Acts 21:18-40

21st Century King James Version

¹⁸ And the day following, Paul went with us unto James, and all the elders were present.

¹⁹ And when he had saluted them, he declared particularly what things God had wrought among the Gentiles by his ministry.

²⁰ And when they heard it, they glorified the Lord and said unto him, “Thou seest, brother, how many thousands of Jews there are who believe, and they are all zealous for the law.

²¹ And they are informed about thee, that thou teachest all the Jews who are among the Gentiles to forsake Moses, saying that they ought not to circumcise their children, nor walk according to the customs.

²² What is therefore to be done? The multitude must surely come together, for they will hear that thou art come.

²³ Do therefore this which we say to thee: We have four men who have taken a vow upon themselves.

²⁴ Take them and purify thyself with them, and bear their charges with them, that they may shave their heads; and all may know that those things of which they have been informed concerning thee are nothing, butthat thou thyself also walkest orderly and keepest the law.

²⁵ And as to the Gentiles who believe, we have written and concluded that they observe no such thing, save only that they keep themselves from things offered to idols, and from blood, and from things strangled, and from fornication.”

²⁶ Then Paul took the men, and the next day, purifying himself with them, he entered into the temple to signify the accomplishment of the days of purification, until an offering should be offered for every one of them.

²⁷ And when the seven days were almost ended, the Jews who were from Asia, when they saw him in the temple, stirred up all the people and laid hands on him,

²⁸ crying out, “Men of Israel, help! This is the man who teacheth all men everywhere against the people and the law and this place, and furthermore brought Greeks also into the temple, and hath polluted this holy place.”

²⁹ (For they had seen previously with him in the city Trophimus an Ephesian, whom they supposed that Paul had brought into the temple.)

³⁰ And all the city was moved and the people ran together, and they took Paul and dragged him out of the temple; and forthwith the doors were shut.

³¹ And as they went about to kill him, tidings came unto the chief captain of the garrison that all Jerusalem was in an uproar,

³² who immediately took soldiers and centurions and ran down unto them; and when they saw the chief captain and the soldiers, they left off beating Paul.

³³ Then the chief captain came near, and took him and commanded that he be bound with two chains, and demanded who he was and what he had done.

³⁴ And some cried one thing, some another, among the multitude. And when he could learn nothing with certainty because of the tumult, he commanded him to be carried into the castle.

³⁵ And when Paul came upon the stairs, so it was that he had to be borne by the soldiers because of the violence of the people.

³⁶ For the multitude of the people followed after, crying, “Away with him!”

³⁷ And as Paul was about to be led into the castle, he said unto the chief captain, “May I speak unto thee?” And he said, “Canst thou speak Greek?

³⁸ Art not thou that Egyptian who prior to these days madest an uproar and leddest out into the wilderness four thousand men who were murderers?”

³⁹ But Paul said, “I am a man who am a Jew of Tarsus, a city of Cilicia, a citizen of no mean city; and I beseech thee, suffer me to speak unto the people.”

⁴⁰ And when he had given him leave, Paul stood on the stairs and beckoned with his hand unto the people. And when there fell a great silence, he spoke unto them in the Hebrew tongue, saying: