be entirely changed. Where do men in our day seek after this conformity to the death of Jesus? Where is it known or understood?—Not the cross for the sake of the cross, but the cross for the sake of the Lord! He who desires the Crucified One without the cross, grasps at His shadow. A Christianity without the cross is a Christianity without Christ. (A. Monod).
Act_21:14. The will of the Lord be done.—The love of believers to their shepherd must yield to the love of that shepherd to Jesus Christ, 1Co_11:1.—Whenever we can accomplish nothing by our own counsel and plans, we should submit the whole matter to God and His will, since He always knows better than we do, whether any course which we may desire to pursue will be profitable or injurious. (Starke).—The chief virtue of the Christian, and the source of all other virtues, is his readiness in all cases to do the will of God, even in opposition to his own will and desires, whether he is called to act or to suffer. (Rieger).—Blessed is he who submits to the will of God; he can never be unhappy. Men may deal with him as they will; they may expose him to death by fire or by water, may confine him in a dungeon or release him. He is without care; he knows that all things work together for good to him, Rom_8:28. (Luther).—The time will come when we shall rejoice not so much because we had been comforted in sorrow, and met with great prosperity, as because the will of God had been fulfilled alike in us and through us. Hence, we daily say in the Lord’s Prayer: “Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.” O how pure and serene is our life, when that will alone directs us, and when not a trace of our own will remains behind. With such a frame of mind we become like unto God. (St. Bernard).
Act_21:15. And after those days, etc.—There is something emphatic in the word ἀποσκευασαμένους, which Luke applies to Paul and his travelling companions [but see note 10 above, appended to the text.—Tr.]. They are, namely, released from all enjoyments, from all that is earthly, from all attachment to mere creatures. The term is specially suited to Paul. In this spirit he went to Jerusalem, and illustrated by his example all that he taught in 2Ti_2:20-21. May God impress those words on our hearts, so that we too may fulfil the duties of our office as men who are ἀποσκευασάμενοι. (Ap. Past.).
Act_21:16. Mnason … an old disciple.—We have reason to rejoice when aged disciples still survive, or men who have already, at a former period, found rich treasures in the word of God. (Rieger).
ON THE WHOLE SECTION, Act_21:1-16.—The power of love to Jesus Christ: I. It unites those who had been strangers to one another, Act_21:4 : II. It forewarns of possible dangers, Act_21:4; III. It maintains Christian fellowship, Act_21:5; IV. It humbles men before God in united prayer, Act_21:5. (Lisco).
Paul’s readiness to suffer for the cause of the Redeemer, an instructive example, Act_21:7—16. (id.).
The Christian’s pilgrimage to his home: I. Faith reveals to him its happy end; II. Love enables him to overcome the difficulties of the road. (id).
On fidelity to the Lord, (Act_21:8-14): I. Its nature; II. Its source; III. Its reward. (Langbein).
“The will of the Lord be done” —the Christian’s watchword on his journey through life, (Act_21:14): I. He is the Lord: II. His will is righteous and benevolent; III. It will be done, whether we obey or resist it. (id.).
The will of the Lord be done: I. The vow of an obedient spirit; II. The confession of a believing spirit; III. The testimony of a sanctified spirit. (Leonh. and Sp.).
What imparts true joy in seasons of affliction? I. Faith in the grace of God revealed in Christ Jesus; II. Love to Him who suffered on the cross for us; III. The hope of a time of refreshing from the presence of the Lord. (id.).
Faith, Love, and Hope, the three attending angels of the Christian during his pilgrimage to the heavenly Jerusalem: I. A childlike faith, which, even when its path is dark, acts and suffers in submission to the will of God, Act_21:13-15; II. Brotherly love, which imparts and receives consolation amid the toils of the pilgrimage, Act_21:4-6; Act_21:12-13; III. Victorious hope, which in joy and in sorrow unfalteringly surveys the heavenly goal, Act_21:13-15.
The hour in which the children of God part on earth, (Act_21:1; Act_21:5; Act_21:15): I. It is an hour of deep mourning, admonishing us that here we have no continuing city; II. It is an hour of salutary trial, teaching us to sacrifice all to the Lord, in the obedience of faith; III. It is an hour of holy devotion, raising the soul above the influence of time and the grave, and animating our hope of a heavenly home, in which love perpetually endures.
The only bonds which the faithful servant of God recognizes as indissoluble: I. Not the bonds of his own flesh and blood—these he has already severed by the power of the Spirit; II. Not the bonds of human force and enmity (Paul bound at Jerusalem) —these cannot harm him in opposition to the will of God; III. Not the bonds of brotherly love and fellowship (Act_21:4; Act_21:13) —he that loveth brother or sister more than the Lord, is not worthy of him; but, IV. Only the bonds of love to his Lord, to whom he is bound in gratitude and childlike fidelity, even unto death, Act_21:13.
“What mean ye to weep and to break mine heart?” (Act_21:13) —the impressive address of a Christian sufferer to those who surround him: I. Do not murmur against the Lord and his holy ways; II. Do not add to the severity of the conflict appointed unto the children of God; III. Do not deprive yourselves of the blessing which their example can convey.
“The will of the Lord be done!” —the saying which most effectually silences all our objections to the ways of God: I. Our wisdom (the predictions, Act_21:4; Act_21:11) must be silent before the thoughts of Him who alone is wise; II. Our power must submit to Him who alone is omnipotent, Act_21:14; III. Our love must yield to the claims of Him, to whom we, with all that we are and have, belong, Act_21:13.
[Act_21:8. Lessons taught by Paul’s visit to Philip at Cesarea (their earlier history—Saul the persecutor, Philip the fugitive, Act_8:4; Act_8:6.): I. The changes which time witnesses in our external condition (Paul, with his Christian companions—Philip, with his family—both in a different city). II. The power of divine grace in changing the character (Isa_11:6). III. The happy influence of religion on our domestic relations (Philip’s devout family). IV. The irresistible progress of the Gospel (which Paul had once expected to extirpate). V. The intercourse of Christian friends (abroad—at home—hospitality). VI. The course of events independent of the will of man.—Tr.]
Footnotes:
[1]Act_21:1. [The text. rec. has Κῶν, with G. H.; the reading found in A. B. C. D. E. and Cod. Sin. is Κῶ; the latter is adopted by recent editors generally. Both forms of the accusative occur, although the former is the more usual; see Winer: Gram. N. T., § 8. 2.—Tr.]
[2]Act_21:3. [Instead of κατήχθημεν of text. rec. before εἰς T., from C. D. G. H., Lach. reads κατήλθομεν with A. B. E., and also Cod. Sin.; Vulg. venimus. Alf. retains the reading of the text. rec.—Tr.]
[3]Act_21:4. a. τοὺς [of text. rec.] before μαθητὰς, [although rejected by Bengel, Matthæi and Rinck], is very decidedly sustained by the authorities [by A. B. C. E. Cod. Sin.], and is omitted only in some of the later manuscripts. [G. H.]
[4]Act_21:4. b. ἐπιβαίνειν is sufficiently attested [by A. B. C. Cod. Sin.] to sanction the adoption of it as the genuine reading, rather than the more usual, and therefore easier word ἀναβαίνειν [which latter (inserted in text. rec.) is found in E. G. H.; Vulg. ascenderet. Lach. Tisch. and Alf. adopt ἐπιβ.—Tr.]
[5]Act_21:6. The reading [at the end of Act_21:5, and the beginning of Act_21:6, namely] προςευξάμενοι ἀπησπασάμεθα ἀλλήλους, καὶ ἀνέβ. is decidedly attested [(excepting ἀνεβ.), by A. B. C. E., with minor orthographical variations, and it is adopted by Lach. and Tisch.], whereas the reading προςἠυξάμεθα, και ἀσπασάμενοι ἀλλήλους ἐπέβ. [of text. rec.] is sustained by comparatively feeble testimony [by G. H.; Alf. retains the reading of text. rec.—Vulg. oravimus. Et cum valefecissemus.—For ἐπέβημεν, of text. rec., as in G. H., Tisch. and Alf. read ἀνέβημεν with A. C.; Lach. ἐνέβημεν with B. E.—Tisch. exhibits the following as the reading of Cod. Sin.: γονατα ‘προςευξαμενοιʼ επι τ. αιγ. προςευξαμενοι απησπασαμεθα αλληλους και ανεβημεν. He remarks on the first προςευξ. which he prints with inverted commas: “notarunt ipse scriptor (ut videtur) et C.” He adds that C substituted ενεβ. for ανεβ.—Tr.]
[6]Act_21:8. a. The words οἱ περὶ τὸν Παῦλον after ἐξελθόντες, were inserted in the text, as an ecclesiastical reading lesson began at this place [with ἐξελθόντες]; they are undoubtedly spurious. [They occur in G. H., but are omitted in. A. B. C. E. Cod. Sin. Vulg., etc., and are dropped by recent editors generally.—Tr.]
[7]Act_21:8. b. τοῦ before ὄντος [of text. rec.] is not found in a single uncial manuscript. [It occurs only in some minuscules, but is omitted in A. B. C. E. G. H. Cod. Sin., and is dropped by recent editors; see Winer: Gram. N. T. § 20.1.c.—Tr.]
[8]Act_21:11. [The ambiguity in the text. rec. (αὐτοῦ, i. e., Paul’s, or αὑτοῦ, i. e., his own), is found in G. H.; the other uncial manuscripts, A. B. C. D. E. and Cod. Sin. read ἑαυτοῦ; recent editors adopt the latter.—On the general subject, see Winer: Gram. § 22. 5.—Tr.]
[9]Act_21:13. [Instead of Ἀπεκρίθη δὲ ὁ Παῦλος· Τί, as the text. rec. reads with C (original)., and, instead of τε for δὲ, with G. H., Lach., Tisch. and Alf. read: Τότε ἀπεκρίθη ὁ II. with A. B. C (corrected)., omitting δὲ. Lachmann also inserts καὶ εἶπεν Παῦλος, from A. E.—Cod. Sin. gives here, as well as very often elsewhere, precisely the reading of Lachmann, who died in 1851, before the publication of that text; the Vulg. also has: Tunc respondit Paulus et dixit.—Tr.]
[10]Act_21:15. ἐπισκευασάμενοι is undoubtedly the genuine reading [instead of ἀποσκευ. of text. rec. from some minuscules]; for some of the many conflicting readings sustain επι—[ἐπισκεψάμενοι in H.; παρασκευ. in C.; ἀποταξάμενοι in D. (adopted by Born.)], and others the simple form σκευασ., while a sufficient number of weighty authorities support the reading ἐπισκευ. [namely, A. B. E. G., and also Cod. Sin.—Mill, Bengel, Griesb., Matthæi, Knapp, Rinck, Lach. Tisch. and Alf. adopt ἐπισκευ.—Alford says: “The remarkable variety of reading in this word shows that much difficulty has been found in it. The rec. ἀποσκ. (which may perhaps have arisen from the mixture of ἀποταξάμενοι (D) with ἐπισκευ.) would mean, not, ‘having deposited our (useless) baggage, ’ but,‘having discharged our baggage,’ that is, unpacked the matters necessary for our journey to Jerusalem, from our coffers.—But ἐπισκευ. is the better supported reading, and suits the passage better: ‘having packed up,’ that is, made ourselves ready for the journey.—Carriages, in the Engl. version, is used as at Jdg_18:21, (where it answers to to τὸ βάρος LXX.) for baggage,—things carried.”—But the reading of the LXX. in the verse here quoted by Alf., is uncertain.—Tr.]
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures (Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical), ed. John Peter Lange, English translation edited by Philip Schaff (1864–1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain On vv2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 15, 16, 17, 18 And finding a ship--their former one going no farther,…
And finding a ship--their former one going no farther, probably.
to Phœnica--(See on Act 11:19).
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went abroad--One would almost think this extracted from a journal of the voyage, so graphic are its details.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 15, 16, 17, 18 5. From Miletus to Cesarea, Act_21:1-8.
5. From Miletus to Cesarea, Act_21:1-8.
1. We came—It was about the middle of spring (April 24, A.D. 58) when Paul’s ship cut its quiet and prosperous way through the “isles of Greece,” celebrated in poetry for their romantic beauty, and in history for wonderful events. But Paul journeys in a spirit of ever-increasing sadness. The lying in wait of the Jews (Act_20:3) had interrupted the very commencement of his journey; at Miletus premonitions of a disastrous result weighed upon his own spirit, (Act_20:22-23;) at Tyre a presaging warning from others forbade him to proceed, (Act_21:4,) and at Cesarea an explicit prophecy foretold his surrender to the Romans, and the tears of all his friends implored him to proceed no farther. But he is “bound in spirit” to be in Jerusalem at the feast of Pentecost.
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With a straight course—Favoured by the strong wind from the northwest, the ship cuts through the strait dividing Cos from the mainland point of Cnidus, and on Tuesday, April 25, might arrive at Rhodes. From its ever-shining sun and perpetual bloom of foliage, both the emblem and Greek name of this island are Rose.
Patara—The day following, (Wednesday, April 26.)
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain On vv1–18 Act_21:1-6. Paul’s Voyage from Miletus, and his Stay in…
Act_21:1-6. Paul’s Voyage from Miletus, and his Stay in Tyre
1. And it came to pass, that after we were gotten from them, and had launched] The Rev. Ver. has reproduced the Greek construction, but the sentence is not a happy one, nor the gain worth the sacrifice. “And when it came to pass that we were parted from them, and had set sail.” It gives perhaps a little more of the sense of difficulty in tearing themselves away which is in the original, but it is not what an Englishman would say.
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The vessel in which they sailed from Troas to Patara seems to have been under the Apostle’s control, and they could stay wherever and as long as they pleased.
we came … Cos] The name, sometimes spelt Coos, should be written Cos. It is a small island, now called Stanchio, on the coast of Asia Minor, just at the entrance of the Archipelago, and in old times was famous for its wines and some light-woven fabrics. There was also in the island a temple of Aesculapius to which was attached a medical school.
and the day following unto Rhodes] In Act_20:15 the A. V. gave three times over “the next day,” and in each case the Greek was different, and here we have a fourth form in the original for the same sense. In one case in the former chapter the Rev. Ver. left “next day,” and they make that change here, but as the Greek is not the same it is not easy to see why the A.V. should not be left alone.
Rhodes is the famous island at the south-west extremity of Asia Minor, off the coast of Caria and Lycia. The city of Rhodes and the island of which it is the capital were famous in the times of the Peloponnesian war. It was well supplied with timber fit for shipbuilding and hence became famous for its navy, and its position has caused the island to play a conspicuous part in European history from that time onward. It was celebrated for the great Temple of the Sun, whose worship in the island is marked by the head of Apollo on the coinage. With this worship was connected the great statue known as the Colossus, which was meant as a figure of the sun, and was one of the wonders of the world. In the Roman times many privileges were granted to Rhodes by the Roman emperors, while in mediæval history this was the last Christian city which resisted the advance of the Saracens.
Patara] This was a city on the coast of Lycia. It was devoted to the worship of Apollo, who is hence sometimes called by classical writers Patareus. The city was not far from the river Xanthus, and Patara was the port of the city of Xanthus. We can understand, therefore, why St Paul’s voyage in the coasting vessel should end here, because at such a port he would be likely to find a larger vessel to carry him to Syria.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain On vv1, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18 (1) After we were gotten from them . .…
XXI.
(1) After we were gotten from them . . .—The Greek verb is more emphatic, and might almost be rendered, “When we had torn ourselves away from them.”
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We came with a straight course unto Coos . . .—The navigation is, as before (Act_20:14-15), from port to port. It would hardly be within the scope of a Commentary to enter at length into the history of each place. It will be enough to note that Coos was famous both for its wines and its silk fabrics, of fine and almost transparent tissue; that Rhodes, then famous for its Colossus, was one of the largest and most flourishing islands of the Archipelago, and is memorable for us in later history as connected with the history of the Knights Hospitallers of St. John; that Patara was a harbour on the coast of Lycia. For this harbour the ship in which the travellers had left Troas and Miletus was bound, and they had therefore to look out for another. Happily there was no long delay, and they embarked at once on a merchant-ship bound for Phœnicia.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain On vv1–18 When it came to pass float we were parted…
When it came to pass float we were parted from them, and had set sail for it came to pass, that after we were gotten from them, and had launched, A.V.; Cos for Coos, A.V. and T.R.; next day for day following, A.V. Parted from them (ajpospasqentav). "Non sine desiderio magno" (Bengel). "He shows the violence of the parting by saying, "Having torn ourselves away (Chrysostom). The word is properly applied to those who have been unwillingly torn away from their friends (Schleusner and Kuinoel); "denotes the painful separation wrung from them by necessity" (Meyer) in Act_20:30 it was used in the active voice of false teachers "drawing away" the disciples, i.e. Christians, after them. In RAPC 2Ma 12:10 it means simply" withdrawn," and so perhaps also in Luk_22:41, though Meyer thinks that St. Luke chose the unusual word to denote the urgent emotion by which our Lord was as it were compelled to leave the companionship of the apostles, and be alone. Span (whence spasm) and its derivatives, of which Luke uses four two of which are peculiar to him are much employed by medical writers, as Hippocrates, Galen, Antaeus, etc. (Hobart, on Lu 22). Had set sail (ajnacqhnai hJmav). The word means" to go up to the sea from the land," as Luk_8:22; gein Act_13:13 Act_16:11 Act_27:12; just as, on the contrary, kata and katagesqai are used of coming down to land from the sea. (see ver. 3 in the T.R., and Act_27:3 Act_28:12) The same conception of putting out to sea being a going up, led to the phrase metewrov (high up) being applied to ships out at sea. From metewrov comes, of course, our word "meteor." Cos, or Coos, for it is written both ways, now called by the Turks Stanko (ejv tan Kw), a beautiful island, nearly opposite the Gulf of Halicarnassus, and separated from Cnidus by a narrow strait, about six hours" sail from Miletus. There is a city of the same name on its eastern coast. It was one of the six Dorian colonies which formed the confederation called the Dorian Hexapolis. It was famous for its wine and its textile fabrics (Howson, and Lewin, and "Dict. of Geog."). Rhodes (Rodov); perhaps the "Isle of Roses;" the well-known mountainous island in the Aegean Sea, which lies nine or ten miles from the coast of Carts. Its inhabitants were Dorians, and it was one of the places which claimed the honor of being the birthplace of Homer. The towns are all situated on the seacoast, "Rhodes was the last Christian city to make a stand against the Saracens" (Howson). Patara (ta Patara). A flourishing commercial city on the south-west coast of Lycia, with a good harbor. It was the port of Xauthus, the capital of Lycia. The name Patera is still attached to some extensive ruins on the seashore not far from the river Xanthus.
HOMILETICS.
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Vers. 1-14. The steadfast purpose.
One of the most difficult problems of practical life is to know what are the fixed points on which we must not give way, and to which all other considerations must yield, and what are the points which may be yielded under the pressure of conflicting circumstances. A man may be very conscientious, and yet most grievously mistaken, if by his obstinacy on indifferent matters he imperils or defeats great and important results which are incompatible with those smaller matters on which he insists. And again, a man may be very conscientious, and yet may do much practical mischief if he weakly gives way on vital points on which he ought to insist with inflexible steadfastness of purpose. Moreover, without steadfastness and persistence of purpose a man"s course is so vacillating as to be practically useless. He is ever beginning and never finishing; starting on his course and never reaching the end of it; wasting time and energy on purposes which are never fulfilled; incapable of joint action because he can never be depended upon not from insincerity and falseness. but merely from weakness and instability of will and infirmity of judgment. It is a very important function of true wisdom in the practical business of life to discern clearly what are the purposes that ought to yield to the pressure of adverse circumstances, and what are those that must be carried out to their end at all risks and at any cost; and it is the true test of manliness and Christian principle to adhere to these last in spite of the persuasions of friends or the vituperation of enemies. The section before us contains the successive steps by which St. Paul carried out the purpose which he had formed of going to Jerusalem and arriving there in time for the Feast of Pentecost. The first distinct announcement of this purpose is made in Act_20:16, but it had probably been formed before he left Corinth, as related in Act_20:3. What were the exact reasons for it we are left to gather from scattered and incidental notices. It seems to have been connected with his deep love for the Jewish nation, (Rom_9:1-5) and with the hope to which he clung that, by patience and continuance in well doing, he should eventually overcome their obduracy of heart and win them to the faith of the gospel. The line which he had marked out for himself was to show himself a true Jew in all things; to respect the Law and the observances of the temple and the customs connected with it; and to bind all the Gentile Churches to the mother Church of Jerusalem in bonds of filial love, of which the offerings collected from the Gentile converts and sent to the poor saints at Jerusalem were the token and the result. In this spirit he came up to Jerusalem "for to worship"; (Act_24:11) in this spirit he brought "alms to his nation and offerings"; (Act_24:17) and in this spirit he purified himself and entered into the temple. (Act_24:18) If his hope was by these means to win his countrymen to Christ, and bring about the predicted salvation of all Israel, this was a purpose to which all else must yield. And so when the Holy Ghost witnessed in every city that bonds and imprisonment abode him at Jerusalem," when he was warned by prophetic voices at Tyre and at Caesarea that every onward step was bringing him nearer to some great affliction, he never flinched one moment from his purpose, but went forward with a willing mind that "the will of the Lord might be done." Being deeply convinced, probably by the constraining voice of the Holy Ghost within him, (Act_20:22) that it was the will of God that he should go to Jerusalem, and there witness to the Name of the Lord Jesus, he went, not careful whether he were going to bonds or to death; he went, neither yielding to fear nor allowing his will to be broken by the tears and entreaties of those whom he loved best; he went, to accomplish in prison, and at last under the tyrant"s sword, the noblest mission that was ever committed to a son of man, and to win for himself a crown which will surely be one of the most bright and glorious that will glitter in the kingdom of heaven. And in doing so he has left us the priceless example of a steadfast purpose.
HOMILIES BY W. CLARKSON. Vers. 1-17. Human affection and sacred service.
God has so made us and so related us that we find ourselves closely and tenderly attached, one to another, in various bonds. It is impossible that these should not have great influence on our minds as the children and servants of God, great effect on our lives as co-workers with Christ. What is that effect?
I HUMAN AFFECTION WAS A LARGE CONTRIBUTION TO OFFER TO SACRED SERVICE. We find it inciting all the disciples, including "the wives and the children," to accompany Paul on his way, to pray with and for him, and thus to cheer and hearten him (ver. 5). We find it leading Philip (vers. 5-7), and afterwards Mnason (ver. 16) and "the brethren" (ver. 17), to entertain the ambassador of Christ with openhanded and full-hearted friendship. And we find it now constantly leading men and women
(1) to educate and train,
(2) to entertain,
(3) to shelter,
(4) to influence by example,
(5) to evangelize the sons and daughters of men.
II HUMAN AFFECTION SOMETIMES FORCIBLY INTERPOSES BETWEEN MEN AND THE SACRED SERVICE THEY WOULD RENDER. It did so here. Paul and his party had to tear themselves away from the elders of Ephesus (ver. 1). It required a very great effort to "get away." Clearly the entreaties of affection produced a very strong impression indeed on the susceptible heart of the apostle, and called forth the tender and touching remonstrance of the text (ver. 13). It had a like effect on the mind of the Master himself, and evoked a rebuke of no ordinary strength. (Mat_16:21-23) When conjugal, or parental, or filial, or fraternal love lays its detaining hand on the shoulder and says, "Go not on this perilous mission; stay with us in these pleasant places of affection," it is hard for the human soul to resist that gentle but powerful pressure.
III HUMAN AFFECTION HAS OFTEN MUCH TO URGE ON ITS OWN BEHALF. The disciples at Tyre claimed to found their counsels on communications which they had from God himself. They said "through the Spirit" that Paul "should not go up," etc. (ver. 4). Undoubtedly the disciples at Caesarea based their dissuasions on the announcements of Agabus (ver. 11), and they probably pleaded, with no little force, that the Divine intimation of danger was given on purpose that the impending evil might be averted. Often with us, now, human affection has much to say that is plausible, and even powerful. It makes out a strong case why special spiritual faculty should refrain from sacrificing itself by presumptuous confidence, why it should "not tempt the Lord its God" by running into needless danger, why it should reserve itself for other paths of usefulness where it could walk with equal fruitfulness and without the threatening injury.
IV CHRISTIAN DEVOTEDNESS RISES ABOVE THE STRONG. TEMPTATION. With Paul it "will not be persuaded" (ver. 14); with him it says, I am ready not to be bound only, but also to die for the Name of the Lord Jesus" (ver. 13). The Huguenot will not have the white ribbon bound round his arm even by the tender hand of the sweetest human love. Men will walk to the stake, and women to the open grave wherein their living bodies are to be enclosed, even though there are voices, gentle and strong, calling them to the home of affection. The will of the Divine Savior has been found, and will be found to the end of time, mightier than even these forces of affection.
V HUMAN AFFECTION WILL RECOGNIZE ITS DUTY AND ACCEPT THE WILL OF GOD. It still says, after a while, "The will of the Lord be done" (ver. 14). C.
HOMILIES BY E. JOHNSON
Vers. 1-16. Incidents by the way.
I THE POWER OF CHRISTIAN LOVE TO BRING THE UNKNOWN NEAR. At Tyre Christian disciples, loving Christian hearts, are found. They warn Paul against possible coming dangers, they entertain the little band, and dismiss them with commendatory prayer. The finding of disciples must have been a main feature in the diaries of the apostle." To meet with welcome, with hospitality, with congenial discourse upon journeys, how refreshing! Well may it remind us of the universal providence, and the living love which is ever at work to overcome strangeness, and to bring the far-off near! Delays in business need be no delays in the work of the kingdom of God. While the departure from Tyre was delayed, Paul found time to instruct the disciples at Tyre.
II PHILIP THE EVANGELIST. The name is an excellent one for a true teacher. It means one who carries the good news. All that we know of him, (Act_6:5 Act_8:5 Act_8:26) and his earnest preaching of Jesus, bears out this character. It seems to have been his object and his peculiar gift to make clear from the Old Testament Scriptures that Jesus was the Christ. The gift of his daughters seemed to be a fulfillment of Joel"s prophecy. (Joe_3:1) They present the type of the calling of all Christian women to appropriate forms of Christian service.
III AGABUS AND THE GIRDLE OF PAUL. He gives a symbolic prophecy of coming trial. The girdle might be a symbol of complete dedication to the service of the Lord Jesus and of his gospel of Christian duty. The loins once girt up must not be relaxed. Only when the will has been subdued to God and his service are we truly free; and this even when others would use compulsion upon us. "Then the strong band encircles our life and girds us for eternity." It is a blessing when our eyes are opened to the coming trial, and our hearts are at the same time strengthened to meet it. This gives assurance that all that occurs is according to the blessed will, and must work together for good.
IV "THE WILL OF THE LORD BE DONE." Often it is harder to contend with the weaknesses of others than with one"s own. See Millais"s touching picture of the "Huguenot." Some silken band of dearest affection would detain us as we are preparing to march to the post of duty. (cf. Gen_43:3, Gen_43:4) Love means well, but does not always point in God"s. (Joh_20:17) When Luther was on his way to Worms, at placeafter place warning friends met him; and close to the town his beloved Spalatin sent to him to beg he would not venture into the scene of danger. "Were there as many devils in Worms as tiles on the roofs, I would go in," was his reply. Paul"s heart is touched; he feels the spring of manly strength giving way. But with a strong effort of faith and will he overcomes. "I am ready to die at Jerusalem for the Name of the Lord Jesus." "Not the cross for the cross"s sake, but the cross for the sake of Christ;" to be made like to his death; these (Php_3:10) were the ideals of his life. And so the love of the Christian flock to the pastor must give way to the pastor"s love for Christ. "The will of the Lord be done!" It is the best concluding word of all our deliberations. It silences all objections to God"s ways; our thoughts must be suppressed before the thought of the Only Wise, and our power bow before that of the Omnipotent. Our affection for others must withdraw its claims in favor of his, whose we are and whom we serve. This motto may well suit the servant of God in all the changes of his pilgrimage, against all the opposition of his foes, against the temptations of flesh and blood, of near and dear affection, and the weakness of his own heart. J.
HOMILIES BY R.A. REDFORD Vers. 1-6. Miletus to Tyre: the steadfastness of a holy mind.
I THE TRIAL OF PAUL"S FAITH. In the separation from dear brethren and the prospects of suffering. The long days of quiet thought, sailing through the Greek Archipelago to Cos, Rhodes, Patara, and round the south-west of Cyprus to Tyre, deepened the resolution of his heart and prepared him to encounter the temptations from weaker brethren. At Tyro the great crisis of his faith came much nearer. Disciples said, "Set no foot in Jerusalem." The conflict was between the voice of the Spirit in the purpose of his heart, and the prophetic warnings of coming danger which he could not doubt. It was not that one command contradicted another command; but that, like Abraham, he had to obey, although to obey must be to suffer. Faith conquered.
II The trials that are borne in the spirit of humble confidence work out BLESSING IS THE CHRISTIAN LIFE. Sympathy and affection. Prayer. Simplicity and reality. Mutual encouragement Paul strengthened by the interview; the Christians of Tyro helped to aim at a higher life by contact with such an example of spiritual heroism. Influence on the homes and families. Christianity was already accomplishing a great work in social life. Tyre was commercially decaying, but here was a new principle of prosperity, better than the worldly one. The position of such a port made its Christianity a blessing to the whole world. The visit of Paul would be remembered and spread abroad. R.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain On vv1, 4, 5, 8, 13, 15, 16, 17 And it came to pass that after we were…
Act_21:1-3
And it came to pass that after we were gotten from them.
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Paul going to Jerusalem
I. The souls itinerary. The daily journeying of this company of Gods folk was a matter for record.
1. The details give a good test of the authenticity of the narrative. One soon trips in many and complicated details unless he is speaking the truth. Now the writer of the Acts is never found tripping even amid the most varied incidents. This journey has often been gone over, and the results verify the accuracy of St. Lukes account. There are those who belittle (as there are also those who exaggerate) the value of geographical, historical, archaeological and other studies that tend to uncover the social, political, and natural environments of Biblical peoples. But in such studies, as in natural history, the most trifling things may prove vastly important as necessary links in a chain of evidence. If the Divine Spirit thought it worth while to record them, it is worth our while to look into them. It will be well if, like St. Luke, we keep our eyes open as we go through life, and learn the art of telling what we see.
2. The souls itinerary through the world is a matter of record before God and men. Perhaps it did not occur to any in that company that the incidents of their trip would be conned by millions. Yet such was the purpose of God. Is it not somewhat so with every mans life journey?
(1) There is much comfort in this thought (Psa_37:23-24; Gen_28:15). The consciousness of this truth brings one very near to God, and every spot may be a Bethel. The best of men are exposed to misunderstanding, but there is comfort in an appeal from the false record of ones pilgrimage made by his fellows, to the true, full itinerary kept in heaven (Job_19:21-27; Mal_3:16).
(2) There is also admonition. Thou God seest me! (Psa_139:2-3). Life is a great responsibility when we remember that God above records the souls itinerary through life. The lives of men below keep the record too, whether for good or ill. May Heaven help us so to go over lifes pilgrimage that every milestone may be for ourselves and others an Ebenezer--a stone of helping!
II. A story of brotherly love and sympathy. After we were gotten from them means having been torn from them--a painful and reluctant separation. The reference is to Act_20:37. A somewhat similar scene occurred at Tyre, where the company found disciples. Such demonstrations must have cheered the heart of Paul and given him new strength. Men are so used to turn to the Christian minister for comfort and sympathy that they often forget that he needs the words of good cheer. Note that the children of Tyre had part in these demonstrations. Teach the young to love and reverence those who are their spiritual guides. How pleasant to contrast the conduct of these Christian children with that of the young roughs who insulted Elisha. The same honour and sympathy greeted Paul at every stopping place until the hospitable home of Philip received him. No doubt the four daughters were quite as ready for the ministry of home duties as for the public work of the Church. How much more of Divine sweetening the world would have if the Church would return to this simple and primitive life!
