Acts 21:17-40 ▼

17 And when we were come to Hierusalem, the brethren receaued vs gladly.

18 And on the morowe, Paule went in with vs vnto Iames, and all the elders came together.

19 And when he had saluted them, he tolde by order all thinges that God had wrought among the gentiles by his ministerie.

20 And when they hearde it, they glorified the Lorde, & sayde vnto hym: Thou seest brother, howe many thousande Iewes there are which beleue, & they are all earnest folowers of the lawe.

21 And they are infourmed of thee, that thou teachest all the Iewes whiche are among the Gentiles to forsake Moyses, and sayest that they ought not to circucise their chyldren, neither to walke after the customes.

22 What is it therefore? The multitude must needes come together: For they shall heare that thou art come.

23 Do therfore this that we saye to thee. We haue foure men, which haue a vow on them:

24 Them take, & purifie thy selfe with them, and do coste on them, that they may shaue their heades: And all shall knowe, that those thynges whiche they haue hearde concernyng thee, are nothyng, but that thou thy selfe also walkest and kepest the lawe.

25 As touchyng the Gentiles which beleue, we haue written and concluded, that they obserue no suche thyng, saue only that they kepe them selues from thynges offered to idoles, & from blood, and from strangled, & from fornication.

26 Then Paul toke the men, and the next day purifiyng hym selfe with them, entred into the temple, declaryng the accomplishement of the dayes of the purification, vntyll that an offeryng should be offered for euery one of them.

27 And when the seuen dayes were almost ended, the Iewes which were of Asia, when they sawe hym in the temple, moued al the people, & layde handes on hym,

28 Crying: Men of Israel helpe. This is the man that teacheth all men euery where against the people, and the lawe, and this place: He hath also brought Grekes into the temple, and hath polluted this holy place.

29 For they had seene before with hym in the citie Trophimus an Ephesian, whom they supposed that Paul had brought into the temple.

30 And all the citie was moued, and the people swarmed together: And they toke Paul & drewe hym out of the temple, & foorthwith the doores were shut.

31 And as they went about to kyll hym, tydynges came vnto the hye captaine of the souldiers, that all Hierusalem was in an vprore.

32 Which immediatly toke souldiers, and vnder captaines, and ran downe vnto them: And when they sawe the vpper captaine and the souldiers, they left smytyng of Paul.

33 Then the chiefe captaine came neare, & toke hym, and comaunded hym to be bounde with two chaynes, & demaunded who he was, & what he had done.

34 And some cryed one thyng, some another, among the people. And when he coulde not knowe the certaintie for the rage, he commaunded him to be caryed into the castle.

35 And when he came vpon the stayres, it was so that he was borne of the souldyers for the violence of the people.

36 For the multitude of the people folowed after, crying, away with hym.

37 And when Paul began to be caryed into the castle, he saide vnto the hye captaine: May I speake vnto thee? Who sayde: Canst thou speake Greke?

38 Art not thou that Egyptian which before these dayes madest an vprore, and leddest out into the wyldernesse foure thousande men that were murtherers?

39 But Paul saide: I am a man which am a Iewe, of Tarsus, a citie in Cilicia, a citezin of no vyle citie, and I beseche the suffer me to speake vnto the people.

40 And when he had geuen hym licence, Paul stoode on the stayres, & beckened with ye hande vnto the people: And whe there was made a great scilece, he spake vnto them in the Hebrue tongue, saying: