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Acts 21:28

in Acts 21

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

BSB

The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾

ASV

crying out, Men of Israel, help: This is the man that teacheth all men everywhere against the people, and the law, and this place; and moreover he brought Greeks also into the temple, and hath defiled this holy place.

KJV

Crying out, Men of Israel, help: This is the man, that teacheth all men every where against the people, and the law, and this place: and further brought Greeks also into the temple, and hath polluted this holy place.

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This verse in Acts 21

Commentary

3 notes on this verse

A commentator

Bede

Commentary on Acts · Written before 735.

Here is the man who speaks against the people, the law, and this place, teaching everyone everywhere. Because they saw that the followers of the new grace attended the ceremonies of the law and the solemnities of the temple less, they feared, as it is …

This site's exposition

stirred up all the people

on Acts 21:27-29

As the seven days drew to a close, Jews from Asia, very likely from Ephesus where Paul’s ministry had provoked the riot of chapter nineteen, saw him in the temple and stirred up all the people, seizing him and crying out that this is the man who teaches everywhere against the people, the law, and the temple, and who has even brought Greeks into the temple to defile it. Luke’s parenthetical explanation in verse twenty nine, that they had only seen Trophimus the Ephesian with Paul earlier in the city, exposes the charge as an assumption dressed as an eyewitness fact, the same kind of accusation that had convicted Stephen on distorted testimony. The irony is exact, the very act Paul is undertaking to prove his faithfulness to the law becomes the occasion of a riot built on a false report.

The record, by era

The Nineteenth Century1 voice

A commentator

Adam Clarke

1762–1832

Commentary on the Bible · Written before 1832.

This is the man that teacheth, etc. - As much as if they had said: This is the man concerning whom we wrote to you; who in every place endeavors to prejudice the Gentiles against the Jews, against the Mosaic law, and against the temple and its services.

The words behind it

36 Greek words

Every Greek word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.

A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.

Related verses

18 in all, six open

The number beside each verse is how many compiled reference works tie it to this one. The strongest six stand open.

Acts 24:5–6We have found this man to be a pestilence, stirring up dissension among the Jews all over the world. He is a ringleader of the sect of the Nazarenes,5 worksMatthew 5:17Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets. I have not come to abolish them, but to fulfill them.5 worksRomans 10:2For I testify about them that they are zealous for God, but not on the basis of knowledge.5 worksActs 21:21But they are under the impression that you teach all the Jews who live among the Gentiles to forsake Moses, telling them not to circumcise their children or observe our customs.4 worksMatthew 24:15So when you see standing in the holy place ‘the abomination of desolation,’ described by the prophet Daniel (let the reader understand),4 worksActs 26:20–21First to those in Damascus and Jerusalem, then to everyone in the region of Judea, and then to the Gentiles, I declared that they should repent and turn to God, performing deeds worthy of their repentance.3 works
The other 12 cross-references, with their words ▾
2 Kings 6:26As the king of Israel was passing by on the wall, a woman cried out to him, “Help me, my lord the king!”3 worksActs 18:13“This man is persuading the people to worship God in ways contrary to the law,” they said.3 worksActs 2:22Men of Israel, listen to this message: Jesus of Nazareth was a man certified by God to you by miracles, wonders, and signs, which God did among you through Him, as you yourselves know.3 worksActs 6:13where they presented false witnesses who said, “This man never stops speaking against this holy place and against the law.3 worksEzekiel 44:7In addition to all your other abominations, you brought in foreigners uncircumcised in both heart and flesh to occupy My sanctuary; you defiled My temple when you offered My food—the fat and the blood; you broke My covenant.3 worksActs 24:18At the time they found me in the temple, I was ceremonially clean and was not inciting a crowd or an uproar. But there are some Jews from the province of Asia2 worksJeremiah 7:4–15Do not trust in deceptive words, chanting: ‘This is the temple of the LORD, the temple of the LORD, the temple of the LORD.’2 worksActs 19:26–28And you can see and hear that not only in Ephesus, but in nearly the whole province of Asia, Paul has persuaded a great number of people to turn away. He says that man-made gods are no gods at all.2 worksLamentations 1:10The adversary has seized all her treasures. For she has seen the nations enter her sanctuary—those You had forbidden to enter Your assembly.2 worksActs 25:7When Paul arrived, the Jews who had come down from Jerusalem stood around him, bringing many serious charges that they could not prove.2 worksNumbers 16:41The next day the whole congregation of Israel grumbled against Moses and Aaron, saying, “You have killed the LORD’s people!”2 works2 Samuel 7:7In all My journeys with all the Israelites, have I ever asked any of the leaders I appointed to shepherd My people Israel, ‘Why haven’t you built Me a house of cedar?’2 works

The walk

8 stops

Each card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.

  • Through

    Acts 21:21

    But they are under the impression that you teach all the Jews who live among the Gentiles to forsake Moses, telling them not to circumcise their children or observe our customs.

    it leads to

    • 1 Corinthians 9:19–21

      Though I am free of obligation to anyone, I make myself a slave to everyone, to win as many as possible.

    • Galatians 6:12–15

      Those who want to make a good impression outwardly are trying to compel you to be circumcised. They only do this to avoid persecution for the cross of Christ.

    • Galatians 5:1–6

      It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not be encumbered once more by a yoke of slavery.

    • Acts 15:19–21

      It is my judgment, therefore, that we should not cause trouble for the Gentiles who are turning to God.

    • Romans 14:1–6

      Accept him whose faith is weak, without passing judgment on his opinions.

  • Through

    Acts 24:18

    At the time they found me in the temple, I was ceremonially clean and was not inciting a crowd or an uproar. But there are some Jews from the province of Asia

    it leads to

    • Acts 26:21

      For this reason the Jews seized me in the temple courts and tried to kill me.

    • Acts 21:26–30

      So the next day Paul took the men and purified himself along with them. Then he entered the temple to give notice of the date when their purification would be complete and the offering…

    • Acts 24:12

      Yet my accusers did not find me debating with anyone in the temple or riling up a crowd in the synagogues or in the city.

Where this verse is studied

What the record shows

1 entry
  • Temple Warning (Soreg) Inscriptionundisputed

    Near the Temple Mount, Jerusalem · Istanbul Archaeology Museums (complete); Israel Museum (fragment)

    Counterpoint: The stone's authenticity is not disputed, but its legal reach is. Josephus presents the death penalty for Gentile trespass as a specific privilege Rome granted for the Temple precinct, not as general capital authority in Jewish hands — which is why scholars caution against using this inscription to settle the wider question of whether the Sanhedrin could execute (John 18:31).

About Acts

The Ascension — Gustave Doré (engraving, public domain)
The Ascension — Gustave Doré (engraving, public domain)
Acts: the study guide →Read Acts 21 →

This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes on Acts; Bede, Commentary on Acts and William Ramsay, St. Paul the Traveller and the Roman Citizen.

Read on in Acts 21 →