III. Submission to God. The stay at Philips house was marked by the advent of a prophet--Agabus (see Act_11:27-30), who was deeply imbued with the spirit of the Old Testament prophets, and used the symbolical method so commonly practised by them. Then followed the beseeching remonstrance which brought out that noble utterance, I am ready not to be bound only, etc. Paul knew but one law--the will of God. He would do his duty, even though bonds and death awaited him. Would that all Christians might catch this spirit of the great apostle! Luther had it when, being warned not to go to the Diet of Worms, he made the memorable answer, Even should there be as many devils in Worms as tiles on the housetops, still I would enter it! So, again, when his friends said, They will burn you as they did John Huss, he replied, Though they should kindle a fire all the way from Worms to Wittemberg, the flames of which reached to heaven, I would walk through it in the name of the Lord Jesus. The will of the Lord be done! Thus at last reluctant friends exclaimed. They, too, learned the lesson of submission. They gave their friend up to Him who called to the sacrifice. Those who thus give up their friends to the path of self-sacrifice have often the harder lot. Women who have given husbands and sons to their countrys service in the hour of need have felt a keener pain than those who wrought and marched and fought. The parents of those who go far hence unto the Gentiles have not unfrequently felt profounder grief than the devoted missionaries themselves. (H. C. McCook, D. D.)
Paul going to Jerusalem
I. A friendly warning.
1. Paul and his companions immediately looked up the Christians in the cities they visited. It is easy to learn a mans character from the sort of people he prefers to associate with--especially when he is away from home.
2. Paul, like every other Christian worker, received a large amount of well-meant advice that he could not well heed. It is sometimes as needful to say No to ones friends as it is to ones enemies.
3. Paul said No when his friends wished him to turn back, but he said so courteously, tenderly, prayerfully. He could refuse a man without insulting him.
4. Paul and his companions were not ashamed to kneel down on the open beach in sight of everybody and pray. Secret prayer is helpful and precious, but there are times when public praying becomes a duty.
5. Paul and his companions and the disciples bade each other farewell with prayers and benedictions. When we say, Good-bye to our friends, let us remember that we are in form at least breathing a prayer over them, for Good-bye means God be with you.
II. A prophetic warning.
1. It is instructive to note that the evangelist Philip who now entertained the Christ-loving Paul had years before been driven from Jerusalem to escape the fury of the Christ-hating Saul. See Act_8:1-5.
2. It is evident that there are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit. The disciples and Agabus advised Paul wisely so far as they knew, but he was better informed than they.
3. It is apparent that Paul did wisely to seek his marching orders directly from headquarters. So doing, he was sure of avoiding all mistakes.
4. It sometimes emphasises advice to accompany it with action. Thus Agabus, binding himself with Pauls girdle, spoke to the eyes, as his voice did to the ears, of the apostles.
5. It is always true that the bonds most to be feared are those a man puts upon himself. Agabus may well shudder at the bonds with which he binds himself, Paul may well disregard the fetters with which hostile Jews threaten him.
6. It was true, as Agabus prophesied, that bonds awaited Paul in Jerusalem. Whatever awaited him, Paul went on just the same. It is always best for one to follow the straight line of duty, even though it lead him inside of prison walls.
III. An unheeded warning.
1. A man may have the firmest kind of a will, and yet the tenderest sort of a heart. Paul was such a man.
2. A man of the right sort is more moved by the tears of his friends than by the assaults of his enemies.
3. A man who is ready to be bound for Christ ought certainly not to fear being freed for Christ. And what is death but being set free from the bondage of this world?
4. A man who would do the most for the good will not throw away his life. Paul was careful to have it understood that he was risking his life for the name of the Lord Jesus.
5. A man having fully determined to risk his mortal life to save the immortal lives of others, it is the right thing for that mans friends to cease their dissuading talk about missionary dangers, and missionary hardships, and the unhealthfulness of foreign climates.
6. A man having fully determined to do the Lords work in the Lords way at home or abroad, it is the part of a friend and a Christian to say, The will of the Lord be done. (S. S. Times.)
Paul going to Jerusalem
I. Reasons Paul should not go to Jerusalem.
1. The needs of the churches. These churches were still in the mission stage, small and weak. Church organisation was so imperfect that it still required a constant apostolic oversight. On the face of it, God would not raise up a man by such a wonderful experience as Paul had had, and take him away when to all human judgment he had before him the best ten or fifteen years of his life.
2. The appeals of the brethren. These were hard to bear. Paul was a man of tender feelings. All the arguments to show why he should save himself for their sakes were tearfully urged. And these were his children.
3. The warning of the Holy Spirit.
II. Reasons Paul went to Jerusalem.
1. The purpose of his life. He had before him his ministry for Christ, Everything was for that. His calling was to testify of Him whose name was called Jesus, because He should save His people from their sins. He believed that the next service for the name of the Lord Jesus was going to Jerusalem, whatever should befall him there. Therefore he went.
2. The law of self-sacrifice. Paul had laid himself on the altar as a voluntary offering, to live and to die for his Saviour. He was not a rash man; but he knew that there are ends which sacrifice can accomplish, and which can be accomplished by no other means. It was not certain that his life was needed any longer. The death of Stephen had proved an occasion of a wonderful enlargement of the gospel. These churches which Paul had been visiting probably owed their existence to the sacrifice of the life of that glorious deacon whose mantle had fallen upon the shoulders of Paul. Could Paul make a better use of his life than to die for the name of the Lord Jesus, if he could do as much by dying as Stephen had done? If a Christian would accomplish anything worthy for God, he must understand this Divine law. Our suffering, like that of our Saviour, has its place in the price of the worlds redemption.
3. The leading of the Spirit. The disciples were led by the Spirit. So was Paul. Their leading did not conflict with his, though it seemed to do so. The warning voice said: If you go on you will be imprisoned and slain. But the voice within said: Go on, though you are imprisoned and slain. The two voices were of the same Spirit. The interpretation of the voices was for Paul to give. Every man has the voice of the Spirit for himself. Listen to the voice of the Spirit within you; yield yourself to His influence. You can tell whether you are following Him. (G. R. Leavitt.)
Pauls journey to Jerusalem
From this--
I. We may find a stimulus to our flagging zeal as we contemplate the apostles search for and improvement of opportunities for usefulness. He had one end in view--Pentecost at Jerusalem, and from this no entreaties could divert him. But while moving steadily forward he filled in every interval with service, e.g., at Troas, Miletus, Tyre, Caesarea. Men speak with enthusiasm of Caesars devotion to literary pursuits during his military journeys, and of Cicero, who amid the multiplicity of his judicial and political engagements found time for philosophical discussions; and the younger Pliny tells with glowing admiration the industry of his uncle, who dedicated every fragment of time to study. But we have in Paul a devotion to work not less remarkable. Well might he have excused himself had he spent the pauses of his journey in taking rest. Is he then less worthy of admiration because in him the love of souls took the place of love of literature, etc.? But his example is also worthy our imitation. Success is only to be had by the means he employed. Ponder this journey, and you will cease to marvel that in one brief life so much was accomplished. Take that inflexible firmness which held him to what he believed to be right; add to that his quickness to perceive and his readiness to improve an opportunity; then let these be vitalised and sustained by love to Christ, and it becomes easy to account for his perseverance and success.
II. We may ascertain the true source of moral courage. That Act_8:13 was not an idle utterance we know from Pauls calm self-possession in the Temple. There is such a courage as is merely muscular, which in its place is good, but which is mostly involuntary and instinctive. He who has it is brave in the presence of danger because not sensible of anything of which to be afraid. But it is quite different with him who is of a delicately nervous temperament. His tendency is to fear physical danger; and there is need of an effort of will, and as sustaining his will there is need of enthusiasm for some sublime cause. The soldier who feels fear, but who holds himself at his post by a supreme devotion to duty, is more courageous than he who, with an instinct like that of the warhorse, mocketh at fear. The latter was the case with Paul, who had two considerations which made him ready to brave every danger.
1. Love to Christ. We know what great things love for a fellow mortal will defy, as in the case of wives and mothers; and love to Christ will fire a man with an enthusiasm which will sustain him through the fiercest opposition.
2. Confidence in God. Like Moses he endured as seeing Him that is invisible. Like Elisha, he saw with his faiths eye the hosts of the Lord encamping round about him. He knew that he was doing Gods work, and had the most implicit trust that the Lord would uphold him till his work was done. If it were His will that he should perish at Jerusalem, then he would only be the sooner with Christ; or, if it were His will that he should testify before tribunals and in prisons, God would give him grace. Thus he possessed his soul in peace in spite of his natural susceptibility.
III. We may see how man proposes but God disposes. The course suggested by James (verse 20, etc.) was admirably adapted to conciliate all parties; but see how it was frustrated. In spite of all their efforts at conciliation, nay, in consequence of them, something occurred which defeated their end. Pauls safety was imperilled by the course suggested for the good of the Church. Yet what good came out of it after all. The most carefully laid plans may be frustrated by unforeseen circumstances, but God will work out His will notwithstanding. (W. M. Taylor, D. D.)
Paul on his journey to Jerusalem
Note--
I. The power of love to Christ.
1. It brings the unacquainted near.
2. It forewarns of possible danger.
3. It gladly cultivates fellowship.
4. It humbles itself before God in mutual prayer.
II. Pauls readiness to suffer for the cause of Christ.
III. The Christians pilgrimage to his home.
1. Faith holds forth to him the glorious end.
2. Love helps him to accomplish the difficult journey. (Lisco.)
Pauls last journey to Jerusalem
(Childrens Sermon):--Suppose you were travelling from Edinburgh to London, and at every station you stopped at, at Carlisle, Leeds, Leicester, friends were waiting to beg you not to go any further, because they had learnt that bad men would ill use you. It would have to be a very good reason that would make you still go on. This was something like St. Pauls situation now. Still he went straight on. Why?
1. Because he felt that, although he was going into great danger, he was going to his duty. A true Christian always feels so. When arrested, Cranmers friends tried to persuade him to escape. But Cranmer said No; it is quite right for you to get away, but I ought to stay and stick to my colours. So St. Paul (verse 13). And if we want to be good soldiers of Jesus, we shall have to learn so to love Him as to be ready to do and bear anything for Him.
2. He knew that God had not yet done with him, and that no one could kill him till God gave them leave. God had said that Paul should bear his name before kings, and the apostle was sure his Lord would not be baulked of His purpose by wicked men. But do people never get hurt when they are doing Gods service? Did not John Bunyan suffer any hurt when he was thrown into, and for long months kept in, Bedford jail? Yes; but he wrote the Pilgrims Progress there. And did not that more than make up for the sufferings of the prison? And so with Paul. So, after all, not harm came of it, but good.
3. Look at another thing. There are some strong brave men who are not very pleasant to deal with, because they always will do things in just the way they like, and cant give way to others. St. Paul was not like that. He was strong and bold in going into danger, but he did not try to make the danger any greater than was necessary. The other apostles told him that they would like him to do something he did not much care for, but they thought if he would do it, it would please the people and save all disturbance (verses 20-40). And he did it at once. To the Jews he became as a Jew. There is a great difference between firmness and stubbornness. Always be firm for the right, but be willing to give way in small matters.
4. It is a matter for regret that though Paul tried to please he failed (verses 27-40). But he could not help that. They had got into a bad temper, and therefore could not judge him fairly (verses 28, 29). Rage makes people fancy things that never happened. If we try to do what is right, as gently as possible, and people wont be pleased, we must quietly leave it to God, asking Him to turn their hearts. (J. Taylor, M. A.)
Pauls voyage
Note--
I. The social love generated by the gospel. There is an affection which man has for man, an affection of animal sympathy, personal interests, mental reciprocities. But the social love generated by Christianity is of a higher character. It is--
1. Strong. So strongly did it bind Paul and the Ephesians together, that they had to tear themselves asunder. The parting scene on the Tyrian shore, and the tears wept on leaving Caesarea, also indicated the strength of Christian love. The love which genuine Christians have for each other is not the thread of a passing sentiment, but a golden chain which binds all in an indissoluble unity of thought, aspiration, interest, and pursuit.
2. Hospitable. Paul a guest in Philips house! This is one of the Divine marvels which sometimes occur in the history of men. The name of Saul at one time was a terror to the heart of Philip (Act_8:3-5). What a change the gospel has accomplished. He from whose presence he rushed as from a fiend, he now entertains as a brother.
3. Tender. Christianity quickens the sensibilities. In nearly all the partings recorded in these verses there were tears.
4. Religious (verse 5). Christian love turns to God as the open flower to the sun. The best way of serving ones friends is to commend them to God, as Paul did, and to the word of His grace.
II. The fallibility of human affection. The good men of Tyre loved Paul, yet they sought to dissuade him from duty; so also did the good men of Caesarea. So urgent and powerful were they that Paul exclaims, What mean ye to weep and to break mine heart? In both cases they quoted the Holy Spirits influence. Paul was deeply moved, but not mastered. All their arguments were the arguments of mistaken love. The mistaken kindness of parents has ever proved the greatest curse to children. Never does the devil act so mightily as when his errors are urged by the arguments of those who love us most. Let us learn to act in relation to this as Christ acted in relation to Peter (Mat_16:23).
III. The unconquerableness of a Christ-inspired purpose. Mighty as was the influence which love brought to bear upon Paul, it could not break his purpose (verse 13). This was not a caprice, wish, intention formed in haste, a resolution based on expediency, but a determination based on the strongest convictions of his judgment, backed by the whole current of his sympathies, and deeply rooted in him by the Spirit of Christ. Such a purpose cannot be broken; it defies opposition, it removes mountains.
IV. The sublimest victory over soul (verse 14).
1. The will of the Lord be done, does not mean, We must bow to necessity. Many men are brought to do this who have no Christianity. The ungodly father, when life has fled from his child; the reckless speculator, when he has wrecked his fortune; the criminal in the hand of justice, say, when all hope is gone, The Lords will be done. In their case it means despair. But here it is a cordial acquiescence, and implies a belief--
(1) That there is a God.
(2) That that God has a will in relation to individuals.
(3) That the working out of that will is the best thing.
2. This is the sublimest conquest over souls. It is a conquest over--
(1) The folly of souls. The greatest folly in the universe is to oppose the will of God. The wisest thing is to acquiesce in that Will which is all-wise, all-good, all-mighty.
(2) Over the wickedness of souls. Opposition to the Divine will is the very essence of all sin.
(3) Over the misery of souls. Opposition to the Divine will is hell. Obedience is heaven. The sublimest victory in the universe is this victory, for which Christ and His followers are fighting. (D. Thomas, D. D.)
The quiet interval
1. There are some endings which seem to be final Such an ending we found in the last words of the apostle to the elders of Ephesus. After such agony there is only one possibility--silence. Whether things will ever come into natural course and shape again gracious time will reveal. Blessed silence! blessed time! Have periods of silence in your life; remit many of the controversies and difficulties to the adjustment and healing of silent, gracious, patient time. You will only spoil its purpose by your impatience. Let Paul alone for a time; let him have his sail out. Bless God for the alternative of the water for the land; of the night for the day. By these alternatives we are rested and quieted and made young again.
2. In verse 3 we read, We landed at Tyre: for there the ship was to unlade her burden. Poor ship! she must have rest, too, in a way. Whilst the ship stands still Paul is on the alert. Business arrangements are turned into spiritual opportunities. The sail has done him good, and now he turns a necessity of the ship into an opportunity for Christian aggression. Is there not a lesson here for us--the sailors of today? The place of business is closed--why not inquire of an opportunity of doing religious good? The stop of one course should be the beginning of another. He never lacks opportunity who looks for it. What was done at Tyre? We read, And finding disciples. It should be, And seeking out disciples. Why not seek out beautiful scenery? Because Pauls purpose was to advance the kingdom of Christ. Paul and his company sought out the disciples--not an easy thing then and there; not always an easy thing here and now. You wait for them to turn up. You, who could ask if there were artists, authors, poets, men of business, dare not ask if there were any praying people in the locality; and yet the man sitting next you at this moment would thank God if he could have an opportunity to speak concerning spiritual things.
