The Acts of the Apostles (1911) — PDF Scan 413

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PAUL A PRISONER 407 added, — '^and further brought Greeks also into the temple, and hath polluted this holy place/ ^ By the Jewish law, it was a crime punishable with death for an uncircumcised person to enter the inner courts of the sacred edifice. Paul had been seen in the city in company with Trophimus, an Ephesian, and it was conjectured that he had brought him into the temple. This he had not done; and being himself a Jew, his act in entering the temple was no violation of the law. But though the charge was wholly false, it served to arouse the popular prejudice. As the cry was taken up and borne -through the temple courts, the throngs gathered there were thrown into wild excitement. The news quickly spread through Jerusalem, '^and all the city was moved, and the people ran together.'' That an apostate from Israel should presume to profane the temple at the very time when thousands had come there from all parts of the world to worship, excited the fiercest passions of the mob. ^'They took Paul, and drew him out of the temple: and forthwith the doors were shut." ^'As they went about to kill him, tidings came unto the chief captain of the band, that all Jerusalem was in an uproar." Claudius Lysias well knew the turbulent elements with which he had to deal, and he ^'immediately took soldiers and centurions, and ran down unto them: and when they saw the chief captain and the soldiers, they left beating of Paul." Ignorant of the cause of the tumult, but seeing that the rage of the multitude was directed against Paul, the Eoman captain concluded that he must be a certain Egyptian rebel of whom he had