Acts 21:33-39 ▼

33 Then the commander came up and arrested Paul, and ordered that he be bound with two chains. Then he asked who he was and what he had done.

34 But some in the crowd were shouting one thing and others something else; and since he could not determine the facts because of the uproar, he ordered that Paul be taken to the barracks [in the tower of Antonia].

35 When Paul got to the steps, he was carried by the soldiers because of the violence of the mob;

36 for the majority of the people kept following them, shouting, “Away with him! [Kill him!]”

37 Just as Paul was about to be taken into the barracks, he asked the commander, “May I say something to you?” And the man replied, “Do you know Greek?

38 Then you are not [as I assumed] the Egyptian who some time ago stirred up a rebellion and led those 4,000 men of the Assassins out into the wilderness?”

39 Paul said, “I am a Jew from Tarsus in Cilicia (Mersin Province, Turkey), a citizen of no insignificant city; and I beg you, allow me to speak to the people.”