The most serious test for a religious person is the test of freedom. And that means not only one's own freedom, but another person's freedom as well. Especially when it concerns someone whom that religious person sees as "one of us." When Paul came to Jerusalem, he fully experienced the anger of "his own," who were outraged by his freedom...
The most serious test for a religious person is the test of freedom. And that means not only one's own freedom, but another person's freedom as well. Especially when it concerns someone whom that religious person sees as "one of us." When Paul came to Jerusalem, he fully experienced the anger of "his own," who were outraged by his freedom. The apostle, of course, was not an opponent of religion as such. He fully shared the view of the apostolic council: religion is permissible in the Church, but it must not be obligatory and it must not be imposed on anyone. The Jerusalem church consisted almost entirely of Jews, and therefore of religious people.
Paul, of course, was not going to establish in Jerusalem the order and practice of the churches of Asia Minor, which were made up largely of recent pagans and therefore of secular people. His own religious tradition did not burden him at all: without any inner protest he performs the prescribed purification rituals, well known to him from childhood, and comes to the Temple, familiar to him since his youth, from the time of his studies under Gamaliel. But it turns out that being a religious person oneself is not enough to calm religious consciousness.
Religious consciousness has a kind of wholeness that excludes every alternative. If a person does not belong to religion entirely, if religion is only part of life for him and not all of life, his religious conscience is not calm. For Paul, his religiosity was not an absolute, and his conscience was no longer the conscience of a religious person. He had long since gone beyond the limits of his religion and his religiosity. His spiritual life was connected with the Kingdom, not with religion. Religion, of course, did not frighten the apostle, but it did not stand in first place for him. And the religious crowd gathered in the Temple courtyard sensed this very well.
It even expressed this feeling through the mouths of people who accused Paul of urging others not to observe Jewish traditions. One might ask, why would those whom the Jews themselves regarded as Gentiles have to observe Jewish traditions? And why would Paul have had to impose those traditions on them? He had never turned anyone away from Judaism; he simply did not try to make Jews of everyone to whom he preached. But precisely this kind of behavior is apostasy for religious consciousness.
There is only one truth in the world, life can have only one goal, and if a preacher is not preaching my religion, he is an unbeliever. And if he was "ours" and preached our religion, but now preaches something else, then he is an apostate. At that point it no longer matters whether the Ephesian Gentile whom Paul supposedly brought into the courtyard where he was not allowed to be actually existed. If he did not exist, he had to be invented, and he was invented. Thus begins the final stage of Paul's ministry and earthly path: a collision with religion, with the very force he considered the chief threat to the Church's spiritual formation.
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21:18 Paul went in with us - That it might appear we are all of one mind, to James - Commonly called the Lord's brother; the only apostle then presiding over the Churches in Judea.
21:20 They are all zealous for the law - For the whole Mosaic dispensation. How astonishing is this! Did none of the apostles, beside St. Paul, know that this dispensation was now abolished? And if they did both know and testify this, how came their hearers not to believe them?
21:21 They have been informed concerning thee, that thou teachest the Jews - not to circumcise their children, nor to walk after the customs - Of the Mosaic law. And so undoubtedly he did. And so he wrote to all the Churches in Galatia, among whom were many Jews.Yea, and James himself had long before assented to Peter, affirming before all the apostles and all the brethren, Act 15:10, That this very law was a yoke which (said he)neither our fathers nor we were able to bear - Amazing! that they did not know this! Or, that if they did, they did not openly testify it at all hazards, to every Jewish convert in Jerusalem!
21:22 What is it therefore - What is to be done? The multitude must needs come together - They will certainly gather together in a tumultuous manner, unless they be some way pacified.
21:23 Therefore - To obviate their prejudice against thee: do this that we say to thee - Doubtless they meant this advice well: but could Paul follow it in godly sincerity? Was not the yielding so far to the judgment of others too great a deference to be paid to any mere men?
21:24 And all will know - that thou thyself walkest orderly, keeping the law - Ought he not, without any reverence to man, where the truth of God was so deeply concerned, to have answered plainly, I do not keep the Mosaic law; neither need any of you. Yea, Peter doth not keep the law. And God himself expressly commanded him not to keep it; ordering him to go in to men uncircumcised, and to eat with them, Act 11:3, which the law utterly forbids.
21:26 Then Paul took the men - Yielding his own judgment to their advice, which seemed to flow not out of spiritual but carnal wisdom; seeming to be what he really was not: making as if he believed the law still in force. Declaring - Giving notice to the priests in waiting, that he designed to accomplish the days of purification, till all the sacrifice should be offered, as the Mosaic law required, Num 6:13.
21:27 And when the seven days were about to be accomplished - When after giving notice to the priests, they were entering upon the accomplishment of those days. It was toward the beginning of them that Paul was seized. The Jews that were from Asia - Some of those Jews who came from Asia to the feast.
21:28 Against the people - The Jewish nation; and the law - Of Moses; and this place - The temple. Yea, and hath even brought Greeks into the temple - They might come into the outer court. But they imagined Paul had brought then into the inner temple, and had thereby polluted it.
21:30 And immediately the gates were shut - Both to prevent any farther violation of the temple; and to prevent Paul's taking sanctuary at the horns of the altar.
21:31 And as they went about to kill him - It was a rule among the Jews, that any uncircumcised person who came into the inner temple, might be stoned without farther process. And they seemed to think Paul, who brought such in thither, deserved no better treatment. Word came to the tribune - A cohort or detachment of soldiers, belonging to the Roman legion, which lodged in the adjacent castle of Antonia, were stationed on feast days near the temple, to prevent disorders. It is evident, Lysias himself was not present, when the tumult began. Probably he was the oldest Roman tribune (or colonel) then at Jerusalem.And as such he was the commanding officer of the legion quartered at the castle.
21:33 Then the tribune - Having made his way through the multitude, came near and took him - And how many great ends of providence were answered by this imprisonment? This was not only a means of preserving his life, (after he had suffered severely for worldly prudence,) but gave him an opportunity of preaching the Gospel safely, in spite of all tumult, Act 22:22, yea, and that in those places to which otherwise he could have had no access, Act 21:40.And commanded him to be bound with two chains - Taking it for granted he was some notorious offender. And thus the prophecy of Agabus was fulfilled, though by the hands of a Roman.
21:35 When he came upon the stairs - The castle of Antonia was situate on a rock fifty cubits high, at that corner of the outward temple, where the western and northern porticos joined, to each of which there were stairs descending from it.