¹It was painful to say goodbye to the Ephesian elders, but once we had done that, we headed out to sea and sailed straight to Kos. The next day we went to Rhodes, and from there we continued on to Patara.

²We found a ship crossing over to Phoenicia, so we went on board and headed out to sea.

³We spotted Cyprus and went south of it, and then we sailed on to Syria. We landed at Tyre, where our ship would unload.

⁴We found some disciples there and stayed with them for seven days. Led by the Holy Spirit, they tried to keep Paul from going on to Jerusalem.

⁵But when it was time to leave, we continued on our way. All the believers, including their whole families, went with us out of the city. There on the beach we all got down on our knees to pray.

⁶We said goodbye to each other, and then we went on board the ship while they returned home.

⁷Continuing on from Tyre, we landed at Ptolemais. There we greeted the brothers and sisters and stayed with them for a day.

⁸The next day we left and arrived at Caesarea. There we stayed at the house of Philip the evangelist, who was one of the seven deacons.

⁹He had four unmarried daughters who prophesied.

¹⁰After we had been there for several days, a prophet named Agabus came down from Judea.

¹¹He came over to us, took Paul’s belt, and tied his own hands and feet with it. Then he said, “The Holy Spirit says, ‘This is how the Jewish leaders in Jerusalem will tie up the owner of this belt. They will hand him over to the Gentiles.’ ”

¹²When we heard this, we all begged Paul not to go up to Jerusalem.

¹³He asked, “Why are you crying? Why are you breaking my heart? I’m ready to be put in prison. I’m even ready to die in Jerusalem for the Lord Jesus.”

¹⁴We couldn’t change his mind, so we stopped begging him and said, “Whatever the Lord wants will be done.”

¹⁵After this, we started on our way to Jerusalem.

¹⁶Some of the disciples from Caesarea went with us. They brought us to Mnason’s home, where we were going to stay. Mnason was from Cyprus and was one of the first disciples.

¹⁷When we arrived in Jerusalem, the brothers and sisters welcomed us warmly.

¹⁸The next day Paul and the rest of us went to see James. All the elders were there.

¹⁹Paul greeted them and reported everything God had done among the Gentiles through his work.

²⁰When they heard this, they praised God. But then they said to Paul, “Brother, you see that thousands of Jews have become believers. All of them try very hard to obey the law.

²¹They’ve been told that you teach the Jews who live among the Gentiles to turn away from the Law of Moses. They think that you teach those Jews to give up our Jewish ways and not circumcise their children.

²²What should we do? They will hear that you’ve come.

²³So please do what we tell you. There are four men with us who’ve made a promise to God.

²⁴Go with them and join them in the Jewish practice that makes people pure and clean. Pay their expenses so they can have their heads shaved. Then everyone will know that these reports about you aren’t true in any way. They’ll know that you yourself obey the law.

²⁵We’ve already written a letter to the believers who aren’t Jews. We’ve told them not to eat food that has been offered to statues of gods, not to drink blood, not to eat meat that still has blood in it, and not to be sexually immoral.”

²⁶The next day Paul took the men with him. They all made themselves pure and clean in the Jewish way. Then Paul went to the temple and reported the date when the days of cleansing would end. At that time the proper offering would be made for each of them.

²⁷The seven days of cleansing were almost over when some Jews from the province of Asia saw Paul at the temple. They grabbed him and stirred up the whole crowd,

²⁸shouting, “Fellow Israelites, help us! This is the man who goes to everyone everywhere and teaches against our people, our law, and this holy place. He has even brought Greeks into this temple and made our holy place unclean.”

²⁹They said this because they had seen Trophimus, a man from Ephesus, in the city with Paul. They assumed that Paul had brought him into the temple.

³⁰The whole city was stirred up and people came running from all directions. They grabbed Paul and dragged him out of the temple. They closed the temple gates behind him so that he couldn’t get back in to safety.

³¹The people were trying to kill Paul, but news of the violence reached the commander of the Roman troops. He heard that people were making trouble in the whole city of Jerusalem.

³²So he rushed right out, taking some officers and soldiers with him. They all ran down to the crowd, and when the people causing the trouble saw the commander and his soldiers, they stopped beating Paul.

³³The commander came up and arrested Paul. He ordered him to be held with two chains. Then he asked who Paul was and what he had done.

³⁴Some in the crowd shouted one thing, while others shouted something else. The commander couldn’t get the facts because of all the noise, so he ordered Paul to be taken into the fort.

³⁵When they got as far as the steps, the mob became so wild that the soldiers had to lift Paul up and carry him overhead.

³⁶The crowd around them kept shouting, “Kill him, kill him!”

³⁷The soldiers were about to take Paul into the fort when he asked the commander, “May I say something to you?”

“You speak Greek?” he replied.

³⁸“Aren’t you that Egyptian who started a revolt and led 4,000 terrorists out into the desert some time ago?”

³⁹Paul answered, “I’m a Jew from Tarsus in Cilicia—a citizen of an important city. Please let me speak to the people.”

⁴⁰The commander told him he could, so Paul stood on the steps and motioned to the crowd. When they quieted down, he began to speak to them in the Hebrew language.