ApostleCostly obedience

Acts 21 — The journey to Jerusalem and Paul’s arrest — Greek text and reception

Saints Translation: Acts 1–28 [V2]

Each card preserves the Greek reading and its textual and reception notes. This source provides a Greek study edition; Hebrew counterparts and Hebrew–Greek classifications are not supplied.

Acts 21 — The journey to Jerusalem and Paul’s arrest

From Miletus to Tyre

Verse 21:1

Greek–English Translation

When we had torn ourselves away from them and set sail, we made a straight course to Cos, the next day to Rhodes, and from there to Patara.

Textual and Reception Notes

Text: Torn ourselves away preserves the force of the parting verb in the farewell setting.

Verse 21:2

Greek–English Translation

We found a ship crossing to Phoenicia, went aboard, and set sail.

Textual and Reception Notes

Verse 21:3

Greek–English Translation

We sighted Cyprus and left it on the left, sailed toward Syria, and landed at Tyre, for the ship was to unload its cargo there.

Textual and Reception Notes

Verse 21:4

Greek–English Translation

We sought out the disciples and stayed there seven days. Through the Spirit they told Paul not to set foot in Jerusalem.

Textual and Reception Notes

Text: Through the Spirit and not to go to Jerusalem are both explicit. The translation does not recast the prohibition as merely human advice in order to harmonize it with Paul’s resolve and the Spirit’s warnings in 20:22–23.

Verse 21:5

Greek–English Translation

When our days there were completed, we left and went on our way. They all accompanied us, with wives and children, as far as outside the city. We knelt on the beach and prayed,

Textual and Reception Notes

Verse 21:6

Greek–English Translation

then said farewell to one another. We boarded the ship, and they returned to their homes.

Textual and Reception Notes

Philip’s household and Agabus’s warning

Verse 21:7

Greek–English Translation

Completing the voyage from Tyre, we arrived at Ptolemais, greeted the brothers, and stayed with them for one day.

Textual and Reception Notes

Verse 21:8

Greek–English Translation

The next day we departed and came to Caesarea. We entered the house of Philip the evangelist, who was one of the seven, and stayed with him.

Textual and Reception Notes

Text: Evangelist and one of the seven are Philip’s explicit descriptions, linking him to the earlier appointed group without identifying him as one of the twelve.

Verse 21:9

Greek–English Translation

He had four daughters who were virgins and prophesied.

Textual and Reception Notes

Text: Parthenoi explicitly describes the daughters as virgins. The translation preserves that description without inferring a vow of perpetual virginity. Their prophetic activity is explicit, without a named oracle in this verse.

Verse 21:10

Greek–English Translation

While we stayed for several days, a prophet named Agabus came down from Judea.

Textual and Reception Notes

Verse 21:11

Greek–English Translation

He came to us, took Paul’s belt, bound his own feet and hands, and said, “Thus says the Holy Spirit: ‘The Jews in Jerusalem will bind the man whose belt this is in this way and hand him over into Gentile hands.’”

Textual and Reception Notes

Text: Agabus binds his own limbs, not Paul’s. The prophetic description and named agents are preserved without rewriting them to match each detail of the later arrest sequence.

Verse 21:12

Greek–English Translation

When we heard these things, both we and the local people urged him not to go up to Jerusalem.

Textual and Reception Notes

Verse 21:13

Greek–English Translation

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 in Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus.”

Textual and Reception Notes

Verse 21:14

Greek–English Translation

Since he would not be persuaded, we became silent and said, “Let the Lord’s will be done.”

Textual and Reception Notes

Verse 21:15

Greek–English Translation

After these days we made our preparations and went up to Jerusalem.

Textual and Reception Notes

Text: Made our preparations renders packing or making ready; no specific carriage or transport is named.

Verse 21:16

Greek–English Translation

Some disciples from Caesarea also went with us, taking us to a certain Mnason of Cyprus, an early disciple, with whom we were to lodge.

Textual and Reception Notes

Text: The compressed construction can be understood as leading the travelers to Mnason or bringing Mnason along as their host. This rendering takes him as the destination host; early disciple concerns his discipleship, not necessarily advanced age.

Paul meets James and the elders

Verse 21:17

Greek–English Translation

When we arrived in Jerusalem, the brothers welcomed us gladly.

Textual and Reception Notes

Verse 21:18

Greek–English Translation

The next day Paul went with us to James, and all the elders were present.

Textual and Reception Notes

Verse 21:19

Greek–English Translation

After greeting them, he related one by one the things God had done among the Gentiles through his ministry.

Textual and Reception Notes

Verse 21:20

Greek–English Translation

When they heard, they glorified God and said to him, “You see, brother, how many tens of thousands of Jews have believed, and they are all zealous for the law.

Textual and Reception Notes

Text: Myriades is literally tens of thousands, retained without reducing the word to an exact census or silently replacing it with a smaller count.

Verse 21:21

Greek–English Translation

They have been informed about you that you teach all the Jews among the Gentiles to forsake Moses, telling them not to circumcise their children or walk in the customs.

Textual and Reception Notes

Text: This is the reported allegation about Paul. The text does not independently endorse it as an accurate summary of his teaching.

Verse 21:22

Greek–English Translation

What, then, is to be done? They will certainly hear that you have come.

Textual and Reception Notes

Text: The selected wording does not include a separate claim that a multitude must gather.

Verse 21:23

Greek–English Translation

Therefore do what we tell you. We have four men who have taken a vow upon themselves.

Textual and Reception Notes

NA28: ἐφʼ ἑαυτῶν, "upon themselves" (SBLGNT ἀφʼ ἑαυτῶν, "of their own accord"); the rendering above reads upon themselves, which is NA28's preposition; SBLGNT would read "who have a vow of their own".

Verse 21:24

Greek–English Translation

Take these men, purify yourself with them, and pay their expenses so that they may shave their heads. Then everyone will know that there is nothing to what they have been told about you, but that you yourself also walk in order, keeping the law.

Textual and Reception Notes

Text: The proposed purification, expenses, and shaving are all retained. The hoped-for public inference is the elders’ argument; the translation does not replace it with a later theological judgment about Paul’s action.

Verse 21:25

Greek–English Translation

But concerning the Gentiles who have believed, we have sent word, judging that they should keep themselves from what is sacrificed to idols, blood, what is strangled, and sexual immorality.”

Textual and Reception Notes

Text: The four restrictions are restated without an additional do no such thing clause from a longer reading.

Verse 21:26

Greek–English Translation

Then Paul took the men, and on the next day, after purifying himself with them, he entered the temple, giving notice of the completion of the days of purification, up to the presentation of the offering for each one of them.

Textual and Reception Notes

Text: The compressed temporal clause culminates in the offering for each person. The English preserves that endpoint without inserting a detailed ritual timetable; 21:27 then describes the seven days as nearing completion when the disturbance begins.

The temple accusation and Roman intervention

Verse 21:27

Greek–English Translation

When the seven days were about to be completed, the Jews from Asia saw him in the temple, stirred up the whole crowd, and laid hands on him,

Textual and Reception Notes

Verse 21:28

Greek–English Translation

crying, “Men of Israel, help! This is the man who teaches everyone everywhere against the people, the law, and this place. Moreover, he has even brought Greeks into the temple and defiled this holy place.”

Textual and Reception Notes

Text: The accusation is reported in full and is then explained as an inference in 21:29, not confirmed as a narrated entry of Greeks into the temple.

Verse 21:29

Greek–English Translation

For they had previously seen Trophimus the Ephesian with him in the city and supposed that Paul had brought him into the temple.

Textual and Reception Notes

Text: Supposed explicitly marks the accusers’ inference from the earlier city sighting.

Verse 21:30

Greek–English Translation

The whole city was stirred, and the people ran together. They seized Paul and dragged him outside the temple, and immediately the doors were shut.

Textual and Reception Notes

Verse 21:31

Greek–English Translation

While they were seeking to kill him, a report reached the tribune of the cohort that all Jerusalem was in confusion.

Textual and Reception Notes

Text: Chiliarchos is rendered tribune, the military commander, distinguished from centurions in 21:32.

Verse 21:32

Greek–English Translation

He immediately took soldiers and centurions and ran down to them. When they saw the tribune and the soldiers, they stopped beating Paul.

Textual and Reception Notes

Verse 21:33

Greek–English Translation

Then the tribune approached, seized him, and ordered him bound with two chains. He asked who he was and what he had done.

Textual and Reception Notes

Verse 21:34

Greek–English Translation

Some in the crowd shouted one thing and some another. Since he could learn nothing certain because of the uproar, he ordered Paul to be brought into the barracks.

Textual and Reception Notes

Verse 21:35

Greek–English Translation

When he reached the steps, the soldiers had to carry him because of the crowd’s violence,

Textual and Reception Notes

Verse 21:36

Greek–English Translation

for the multitude of the people followed, crying, “Away with him!”

Textual and Reception Notes

Paul asks to address the people

Verse 21:37

Greek–English Translation

As Paul was about to be brought into the barracks, he said to the tribune, “May I say something to you?” He said, “Do you know Greek?

Textual and Reception Notes

Verse 21:38

Greek–English Translation

Then are you not the Egyptian who some time ago stirred up a revolt and led the four thousand men of the Sicarii into the wilderness?”

Textual and Reception Notes

Text: Sicarii preserves the particular dagger-bearing group designation. Four thousand and the officer’s mistaken identification remain his question, not a new assertion about Paul.

Verse 21:39

Greek–English Translation

Paul said, “I am a Jewish man from Tarsus in Cilicia, a citizen of no insignificant city. I ask you, allow me to speak to the people.”

Textual and Reception Notes

Verse 21:40

Greek–English Translation

When he gave permission, Paul stood on the steps and motioned with his hand to the people. When a great silence fell, he addressed them in the Hebrew language, saying:

Textual and Reception Notes

Text: Hebraïdi dialektō is the source’s Hebrew-language designation. In this setting it is often understood as the local Aramaic speech; the translation preserves the Greek label without claiming the precise linguistic variety is settled.