Seite 156 - Sketches from the Life of Paul (1883)

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152
Sketches from the Life of Paul
the people, and the law, and this place.” And as the people in great
excitement flocked to the scene another accusation was added to excite
their passions to the highest pitch,—“and further brought Greeks also
into the temple, and hath polluted this holy place.”
By the Jewish law, it was a crime punishable with death for an
uncircumcised person to enter the inner courts of the sacred edifice.
As Paul had been seen in the city in company with Trophimus, an
Ephesian, it was conjectured that he had brought him into the temple.
This he had not done, and being himself a Jew, his act in entering the
temple was no violation of the law. But though the charge was wholly
false, it served to stir up the popular prejudice. As the cry was taken up
and borne through the temple courts, the vast throngs gathered there
were thrown into the wildest excitement. The news quickly spread
through Jerusalem, “and all the city was moved, and the people ran
together.”
That an apostate from Israel should presume to profane the temple
at the very time when thousands had come from all parts of the world
to worship there, excited the fiercest passions of the mob. Only their
reverence for the temple saved the apostle from being torn in pieces
on the spot. With violent blows and shouts of vindictive triumph, they
[217]
dragged him from the sacred inclosure. Now that they had him in
their power, they were determined not to lose their prey. He should be
stoned to death, as Stephen had been years before. They had already
reached the court of the Gentiles, and the Levites had closed the gates
behind them, lest the holy place should be polluted with blood, when
they were interrupted in their murderous designs.
News had been carried to Claudius Lysias, the commander of the
Roman garrison, that all Jerusalem was in an uproar. Lysias well knew
the turbulent elements with which he had to deal, and with his officers
and a strong force of armed men he rushed down to the temple court.
Ignorant of the cause of the tumult, but seeing that the rage of the
multitude was directed against Paul, the Roman captain concluded that
he must be the Egyptian rebel who had so successfully eluded their
vigilance. He commanded that Paul be seized, and bound between two
soldiers, a hand being chained to each. He then questioned those who
seemed to be leaders in the tumult as to who their prisoner was, and
of what crime he had been guilty. Many voices were at once raised
in loud and angry accusation; but on account of the uproar the chief