Acts 21:11-13

21:11 He came 1  to us, took 2  Paul’s belt, 3  tied 4  his own hands and feet with it, 5  and said, “The Holy Spirit says this: ‘This is the way the Jews in Jerusalem will tie up the man whose belt this is, and will hand him over 6  to the Gentiles.’” 21:12 When we heard this, both we and the local people 7  begged him not to go up to Jerusalem. 21:13 Then Paul replied, “What are you doing, weeping and breaking 8  my heart? For I am ready not only to be tied up, 9  but even to die in Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus.”

1 tn Grk “And coming.” Because of the difference between Greek style, which often begins sentences or clauses with “and,” and English style, which generally does not, καί (kai) has not been translated here. The participle ἐλθών (elqwn) has been translated as a finite verb due to requirements of contemporary English style.

2 tn Grk “and taking.” This καί (kai) has not been translated since English normally uses a coordinating conjunction only between the last two elements in a series of three or more. The participle ἄρας (aras) has been translated as a finite verb due to requirements of contemporary English style.

3 sn The belt was a band or sash used to keep money as well as to gird up the tunic (BDAG 431 s.v. ζώνη).

4 tn The participle δήσας (dhsas) has been translated as a finite verb due to requirements of contemporary English style.

5 tn The words “with it” are not in the Greek text, but are implied.

6 tn Grk “and will deliver him over into the hands of” (a Semitic idiom).

sn The Jews…will tie up…and will hand him over. As later events will show, the Jews in Jerusalem did not personally tie Paul up and hand him over to the Gentiles, but their reaction to him was the cause of his arrest (Acts 21:27-36).

7 tn Or “the people there.”

8 tn The term translated “breaking” as used by Josephus (Ant. 10.10.4 [10.207]) means to break something into pieces, but in its only NT use (it is a hapax legomenon) it is used figuratively (BDAG 972 s.v. συνθρύπτω).

9 tn L&N 18.13 has “to tie objects together – ‘to tie, to tie together, to tie up.’” The verb δέω (dew) is sometimes figurative for imprisonment (L&N 37.114), but it is preferable to translate it literally here in light of v. 11 where Agabus tied himself up with Paul’s belt.