3. Leaving Tyre, they came to Ptolemais, and saluted the brethren, and abode with them one day. Make the most of religious opportunities. What a day it was! Only one; but so crowded, so many questions to ask. What eager listening! The apostle will be gone tomorrow; now is our opportunity; let him speak and pray and bless and comfort. That is the case always; we have never more than one day together with any certainty; we should look upon every opportunity as the last. But we allow our opportunities to pass: when the man is gone, then we begin to whine about his greatness, and the opportunities we had of praying with him in his mighty intercession. So the hearts of men are broken every day. Paul is still here; his great epistles are with us; his written soul lies in our houses neglected. Let us not add to our lies by whining over his personal absence!
4. And the next day-- Oh that there should be any next day to festivals of the soul! Mocking word! speak of it as some other day, a million centuries off. Yet not so, because other people must have the festival as well as we. Paul is advancing in his course, and scattering blessings as he goes. The next day we came unto Caesarea: and we entered into the house of Philip. If we had our choice of any day which we might spend with Paul, I think some of us would choose this particular day. What a meeting that was! Philip might not have been there at all but for the very man who was now visiting him; it was owing to Pauls persecution that Philip fled away. May our meetings with old enemies be as sweet and gracious! You cannot escape from your old self. Sometimes our reminiscences are of the most joyful kind, and we bury twenty years in one grip of the hand. Sometimes those reminiscences are of the other sort, and a look doubles our age. The solemn fact to remember is that we meet men again. Life is not closed today. Let us take care how we live. Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.
5. Now Paul was besought not to go forward; but he said nothing to the daughters of Philip, nor to Agabus. But in verse 12 we read, And when we heard these things, both we-- That was the sting. When a mans nearest comrades fail him, then, poor soul, what can he do but break right down (verse 13)? There the Roman spoke--the Christian Roman. We are told that for a Roman to fear danger was treason, but for a Lacedaemonian to hesitate was treason. Here is a man in whose tone you can find no hesitancy. Having consecrated the life first, all the details of suffering which led up to the last oblation were mere trifles. (J. Parker, D. D.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Expositor's Bible 1887 · Public Domain On v2 Chapter 17
Chapter 17
A PRISONER IN BONDS.
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Act_21:2-3; Act_21:17; Act_21:33; Act_21:39-40; Act_22:22; Act_22:30; Act_24:1; Act_26:1
THE title we have given to this chapter, "A Prisoner in Bonds," expresses the central idea of the last eight chapters of the Acts. Twenty years and more had now elapsed since St. Pauls conversion on the road to Damascus. These twenty years had been times of unceasing and intense activity. Now we come to some five years when the external labours, the turmoil and the cares of active, life, have to be put aside, and St. Paul was called upon to stand apart and learn the lesson which every-day experience teaches to all, -how easily the world can get along without us, how smoothly Gods designs fulfil themselves without our puny assistance. The various passages we have placed at the head of this chapter cover six chapters of the Acts, from the twenty-first to the twenty-sixth. It may seem a large extent of the text to be comprised within the limits of one of our chapters, but it must be remembered that a great deal of the space thus included is taken up with the narrative of St. Pauls conversion, which is twice set forth at great length, first to the multitude from the stairs of the tower of Antonia, and then in his defence which he delivered before Agrippa and Bernice and Festus, or else with the speeches delivered by him before the assembled Sanhedrin and before Felix the governor, wherein he dwells on points previously and sufficiently discussed. We have already considered the narrative of the Apostles conversion at great length, and noted the particular directions in which St. Pauls own later versions at Jerusalem and Caesarea throw light upon St. Lukes independent account. To the earlier chapters of this book we therefore would refer the reader who wishes to discuss St. Pauls conversion, and several of the other subjects which he introduces. Let us now, however, endeavour, first of all, to gather up into one connected story the tale of St. Pauls journeys, sufferings, and imprisonments from the time he left Miletus after his famous address till he set sail for Rome from the port of Caesarea, a prisoner destined for the judgment-seat of Nero. This narrative will embrace from at least the summer of A.D. 58, when he was arrested at Jerusalem, to the autumn of 60, when he set sail for Rome. This connected story will enable us to see the close union of the various parts of the narrative which is now hidden from us because of the division into chapters, and will enable us to fix more easily upon the leading points which lend themselves to the purposes of an expositor.
I. St. Paul after parting from the Ephesian Church, embarked on board his ship, and then coasted along the western shore of Asia Minor for three days, sailing amid scenery of the most enchanting description, specially in that late spring or early summer season at which the year had then arrived. It was about the first of May, and all nature was bursting into new life, when even hearts the hardest and least receptive of external influences feel as if they were living a portion of their youth over again. And even St. Paul, rapt in the contemplation of things unseen, must have felt himself touched by the beauty of the scenes through which he was passing, though St. Luke tells us nothing but the bare succession of events. Three days after leaving Miletus the sacred company reached Patara, a town at the southwestern corner of Asia Minor, where the coast begins to turn round towards the east. Here St. Paul found a trading ship sailing direct to Tyre and Palestine, and therefore with all haste transferred himself and his party into it. The ship seems to have been on the point of sailing, which suited St. Paul so much the better, anxious as he was to reach Jerusalem in time for Pentecost. The journey direct from Patara to Tyre is about three hundred and fifty miles, a three days sail under favourable circumstances for the trading vessels of the ancients, and the circumstances were favourable. The northwest wind is to this day the prevailing wind in the eastern Mediterranean during the late spring and early summer season, and the northwest wind would be the most favourable wind for an ancient trader almost entirely depending on an immense mainsail for its motive power. With such a wind the merchantmen of that age could travel at the rate of a hundred to a hundred and fifty miles a day, and would therefore traverse the distance between Patara and Tyre in three days, the time we have specified. When the vessel arrived at Tyre St. Paul sought out the local Christian congregation. The ship was chartered to bring a cargo probably of wheat or wine to Tyre, inasmuch as Tyre was a purely commercial city, and the territory naturally belonging to it was utterly unable to finish it with necessary provisions, as we have already noted on the occasion of Herod Agrippas death. A week, therefore, was spent in unloading the cargo, during which St. Paul devoted himself to the instruction of the local Christian Church. After a weeks close communion with this eminent servant of God, the Tyrian Christians, like the elders of Ephesus and Miletus, with their wives and children accompanied him till they reached the shore, where they commended one another in prayer to Gods care and blessing. From Tyre he sailed to Ptolemais, thirty miles distant. There again he found another Christian congregation, with whom he tarried one day, and then leaving the ship proceeded by the great coast road to Caesarea, a town which he already knew right well, and to which he was so soon to return as a prisoner in bonds. At Caesarea there must now have been a very considerable Christian congregation. In Caesarea Philip the Evangelist lived and ministered permanently. There too resided his daughters, eminent as teachers, and exercising in their preaching or prophetical functions a great influence among the very mixed female population of the political capital of Palestine. St. Paul and St. Luke abode in Caesarea several days in the house of Philip the Evangelist. He did not wish to arrive in Jerusalem till close on the Feast of Pentecost, and owing to the fair winds with which he had been favoured he must have had a week or more to stay in Caesarea. Here Agabus again appears upon the scene. Fourteen years before he had predicted the famine which led St. Paul to pay a visit to Jerusalem when bringing up the alms of the Antiochene Church to assist the poor brethren at Jerusalem, and now he predicts the Apostles approaching captivity. The prospect moved the Church so much that the brethren besought St. Paul to change his mind and not enter the Holy City. But his mind was made up, and nothing would dissuade him from celebrating the Feast as he had all along proposed; He went up therefore to Jerusalem, lodging with Mnason, "an early disciple," as the Revised Version puts it, one therefore who traced his Christian convictions back probably to the celebrated Pentecost a quarter of a century earlier, when the Holy Ghost first displayed His supernatural power in converting multitudes of human souls. Next day he went to visit James, the Bishop of Jerusalem, who received him warmly, grasped his position, warned him of the rumours which had been industriously and falsely circulated as to his opposition to the Law of Moses, even in the case of born Jews, and gave him some prudent advice as to his course of action. St. James recommended that St. Paul should unite himself with certain Christian Nazarites, and perform the Jewish rites usual in such cases. A Nazarite, as we have already mentioned, when he took the Nazarite vow for a limited time after some special deliverance vouchsafed to him, allowed his hair to grow till he could cut it off in the Temple, and have it burned in the fire of the sacrifices offered up on his behalf. These sacrifices were very expensive, as will be seen at once by a reference to Num_6:13-18, where they are prescribed at full length, and it was always regarded as a mark of patriotic piety when any stranger coming to Jerusalem offered to defray the necessary charges for the poorer Jews, and thus completed the ceremonies connected with the Nazarite vow. St. James advised St. Paul to adopt this course, to unite himself with the members of the local Christian Church who were unable to defray the customary expenses, to pay their charges, join with them in the sacrifices, and thus publicly proclaim to those who opposed him that, though he differed from them as regards the Gentiles, holding in that matter with St. James himself and with the apostles, yet as regards the Jews, whether at Jerusalem or throughout the world at large, he was totally misrepresented when men asserted that he taught the Jews to reject the Law of Moses. St. Paul was guided by the advice of James, and proceeded to complete the ceremonial prescribed for the Nazarites. This was the turning-point of his fate. Jerusalem was then thronged with strangers from every part of the world. Ephesus and the province of Asia, as a great commercial centre, and therefore a great Jewish resort, furnished a very large contingent. To these, then, Paul was well known as an enthusiastic Christian teacher, toward whom the synagogues of Ephesus felt the bitterest hostility. They had often plotted against him at Ephesus, as St. Paul himself told the elders in his address at Miletus, but had hitherto failed to effect their purpose. Now, however, they seemed to see their chance. They thought they had a popular cry and a legal accusation under which he might be done to death under the forms of law. These Ephesian Jews had seen him in the city in company with Trophimus, an uncircumcised Christian belonging to their own city, one therefore whose presence within the temple was a capital offence, even according to Roman law. They raised a cry therefore that he had defiled the Holy Place by bringing into it an uncircumcised-Greek; and thus roused the populace to seize the Apostle, drag him from the sacred precincts, and murder him. During the celebration of the Feasts the Roman sentinels, stationed upon the neighbouring tower of Antonia which overlooked the Temple courts, watched the assembled crowds most narrowly, apprehensive of a riot. As soon therefore as the first symptoms of an outbreak occurred, the alarm was given, the chief captain Lysias hurried to the spot, and St. Paul was rescued for the moment. At the request of the Apostle, who was being carried up into the castle, he was allowed to address the multitude from the stairs. They listened to the narrative of his conversion very quietly till he came to tell of the vision God vouchsafed to him in the Temple some twenty years before, warning him to leave Jerusalem, when at the words "Depart, for I will send thee forth far hence unto the Gentiles," all their pent-up rage and prise and national jealousy burst forth anew. St. Paul had been addressing them in the Hebrew language, which the chief captain understood not, and the mob probably expressed their rage and passion in the same language. The chief captain ordered St. Paul to be examined by flogging to know why they were so outrageous against him. More fortunate, however, on this occasion than at Philippi, he claimed his privilege as a Roman citizen, and escaped the torture. The chief captain was still in ignorance of the prisoners crime, and therefore be brought him the very next day before the Sanhedrin, when St. Paul by a happy stroke caused such a division between the Sadducees and Pharisees that the chief captain was again obliged to intervene and rescue the prisoner from the contending factions. Next day, however, the Jews formed a conspiracy to murder the Apostle, which his nephew discovered and revealed to St. Paul and to Claudius Lysias, who that same night despatched him to Caesarea.
All these events, from his conference with James to his arrival under guard at Caesarea, cannot have covered more than eight days at the utmost, and yet the story of them extends from the middle of the twenty-first chapter to the close of the twenty-third, while the record of twelve months hard work preaching, writing, organising is embraced within the first six verses of the twentieth chapter, showing how very different was St. Lukes narrative of affairs, according as he was present or absent when they were transacted.
From the beginning of the twenty-fourth chapter to the close of the twenty-sixth is taken up with the account of St. Pauls trials, at first before Felix, and then before Festus, his successor in the procuratorship of Palestine. Just let us summarise the course of. events and distinguish between them. St. Paul was despatched by Claudius Lysias to Felix, accompanied by a letter in which he contrives to put the best construction on his own actions, representing himself as specially anxious about St. Paul because he was a Roman citizen, on which account indeed he describes himself as rescuing him from the clutches of the mob. After the lapse of five days St. Paul was brought up before Felix and accused by the Jews of three serious crimes in the eyes of Roman law as administered in Palestine. First, he was a mover of seditions among the Jews; second, a ringleader of a new sect, the Nazarenes, unknown to Jewish law; and third, a profaner of the Temple, contrary to the law which the Romans themselves had sanctioned. On all these points Paul challenged investigation and demanded proof, asking where were the Jews from Asia who had accused him of profaning the Temple. The Jews doubtless thought that Paul was a common Jew, who would be yielded up to their clamour by the procurator, and knew nothing of his Roman citizenship. Their want of witnesses brought about their failure, but did not lead to St. Pauls release. He was committed to the custody of a centurion, and freedom of access was granted to his friends. In this state St. Paul continued two full years, from midsummer 58 to the same period of A.D. 60, when Felix was superseded by Festus. During these two years Felix often conversed with St. Paul. Felix was a thoroughly bad man. He exercised, as a historian of that time said of him, "the power of a king with the mind of a slave." He was tyrannical, licentious, and corrupt, and hoped to be bribed by St. Paul, when he would have set him at liberty. At this period of his life St. Paul twice came in contact with the Herodian house, which thenceforth disappears from sacred history. Felix about the period of St. Pauls arrest enticed Drusilla, the great-granddaughter of Herod the Great, from her husband through the medium, as many think, of Simon Magus. Drusilla was very young and very beautiful, and, like all the Herodian women, very wicked. Felix was an open adulterer, therefore, and it is no wonder that when Paul reasoned before the guilty pair concerning righteousness, temperance, and the judgment to come, conscience should have smitten them and Felix should have trembled. St. Paul had another opportunity of bearing witness before this wicked and bloodstained family. Festus succeeded Felix as procurator of Palestine about June, A.D. 60. Within the following month Agrippa II, the son of the Herod Agrippa who had died the terrible death at Caesarea of which the twelfth chapter tells, came to Caesarea to pay his respects unto the new governor. Agrippa was ruler of the kingdom of Chalcis, a district north of Palestine and about the Lebanon Range. He was accompanied by his sister Bernice, who afterwards became the mistress of Titus, the conqueror of Jerusalem in the last great siege. Festus had already heard St. Pauls case, and had allowed his appeal unto Caesar. He wished, however, to have his case investigated before two Jewish experts, Agrippa and Bernice, who could instruct his own ignorance on the charges laid against him by the Jews, enabling him to write a more satisfactory report for the Emperors guidance. He brought St. Paul therefore before them, and gave the great Christian champion another opportunity of bearing witness for his Master before a family which now for more than sixty years had been more or less mixed up, but never for their own blessing, with Christian history. After a period of two years and three months detention, varied by different public appearances, St. Paul was despatched to Rome to stand his trial and make his defence before the Emperor Nero, whose name has become a synonym for vice, brutality, and self-will.
II. We have now given a connected outline of St. Pauls history extending over a period of more than two years. Let us omit his formal defences, which have already come under our notice, and take for our meditation a number of points which are peculiar to the narrative.
We have in the story of the voyage, arrest, and imprisonment of St. Paul, many circumstances which illustrate Gods methods of action in the world, or else His dealings with the spiritual life. Let us take a few instances. First, then, we direct attention to the steady though quiet progress of the Christian faith as revealed in these chapters. St. Paul landed at Tyre, and from Tyre he proceeded some thirty miles south to Ptolemais. These are both of them towns which have never hitherto occurred in our narrative as places of Christian activity. St. Paul and St. Peter and Barnabas and the other active leaders of the Church must often have passed through these towns, and wherever they went they strove to make known the tidings of the gospel. But we hear nothing in the Acts, and tradition tells us nothing of when or by whom the Christian Church was founded in these localities.
