Acts 21:33

33 Then the chiliarch came up and laid hold upon him, and commanded [him] to be bound with two chains, and inquired who he might be, and what he had done.

Acts 21:33 Meaning and Commentary

Acts 21:33

Then the chief captain came near
To the place where the Jews were beating Paul:

and took him
the Arabic version adds, "from them"; he rescued him out of their hands, as he himself says, ( Acts 23:27 ) .

And commanded him to be bound with two chains:
partly to appease the people, and partly to secure Paul; who, he supposed, had been guilty of some misdemeanour, which had occasioned this tumult; these two chains were put, one on one arm, and the other on the other arm; and were fastened to two soldiers, who walked by him, having hold on those chains, the one on his right hand, and the other on his left; and thus Agabus's prophecy in ( Acts 21:11 ) was fulfilled:

and demanded who he was;
or asked and inquired about him, who he was, of what nation he was, what was his character, business, and employment: this inquiry was made, either of the apostle himself, or of the people; and so the Arabic version renders it, "he inquired of them who he was"; also

and what he had done;
what crime he had been guilty of, that they used him in such a manner.

Acts 21:33 In-Context

31 And as they were seeking to kill him, a representation came to the chiliarch of the band that the whole of Jerusalem was in a tumult;

32 who, taking with him immediately soldiers and centurions, ran down upon them. But they, seeing the chiliarch and the soldiers, ceased beating Paul.

33 Then the chiliarch came up and laid hold upon him, and commanded [him] to be bound with two chains, and inquired who he might be, and what he had done.

34 And different persons cried some different thing in the crowd. But he, not being able to know the certainty on account of the uproar, commanded him to be brought into the fortress.

35 But when he got upon the stairs it was so that he was borne by the soldiers on account of the violence of the crowd.