Acts 21
CHAPTER 21
Acts 21:1-16 . SAILING FROM EPHESUS, THEY LAND AT TYRE, AND THENCE SAILING TO PTOLEMAIS, THEY PROCEED BY LAND TO CÆSAREA AND JERUSALEM.
1. we were gotten--"torn."
from them--expressing the difficulty and pain of the parting.
with a straight course--running before the wind, as Acts 16:11 .
unto Coos--Cos, an island due south from Miletus, which they would reach in about six hours, and coming close to the mainland.
the day following unto Rhodes--another island, some fifty miles to the southeast, of brilliant classic memory and beauty.
thence unto Patara--a town on the magnificent mainland of Lycia, almost due east from Rhodes. It was the seat of a celebrated oracle of Apollo.
2. And finding a ship--their former one going no farther, probably.
went abroad--One would almost think this extracted from a journal of the voyage, so graphic are its details.
3. when we . . . discovered--"sighted," as the phrase is.
Cyprus, we left it on the left hand--that is, steered southeast of it, leaving it on the northwest.
sailed into--"unto"
Syria, and landed at Tyre--the celebrated seat of maritime commerce for East and West. It might be reached from Patara in about two days.
there the ship was to unlade her burden--which gave the apostle time for what follows.
4-6. finding disciples--finding out the disciples, implying some search. They would expect such, from what is recorded, Acts 11:19 . Perhaps they were not many; yet there were gifted ones among them.
who said to Paul . . . that he should not go up to
5. they all brought us on our way with wives and children . . . and we kneeled down on the shore and Observe here that the children of these Tyrian disciples not only were taken along with their parents, but must have joined in this act of
7. when we had finished our course--completing the voyage
from Tyre, we came--which they would do the same day.
to Ptolemais--anciently called Accho ( Judges 1:31 ), now St. Jean d'Acre, or Acre.
and saluted the brethren, and abode, &c.--disciples gathered probably as at Tyre, on the occasion mentioned ( Acts 11:19 ).
8-10. next day we that were of Paul's company departed--(The words "the were of Paul's company" are omitted in the best manuscripts. They were probably added as the connecting words at the head of some church lessons).
and came to Cæsarea--a run along the coast, southward, of some thirty miles.
Philip the evangelist--a term answering apparently very much to our missionary [HOWSON], by whose ministry such joy had been diffused over Samaria and the Ethiopian eunuch had been baptized ( Acts 8:4-40 ).
one of the seven--deacons, who had "purchased to himself a good degree" ( 1 Timothy 3:13 ). He and Paul now meet for the first time, some twenty-five years after that time.
9. the same man had four daughters . . . which did prophesy--fulfilling Joel 2:28 (see Acts 2:18 ). This is mentioned, it would seem, merely as a high distinction divinely conferred on so devoted a servant of the Lord Jesus, and probably indicates the high tone of religion in his family.
10. tarried there many--"a good many"
days--Finding himself in good time for Pentecost at Jerusalem, he would feel it a refreshing thing to his spirit to hold Christian communion for a few days with such a family.
there came down from Judea--the news of Paul's arrival having spread.
a certain prophet . . . Agabus--no doubt the same as in Acts 11:28 .
11-14. So shall the Jews bind the man that owneth this girdle, &c.--For though the Romans did it, it was at the Jews' instigation ( Acts 21:33 , Acts 28:17 ). Such dramatic methods of announcing important future events would bring the old prophets to remembrance. (Compare Isaiah 20:2 , &c. Jeremiah 13:1 , and Ezekiel 5:1 , &c.). This prediction and that at Tyre ( Acts 21:4 ) were intended, not to prohibit him from going, but to put his courage to the test and when he stood the test, to deepen and mature it.