Study Desk

When our days there were ended, we left and started on our journey, while they all, with wives and children, escorted us until we were out of the city. After kneeling down on the beach and praying, we said farewell to one another.

Then we boarded the ship, and they returned home.

And when they heard about them, they began glorifying God; and they said to him, "You see, brother, how many thousands there are among the Jews of those who have believed, and they are all zealous for the Law;

and they have been told about you, that you are teaching all the Jews who are among the Gentiles to abandon Moses, telling them not to circumcise their children nor to walk according to the customs.

take them along and purify yourself together with them, and pay their expenses so that they may shave their heads; and then everyone will know that there is nothing to what they have been told about you, but that you yourself also conform, keeping the Law.

"But regarding the Gentiles who have believed, we sent a letter, having decided that they should abstain from meat sacrificed to idols and from blood and what is strangled, and from sexual immorality."

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

Then the whole city was provoked and the people rushed together, and taking hold of Paul they dragged him out of the temple, and immediately the doors were shut.

He immediately took along some soldiers and centurions and ran down to the crowd; and when they saw the commander and the soldiers, they stopped beating Paul.

And when they heard that he was addressing them in the Hebrew dialect, they became even more quiet; and he said,

and I saw Him saying to me, 'Hurry and get out of Jerusalem quickly, because they will not accept your testimony about Me.'

"And I said, 'Lord, they themselves understand that in one synagogue after another I used to imprison and beat those who believed in You.

They listened to him up to this statement, and then they raised their voices and said, "Away with such a man from the earth, for he should not be allowed to live!"

And as they were shouting and throwing off their cloaks and tossing dust into the air,

But when they stretched him out with straps, Paul said to the centurion who was standing by, "Is it lawful for you to flog a man who is a Roman and uncondemned?"

When it was day, the Jews formed a conspiracy and put themselves under an oath, saying that they would neither eat nor drink until they had killed Paul.

They came to the chief priests and the elders and said, "We have put ourselves under an oath to taste nothing until we have killed Paul.

And he said, "The Jews have agreed to ask you to bring Paul down tomorrow to the Council, as though they were going to inquire somewhat more thoroughly about him.

"So do not listen to them, for more than forty of them are in hiding to ambush him, and these men have put themselves under an oath not to eat or drink until they kill him; and now they are ready and waiting for assurance from you."

They were also to provide mounts to put Paul on and bring him safely to Felix the governor.