My accusers saw me in the Temple as I was completing a purification ceremony. There was no crowd around me and no rioting.
Parallel translations
- WEB amid which certain Jews from Asia found me purified in the temple, not with a mob, nor with turmoil.
- KJV Whereupon certain Jews from Asia found me purified in the temple, neither with multitude, nor with tumult.
- BSB 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
- NKJV in the midst of which some Jews from Asia found me purified in the temple, neither with a mob nor with tumult.
- NASB in which they found me occupied in the temple, having been purified, without any crowd or uproar. But there were some Jews from Asia—
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 notes that certain Jews from Asia found him ceremonially purified in the temple, not with a crowd or causing a riot. This directly refutes the charge of temple desecration.
Overview
Paul had come to the temple in proper ritual purity, quietly worshiping rather than provoking disorder. The very ones who could verify this, the Asian Jews who first raised the outcry, are tellingly absent from the trial. The detail dismantles the central accusation and exposes how rumor and prejudice, not fact, drove the charges against him.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 3
- Acts 26:21For this reason the Jews seized me in the temple, and tried to kill me.
- Acts 21:26–30Then Paul took the men, and the next day, purified himself and went with them into the temple, declaring the fulfillment of the days of purification, until the offering was offered for every one of them.
- Acts 24:12In the temple they didn’t find me disputing with anyone or stirring up a crowd, either in the synagogues, or in the city.
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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 24:18 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
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