We get glimpses, too, of the ancient organisation of the Church, but only glimpses; we have no complete statement, because St. Luke was writing for a man who lived amidst it, and could supply the gaps which his informant left. The presbyters are mentioned at Miletus, and Agabus the prophet appeared at Antioch years before, and now again he appears at Caesarea, where Philip the Evangelist and his daughters the prophetesses appear. Prophets and prophesying are not confined to Palestine and Antioch, though the Acts tells us nothing of them as existing elsewhere. The Epistle to Corinth shows us that the prophets occupied a very important place in that Christian community. Prophesying indeed was principally preaching at Corinth; but it did not exclude prediction, and that after the ancient Jewish method, by action as well as by word, for Agabus took St. Pauls girdle, and binding his own hands and feet declared that the Holy Ghost told him, "So shall the Jews at Jerusalem bind the man that own-eth this girdle, and deliver him into the hands of the Gentiles." But how little we know of the details of the upgrowth of the Church in all save the more prominent places! How entirely ignorant we are, for instance, of the methods by which the gospel spread to Tyre and Ptolemais and Puteoli! Here we find in the Acts the fulfilment of our Lords words as reported in Mar_4:26 : "So is the kingdom of God, as if a man should cast seed upon the earth; and the seed should spring up and grow, he knoweth not how." It was with the last and grander temple of God as it was with the first. Its foundations were laid, and its walls were built, not with sound of axe and hammer, but in the penitence of humbled souls, in the godly testimony of sanctified spirits, in the earnest lives of holy men hidden from the scoffing world, known only to the Almighty.
Again, we notice the advice given by James and the course actually adopted by St.. Paul when he arrived at Jerusalem. It has the appearance of compromise of truth, and yet it has the appearance merely, not the reality of compromise. It was in effect wise and sound advice, and such as teaches lessons useful for our own guidance in life. We have already set forth St. Pauls conception of Jewish rites and ceremonies. They were nothing in the world one way or another, as viewed from the Divine standpoint. Their presence did not help on the work of mans salvation; their absence did not detract from it. The Apostle therefore took part in them freely enough, as when he celebrated the passover and the days of unleavened bread at Philippi, viewing them as mere national rites. He had been successful in the very highest degree in converting to this view even the highest and strictest members of the Jerusalem Church. St. James, in advising St. Paul how to act on this occasion, when such prejudices had been excited against him, clearly shows that he had come round to St. Pauls view. He tells St. Paul that the multitude or body of the Judaeo-Christian Church at Jerusalem had been excited against him, because they had been informed that he taught the Jews of the Dispersion to forsake Moses, the very thing St. Paul did not do. St. James grasped, however, St. Pauls view that Moses and the Levitical Law might be good things for the Jews, but had no relation to the Gentiles, and must not be imposed on them. St. James had taught this view ten years earlier at the Apostolic Council. His opinions and teaching had percolated downwards, and the majority of the Jerusalem Church now held the same view as regards the Gentiles, but were as strong as ever and as patriotic as ever so far as the Jews were concerned, and the obligation of the Jewish Law upon them and their children. St. Paul had carried his point as regards Gentile freedom. And now there came a time when he had in turn to show consideration and care for Jewish prejudices, and act out his own principle that circumcision was nothing and uncircumcision was nothing. Concessions, in fact, were not to be all on one side, and St. Paul had now to make a concession. The Judaeo-Christian congregations of Jerusalem were much excited, and St. Paul by a certain course of conduct, perfectly innocent and harmless, could pacify their excited patriotic feelings, and demonstrate to them that he was still a true, a genuine, and not a renegade Jew. It was but a little thing that St. James advised and public feeling demanded. He had but to join himself to a party of Nazarites and pay their expenses, and thus Paul would place himself en rapport with the Mother Church of Christendom. St. Paul acted wisely, charitably, and in a Christlike spirit when he consented to do as St. James advised. St. Paul was always eminently prudent. There are some religious men who seem to think that to advise a wise or prudent course is all the same as to advise a wicked or unprincipled course. They seem to consider success in any course as a clear evidence of sin, and failure as a proof of honesty and true principle. Concession, however, is not the same as unworthy compromise. It is our duty in life to see and make our course of conduct as fruitful and as successful as possible. Concession on little points has a wondrous power in smoothing the path of action and gaining true success. Many an honest man ruins a good cause simply because he cannot distinguish, as St. Paul did, things necessary and essential from things accidental and trivial. Pigheaded obstinacy, to use a very homely but a very expressive phrase, which indeed is often only disguised pride, is a great enemy to the peace and harmony of societies and churches. St. Paul displayed great boldness here. He was not afraid of being misrepresented, that ghost which frightens so many a popularity hunter from the course which is true and right. How easily his fierce Opponents, the men who had gone to Corinth and Galatia to oppose him, might misrepresent his action in joining himself to the Nazarites! They were the extreme men of the Jerusalem Church. They were the men for whom the decisions of the Apostolic Council had no weight, and who held still as of old that unless a man be circumcised he could not be saved. How easily, I say, these men could despatch their emissaries, who should proclaim that their opponent Paul had conceded all their demands and was himself observing the law at Jerusalem. St. Paul was not afraid of this misrepresentation, but boldly took the course which seemed to him right and true, and charitable, despite the malicious tongues of his adversaries. The Apostle of the Gentiles left us an example which many still require. How many a man is kept from adopting a course that is charitable and tends to peace and edification, solely because he is afraid of what opponents may say, or how they may twist and misrepresent his action. St. Paul was possessed with none of this moral cowardice which specially flourishes among so-called party-leaders, men who, instead of leading, are always led and governed by the opinions of their followers. St. Paul simply determined in his conscience what was right, and then fearlessly acted out his determination.
Some persons perhaps would argue that the result of his action showed that he was wrong and had unworthily compromised the cause of Christian freedom. They think that had he not consented to appear as a Nazarite in the Temple no riot would have occurred, his arrest would have been avoided, and the course of history might have been very different. But here we would join issue on the spot. The results of his action vindicated his Christian wisdom. The great body of the Jerusalem Church were convinced of his sincerity and realised his position. He maintained his influence over them, which had been seriously imperilled previously, and thus helped on the course of development which had been going on. Ten years before the advocates of Gentile freedom were but a small body. Now the vast majority of the local church at Jerusalem held fast to this idea, while still clinging fast to the obligation laid upon the Jews to observe the law. St. Paul did his best to maintain his friendship and alliance with the Jerusalem Church. To put himself right with them he travelled up to Jerusalem, when fresh fields and splendid prospects were opening up for him in the West. For this purpose he submitted to several days restraint and attendance in the Temple, and the results vindicated his determination. The Jerusalem Church continued the same course of orderly development, and when, ten years later, Jerusalem was threatened with destruction, the Christian congregations alone rose above the narrow bigoted patriotism which bound the Jews to the Holy City. The Christians alone realised that the day of the Mosaic Law was at length passed, and, retiring to the neighbouring city of Pella, escaped the destruction which awaited the fanatical adherents of the Law and the Temple.
Another answer, too, may be made to this objection. It was not his action in the matter of the Nazarites that brought about the riot and the arrest and his consequent imprisonment. It was the hostility of the Jews of Asia; and they would have assailed him whenever and wherever they met him. Studying the matter too, even in view of results, we should draw the opposite conclusion. God Himself approved his course. A Divine vision was vouchsafed to him in the guard-room of Antonia, after he had twice experienced Jewish violence, and bestowed upon him the approbation of Heaven: "The night following the Lord stood by him, and said, Be of good cheer; for as thou hast testified concerning Me at Jerusalem, so must thou bear witness also at Rome." His courageous and at the same time charitable action was vindicated by its results on the Jerusalem Church, by the sanction of Christ Himself, and lastly, by its blessed results upon the development of the Church at large in leading St. Paul to Rome, in giving him a wider and more influential sphere for his efforts, and in affording him leisure to write epistles like those to Ephesus, Philippi, and Colossae, which have been so instructive and useful for the Church of all ages.
Another point which has exercised mens minds is found in St. Pauls attitude and words when brought before the Sanhedrin on the day after his arrest. The story is told in the opening verses of the twenty-third chapter. Let us quote them, as they vividly present the difficulty: "And Paul, looking stedfastly on the council, said, Brethren, I have lived before God in all good conscience until this day. And the high priest Ananias commanded them that stood by him to smite him on the mouth. Then said Paul unto him, God shall smite thee, thou whited wall: and sittest thou to judge me according to the law, and commandest me to be smitten contrary to the law? And they that stood by said, Revilest thou Gods high priest? And Paul said, I wist not, brethren, that he was high priest: for it is written, Thou shalt not speak evil of a ruler of thy people."
Two difficulties here present themselves.
(a) There is St. Pauls language, which certainly seems wanting in Christian meekness, and not exactly modelled after the example of Christ, who, when He was reviled, reviled not again, and laid down in His Sermon on the Mount a law of suffering to which St. Paul does not here conform. But this is only a difficulty for those who have formed a superhuman estimate of St. Paul against which we have several times protested, and against which this very book of the Acts seems to take special care to warn its readers. If people will make the Apostle as sinless and as perfect as our Lord, they will of course be surprised at his language on this occasion. But if they regard him in the light in which St. Luke portrays him, as a man of like passions and infirmities with themselves, then they will feel no difficulty in the fact that St. Pauls natural temper was roused at the brutal and illegal command to smite a helpless prisoner on the mouth because he had made a statement which a member of the court did not relish. This passage seems to me not a difficulty, but a divinely guided passage witnessing to the inspiring influence of the Holy Ghost, and inserted to chasten our wandering fancy, which would exalt the Apostle to a position equal to that which rightly belongs to his Divine Master alone.
(b) Then there is a second difficulty. Some have thought that St. Paul told a lie in this passage, and that, when defending himself from the charge of unscriptural insolence to the high priest, he merely pretended ignorance of his person, saying, "I wist not, brethren, that he was high priest." The older commentators devised various explanations of this passage. Dr. John Lightfoot, in his "Horae Hebraicae," treating of this verse, sums them all up as follows. Either St. Paul means that he did not recognise Ananias as high priest because he did not lawfully occupy the office, or else because Christ was now the only high priest; or else because there had been so many and so frequent changes that as a matter of fact he did not know who was the actual high priest. None of these is a satisfactory explanation. Mr. Lewin offers what strikes me as the most natural explanation, considering all the circumstances. Ananias was appointed high priest about 47, continued in office till 59, and was killed in the beginning of the great Jewish war. He was a thoroughly historical character, and his high priesthood is guaranteed for us by the testimony of Josephus, who tells us of his varied fortunes and of his tragic death. But St. Paul never probably once saw him, as he was absent from Jerusalem, except for one brief visit, all the time while he enjoyed supreme office.
Now the Sanhedrin consisted of seventy-one judges, they sat in a large hall with a crowd of scribes and pupils in front of them, and the high priest, as we have already pointed out, was not necessarily president or chairman. St. Paul was very short-sighted, and the ophthalmia under which he continually suffered was probably much intensified by the violent treatment he had experienced the day before. Could anything be more natural than that a short-sighted man should not recognise in such a crowd the particular person who had uttered this very brief, but very tyrannical command, "Smite him on the mouth"? Surely an impartial review of St. Pauls life shows him ever to have been at least a man of striking courage, and therefore one who would never have descended to cloak his own hasty words with even the shadow of an untruth!
Again, the readiness and quickness of St. Paul in seizing upon every opportunity of escape have important teaching for us. Upon four different occasions at this crisis he displayed this characteristic. Let us note them for our guidance. When he was rescued by the chief captain and was carried into the castle, the captain ordered him to be examined by scourging to elicit the true cause of the riot; St. Paul then availed himself of his privilege as a Roman citizen to escape that torture. When he stood before the council he perceived the old division between the Pharisees and the Sadducees to be still in existence, which he had known long ago when he was himself connected with it. He skilfully availed himself of that circumstance to raise dissension among his opponents. He grasped the essential principle which lay at the basis of his teaching, and that was the doctrine of the Resurrection and the assertion of the reality of the spiritual world. Without that doctrine Christianity and Christian teaching were utterly meaningless, and in that doctrine Pharisees and Christians were united. Dropping the line of defence he was about to offer, which probably would have proceeded to show how true to conscience and to Divine light had been his course of life, he cried out, "I am a Pharisee, a son of Pharisees: touching the hope and resurrection of the dead I am called in question." Grotius, an old and learned commentator, dealing with Act_23:6, has well summed up the principles on which St. Paul acted on this occasion in the following words: "St. Paul was not lacking in human prudence, making use of which for the service of the gospel, he intermingled the wisdom of the serpent with the gentleness of the dove, and thus utilised the dissensions of his enemies," Yet once more we see the same tact in operation. After the meeting of the Sanhedrin and his rescue from out of its very midst, a plot was formed to assassinate him, of which he was informed by his nephew. Then again St. Paul did not let things slide, trusting in the Divine care alone. He knew right well that God demanded of men of faith that they should be fellow-workers with God and lend Him their co-operation. He knew too the horror which the Roman authorities had of riot and of all illegal measures; he despatched his nephew therefore to the chief captain, and by his readiness of resource saved himself from imminent danger. Lastly, we find the same characteristic trait coming out at Caesarea. His experience of Roman rule taught him the anxiety of new governors to please the people among whom they came. He knew that Festus would be anxious to gratify the Jewish authorities in any way he possibly could. They were very desirous to have the Apostle transferred from Caesarea to Jerusalem, sure that in some way or another they could there dispose of him. Knowing therefore the dangerous position in which he stood, St. Pauls readiness and tact again came to his help. He knew Roman law thoroughly well. He knew that as a Roman citizen he had one resource left by which in one brief sentence he could transfer himself out of the jurisdiction of Sanhedrin and Procurator alike, and of this he availed himself at the critical moment, pronouncing the magic words. Caesarem Appello ("I appeal unto Caesar"). St. Paul left in all these cases a healthy example which the Church urgently required in subsequent years. He had no morbid craving after suffering or death. No man ever lived in a closer communion with his God, or in a more steadfast readiness to depart and be with Christ. But he knew that it was his duty to remain at his post till the Captain of his salvation gave a clear note of withdrawal, and that clear note was only given when every avenue of escape was cut off. St. Paul therefore used his knowledge and his tact in order to ascertain the Masters will and discover whether it was His wish that His faithful servant should depart or tarry, yet awhile for the discharge of his earthly duties. I have said that this was an example necessary for the Church in subsequent ages. The question of flight in persecution became a very practical one as soon as the Roman Empire assumed an attitude definitely hostile to the Church. The more extreme and fanatical party not only refused to take any measures to secure their safety or escape death, but rather rushed headlong upon it, and upbraided those as traitors and renegades who tried in any. way to avoid suffering. From the earliest times, from the days of Ignatius of Antioch himself, we see this morbid tendency displaying itself; while the Church in the person of several of its greatest leaders-men like Polycarp and Cyprian, who themselves retired from impending danger till the Roman authorities discovered them-showed that St. Pauls wiser teaching and example were not thrown away. Quietism was a view which two centuries ago made a great stir both in England and France, and seems embodied to some extent in certain modern forms of thought. It taught that believers should lie quite passive in Gods hands and make no effort for themselves. Quietism would never have found a follower in the vigorous mind of St. Paul, who proved himself through all those trials and vicissitudes of more than two years ever ready with some new device wherewith to meet the hatred of his foes.
III. We notice lastly in the narrative of St. Pauls imprisonment his interviews with and his testimony before the members of the house of Herod. St. Peter had experience of the father of Herod Agrippa, and now St. Paul comes into contact with the children, Agrippa, Drusilla, and Bernice. And thus it came about. Felix the procurator, as we have already explained, was a very bad man, and had enticed Drusilla from her husband. He doubtless told her of the Jewish prisoner who lay a captive in the city where she was living. The Herods were a clever race, and they knew all about Jewish hopes and Messianic expectations, and they ever seem to have been haunted by a certain curiosity concerning the new sect of the Nazarenes. One Herod desired for a long time to see Jesus Christ, and was delighted when Pilate gratified his longing. Drusilla, doubtless, was equally curious, and easily persuaded her husband to gratify her desire. We therefore read in Act_24:24, "But after certain days, Felix came with Drusilla, his wife, which was a Jewess, and sent for Paul, and heard him concerning the faith in Christ Jesus."
