My accusers never found me arguing with anyone in the Temple, nor stirring up a riot in any synagogue or on the streets of the city.
Parallel translations
- WEB In the temple they didn’t find me disputing with anyone or stirring up a crowd, either in the synagogues, or in the city.
- KJV And they neither found me in the temple disputing with any man, neither raising up the people, neither in the synagogues, nor in the city:
- BSB Yet my accusers did not find me debating with anyone in the temple or riling up a crowd in the synagogues or in the city.
- NKJV And they neither found me in the temple disputing with anyone nor inciting the crowd, either in the synagogues or in the city.
- NASB And neither in the temple did they find me carrying on a discussion with anyone or causing a riot, nor in the synagogues, nor in the city itself.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Paul states that no one found him arguing or inciting crowds in the temple, synagogues, or city. He denies the charge of stirring up disturbances.
Overview
Paul directly refutes the accusation of being a rabble-rouser, noting his accusers cannot point to any actual incident of agitation. His peaceful conduct exposes the falsehood of the prosecution. The verse highlights that the gospel Paul preached was no threat to public order, however much its opponents portrayed it as such.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 4
- Acts 25:8while he said in his defense, “Neither against the law of the Jews, nor against the temple, nor against Caesar, have I sinned at all.”
- Acts 28:17After three days Paul called together those who were the leaders of the Jews. When they had come together, he said to them, “I, brothers, though I had done nothing against the people, or the customs of our fathers, still was delivered prisoner from Jerusalem into the hands of the Romans,
- Acts 24:18amid which certain Jews from Asia found me purified in the temple, not with a mob, nor with turmoil.
- Acts 24:5For we have found this man to be a plague, an instigator of insurrections among all the Jews throughout the world, and a ringleader of the sect of the Nazarenes.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Christ at the center
Acts is the risen Christ continuing his work by the Spirit through the church, as the apostles preach that there is salvation in no other name under heaven.
How Acts 24:12 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Greek word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.