SEV Biblia, Chapter 21:28
Dando voces: Varones israelitas, ayudad. Este es el hombre que por todas partes ensea a todos contra el pueblo, y la ley, y este lugar; y adems de esto ha metido los gentiles en el Templo, y ha contaminado este lugar santo.
Clarke's Bible Commentary - Acts 21:28
Verse 28. This is the man that teacheth, &c.] As much as if they had said: This is the man concerning whom we wrote to you; who in every place endeavours to prejudice the Gentiles against the Jews, against the Mosaic law, and against the temple and its services. Brought Greeks also into the temple] This was a most deliberate and malicious untruth: Paul could accomplish no purpose by bringing any Greek or Gentile into the temple; and their having seen Trophimus, an Ephesian, with him, in the city only, was no ground on which to raise a slander that must so materially affect both their lives. Josephus informs us, War, lib. v. cap. 5, sec. 2, that on the wall which separated the court of the Gentiles from that of the Israelites was an inscription in Greek and Latin letters, which stated that no stranger was permitted to come within the holy place on pain of death. With such a prohibition as this before his eyes, was it likely that St. Paul would enter into the temple in company with an uncircumcised Greek? The calumny refutes itself.
John Gill's Bible Commentary
Ver. 28. Crying out, men of Israel, help , etc.] The Arabic and Ethiopic versions read, help us; to hold Paul, on whom they had laid their hands, and to assist in beating him: but why such an outcry for help against a single man, and he but little of stature, and weak in body, and so easily held and overpowered? it may be they chose to engage others with them, to give the greater countenance to their actions, and for their own security and protection, should they be opposed or called to an account; this is the man that teacheth all men everywhere against the people ; the people of the Jews, saying that they were not the only people of God; that God was the God of the Gentiles, as well as of the Jews; that God had chosen, and called, and saved some of the one, as well as of the other; that the Gentiles shared in the favour of God, and the blessings of the Messiah; that the Gospel was to be preached to them, and a people taken out of them for his glory; and that the people of the Jews would be rejected for their unbelief and impenitence, and in a little time utterly destroyed as a nation; which, and the like, these Asiatic Jews interpreted as speaking against them; whereas no man had a stronger natural affection for his countrymen, or a more eager and importunate desire for their spiritual and eternal welfare, than the apostle had; and the law ; the law of Moses, both moral and ceremonial; for they not only were displeased with him for asserting the abrogation of the latter, but traduced him as an enemy to the former; representing him as an Antinomian, because he denied justification to be by the works of the law, and asserted Christ to be the end of the law for righteousness; whereas he was so far from making void the law hereby, that he established it, and secured the rights and honours of it; yea, they went further, and represented him as a libertine, saying, let us do evil that good may come; but this was all calumny: and this place : meaning the temple, in which they then were; the Alexandrian copy reads, this holy place; as it is expressed in a following clause; the reason of this charge was, because that he had taught, that the sacrifices of God were the sacrifices of prayer and of praise, and that these were to be offered up in every place; and that divine service and religious worship were not tied to the temple at Jerusalem, but that, agreeably to the doctrine of Christ, men might worship the Father anywhere, and lift up holy hands in every place; and perhaps he might have asserted, that the temple of Jerusalem would be destroyed in a short time, as Christ had predicted: and further, brought Greeks also unto the temple, and hath polluted this holy place ; that part of the temple, which they supposed Paul had brought Greeks or Gentiles into, could not be the most holy place, for into that only the high priest went, once a year; nor that part of the holy place called the court of the priests, for into that only priests went, and other Israelites were not admitted, unless on some particular occasions; as to lay hands on the sacrifice, for the slaying of it, or waving some part of it f1102 ; but it must be either the court of the Israelites, or the court of the women, into which Paul, with the four men that had the vow, entered; and as Dr. Lightfoot thinks, it was the latter; for in, the south east of this court was the Nazarites chamber, in which they boiled their peace offerings, shaved their heads, and put the hair under the pot f1103 : now though Gentiles might come into the mountain of the house, which was all the outmost circumambient space within the wall, which encompassed the whole area, yet they might not come into any of these courts, no, nor even into what they call the Chel; for they say, that the Chel is more holy than the mountain of the house, because no Gentile, or one defiled with the dead, enters there f1104 ; now the Chel was an enclosure before these courts, and at the entrance into it pillars were erected, and upon them were inscriptions in Greek and Latin, signifying that no strangers should enter into the holy place f1105 .