Neither of them calculated on the kind of man they had to do with. St. Paul knew all the circumstances of the case. He adapted his speech thereto. He made a powerful appeal to the conscience of the guilty pair. He reasoned of righteousness, temperance, and the judgment to come, and beneath his weighty words Felix trembled. His convictions were roused. He experienced a transient season of penitence, such as touched another guilty member of the Herodian house who feared John and did many things gladly to win his approval. But habits of sin had grasped Felix too firmly. He temporised with his conscience. He put off the day of salvation when it was dawning on him, and his words, "Go thy way for this time, and when I have a convenient season I will call thee unto me," became the typical language of all those souls for whom procrastination, want of decision, trifling with spiritual feelings, have been the omens and the causes of eternal ruin.
But Felix and Drusilla were not the only members of the Herodian house with whom Paul came in contact. Felix and Drusilla left Palestine when two years of St. Pauls imprisonment had elapsed. Festus, another procurator, followed, and began his course as all the Roman rulers of Palestine began theirs. The Jews, when Festus visited Jerusalem, besought him to deliver the prisoner lying bound at Caesarea to the judgment of their Sanhedrin. Festus, all-powerful as a Roman governor usually was, dared not treat a Roman citizen thus without his own consent, and when that consent was asked Paul at once refused, knowing right well the intentions of the Jews, and appealed unto Caesar. A Roman governor, however, would not send a prisoner to the judgment of the Emperor without stating the crime imputed to him. Just at that moment Herod Agrippa, king of Chalcis and of the district of Ituraea, together with his sister Bernice, appeared on the scene. He was a Jew, and was well acquainted therefore with the accusations brought against the Apostle, and could inform the procurator what report he should send to the Emperor. Festus therefore brought Paul before them, and gave him another opportunity of expounding the faith of Jesus Christ and the law of love and purity which that faith involved to a family who ever treated that law with profound contempt. St. Paul availed himself of that opportunity. He addressed his whole discourse to the king, and that discourse was typical of those he addressed to Jewish audiences. It was like the sermon delivered to the Jews in the synagogue of Antioch in Pisidia in one important aspect. Both discourses gathered round the resurrection of Jesus Christ as their central idea. St. Paul began his address before Agrippa with that doctrine, and he ended with the same. The hope of Israel, towards which their continuous worship tended, was the resurrection of the dead. That was St. Pauls opening idea. The same note lay beneath the nat, rative of his own conversion, and then he turned back to his original statement that the Risen Christ was the hope of Israel and of the world taught by Moses and proclaimed by prophets. But it was all in vain as regards Agrippa and Bernice. The Herods were magnificent, clever, beautiful. But they were of the earth, earthy. Agrippa said indeed to Paul, "With but little persuasion thou wouldest fain make me a Christian." But it was not souls like his for whom the gospel message was intended. The Herods knew nothing of the burden of sin or the keen longing of souls desirous of holiness and of God. They were satisfied with the present transient scene, and enjoyed it thoroughly. Agrippas father when he lay a-dying at Caesarea consoled himself with the reflection that though his career was prematurely cut short, yet at any rate he had lived a splendid life. And such as the parent had been, such were the children. King Agrippa and his sister Bernice were true types of the stony-ground hearers, with whom "the care of the world and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word." And they choked the word so effectually in his case, even when taught by St. Paul, that the only result upon Agrippa, as St. Luke reports it, was this: "Agrippa said unto Festus, This man might have been set at liberty, if he had not appealed unto Caesar."
William Robertson Nicoll, ed., The Expositor's Bible (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1887–1910) — public domain. 65 of 66 books (1 Corinthians is not separately keyed, as that volume carries no machine-parseable verse references); section-level commentary keyed to the opening verse. Introductory and overview sections not keyed to a specific passage are excluded.
B. W. Johnson 1891 · Public Domain On vv1, 7, 15, 18 1–6. After we were gotten from them. Chrysostom, himself,…
1–6. After we were gotten from them. Chrysostom, himself, a Greek, says the Greek word means “had torn away.” Came to … Coos. A small island, famous for its wines, forty miles south of Miletus. Hippocrates, the great physician, and Apelles, the painter, were born here. The day following to Rhodes. Fifty miles further south, one of the most famous islands of the world, noted for its beauty, its Colossus, its defence by the Knights of St. John against the Turks, and for giving its name to one of the American states. Thence to Patara. On the coast of Lydia. Here he took another ship, this probably being the destination of the first.
Finding a ship sailing over to Phoenicia. Tyre, where he landed, was a Phoenician city.
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When we had discovered Cyprus. Sailed in sight of Cyprus. This would arouse the memories of Paul's first missionary labors here about fourteen years before (see 13:4–13). Sailed into Syria. Syria embraced Phoenicia, Palestine and Antioch, in the Roman use of the term. Landed at Tyre. Still a considerable city, though its ancient glories had faded on account of the growth of Alexandria and Antioch, which had become the commercial centers of the East. “Its most important ruins now lie beneath the sea and can be seen through its waters.”
Finding disciples. In chapter 11:19, we find that preachers of the word came to Phoenicia, of which Tyre was the capital, and probably planted the church Tarried seven days. As this statement is made three times where Paul found brethren (20:6; 28:14), it evidently implies that he tarried at each place to have one solemn meeting on the first day of the week, as at Troas, and to celebrate the Lord's Supper with the church. Said to Paul through the Spirit. Predicted the sufferings that would befall him, and endeavored to dissuade him.
We kneeled down on the shore and prayed. This was an affecting sight. The whole church, men, women and children, gathered around the great apostle and his companions, and the voice of prayer arose above the ceaseless roar of the waves.
B. W. Johnson's The People's New Testament with Notes (1889–1891) — public domain. Electronic text from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (CCEL) ThML edition.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary 1892 · Public Domain On vv1, 7, 15 Act_21:1. And it came to pass that after we…
CRITICAL REMARKS
Act_21:1. And it came to pass that after we had gotten from them and had launched.—Better, as well as literally, And when it came to pass that we had weighed anchor, having departed from them. The “we” certainly included Luke and, most probably, Trophimus (Act_21:29) and Aristarchus (Act_27:2); the others (Act_20:4) presumably proceeded no farther. Timothy may even have returned with the elders from Miletus to Ephesus (1Ti_1:3). With a straight course shows the wind to have been favourable. Compare Act_16:11. Coos should be Cos, an island on the south-west coast of Asia Minor, and forty miles from Miletus, a distance which could have been performed in six hours. Rhodes.—Another island lying upon the south of Asia Minor, on the coast of Caria. Patara.—A seaport of Lycia, near the left bank of the Xanthus, celebrated for its oracle of Apollo.
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Act_21:2. Finding a ship sailing over. Lit., having found a vessel crossing over. The reason for thus changing vessels may have been either that the one they left was not proceeding further, or was not fit for venturing far from the coast, or that the one they boarded was just leaving when they landed at Patara, so that by availing themselves of it they lost no time.
Act_21:3. Discovered Cyprus.—Better, sighted Cyprus. Lit., having had it brought up to sight or made visible. A nautical expression, the opposite of which is to lose sight of land, ἀποκρύπτειν γῆν. We left (or, leaving) it on the left hand.—This shows they sailed to the southward of the island. Syria in those days included Phœnicia (Act_21:2), of which Tyre (see Act_12:20) was the capital. For there, etc.—Lit., for thither (i.e., having come thither), the ship was unlading her burden.
Act_21:4. And finding disciples should be and having found out (by searching, because they were strangers) the disciples who lived there, since the gospel had been preached in Phœnicia at an early period (Act_11:19), and the Saviour had performed some of His miracles in the neighbourhood of Tyre and Sidon (Mat_15:21; Mar_7:24). Seven days (compare Act_20:6).—The time occupied in unloading the ship; during which time Paul would, without doubt, preach the gospel and consult for the welfare of the Syrian Church. Go up, ἀναβαίνειν, as in Act_21:12.—The best text reads set foot upon, ἐπιβαίνειν.
Act_21:5. And when we should be and when it came to pass that we had accomplished those, or the days named in Act_21:4. The days were not spent in refitting the ship (Meyer), but in refreshing the disciples. Wives and children.—Only mention of wives and children in the Acts.
HOMILETICAL ANALYSIS.—Act_21:1-6
Seven days at Tyre; or, Impending Danger announced
I. The voyage from Miletus to Tyre.—
1. From Miletus to Patara.
(1) The company of voyagers. Paul and his companions, now reduced to three, Trophimus, Aristarchus, and Luke, the others Sosipater, Secundus, Gaius, Timotheus, and Tychicus, having either remained behind at Miletus, or gone to their several homes, or departed to various fields of labour. “So part we in this world of care to meet again in dear Jerusalem.”
(2) The sorrowful farewell spoken on the sea-beach, with hot tears and tender embraces, and with the feeling present in every heart that never again would they all look each other in the face on earth. A presentiment which all companies may feel on breaking up.
(3) The speedy voyage. The first night the vessel anchored at Cos, famous for its wines and fabrics, for its temple of Æsculapius, or school of medicine, and for its two distinguished natives, Hippocrates the physician, and Apelles the painter. The ship had made a run of six or seven hours from Miletus, which shows it must have sailed from the latter port about noon. The next day, having rounded Cape Crio, it headed eastward, a distance of fifty miles, and lay to for the second night in Rhodes, then celebrated as being “the most beautiful spot in this perhaps the fairest portion of the world,” a current proverb saying that “the sun shone every day in Rhodes.” From the Greek period it had been renowned for its Temple of the Sun and for its Colossus, though when Paul’s ship visited the harbour the latter was in ruins, having been overthrown by an earthquake. The day following, the barque landed at Patara, a coast town of Lycia, and a place of some importance and splendour, possessing a convenient harbour (now an inland marsh) and a celebrated temple and oracle of Apollo, which almost rivalled that of Delphi (Herod., I. 182, III. 4).
2. From Patara to Tyre. Scarcely had the vessel anchored in the harbour of Patara when Paul and his companions found another ship, a merchantman, bound for Phœnicia, in the act of setting sail, and having taken out passages in it once more confronted the dangers of the deep. Whether the ship they left was not proceeding farther, or they were unwilling to wait for it, need not be curiously inquired after. It admirably served their purpose to embark on the one they found weighing anchor, and hurry to their destination. Passing by the island of Cyprus (Act_4:36) on the left hand—i.e., keeping to its south, the Phœnician merchantman steered her course for Tyre to which she was bound with a cargo. (On the commercial importance of Tyre in Old Testament times, see Ezekiel 27) As the distance between Patara and Tyre was 340 geographical miles, several days would most likely be consumed in this part of the voyage.
II. The seven days’ stay in Tyre.—
1. The unlading of the ship. The commercial greatness of Tyre. Never was a more precious cargo discharged at her wharves than when Paul and his companions disembarked, carrying with them the unsearchable riches of salvation to proclaim to its inhabitants.
2. The search for the disciples. Paul probably knew that already the gospel had been preached and the nucleus of a Church formed there. That the Christians were not numerous in Tyre may be inferred from the circumstance that they required to be searched out. Paul’s inquiry after them arose no doubt partly from a desire of Christian fellowship in a heathen city, and partly from a wish to impart unto them some benefit by preaching among them (compare Rom_1:11).
3. The warning of Paul. Given by the disciples, who, in speaking as they did, acted as the organs and mouthpiece of the Holy Ghost, who never did, and does not yet restrict His influences or communications to official persons, but imparts them to whomsoever He will (Joh_3:8; 1Co_12:11). The tenor of their warning was that Paul should not set foot in Jerusalem, obviously because of the danger they saw impending.
If we ask, Why did the Spirit through these men warn Paul? It could not be that the Spirit did not wish Paul to visit Jerusalem, because it must already have been in the Spirit’s plan that Paul should go to Jerusalem, be apprehended there, and carried thence to Rome. The only answer possible seems to be that in this way the Spirit desired to confirm the impression already made upon Paul’s heart, that “bonds and afflictions” were waiting him (Act_20:23), and to test if not the sincerity, at least the strength and tenacity of his faith.
III. The pathetic farewell to Tyre.—
1. The affectionate convoy. The whole body of the disciples with their wives and children, unwilling to be parted from the apostle and his companions, repeated the scene which had a few days before been witnessed in Miletus, and accompanied them on their way till they reached the outskirts of the city. A scene like this attests the strength of that spiritual affection which a true minister of Christ can inspire in the bosoms of his hearers.
2. The prayer meeting on the beach. Recalling the similar interview with the Ephesian elders (Act_20:36), and the fast of Ezra and his fellow-travellers on the Ahava (Ezr_8:21). How much more appropriate for Christians to part at a prayer meeting than at a social banquet, with supplications and tears and solemn commendations of each other to God than with songs and laughter, wine and wassail.
3. The final separation. Bidding each other good-bye, they went their several ways, Paul and his companions to their ship, the Christians of Tyre to their homes. So must all earthly unions and communions be broken up and interrupted till the heavenly union and communion arrive which will never end.
Learn.—
1. How God guides His people on their journeys, whether these be by sea or land.
2. How Christ’s disciples draw to one another, even in strange cities.
3. How the Spirit of Christ tries and tests the faith and patience of those He leads.
4. How providence assigns to each man his own particular sphere and work.
HINTS AND SUGGESTIONS
Act_21:1-7. Helps and Hindrances.
I. Helps for Paul’s journey.—
1. Favourable winds—a straight course (Act_21:1).
2. Opportune events—the crossing ship (Act_21:2).
3. Christian companions—“we came” (Act_21:1), “we sailed,” “we landed” (Act_21:3).
4. Religious fellowship with the Tyrian disciples (Act_21:4).
II. Hindrances to Paul’s journey.—
1. The prophecies of approaching evil. (Act_21:4).
2. The tearful farewells upon the beach (Act_21:5-6).
3. The separation from Christian friends which ensued.
Act_21:4. Seven days in Tyre. “This peculiar period of time mentioned at Troas (Act_20:6), and again at Puteoli (Act_28:14), seems to tell us that St. Paul arranged to stay at each of these points where there was a Christian Church—Troas, Puteoli, and Tyre—for the purpose of attending one solemn meeting of the brethren on the Lord’s day, and partaking, once at least, with them all of the Lord’s Supper.—Spence.
Act_21:5. Husbands, Wives, and Children.
I. All belong to the conception of an ideal home.—All, therefore, should be bound together by ties of love. All should be mutually helpful by lovingly fulfilling the duties which each owes to the other two, and which all owe to God, to the Church, to the world.
II. All have a rightful place within the Christian Church.—All belong to its communion. The Church membership of wives and children no less than of husbands and fathers is distinctly recognised in New Testament Scriptures (Act_2:39; 1Co_7:14).
III. All should take part together in exercises of Christian worship.—Whether in public assemblies or in private gatherings of the disciples, all should, like Cornelius’s household (Act_10:33), be present. The modern practice of establishing separate Churches for children cannot be too severely condemned.
Children. Are—
I. The heritage of the Lord, and should be thankfully received from, and diligently trained for Him.
II. The ornament of home, and should be sincerely admired and tenderly cherished.
III. The hope of the Church, and should be carefully instructed and nourished up in the faith.
IV. The promise of the world, and should therefore be with much solicitude prepared for their future places in it.
Act_21:1-5. The Power of Love to Jesus Christ.
I. It brings the unacquainted near (Act_21:4).
II. It forewarns of possible danger (Act_21:5).
III. It gladly cultivates fellowship (Act_21:5).
IV. It humbles itself before God in mutual prayer (Act_21:5), (Lisco, in Lange).
Act_21:6. Christian Farewells.
I. Often take place under sorrowful circumstances.
II. Should always be accompanied with prayers as well as tears.
III. Ought not to hinder the prosecution of necessary duties.
IV. Will eventually give place to joyous reunions.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.
William B. Godbey 1900 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 5, 9, 15, 17 1. “And when it came to pass that we…
THE VOYAGE CONTINUED
1. “And when it came to pass that we embarked, having been farewelled by them.” Cos is an island near the coast, celebrated in Grecian history for the temple of Aesculapius, the founder of the medical art. Rhodes is a beautiful island, celebrated for the brazen statue of a man, manufactured by Phidias, so large that it actually strode the entrance into the harbor, ships passing in under it beneath its feet, and we are not astonished that it was celebrated as one of the seven wonders of the world.
