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In Acts 24:18 the apostle said that they who arrested him found him `purified in the temple, neither with
multitude nor with tumult'. In the law seven days is a usual period for purification (Exod. 29:37; Lev. 14:8; Num.
12:14), and in the law concerning the Nazarite provision is made for anyone contracting ceremonial impurity, which
enjoins upon him the necessity of waiting for seven days till offerings be made and restoration effected. So also at
the close of the vow, it seems that to make doubly sure the priests demanded a lapse of seven days before release
could be given. Towards the close of this period:
`The Jews which were of Asia, when they saw him in the temple, stirred up all the people, and laid hands on
him, crying out, Men of Israel, help: This is the man. that teacheth all men every where against the people, and
the law, and this place: and further brought Greeks also into the temple, and hath polluted this holy place. (For
they had seen before with him in the city Trophimus an Ephesian, whom they supposed that Paul had brought
into the temple.)' (Acts 21:27-29).
To understand why the people could be so easily inflamed, some acquaintance will be necessary with the
conditions that obtained at the time of Paul's visit. The populace had but recently been infuriated by Claudius under
whose orders the golden robes of the High Priest had been locked away in the tower of Antonia. Such an exhibition
of fury resulted that the presence of the Prefect of Syria with a large force was required to keep the peace. Claudius
yielded to pressure, and the obnoxious order was cancelled. Josephus, moreover, tells us that during the
Procuratorship of Cumanus a Roman soldier had expressed his contempt for the Jewish ceremonies, by a gesture of
the most insulting indecency, thereby again plunging the Jews into turmoil. The Procurator was cursed and the
soldiers were stoned. This brought upon the Jews such punishment that the number trapped and cut down by the
sword is variously stated at ten and twenty thousand. Again, a Roman soldier roused the Jews by the burning of a
copy of the Scriptures in public, and so insistent was the Jewish opposition that, this time, Cumanus thought it best
to sacrifice a common soldier to gain time and keep the peace. Cumanus was finally banished, and at the time of
Paul's visit, Felix was Procurator of Judæa. Felix was guilty of several outrages and, moreover, only seven weeks
before Paul's arrival at Jerusalem, an Egyptian, posing as a Messiah, had raised 30,000 followers who expected the
walls of Jerusalem to fall down flat at his approach. Four thousand of his poor dupes actually accompanied him to
the Mount of Olives, where Felix killed four hundred and took a number of prisoners.
It will, therefore, be perceived that abundant material existed for another outburst, and the arrival of some Jews
from Asia provided the spark. `Men of Israel, help!' From one to another passed the words `The people!' `The
Law!' `The Holy Place!' `Here is the hated renegade!' Having seen Paul walking in the streets with the Gentile
Trophimus, these fanatical Jews jumped to the conclusion that Paul had taken him into the Temple.
`To defile the Temple was what every enemy of the Jews tried to do. Antiochus, Heliodorus, Pompey, had
profaned it, and very recently the Samaritans had been charged with deliberately polluting it by scattering dead
men's bones over the precincts. Instantly the rumour flew from lip to lip that this was Saul, of whom they had
heard - Paul the mesith - Paul, one of the Galilean Minim - one of the believers in `the Hung' - Paul, the renegade
Rabbi, who taught and wrote that Gentiles were as good as Jews - the man that blasphemed the Thorah - the
man whom the synagogues had scourged in vain - the man who went from place to place getting into trouble
with the Romans; and that he had been caught taking with him into the Temple a Gentile dog, an uncircumcised
ger. The punishment for that crime was death - death by the full permission of the Romans themselves; death
even against a Roman who should dare to set foot beyond the chel' (Farrar).
The Talmudic writers themselves have said that the cause of the destruction of the second Temple was
`groundless hatred' ( Joma, f 9.2).
Had not the sanctity of the Temple disallowed the shedding of blood within its precincts, Paul would have been
killed on the spot. To avoid profanation therefore the Jews dragged him down the steps into the outer court, through
the `Beautiful Gate', which the Temple police shut behind the surging throng. This momentary delay was
providential. A Roman soldier was always stationed at the western cloister during festivals, and he gave immediate
warning of the tumult. Lysias, the chief Captain, then appeared with centurions and soldiers, and the Jews, now
faced by disciplined soldiers, `left beating Paul', and, as the first hand of a Roman soldier was laid upon the
prostrate Paul, he became `the prisoner of Jesus Christ', prophetic warnings of what awaited him at Jerusalem were
verified, and the first steps that were to eventuate both in Roman imprisonment and wondrous revelation were taken.