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Acts 21:29

in Acts 21

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

BSB

The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾

ASV

For they had before seen with him in the city Trophimus the Ephesian, whom they supposed that Paul had brought into the temple.

KJV

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

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This verse in Acts 21

Commentary

5 notes on this verse
In the city - In Jerusalem. As he was with Paul, it was inferred that he would attend him everywhere. Trophimus - He had accompanied Paul on his way from Ephesus, Act 20:4. Whom they supposed ... - This is a most striking illustration of the manner in which accusations are often brought against others. They had seen him with Paul in the city; they inferred, therefore, that he had been with him in the temple.

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 Church Fathers1 voice

A commentator

John Chrysostom

Homily on Acts 46 · Written in the 5th century.

proposed

Mark their habitual conduct, how turbulent we everywhere find it, how men who with or without reason make a clamor in the midst. "For they had seen before with him in the city Trophimus an Ephesian, whom they supposed that Paul had brought into the temple. And all the city was moved, and the people ran together: and they took Paul, and drew him out of the temple: and forthwith the doors were shut." "Men of Israel," it says, "help: this is the man that teaches against the people, and the law, and this place."-the things which most trouble them, the Temple and the Law. And Paul does not tax the Apostles with being the cause of these things to him. "And they drew him," it says, "out of the Temple: and the doors were shut." For they wished to kill him; and therefore were dragging him out, to do this with greater security.

The Puritans and the Awakening1 voice

For they had seen before with him in the city,....

The Nineteenth Century1 voice

A commentator

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown

1802–1910

Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)

proposed

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.).

quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — starts-lowercase

The words behind it

20 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

3 in all, six open

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 20:4

    Paul was accompanied by Sopater son of Pyrrhus from Berea, Aristarchus and Secundus from Thessalonica, Gaius from Derbe, Timothy, and Tychicus and Trophimus from the province of Asia.

    it leads to

    • Acts 19:29

      Soon the whole city was in disarray. They rushed together into the theatre, dragging with them Gaius and Aristarchus, Paul’s traveling companions from Macedonia.

    • 2 Timothy 4:20

      Erastus has remained at Corinth, and Trophimus I left sick in Miletus.

    • Ephesians 6:21

      Tychicus, the beloved brother and faithful servant in the Lord, will tell you everything, so that you also may know about me and what I am doing.

    • Colossians 4:7

      Tychicus will tell you all the news about me. He is a beloved brother, a faithful minister, and a fellow servant in the Lord.

    • 2 Timothy 4:12

      Tychicus, however, I have sent to Ephesus.

  • Through

    Acts 18:19

    When they reached Ephesus, Paul parted ways with Priscilla and Aquila. He himself went into the synagogue there and reasoned with the Jews.

    it leads to

    • 2 Timothy 1:18

      May the Lord grant Onesiphorus His mercy on that day. You know very well how much he ministered to me in Ephesus.

    • Ephesians 1:1

      Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, To the saints in Ephesus, the faithful in Christ Jesus:

  • Through

    2 Timothy 4:20

    Erastus has remained at Corinth, and Trophimus I left sick in Miletus.

    it leads to

    • Acts 20:4

      Paul was accompanied by Sopater son of Pyrrhus from Berea, Aristarchus and Secundus from Thessalonica, Gaius from Derbe, Timothy, and Tychicus and Trophimus from the province of Asia.

Where this verse is studied

About Acts

The Ascension, Gustave Doré, 1866. Public domain.
The Ascension, Gustave Doré, 1866. Public domain.
Acts: the study guide →Read Acts 21 →

This page draws on Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Albert Barnes, Notes on Acts; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Chrysostom, Homily on Acts 46; John Gill, Exposition of the New Testament (1746-1748) and William Ramsay, St. Paul the Traveller and the Roman Citizen.

Read on in Acts 21 →