Jamieson, Fausset and Brown on Acts 21

CHAPTER 21

Ac 21:1-16. Sailing from Ephesus, They Land at Tyre, and Thence Sailing to Ptolemais, They Proceed by Land to Cæsarea and Jerusalem.

1. we were gotten--"torn."

from them--expressing the difficulty and pain of the parting.

with a straight course--running before the wind, as Ac 16:11.

unto Coos--Cos, an island due south from Miletus, which they would reach in about six hours, and coming close to the mainland.

the day following unto Rhodes--another island, some fifty miles to the southeast, of brilliant classic memory and beauty.

thence unto Patara--a town on the magnificent mainland of Lycia, almost due east from Rhodes. It was the seat of a celebrated oracle of Apollo.

2. And finding a ship--their former one going no farther, probably.

to Phoenica--(See on Ac 11:19).

went abroad--One would almost think this extracted from a journal of the voyage, so graphic are its details.

3. when we ... discovered--"sighted," as the phrase is.

Cyprus, we left it on the left hand--that is, steered southeast of it, leaving it on the northwest.

sailed into--"unto"

Syria, and landed at Tyre--the celebrated seat of maritime commerce for East and West. It might be reached from Patara in about two days.

there the ship was to unlade her burden--which gave the apostle time for what follows.

4-6. finding disciples--finding out the disciples, implying some search. They would expect such, from what is recorded, Ac 11:19. Perhaps they were not many; yet there were gifted ones among them.

who said to Paul ... that he should not go up to Jerusalem--(See on Ac 20:23; also see on Ac 21:11-14).

7. when we had finished our course--completing the voyage

from Tyre, we came--which they would do the same day.

to Ptolemais--anciently called Accho (Jud 1:31), now St. Jean d'Acre, or Acre.

and saluted the brethren, and abode, &c.--disciples gathered probably as at Tyre, on the occasion mentioned (Ac 11:19).

8-10. next day we that were of Paul's company departed--(The words "the were of Paul's company" are omitted in the best manuscripts. They were probably added as the connecting words at the head of some church lessons).

and came to Cæsarea--a run along the coast, southward, of some thirty miles.

Philip the evangelist--a term answering apparently very much to our missionary [Howson], by whose ministry such joy had been diffused over Samaria and the Ethiopian eunuch had been baptized (Ac 8:4-40).

one of the seven--deacons, who had "purchased to himself a good degree" (1Ti 3:13). He and Paul now meet for the first time, some twenty-five years after that time.

11-14. So shall the Jews bind the man that owneth this girdle, &c.--For though the Romans did it, it was at the Jews' instigation (Ac 21:33; Ac 28:17). Such dramatic methods of announcing important future events would bring the old prophets to remembrance. (Compare Is 20:2, &c.; Jr 13:1, and Eze 5:1, &c.). This prediction and that at Tyre (Ac 21:4) were intended, not to prohibit him from going, but to put his courage to the test and when he stood the test, to deepen and mature it.

15-16. we took up our carriages--"our baggage."

and went up to Jerusalem--for the fifth time after his conversion, thus concluding his third missionary tour, which proved his last, so far as recorded; for though he accomplished the fourth and last part of the missionary plan sketched out (Ac 19:21)--"After I have been at Jerusalem, I must also see Rome"--it was as "a prisoner of Jesus Christ."

17-19. the brethren received us gladly--the disciples generally, as distinguished from the official reception recorded in Ac 21:18.

20-25. they glorified the Lord, &c.--constrained to justify his course, notwithstanding the Jewish complexion of the Christianity of Jerusalem.

26. to signify--that is, announce to the priest.

the accomplishment of the days of purification, &c.--(See on Nu 6:14-21).

27-30. the Jews ... of Asia--in all likelihood those of Ephesus (since they recognized Trophimus apparently as a townsman, Ac 21:29), embittered by their discomfiture (Ac 19:9, &c.).

31. tidings came--literally, "went up," that is, to the fortress of Antonia, where the commandant resided. See on Ac 21:32. This part of the narrative is particularly graphic.

32. the chief captain--"the chiliarch," or tribune of the Roman cohort, whose full number was one thousand men.

33. commanded him to be bound with two chains--(See on Ac 12:6).

34. some cried one thing--The difficulty would be so to state his crimes as to justify their proceedings to a Roman officer.

to be carried into the castle--rather, perhaps, "the barracks," or that part of the fortress of Antonia appropriated to the soldiers. The fort was built by Herod on a high rock at the northwest corner of the great temple area, and called after Mark Antony.

35-36. Away with him--as before of his Lord (Lu 23:18; Joh 19:15).

37-40. Art not thou that Egyptian, &c.--The form of the question implies that the answer is to be in the negative, and is matter of some surprise: "Thou art not then?" &c.