Discovery BoxActs 21:32-35 
Context21:32 He 1 immediately took 2 soldiers and centurions 3 and ran down to the crowd. 4 When they saw 5 the commanding officer 6 and the soldiers, they stopped beating 7 Paul. 21:33 Then the commanding officer 8 came up and arrested 9 him and ordered him to be tied up with two chains; 10 he 11 then asked who he was and what 12 he had done. 21:34 But some in the crowd shouted one thing, and others something else, 13 and when the commanding officer 14 was unable 15 to find out the truth 16 because of the disturbance, 17 he ordered Paul 18 to be brought into the barracks. 19 21:35 When he came to the steps, Paul 20 had to be carried 21 by the soldiers because of the violence 22 of the mob,
1 tn Grk “who.” Because of the length and complexity of the Greek sentence and the tendency of contemporary English to use shorter sentences, the relative pronoun (“who”) was translated as a pronoun (“he”) and a new sentence was begun here in the translation.
2 tn Grk “taking…ran down.” The participle κατέδραμεν (katedramen) has been translated as a finite verb due to requirements of contemporary English style.
3 sn See the note on the word centurion in 10:1.
4 tn Grk “to them”; the referent (the crowd) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
5 tn Grk “seeing.” The participle ἰδόντες (idonte") has been taken temporally.
6 tn Grk “the chiliarch” (an officer in command of a thousand soldiers). See note on the term “commanding officer” in v. 31.
7 sn The mob stopped beating Paul because they feared the Romans would arrest them for disturbing the peace and for mob violence. They would let the Roman officials take care of the matter from this point on.
8 tn Grk “the chiliarch” (an officer in command of a thousand soldiers). See note on the term “commanding officer” in v. 31.
9 tn Grk “seized.”
10 tn The two chains would be something like handcuffs (BDAG 48 s.v. ἅλυσις and compare Acts 28:20).
11 tn Grk “and he.” Because of the length and complexity of the Greek sentence, a new sentence was begun in the translation, and καί (kai) has been replaced with a semicolon. “Then” has been supplied after “he” to clarify the logical sequence.
12 tn Grk “and what it is”; this has been simplified to “what.”
13 tn L&N 33.77 has “ἄλλοι δὲ ἄλλο τι ἐπεφώνουν ἐν τῷ ὄχλῳ ‘some in the crowd shouted one thing; others, something else’ Ac 21:34.”
14 tn Grk “he”; the referent (the commanding officer) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
15 tn This genitive absolute construction has been translated temporally; it could also be taken causally: “and since the commanding officer was unable to find out the truth.”
16 tn Or “find out what had happened”; Grk “the certainty” (BDAG 147 s.v. ἀσφαλής 2).
17 tn Or “clamor,” “uproar” (BDAG 458 s.v. θόρυβος).
18 tn Grk “him”; the referent (Paul) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
19 tn Or “the headquarters.” BDAG 775 s.v. παρεμβολή 2 has “barracks/headquarters of the Roman troops in Jerusalem Ac 21:34, 37; 22:24; 23:10, 16, 32.”
20 tn Grk “he”; the referent (Paul) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
21 sn Paul had to be carried. Note how the arrest really ended up protecting Paul. The crowd is portrayed as irrational at this point.
22 tn This refers to mob violence (BDAG 175 s.v. βία b).
