Acts 21:7
And when we had finished our course from Tyre, we came to Ptolemais, and saluted the brethren, and abode with them one day. And when we had finished our course from Tyre, we came to Ptolemais, and saluted the brethren, and abode with them one day.
Paul finished the sea passage from Tyre to Ptolemais, the next harbor south on his last voyage from Miletus toward Jerusalem by way of Caesarea. After seven days at Tyre closed with kneeling prayer on the beach, he greeted the brethren at Ptolemais and remained with them one day in brief fellowship. Ptolemais is ancient Accho, now Acre, about twenty-seven to thirty miles south of Tyre on the coast north of Mount Carmel. The record of this journey to Jerusalem brings no charge that Paul taught the first day to be kept instead of the seventh, for its accusations concerned circumcision. The chapter shows the church seeking popular favor by urging Paul to observe the ceremonial law, a serious mistake of human policy from which only God's overruling providence saved his life, fulfilling the word that he must suffer for Christ's name in his final years.
Voyage Route and Place
The sea leg from Tyre ended at Ptolemais, the next stop after Tyre on the way to Jerusalem, with departure the next day for Caesarea. That short run was one stage of the longer voyage from Miletus to Jerusalem, Paul's last journey back to Jerusalem, and Ptolemais is one of the cities where the events recorded in chapter 21 occurred. The arrival at Ptolemais followed seven days at Tyre closed by a farewell prayer kneeling on the beach with the disciples.
At Ptolemais Paul and his companions saluted or greeted the brethren and abode with them one day, another brief stay in fellowship like the stay at Tyre. Ptolemais is Acre, situated about thirty miles south of Tyre on the coast of Lower Galilee just north of Mount Carmel. It is the ancient Accho, placed twenty-seven miles south of Tyre, later taking the name Ptolemais from Ptolemy and now called St. Jean d'Acre, or Acre.
Ptolemais, Accho in Christ's time, lies on the sandy Mediterranean beach sweeping in a curve northward from Carmel and Haifa. The low marshy plain of Accho lies to the northeast, with the brook Kishon flowing through that plain to the sea. Many palm trees stand near the sea, and low marshy land lies to the south below the slopes of Carmel.
Doctrine Warning and Fulfillment
The places named in this narrative are to be traced on the map to fix the lesson in mind, and this stop is one stage of Paul's last journey back to Jerusalem, the voyage from Tyre to Ptolemais where he greeted the believers and stayed one day. The account of that journey to Jerusalem contains no charge that Paul taught the first day should be sanctified instead of the seventh, for the accusations mentioned in the chapter concerned circumcision. That same journey toward Jerusalem shows the church seeking to preserve popular favor by asking him to demonstrate continued observance of the ceremonial law.
The chapter shows that the apostles and leading believers could make a serious mistake in advising Paul to follow human policy, and only God's overruling providence kept him from losing his life. This stop falls within the account of further trials Paul faced, especially at Jerusalem, during the final eight years of his life, and is part of the record of how the Lord's word that Paul would suffer for His name was fulfilled.