Matthew Henry Commentary
Verses 27-40 - In the temple, where Paul should have been protected as in a place of safety, he was violently set upon. They falsely charged him with il doctrine and ill practice against the Mosaic ceremonies. It is no ne thing for those who mean honestly and act regularly, to have thing laid to their charge which they know not and never thought of. It is common for the wise and good to have that charged against them by malicious people, with which they thought to have obliged them. God often makes those a protection to his people, who have no affection to them, but only have compassion for sufferers, and regard to the publi peace. And here see what false, mistaken notions of good people an good ministers, many run away with. But God seasonably interposes for the safety of his servants, from wicked and unreasonable men; and give them opportunities to speak for themselves, to plead for the Redeemer and to spread abroad his glorious gospel __________________________________________________________________
Greek Textus Receptus
κραζοντες 2896 5723 V-PAP-NPM ανδρες 435 N-VPM ισραηλιται 2475 N-VPM βοηθειτε 997 5720 V-PAM-2P ουτος 3778 D-NSM εστιν 2076 5748 V-PXI-3S ο 3588 T-NSM ανθρωπος 444 N-NSM ο 3588 T-NSM κατα 2596 PREP του 3588 T-GSM λαου 2992 N-GSM και 2532 CONJ του 3588 T-GSM νομου 3551 N-GSM και 2532 CONJ του 3588 T-GSM τοπου 5117 N-GSM τουτου 5127 D-GSM παντας 3956 A-APM πανταχου 3837 ADV διδασκων 1321 5723 V-PAP-NSM ετι 2089 ADV τε 5037 PRT και 2532 CONJ ελληνας 1672 N-APM εισηγαγεν 1521 5627 V-2AAI-3S εις 1519 PREP το 3588 T-ASN ιερον 2411 N-ASN και 2532 CONJ κεκοινωκεν 2840 5758 V-RAI-3S τον 3588 T-ASM αγιον 40 A-ASM τοπον 5117 N-ASM τουτον 5126 D-ASM
Vincent's NT Word Studies
28. This place. The temple. Compare the charge against Stephen, ch. vi. 13. Greeks. See on ch. vi. 1.Temple (ieron). See on Matt. iv. 5. The Jews evidently meant to create the impression that Paul had introduced Gentiles into the inner court, which was restricted to the Jews. The temple proper was on the highest of a series of terraces which rose from the outer court, or Court of the Gentiles. In this outer court any stranger might worship. Between this and the terraces was a balustrade of stone, with columns at intervals, on which Greek and Latin inscriptions warned all Gentiles against advancing farther on pain of death. Beyond this balustrade rose a flight of fourteen steps to the first platform, on which was the Court of the Women, surrounded by a wall. In this court were the treasury, and various chambers, in one of which the Nazarites performed their vows. It was here that the Asiatic Jews discovered Paul
Robertson's NT Word Studies
21:28 {Help} (boeqeite). Present active imperative of boeqew, to run (qew) at a cry (boe), as if an outrage had been committed like murder or assault. {All men everywhere} (panta pantacei). Alliterative. pantacei is a variation in MSS., often pantacou, and here only in the N.T. The charges against Paul remind one of those against Stephen (#Ac 6:13) in which Paul had participated according to his confession (#22:20). Like the charges against Stephen and Jesus before him truth and falsehood are mixed. Paul had said that being a Jew would not save a man. He had taught the law of Moses was not binding on Gentiles. He did hold, like Jesus and Stephen, that the temple was not the only place to worship God. But Paul gloried himself in being a Jew, considered the Mosaic law righteous for Jews, and was honoring the temple at this very moment. {And moreover also he brought Greeks also into the temple} (eti te kai hellenas eisegagen eis to hieron). Note the three particles (eti te kai), {and} (te) {still more} (eti) {also} or {even} (kai). Worse than his teaching (didaskwn) is his dreadful deed: he actually brought (eisegagen, second aorist active indicative of eisagw). this he had a right to do if they only went into the court of the Gentiles. But these Jews mean to imply that Paul had brought Greeks beyond this court into the court of Israel. An inscription was found by Clermont-Ganneau in Greek built into the walls of a mosque on the Via Dolorosa that was on the wall dividing the court of Israel from the court of the Gentiles. Death was the penalty to any Gentile who crossed over into the Court of Israel (_The Athenaeum_, July, 1871). {Hath defiled this holy place} (kekoinwken ton hagion topon touton). Present perfect active of koinow, to make common (see on 10:14). Note vivid change of tense, the defilement lasts (state of completion). All this is the substance of the call of these shrewd conspirators from Ephesus, Jews (not Jewish Christians, not even Judaizers) who hated him for his work there and who probably "spoke evil of the Way before the multitude" there so that Paul had to separate the disciples from the synagogue and go to the School of Tyrannus (#19:9f.). These enemies of Paul had now raised the cry of "fire" and vanish from the scene completely (#24:19). this charge was absolutely false as we shall see, made out of inferences of hate and suspicion.