William B. Godbey, Commentary on the New Testament (1896–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Sermon Bible 1900 · Public Domain On v1 I. The revealed will of God lies upon two…
Act 21:14
I. The revealed will of God lies upon two pages—the page of Scripture and the page of Providence. There were three trials pressing upon the men of Cæsarea when they meekly folded their hands and said, "The will of the Lord be done." (1) There was defeat, for they were beaten in an argument into which they had evidently thrown all their power; consequently there was (2) disappointment, everything went contrary to their hopes and expectations; and (3) there was grief, the bitter grief of a painful bereavement. What is the secret of rest in all these things? I see nothing but a profound and adoring sense of God—to look away till we see only Him, His counsel ordaining, His love presiding, His hand guiding, His Spirit sanctifying, His glory crowning. "The will of the Lord be done."
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II. But I turn to the unrevealed will. After all this was the main thought of the company at Cæsarea. "We cannot tell which is right, Paul or we. The Lord will show in His own time. What He decides must be best. The will of the Lord be done." It is a hard thing to sit and watch one I love, and to school my heart to receive, I do not know what, and I am afraid to ask what. But all the while, far above all this, over the perplexity, and over the mystery, and over the dread, there is reigning the high will of God, and that will is bearing on to its own destined purpose, and it must prevail. And here is faith’s large field—the unrevealed will of God. Unite yourself with it, throw yourself upon it absolutely. Let it bear you where it will; it can only bear you home. "The will of the Lord be done."
J. Vaughan, Fifty Sermons, 4th series, p. 1.
Reference: Act 21:15.—Preacher’s Monthly, vol. ii., p. 250.
Act 21:16
I. This discipleship of Mnason commenced with the freshness of his youth. The epithet "old" does not, I think, refer so much to the man as the disciple. I do not think it tells us about the number of his years, so much as about the number of the years which he had lived as a servant of the Saviour. His birthplace was Cyprus, one of the wickedest places in all the world. To have been a disciple there was no child’s play. In that place, of all others, he had witnessed a good profession before many witnesses, presenting himself body, soul, and spirit, a living sacrifice to God.
II. This discipleship of his survived all the temptations of his manhood.
III. This discipleship was held in reputation in his old age.
W. Brock, Penny Pulpit, No. 582, new series.
References: Act 21:16.—Homiletic Magazine, vol. x., p. 276. Act 21:17-26.—H. W. Beecher, Christian World Pulpit, vol. iii., p. 19. Act 21:23.—Ibid., vol. xiv., p. 181. Act 21:28.—Expositor, 1st series, vol. ix., No. 377. Act 21:39.—W. Braden, Christian World Pulpit, vol. x., p. 369.
The Sermon Bible, ed. William Robertson Nicoll (1888–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
F. W. Grant 1903 · Public Domain On vv1, 15 Subdivision 1. (Act 21:1-14.)
Subdivision 1. (Act 21:1-14.)
Forewarnings.
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Not without full warning does the apostle come into soldier’s chain. God utters His voice with absolute plainness, and it is not due to any lack in this respect that the disaster happens which occupies so many pages of the Acts. We see here a reason why it could not be in its totality the Acts of Jesus; why the Acts of the apostles do not fully represent these. The voice of the Lord is heard now in protest against the act of one of His most devoted servants; even although that act itself is one of complete self-sacrifice, and although it is permitted for purposes of wise and holy, far-reaching design. There is no more mystery here than in a multitude of the ways of Him around whom in divine government clouds and darkness so often are. He can be completely over what He cannot sanction in anywise; and what an immense comfort is it to know this! What a confusion would the world be if it were not so! whereas the very exercise which this now involves for us is itself most truly helpful in that discernment of good and evil in which so much of our education here consists.
The warning given is a double one. The apostle is first told, plainly and unequivocally, not to go to Jerusalem; and then the consequences of going are put before him. Had the latter been announced alone, with one such as Paul, they might not have been sufficient; coming after the other, they reiterate the prohibition. Spite of all, the apostle certainly sees nothing of the kind; there is a veil over his eyes very solemn indeed in character, by reason of its being that of an impulse possessing him so exalted and so pathetic as was that love to Israel which he himself has recorded for us in the epistle to the Rom 9:1-4. That epistle was written in contemplation of this very journey (Rom 15:25); he had long treasured in his heart the thought of it, and the apparent failure of his previous attempt to reach the object of his desire had only perhaps made more absorbing that desire. Under the control of this he seems incapable of realizing any hindrance to its effectuation. Ready to any extent to sacrifice himself, how could it be possible that God should be against that which was in fact the fruit of the Spirit of Christ?
1. He wrenches himself away therefore from the beloved Ephesian disciples, a need greater than theirs pressing him on; and with a straight course and all things favoring, pursues his voyage to the Syrian coast. At Tyre he lands, and there they find disciples, with whom they remain seven days; and now comes the first distinct intimation from more than one of these, speaking by the Spirit, "that he should not set foot in Jerusalem." It is strange to find, spite of the explicitness of this, Lechler contending that it was only the knowledge of Paul’s sufferings in Jerusalem that they had by the illumination of the Spirit, while "the entreaty itself, that Paul should not visit Jerusalem where such dangers awaited him, was not dictated by the Holy Ghost, but was prompted solely by human opinions and affections." He appeals, of course, not to the passage before him. but to the prophecy of Agabus which was after this, and to the language of the apostle himself in Act 20:23, which we have already considered, in proof of what he advances; but such a way of reading Scripture could make almost anything of it. Not a word is said here about any sufferings that were to result from the visit, but "they said by the Spirit that he should not" go there. If this were not prophecy, as we know it could not have been, then it could only be guidance; and we may notice again how fully it is confirmed to the apostle by the mouth of at least two witnesses. It is quite true that he is not really guided by it, and we may not be able to account fully for his neglect of such an intimation; but we must not set aside the plain words which we find here, and which alone put in its true light much that follows, as well as some things that have gone before. Certainly there was upon Paul the spell of a wondrous love, if we do not say, its delirium; a love, which those for whom it was, rejected, as they did the much more wondrous love of the Son of God, of which this was but the reflection. Had he not caught it in the glory of that Face, into which, we know, he was habitually looking?
Another farewell scene is depicted for us here with these brethren of Tyre, who with wives and children accompany their visitors to the ship, and with prayer take leave of them. A shadow of what is at hand seems falling upon these little companies of believers, which is lightened up with the tender constancy of an affection which has in it the assurance of eternity.
2. The party of Paul take ship once more, coasting the Syrian shore to Ptolemais, which we now call Acre, where again they find disciples; few towns there were now, no doubt, without them. And next day they are at Caesarea, at the house of that Philip the evangelist with whose work at Samaria we are well acquainted. We have here a glimpse of what helps us to realize the way in which the gifts of the Spirit were manifested through the assemblies. Philip has four daughters, all prophetesses, a lovely picture just put before us, one would say, that we might admire it (for we have nothing of them more than this), perhaps that we may remember that the same Spirit is with us still, and that we may covet, as we are exhorted to do, the gifts of His grace. We may also understand that women as such are not shut out from them, however there may be for them (as women) a suited sphere for their exercise. It is nature that has marked out this sphere; which grace does not set aside, nor limit on this account the fulness of blessing that may be theirs who covet it. How good it would be to see more of this coveting in faith, and that we would put to the proof in faith these assurances that are given us. How great would be the result, not to the individual only, but in the assembly as a whole, of believing hearts that craved from God their portion! We have not, because we ask not; we ask and have not, because our prayers are too much a conflict with God for what, if He granted, it would be disaster for us, instead of desires that rise after those blessings which are laid up for us in Christ already, and may be claimed with the full confidence of faith.
One cannot say again with Lechler that this account of Philip’s daughters stands in no immediate connection with the events here related. Why should we make our own capacity to discern such things the measure of what is really in them; disparaging Scripture in the proportion in which we elevate ourselves above it? When the Church is being left of its great apostle, is it not suitable that we should be shown how fully, nevertheless, the endowment of the Spirit is upon it, even in its weakest members? that the Lord’s care for it neither fails nor is abridged; and that it need neither fail nor fear because of this?
But Philip’s daughters have no prophecy for Paul: it is Agabus of whom we have heard before, who, coming down from Judea, announces to him that which awaits him from the people upon whom his heart is set. It is Paul’s own girdle, however, that binds his hands and feet; that is, it is his own zealous service to them that puts him into their hands. The meaning is given to him, and in the most emphatic way, as a declaration of the Spirit, of the Holy Spirit, who thus reveals to His servant the unchanged evil in the hearts of those once the murderers of the Saviour, and now ready to be his own. Was not He too delivered to the Gentiles? a likeness which could not but affect the apostle, so closely to follow in his Master’s steps. Yet was not that Gentile cross to which they gave him up the very symbol of salvation for men? So with himself also, might the apostle argue, if this were but a means by which the tardy hearts of Israel were to be smitten to repentance, would not suffering be light that should have this result? So when those around begin in their distress to beseech him not to go up to Jerusalem, he is fixed and resolute, moved by their tears indeed, but not altered. Did they not know him ready even to die at Jerusalem for the Name of the Lord Jesus? But the Spirit had spoken nothing about death. The captivity of years, shut up from the work he loved, and with which he was so identified, would it not be worse than any death could be? How if he had recognized it as the shadow of that setting aside of his gospel also, in days not far off?
And in fact such an intimation we, at least, may read in it. The judaizing of the Church, which he had already been called so earnestly to contend against, was to be a worse enemy to the free grace of God he published than this Jewish people now menacing himself. Alas, it would be armed with all the natural resistance of the self-righteous heart against that which humbles it, even while it exalts immeasurably the soul once humbled. Who that knows anything of himself but has known this Jew in him, not one of God’s Israel indeed, but such as confronted Christ and now Paul, with his circumcision of flesh, and not of heart, and his steadfast resistance to the truth at all points. Such in the professing church at a later day the Lord Himself characterizes as those "who say they are Jews, but are not, but are the synagogue of Satan:" words which let in a terrible light upon the degradation ensuing upon their prevalence (as prevail they did), and which changed the heavenly to the earthly, spirit to flesh, grace to law, the company chosen out of the world into a confusion of Church and world together; the adversary’s attack by low imitation upon that which Christ is sanctifying, cleansing it by washing of water by the Word, to present it to Himself a glorious Church!
We can understand by this, not only the apostle’s captivity -that is, his gospel’s, -but how this Judaism (false to the core, as false in its abuse of Christian names) gave up what it had first polluted into the hands of the world, and thus riveted the chains of a long captivity. Sad it is, though profitable, to trace, step by step, the awful transformation. It is not for us to do it now; it is enough to show how fully the history which is before us here has its spiritual counterpart in that of the Church afterwards. Judaism had only the external form of separation from the world, which could not yet be actual; the new Judaism coming in after the separation was accomplished, brought back (and of course into the place of power) the world once more. It was the Babylonish captivity of the Church of God.
F. W. Grant, The Numerical Bible (4th ed., 1903) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Alexander MacLaren 1905 · Public Domain On vv1, 8, 9, 16 Act 21:1 - Act 21:15.
Acts
DRAWING NEARER TO THE STORM
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Act 21:1 - Act 21:15.
Paul’s heroic persistency in disregarding the warnings of ‘bonds and afflictions’ which were pealed into his ears in every city, is the main point of interest in this section. But the vivid narrative abounds with details which fill it with life and colour. We may gather it all round three points-the voyage, Tyre, and Caesarea.
I. The log of the voyage, as given in Act 21:1 - Act 21:3, shows the leisurely way of navigation in those days and in that sea.
Obviously the coaster tied up or anchored in port at night. Running down the coast from Miletus, they stayed overnight, first at the small island of Coos, then stretched across the next day to Rhodes, and on the third struck back to the mainland at Patara, from which, according to one reading, they ran along the coast a little further east to Myra, the usual port of departure for Syria. Ramsay explains that the prevalent favourable wind for a vessel bound for Syria blows steadily in early morning, and dies down towards nightfall, so that there would have been no use in keeping at sea after sundown.
At Patara {or Myra} Paul and his party had to tranship, for their vessel was probably of small tonnage, and only fit to run along the coast. In either port they would have no difficulty in finding some merchantman to take them across to Syria. Accordingly they shifted into one bound for Tyre, and apparently ready to sail. The second part of their voyage took them right out to sea, and their course lay to the west, and then to the south of Cyprus, which Luke mentions as if to remind us of Paul’s visit there when he was beginning his missionary work. How much had passed since that day at Paphos {which they might have sighted from the deck}! He had left Paphos with Barnabas and John Mark-where were they? He had sailed away from Cyprus to carry the Gospel among Gentiles; he sails past it, accompanied by a group of these whom he had won for Christ. There he had begun his career; now the omens indicated that possibly its end was near. Many a thought would be in his mind as he looked out over the blue waters and saw the glittering roofs and groves of Paphos.
Tyre was the first port of call, and there the cargo was to be landed. The travellers had to wait till that was done, and probably another one shipped. The seven days’ stay is best understood as due to that cause; for we find that Paul re-embarked in the same ship, and went in her as far as Ptolemais, at all events, perhaps to Caesarea.
We note that no brethren are mentioned as having been met at any of the ports of call, and no evangelistic work as having been done in them. The party were simple passengers, who had to shape their movements to suit the convenience of the master of the vessel, and were only in port at night, and off again next morning early. No doubt the leisure at sea was as restorative to them as it often is to jaded workers now.
II. Tyre was a busy seaport then, and in its large population the few disciples would make but little show.
They had to be sought out before they were ‘found.’ One can feel how eagerly the travellers would search, and how thankfully they would find themselves again among congenial souls. Since Miletus they had had no Christian communion, and the sailors in such a ship as theirs would not be exactly kindred spirits. So that week in Tyre would be a blessed break in the voyage. We hear nothing of visiting the synagogue, nor of preaching to the non-Christian population, nor of instruction to the little Church.
The whole interest of the stay at Tyre is, for Luke, centred on the fact that here too the same message which had met Paul everywhere was repeated to him. It was ‘through the Spirit.’ Then was Paul flying in the face of divine prohibitions when he held on his way in spite of all that could be said? Certainly not. We have to bring common sense to bear on the interpretation of the words in Act 21:4, and must suppose that what came from ‘the Spirit’ was the prediction of persecutions waiting Paul, and that the exhortation to avoid these by keeping clear of Jerusalem was the voice of human affection only. Such a blending of clear insight and of mistaken deductions from it is no strange experience.
No word is said as to the effect of the Tyrian Christians’ dissuasion. It had none. Luke mentions it in order to show how continuous was the repetition of the same note, and his silence as to the manner of its reception is eloquent. The parting scene at Tyre is like, and yet very unlike, that at Miletus. In both the Christians accompany Paul to the beach, in both they kneel down and pray. It would scarcely have been a Christian parting without that. In both loving farewells are said, and perhaps waved when words could no longer be heard. But at Tyre, where there were no bonds of old comradeship nor of affection to a spiritual father, there was none of the yearning, clinging love that could not bear to part, none of the hanging on Paul’s neck, none of the deep sorrow of final separation. The delicate shades of difference in two scenes so similar tell of the hand of an eye-witness. The touch that ‘all’ the Tyrian Christians went down to the beach, and took their wives and children with them, suggests that they can have been but a small community, and so confirms the hint given by the use of the word ‘found’ in Act 21:4.
III. The vessel ran down the coast to Ptolemais where one day’s stop was made, probably to land and ship cargo, if, as is possible, the further journey to Caesarea was by sea.
But it may have been by land; the narrative is silent on that point. At Ptolemais, as at Tyre, there was a little company of disciples, the brevity of the stay with whom, contrasted with the long halt in Caesarea, rather favours the supposition that the ship’s convenience ruled the Apostle’s movements till he reached the latter place. There he found a haven of rest, and, surrounded by loving friends, no wonder that the burdened Apostle lingered there before plunging into the storm of which he had had so many warnings.
