Acts 21:30, commentary and pictures

It was feast time, when visitors from every region crowded Jerusalem and filled the temple courts, and Jews from Asia who had opposed Paul at Ephesus recognized him in the temple. They raised against him the charge of teaching everywhere against the people and the law and the temple, and of bringing Greeks in to pollute the holy place, declaring that he had profaned the temple. That charge was wholly false, resting only on having seen him in the city with Trophimus the Ephesian, for as a Jew he broke no law by entering where he was.

The cry spread through the temple courts and through Jerusalem until the whole city was moved and the people ran together in wild excitement at worship time against an apostate said to be profaning the temple. They seized Paul with demonic fury, beating him with violent blows amid shouts of vindictive triumph, and sought to kill him. They dragged him from the sacred enclosure toward the court of the Gentiles to stone him to death, and only reverence for the temple kept him from being torn in pieces on the spot.

The doors were shut immediately behind them by the Levites so the holy place would not be polluted with blood. The Lord delivered him from that deadly danger and from other dangers. Afterward Paul stood on the stairs and addressed the crowd, and his gesture gained their attention while his use of Hebrew brought a deeper silence.