Acts 21:11 — meaning, Hebrew and Greek word study, commentary
Acts 21:11
And when he was come unto us, he took Paul’s girdle, and bound his own hands and feet, and said, Thus saith the Holy Ghost, So shall the Jews at Jerusalem bind the man that owneth this girdle, and shall deliver him into the hands of the Gentiles.
the he (she or it) · demonstrative pronoun — nominative singular feminine
girdle
ζώνηzōnē
G2223
a belt · noun — nominative singular feminine
and
καὶkai
G2532
and · conjunction
deliver
παραδώσουσινparadōsousin
G3860
to surrender · verb — future active indicative, 3rd person plural
into
εἰςeis
G1519
to or into (indicating the point reached or entered) · preposition
hands
χεῖραςcheiras
G5495
the hand (literally or figuratively (power) · noun — accusative plural feminine
Gentiles
ἐθνῶν.ethnōn
G1484
a race (as of the same habit) · noun — genitive plural neuter
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
Acts 21:33 Then the chief captain came near, and took him, and commanded him to be bound with two chains; and demanded who he was, and what he had done…
1 Samuel 15:27-28 And as Samuel turned about to go away, he laid hold upon the skirt of his mantle, and it rent.
Jeremiah 13:1-11 Thus saith the LORD unto me, Go and get thee a linen girdle, and put it upon thy loins, and put it not in water.
1 Kings 11:29-31 And it came to pass at that time when Jeroboam went out of Jerusalem, that the prophet Ahijah the Shilonite found him in the way; and he had…
1 Kings 22:11 And Zedekiah the son of Chenaanah made him horns of iron: and he said, Thus saith the LORD, With these shalt thou push the Syrians, until th…
2 Kings 13:15-19 And Elisha said unto him, Take bow and arrows. And he took unto him bow and arrows.
Jeremiah 19:10-11 Then shalt thou break the bottle in the sight of the men that go with thee,
Ezekiel 24:19-25 And the people said unto me, Wilt thou not tell us what these things are to us, that thou doest so?
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Acts 21:8-14
We have here Paul and his company arrived at length at Caesarea, where he designed to make some stay, it being the place where the gospel was first preached to the Gentiles, and the Holy Ghost fell upon them, Act 10:1, Act 10:44. Now here we are told,
I. Who it was that entertained Paul and his company at Caesarea. He seldom had occasion to go to a public house, but, wherever he came, some friend or other took him in, and bade him welcome. Observe, those that had sailed together parted when the voyage was accomplished, according as their business was. "Those that were concerned in the cargo staid where the ship was to unlade her burden (Act 21:3); others, when they came to Ptolemais, went as…
So shall the Jews bind the man that owneth this girdle, &c.--For though the Romans did it, it was at the Jews' instigation (Act 21:33; Act 28:17). Such dramatic methods of announcing important future events would bring the old prophets to remembrance. (Compare Isa 20:2, &c.; Jer 13:1, and Eze 5:1, &c.). This prediction and that at Tyre (Act 21:4) were intended, not to prohibit him from going, but to put his courage to the test and when he stood the test, to deepen and mature it.
Adam Clarke on Acts 21:11
Took Paul's girdle, and bound his own hands, etc. - This was no doubt a prophet, in the commonly received sense of the term; and his mode of acting was like that of the ancient prophets, who often accompanied their predictions with significant emblems. Jeremiah was commanded to bury his girdle by the river Euphrates, to mark out the captivity of the Jews. Jer 13:4. For more examples of this figurative or symbolical prophesying, see Jer 27:2, Jer 27:3; Jer 28:4; Isa 20:1-6; Ezekiel 4:1-17; 12:1-28, etc.
Into the hands of the Gentiles - That is, the Romans, for the Jews had not, properly speaking, the power of life and death. And, as Agabus said he should be delivered into the hands of the Gen…
Agabus, the one who long ago foretold the famine. But the troubling thing is that they will hand him over into the hands of Gentiles. And see that when Paul heard that he would suffer countless terrible things, then he was hastening. And Agabus did not say that they would bind Paul, so as not to seem to speak from an agreement; but "the man whose belt this is."
When Agabus, making use of corresponding action too, had foretold that bonds awaited Paul, the disciples, weeping and entreating that he would not venture upon going to Jerusalem, entreated in vain. As for him, having a mind to illustrate what he had always taught, he says, "Why weep ye, and grieve my heart? But for my part, I could wish not only to suffer bonds, but also to die at Jerusalem, for the name of my Lord Jesus Christ.
Thus says the Holy Spirit: The man whose belt this is, will be bound by the Jews in Jerusalem in this way. He imitates the old prophets, who used to say: Thus says the Lord God. Because the Holy Spirit is equally Lord and God, as the Father and the Son, and their activity cannot be separated, whose nature and will is one. Whence we also read above: The Holy Spirit said: Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them (Acts XIII), that is, the apostleship. And Paul himself writes: Paul, an apostle not from men nor through man, but through Jesus Christ, and God the Father (Galatians I). We have said this, lest anyone, after the manner of Macedonius, thinks the Holy Spirit to be a creature or of lesser authority than the Father or the Son.
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Dictionary and topics
Agabus — A “prophet,” probably one of the seventy disciples of Christ. He prophesied at Antioch of an approaching famine (Acts 11:27, 28). Many years afterwards he met Paul at Caesarea, and warned him of the…
Garments · Mentioned in scripture: Girdle — Mentioned in scripture: Girdle
Girdle · SYMBOLI — SYMBOLI
Holy Spirit, The Teacher, The · As such he: Reveals the future — As such he: Reveals the future
Luke · To — To
Pantomime · By Agabus — By Agabus
Prophecy · .Exemplified in pantomimeEze 4;5:1-4; — .Exemplified in pantomimeEze 4;5:1-4;
Rashness · admonitions of the Holy Spirit — admonitions of the Holy Spirit
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
on Acts 21:11
And when he was come unto us,.... In Philip's house:
he took Paul's girdle and bound his own hands and feet; and so prophesied by types and symbols, and gestures, as the prophets of old did; as Isaiah in Isaiah 20:2 and Jeremiah in Jeremiah 13:1, and Ezekiel in Ezekiel 4:1 and Hosea in Hosea 1:2, some understand this of his binding Paul's hands and feet, but it seems rather to design his own:
and said, thus saith the Holy Ghost; who was in Agabus, and spoke by him, and foretold some things to come to pass; and which did come to pass, and is a proof of the foreknowledge, and so of the deity of the blessed Spirit:
so shall the Jews at Jerusalem bind the man that owns this girdle; meaning P…
Acts 21:7-14
7. And when we had finished our course from Tyre, we came down to Ptolemais, and after that we had saluted the brethren, we abode with them one day. 8. And on the morrow, we which were with Paul departed, and came to Cesarea; and, entering into the house of Philip the evangelist, which was one of the seven, we abode with him. 9. And this man had four daughters, virgins, which did prophesy. 10. And when we abode many days, there came a certain prophet from Judea, named Agabus. 11. When he was come to us, he took, Paul's girdle, and, binding his own feet and hands, he said, Thus saith the Holy Ghost, The man which owneth this girdle shall the Jews thus bind at Jerusalem, and shal…
Despite Agabus’s prediction of suffering and the believers’ begging Paul not to go to Jerusalem, Paul was resolutely ready even to die for the sake of the Lord Jesus. Luke stresses Paul’s courage, determination, and heroism as a Christian missionary who would let nothing interfere with his mission. See study note on 21:4-6.