The eager haste of the earlier part of the journey, contrasted with the delay in Caesarea at the threshold of his goal, is explained by supposing that at the beginning Paul’s one wish had been to get to Jerusalem in time for the Feast, and that at Caesarea he found that, thanks to his earlier haste and his good passages, he had a margin to spare. He did not wish to get to the Holy City much before the Feast.
Two things only are told as occurring in Caesarea-the intercourse with Philip and the renewed warnings about going to Jerusalem. Apparently Philip had been in Caesarea ever since we last heard of him {Act 8:1 - Act 8:40}. He had brought his family there, and settled down in the headquarters of Roman government. He had been used by Christ to carry the Gospel to men outside the Covenant, and for a time it seemed as if he was to be the messenger to the Gentiles; but that mission soon ended, and the honour and toil fell to another. But neither did Philip envy Paul, nor did Paul avoid Philip. The Master has the right to settle what each slave has to do, and whether He sets him to high or low office, it matters not.
Philip might have been contemptuous and jealous of the younger man, who had been nobody when he was chosen as one of the Seven, but had so far outrun him now. But no paltry personal feeling marred the Christian intercourse of the two, and we can imagine how much each had to tell the other, with perhaps Cornelius for a third in company, during the considerably extended stay in Caesarea. No doubt Luke too made good use of the opportunity of increasing his knowledge of the first days, and probably derived much of the material for the first chapters of Acts from Philip, either then or at his subsequent longer residence in the same city.
We have heard of the prophet Agabus before {Act 11:28}. Why he is introduced here, as if a stranger, we cannot tell, and it is useless to guess, and absurd to sniff suspicion of genuineness in the peculiarity. His prophecy is more definite than any that preceded it. That is God’s way. He makes things clearer as we go on, and warnings more emphatic as danger approaches. The source of the ‘afflictions’ was now for the first time declared, and the shape which they would take. Jews would deliver Paul to Gentiles, as they had delivered Paul’s Master.
But there the curtain falls. What would the Gentiles do with him? That remained unrevealed. Half the tragedy was shown, and then darkness covered the rest. That was more trying to nerves and courage than full disclosure to the very end would have been. Imagination had just enough to work on, and was stimulated to shape out all sorts of horrors. Similarly incomplete and testing to faith are the glimpses of the future which we get in our own lives. We see but a little way ahead, and then the road takes a sharp turn, and we fancy dreadful shapes hiding round the corner.
Paul’s courage was unmoved both by Agabus’s incomplete prophecy and by the tearful implorings of his companions and of the Caesarean Christians. His pathetic words to them are misunderstood if we take ‘break my heart’ in the modern sense of that phrase, for it really means ‘to melt away my resolution,’ and shows that Paul felt that the passionate grief of his brethren was beginning to do what no fear for himself could do-shake even his steadfast purpose. No more lovely blending of melting tenderness and iron determination has ever been put into words than that cry of his, followed by the great utterance which proclaimed his readiness to bear all things, even death itself, for ‘the name of the Lord Jesus.’ What kindled and fed that noble flame of self-devotion? The love of Jesus Christ, built on the sense that He had redeemed the soul of His servant, and had thereby bought him for His own.
If we feel that we have been ‘bought with a price,’ we too, in our small spheres, shall be filled with that ennobling passion of devoted love which will not count life dear if He calls us to give it up. Let us learn from Paul how to blend the utmost gentleness and tender responsiveness to all love with fixed determination to glorify the Name. A strong will and a loving heart make a marvellously beautiful combination, and should both abide in every Christian.
Alexander MacLaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture (1904–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
J. R. Dummelow 1909 · Public Domain On vv1, 17 St. Paul arrested at jerusalem
St. Paul arrested at jerusalem
1. Were gotten] rather, 'had torn ourselves.' Coos] or Cos, a fertile island off the Carian coast, producing silks, ointments, wheat, and wines.
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Rhodes] a city, and large island, situated S. of Caria. The famous colossus was a statue of the sun-god, 105 ft. high, which stood at the harbour entrance. Erected 280 b.c., it stood for 56 years, when it was overthrown by an earthquake. Its fragments remained where they fell till 656 a.d. Patara] an important Lycian seaport. After Patara, D adds 'and Myra,' an accurate geographical touch: see Act_27:5.
3. Tyre] The greatest maritime city of the ancient world, claiming to have been founded as early as 2750 b.c. It produced glass and purple dye, but its chief wealth came from the fact that it almost monopolised the carrying-trade of the world. The Tyrian mariners were so skilled in astronomy, and constructed such accurate charts, that they sailed by night as well as by day, and made long voyages out of sight of land. They are known to have circumnavigated Africa—an extraordinary feat for the small ships of the ancients.
4. Disciples] RV 'the disciples.'
7. Ptolemais] Originally called Acco, its name was changed to Ptolemais by Ptolemy Philadelphus, when, after the death of Alexander the Great, it came into his possession. It is situated on the coast a few miles to the N. of the promontory of Carmel, and is now called Acre.
8. Philip] see Act_6:5 and Acts 8. The Evangelist] Evangelists were itinerant officers, whose duty it was to break new ground, and establish new churches. They ranked below the prophets, and above the presbyters or pastors. Philip, originally a 'deacon,' has now, through the success of his missionary work, been advanced to a higher dignity. The NT. never uses 'evangelist' in the sense of a writer of a Gospel.
9. Prophesy] There were female prophets under the OT.: Miriam, Exo_15:20; Deborah, Jdg_4:4; Noadiah, Neh_6:14; Huldah, 2Ki_22:14 cp. Isa_8:3. See Joe_2:28; Act_2:17
10. Agabus] see Act_11:28. For his symbolic action, cp. 1Ki_22:11; Isa_20:2; Jer_13:1; Ezekiel 4, 5. For the fulfilment, see Act_21:27.
15. Took up our carriages] rather, 'packed up our baggage.'
16. Brought with them one Mnason] A more probable translation is, 'brought us to Mnason,' etc. Mnason's house was probably half-way between Cæsarea and Jerusalem. D (Latin) reads, 'and when they had come to a certain town, we lodged with Mnason, an old disciple of Cyprus, and leaving there we came to Jerusalem.'
J. R. Dummelow, A Commentary on the Holy Bible (Macmillan, 1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
J. W. McGarvey 1914 · Public Domain On vv1–18 XXI: 1 3. The vessel proceeded by a coasting…
XXI: 1 3. The vessel proceeded by a coasting voyage along the southern shore of Asia Minor. (1) “ And it came to pass, when we had separated from them, and set sail, that we ran with a straight course and came to Cos; and the next day to Rhodes, and thence to Patara. (2) And finding a ship going across to Phenicia, we embarked and set sail. (3) Passing in sight of Cyprus, and leaving it to the left, we sailed to Syria, and landed at Tyre, for there the ship was to unload her cargo.” The change of vessels at Patara must have been occasioned by the fact that the one in which they had hitherto sailed was not bound for a Phenician port. That the new vessel is said to be going across to Phenicia, and that it left Cyprus on the left, is an indication that the other was going to cling still further to the coast of Asia Minor, and was probably bound for Antioch.
J. W. McGarvey (with Philip Y. Pendleton), Commentaries on the New Testament (The Fourfold Gospel, 1914; Acts; and the epistles) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
C. I. Scofield 1917 · Public Domain On v4 go up to
go up to
Lit. set foot in. Not, as in Act 20:23 a warning of danger, but now an imperative command. See Act 22:17; Act 22:18.
The Scofield Reference Bible (1917 edition), notes by C. I. Scofield — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Arno C. Gaebelein 1922 · Public Domain On v1 1. The journey from Miletus to Tyre and Ptolemais…
CHAPTER 21
1. The journey from Miletus to Tyre and Ptolemais (Act 21:1-7).
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2. In Caesarea (Act 21:8-14).
3. The Apostle’s Arrival in Jerusalem and his visit to the Temple (Act 21:15-26).
4. The Uproar in the Temple. Paul taken prisoner (Act 21:27-40).
Coos, Rhodes and Patara are mentioned. Then they sailed over to Phenicia and landed in Tyre. Here they found disciples.
And the Holy Spirit through these disciples warned the Apostle at once that he should not go to Jerusalem. This, indeed, was very solemn. If these disciples had spoken of themselves, if it said that they were in anxiety over Paul’s journey to that city, one might say that they were simply speaking as men; but the record makes it clear that the Holy Spirit spoke through them. Could then the Apostle Paul have been under the guidance of that same Spirit in going to Jerusalem? As stated before, the great love for his brethren, his kinsmen, burned in his heart, and so great was his desire to be in Jerusalem that he ignored the voice of the Spirit.
In Caesarea they were the guests of Philip the evangelist. Here Agabus, who had given a prediction of a great dearth years ago (11:28) comes once more upon the scene. When he had come he took Paul’s girdle and with it bound his own hands and feet, and then he said: “Thus saith the Holy Spirit, So shall the Jews at Jerusalem bind the man that owneth this girdle, and shall deliver him into the hands of the Gentiles.” Here then another warning was given. It was the last and by far the strongest. Did Agabus really speak by the Spirit? The literal fulfillment of his predictive action furnishes the answer. The whole company, both his fellow travelers and the believers in Caesarea, began to beseech him not to go up to Jerusalem.
Then they reached Jerusalem. On the next day the company paid a visit to James, in whose house all the elders had assembled for the purpose of meeting with Paul and his friends. And now once more the Apostle relates what no doubt was dearest to the hearts of James and the elders, what God had wrought through His God-given ministry among the Gentiles. It must have been a very lengthy account; for he rehearsed particularly, “or one by one,” the things which had happened in His great activity. After Paul had spoken, “they glorified God.”
All had progressed nicely up to this point. But now the great crisis is rapidly reached. The meeting had been called in the house of James, and only the elders had been invited for a very good reason. Reports had reached Jerusalem that Paul had taught the Jews among the Gentiles to forsake Moses, and even to deny children the covenant sign, circumcision. Most likely the Judaizing element in the assembly of Jerusalem, the men who were so successfully overcome by the bold arguments of the Apostle at the council in Jerusalem (Act 15:1-41. Gal 2:1-21), the men who so strenuously taught, that unless the Gentiles became circumcised, they could not be saved--these men were responsible for the rumors. What could be done to convince the multitude that all this was incorrect, that Paul after all was a good Jew?
The elders suggest to him that there were four men who had a vow on them. These he should take and purify himself with them as well as pay the charges. This action, they reasoned, would not only demonstrate that the reports were untrue, but that he, the Apostle of Gentiles, “walketh orderly and keepeth the law.” To make this temptation stronger, they restated that which had been agreed concerning the status of the believing Gentiles, according to the decision of the church council years ago. All was a most subtle snare. He was by that action to show that, with all his preaching to the Gentiles, he was still a good Jew, faithful to all the traditions of the fathers, and attached to the temple.
And a strange sight it is to see the Apostle Paul back in the temple, going through these dead ceremonies, which had been ended by the death of the cross. A strange sight to see him, who disclaimed all earthly authority and taught deliverance from the Law and a union with an unseen Christ, submitting once more to the elementary things, as he calls them in his Epistle to the Galatians,”the beggarly elements!” And has not the whole professing church fallen into the same snare?
His arrest followed and he is taken prisoner. A great tumult followed. They would have killed him if the chief captain had not rescued him. He then was bound with two chains. Agabus’ prophecy is fulfilled.
Paul gives the Roman officer his pedigree. “I am a man, a Jew of Tarsus,” and then requests the privilege of addressing the furious mob. This was permitted, and taking a prominent place on the stairs, where he could be seen by all below, and when after beckoning to the people, silence had been secured, he addressed them in Hebrew. The break of the chapter at this point is unfortunate. The next chapter contains the first address of defense of the prisoner Paul.
Arno C. Gaebelein, The Annotated Bible (1913–1922) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Paul E. Kretzmann 1924 · Public Domain On vv1, 5, 10, 17 The Trip to Jerusalem.
The Trip to Jerusalem.
From Miletus to Tyre:
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v. 1. And it came to pass that, after we were gotten from them and had launched, we came with a straight course unto Coos and the day following unto Rhodes and from thence unto Patara;
v. 2. and finding a ship sailing over into Phoenicia, we went aboard and set forth.
v. 3. Now, when we had discovered Cyprus, we left it on the left hand, and sailed into Syria and landed at Tyre; for there the ship was to unlade her burden.
v. 4. And finding disciples, we tarried there seven days; who said to Paul through the Spirit that he should not go up to Jerusalem.
The leave-taking from the elders was attended with such difficulties that Paul and his companions literally had to tear themselves from their embraces, so bitterly did they feel the parting from the beloved apostle. But they finally embarked and set sail almost due south to the island of Coos or Cos, just before the opening of the Ceramic Gulf, off the coast of Caria, a district of Proconsular Asia. With a favorable, brisk wind they made this distance in one day. On the next day, with almost equally favorable winds, they managed to reach the harbor of Rhodes, on the island of Rhodes, where the great Colossus, the light tower of the port, now lay prostrate. From here their course was almost due east, to the city of Patara, in Lycia. Here they left the vessel which had carried them from Troas, either because this was its destination, or because the ship was engaged in coastwise traffic and would prove too slow for their purpose. They engaged passage on a vessel bound directly for Phoenicia, went on board, and set sail. In due time they sighted the island of Cyprus, memorable to Paul on account of the work he had done there years before; but they left it on the left hand, that is, they sailed past the island on the south on a straight course for Syria, to which province Phoenicia belonged. The vessel anchored at Tyre for a week to unload her cargo, and Paul and his companions landed. The unloading was attended with considerable trouble and occupied much time, since it included also the carrying into town of the bales, bundles, and boxes. Naturally the apostle’s party lost no time in looking up the disciples, since they knew that there was a congregation in the city (a fine example for Christian travelers in our day to follow). Their quest being successful, they stayed in Tyre seven days. These disciples, some of their number, here received a special revelation through the Spirit concerning at least the general fate which awaited Paul, and they told him repeatedly not to go up to Jerusalem. This warning seems not to have been included in the revelation, but was added on account of their solicitude for the apostle’s welfare, who, however, in spite of all entreaties, was unmoved in his determination.
Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv1, 3, 5, 7, 10, 12, 15, 17 Connecting Statement:
Connecting Statement:
The writer Luke, Paul, and his companions continue their travels.
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General Information:
Here the word "we" refers to Luke, Paul, and those traveling with them, but not to the reader. (See: Exclusive and Inclusive "We")
we took a straight course to the city of Cos
"we went straight to the city of Cos" or "we went directly to the city of Cos"
city of Cos
Cos is a Greek island off the coast of modern day Turkey in the South Aegean Sea region. (See: How to Translate Names)
city of Rhodes
Rhodes is a Greek island off the coast of modern day Turkey in the South Aegean Sea region south of Cos and northeast of Crete. (See: How to Translate Names)
city of Patara
Patara is a city on the southwest coast of modern day Turkey south of the Aegean Sea in the Mediterranean Sea. (See: How to Translate Names)
When we found a ship crossing over to Phoenicia
Here "a ship crossing over" stands for the crew that would sail the ship. AT: "When we found a ship with a crew sailing over to Phoenicia" (See: Metonymy)
a ship crossing over
Here "crossing" does not mean it was presently crossing but that it would be crossing to Phoenicia soon. AT: "a ship that would be going across the water" or "a ship that would be going"
translationWords
Phoenicia
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv1, 2, 4, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 18 21:1-18 This “we” passage (see study notes on 16:10;…
21:1-18 This “we” passage (see study notes on 16:10; 20:5-15) covers Paul’s journey from Miletus to Jerusalem at the close of the third missionary journey.
21:1 Cos was an island in the Aegean Sea with a major trade port. • Rhodes is a large Aegean island that featured the Colossus, a huge statue 100 feet (30 meters) tall that once stood at the entrance to the city. In Paul’s time, the statue lay where it had fallen during an earthquake over 200 years earlier; it would not be removed for another 600 years. • Patara was the major port of Lycia, located on the coast opposite Rhodes.
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.