Bible Strands
Acts 21:28
crying out, “Men of Israel, help us! This is the man who teaches everyone everywhere against our people and against our law and against this place. Furthermore, he has brought Greeks into the temple and defiled this holy place.”
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — A group of Jews from the province of Asia seizes Paul in the temple precincts and shouts to the assembled crowd, demanding they intervene. They address the onlookers as "Men of Israel" at the moment Paul's presence in the sanctuary triggers immediate public alarm.
The words — The crowd uses κράζοντες (krazontes), meaning "crying out," and βοηθεῖτε (boētheite), meaning "do help," to frame their accusation as an urgent public summons. They point to οὗτός (houtos) the ἄνθρωπος (anthrōpos), "this man," as the specific target of their charges.
The thread — The claim that Paul opposes the law and the people reappears in Acts 24:5, where his accusers label him a "pestilence" stirring dissension among Jews everywhere. Acts 21:21 specifies that the circulating rumor claims he instructs Diaspora Jews to abandon Mosaic customs, without contrasting his teaching with Gentile evangelism.
Why it lands — The verse requires a reader to track how a single charge of temple defilement can instantly convert suspicion into physical seizure. It demands careful separation between the mob's reported allegations and the documented facts of Paul's movements.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Greek words
King James Version
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.
Cross-references
- Acts 24:5 We have found this man to be a pestilence, stirring up dissension among the Jews all over the world. He is a ringleader of the sect of the Nazarenes,
- Acts 21:21 But they are under the impression that you teach all the Jews who live among the Gentiles to forsake Moses, telling them not to circumcise their children or observe our customs.
- Acts 26:20 First to those in Damascus and Jerusalem, then to everyone in the region of Judea, and then to the Gentiles, I declared that they should repent and turn to God, performing deeds worthy of their repentance.
- Jeremiah 7:4 Do not trust in deceptive words, saying: ‘This is the temple of the LORD, the temple of the LORD, the temple of the LORD.’
- Lamentations 1:10 The adversary has seized all her treasures. For she has seen the nations enter her sanctuary—those You had forbidden to enter Your assembly.
- Matthew 24:15 So when you see standing in the holy place ‘the abomination of desolation,’ spoken of by the prophet Daniel (let the reader understand),
- Acts 6:13 where they presented false witnesses who said, “This man never stops speaking against this holy place and against the law.
- Acts 19:26 And you can see and hear that not only in Ephesus, but in nearly the whole province of Asia, this Paul has persuaded a great number of people to turn away. He says that man-made gods are no gods at all.
- Acts 24:18 At the time they found me in the temple, I was ceremonially clean and was not inciting a crowd or an uproar. But there are some Jews from the province of Asia