Tool Beta
The Ancient World Behind the Text
Pick a passage anywhere in the New Testament. See the customs and ideas a first reader knew without being told.
Acts 21:27-40, Riot in the temple, rescue by the tribune
Jews from Asia see Paul in the temple and cry that he has brought Greeks into the holy place. The city riots, and the Roman tribune's soldiers pull him from the crowd, chain him, and nearly mistake him for the Egyptian rebel.
Acts 21:27-40, in every translation this tool compares.
Near the end of the purification period, Jews from Asia spot Paul in the temple and raise an outcry, accusing him of opposing Israel, the law and the temple and of bringing a Gentile, Trophimus, inside. The city erupts, Paul is dragged out and the gates shut, and only the arrival of the Roman commander and his troops stops the beating. Bound and carried up the steps away from the mob, Paul addresses the officer in Greek, who had taken him for an Egyptian rebel leader. Paul identifies himself as a citizen of Tarsus and gets permission to speak to the crowd in their own language.
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/temple-and-courts\/","n":"The temple and its courts","s":"Herod's huge rebuilt temple in Jerusalem, believed to be God's dwelling, laid out in courts that kept Gentiles, women and Jewish men at set distances.","r":""}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/rome-in-charge\/","n":"Rome in charge","s":"Rome ruled through client princes, local elites and governors. It kept the power to execute, and its soldiers, coins and taxes were everywhere.","r":""}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/rebels-and-would-be-messiahs\/","n":"Rebels and would-be messiahs","s":"In the decades around Jesus, men rose up claiming to deliver Israel: tax rebels, leaders of armed bands, and prophets who promised signs in the wilderness. Rome treated them all as rebels.","r":""}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/roman-custody\/","n":"Prison, chains and Roman custody","s":"Roman prisons held people until trial or execution; they were not a punishment in themselves. How a prisoner was kept, in the stocks of an inner cell or lightly chained to one soldier, depended on his rank.","r":""}
A barrier separated the outer court from the inner courts, with warnings in Greek and Latin that no foreigner might pass; Josephus describes pillars "declaring the law of purity, some in Greek, and some in Roman letters," one complete inscription and a fragment have been found, and Rome let the Jewish authorities execute even Roman citizens for this offense (Keener and his notes; the ESV Study Bible; Price and House). A cohort held the Antonia fortress at the temple's north side, whose stairs led straight down into the outer court (Keener and his notes; the ESV Study Bible). Josephus tells of an Egyptian false prophet who "got together thirty thousand men" and led them to the Mount of Olives, though his Antiquities counts four hundred killed and two hundred taken (the Zondervan Bible dictionary); Keener and the cultural backgrounds notes find Luke's four thousand more realistic. Keener and Wright take the tribune's surprise to be at Paul's educated Greek, while the cultural backgrounds notes allow that he expected a rebel to prefer Aramaic, the language Wright thinks Paul then used with the crowd.
- Craig S. Keener, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament, on Acts 21:28, 21:30, 21:31, 21:35, 21:36, 21:37, 21:38 and 21:39
- NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible, notes on Acts 21:28, 21:30, 21:31, 21:36, 21:37, 21:38 and 21:39
- ESV Study Bible, study notes on Acts 21:28, 21:31-32 and 21:38
- Josephus, The Wars of the Jews 2.13.5 and 5.5.2, trans. William Whiston
- J. Randall Price and H. Wayne House, Zondervan Handbook of Biblical Archaeology, Acts 21:28-29 The Soreg Inscription
- N. T. Wright, Acts for Everyone, Part Two, comments on Acts 21:27-36 and 21:37-22:11
- J. D. Douglas and Merrill C. Tenney, Zondervan Illustrated Bible Dictionary, entry Egyptian, the
