Agabus Warns Paul – Acts 21:10-11

While he is staying with Philip, the prophet Agabus approaches Paul and performs a prophetic action (21:10-11). Like Philip, Agabus was mentioned earlier in the book of Acts. He prophesied a famine in Jerusalem (Acts 11:27-30), prompting the Antioch church to send Barnabas and Saul to deliver relief funds to the Christians there.

Agabus took Paul’s belt and bound his hands and feet to demonstrate what the Jews would do to him when he got to Jerusalem. Agabus says, “Thus says the Holy Spirit” (τάδε λέγει τὸ πνεῦμα τὸ ἅγιον). This is the same way Old Testament Prophets introduce their prophecies, “Thus says the Lord” (τάδε λέγει κύριος; Isaiah 7:7, for example). Luke 1:67 attributes Zechariah’s prophecy to the Holy Spirit.

Technically, the Jews do not bind Paul; the Romans do. And the Jews do not hand him over to the Gentiles, the Romans rescue Paul from the Jews (who are about to kill him). For some scholars, this is a prophecy that is not quite accurate. Wayne Grudem, for example, cites this as an example of a “church prophecy” that is generally correct, but not the infallible word of God (like an OT prophet). Keener calls this “pedantic literalism” and says no biblical prophet’s words would survive such scrutiny (Keener, Acts, 3:3106).

Luke is drawing several comparisons between Paul and Jesus in these stories. First, Paul is compelled to go to Jerusalem; in Luke 9:51, Jesus “set out resolutely for Jerusalem.” Second, just as Jesus predicted his own treatment at the hands of the Jews in Jerusalem, so too the Spirit predicts Paul’s mistreatment. The difference, however, is that Paul is not told that he will die in Jerusalem. Would a reader pick up on this and think Paul will die at the end of the book, like Jesus did in Luke?

Agabus does not tell Paul that he should not continue to Jerusalem. But when the other believers heard Agabus’s prophecy, they tried to persuade Paul not to go. Even Luke joins in, as seen in the use of “we” in 21:12-14.

Paul asks why they are “breaking his heart” (21:13). The verb συνθρύπτω is only used here in the New Testament. It has the sense of breaking something into pieces (in a textual variant, θρύπτω is used for Jesus breaking the bread at the Last Supper (1 Cor 11:24 in D). In non-biblical Greek, θρύπτω has the sense of weakening something, making it soft, or causing it to crumble. Does this mean that his resolve to continue the trip to Jerusalem is weakening? Once again, we have the theme of a prophetic warning, and Paul continued to Jerusalem.

Paul was warned he would suffer when he was first called to be the apostle to the Gentiles (Acts 9:15-16). Now he repeats his commitment: he is ready to be imprisoned and even die for the name of the Lord Jesus. There is no lack of resolve in Paul’s mind. Is there an intentional parallel here with Peter (Tannehill, Acts, 264-65)? After Jesus predicted that Satan would test Simon Peter, Peter said, “Lord, I am ready to go with you both to prison and to death” (Luke 22:33).

The disciples cannot persuade Paul to avoid Jerusalem, so they finally say, “Let the will of the Lord be done.” Paul knows what God’s will is for him (to go to Jerusalem, and eventually to Rome), even if he does not know how this will all happen.