Division 21:17–28:31
Paul’s trials and journey to Rome
This division is the history about the years when Paul went to Jerusalem and was arrested, tried, and sent to Rome. It mentions other people only as they interacted in some way with Paul.
Section 21:17–26
Paul began to participate in a Jewish ritual
In this section, Paul reported to the Jerusalem church leaders what God had done through him. Luke mentions the apostle James, perhaps as the chief leader of the church. Then the leaders asked Paul to participate in a Jewish ritual of purification with four Jewish believers in Jesus. They wanted to show that Paul did not teach Jewish believers to abandon the law. He agreed to do that. He told the Jewish authorities at the temple what he planned to do.
Other examples of headings for this section are:
Paul’s first days in Jerusalem
-or-
Paul at Jerusalem (New American Standard Bible)
-or-
The church leaders asked Paul to do something
Paragraph 21:17–19
21:17
we: The pronoun we began to be used in 20:5. It probably refers to Paul, Luke, and the others who traveled with them, perhaps five to twelve men in total.
the brothers: Here the word brothers refers to believers in Jesus, both men and women. The word indicates a close relationship because all believers become children of God. If people in your area will think that the word brothers refers to literal brothers, you may want to explain it in your translation. Some examples are:
our brothers ⌊and sisters⌋ ⌊in Christ⌋
-or-
the believers (Good News Translation)
-or-
the brothers, ⌊the disciples of Jesus⌋
See how you translated this word in 1:16 or 21:7.
welcomed: Here this word refers to welcoming Paul and the others. It implies that they accepted them as fellow believers. For example:
received (New International Version)
-or-
welcomed us ⌊and accepted us into their fellowship/group⌋
joyfully: The Greek word that the Berean Standard Bible translates as joyfully means “gladly.” The believers in Jerusalem were very happy to see Paul and the others.
© 2001, 2021 by SIL International®
Made available under the terms of a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License (CC BY-SA) creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0.
All Scripture quotations in this publication, unless otherwise indicated, are from The Holy Bible, Berean Standard Bible.
BSB is produced in cooperation with Bible Hub, Discovery Bible, OpenBible.com, and the Berean Bible Translation Committee.