3rd Missionary Trip - Lorin

days: Ἐπιμενόντων δὲ ἡμέρας πλείους, and while remaining with them
many days. The adjective πλείους is the comparative form of πολύς,
πολλή, πολύ, in the feminine accusative plural spelling. The idea is
literally, many more days, or, possibly, very many days. 282 In either case,
the time period depicted here was considerably more than a week or
so.
Toward the end of that visit, a new person arrives in Caesarea
from Judea: κατῆλθέν τις ἀπὸ τῆς Ἰουδαίας προφήτης ὀνόματι
Ἅγαβος, a prophet named Agabus came down from Judea. This is the
same fellow who many years before in the middle 40s had traveled
from Jerusalem up to Antioch in Syria, and predicted that God would
send a great famine which happened in Judea and prompted the relief
offering from Antioch to Jerusalem described in Acts 11:27-30. This
was Paul’s first meeting with Agabus. His ‘prophecy’ here, however, is
depicted in the full blown form often found in the Old Testament. It was
an ‘acted-out’ prophecy, which surfaces on occasion among the OT
prophets. 283 These ‘symbolic’ prophecies as a literary genre contained
the symbolic action, a ‘thus says the Lord” introductory formula, and
an interpretation of the symbolic action. Agabus’ action contains all
three of these elements: καὶ ἐλθὼν πρὸς ἡμᾶς καὶ ἄρας τὴν ζώνην τοῦ
Παύλου, δήσας ἑαυτοῦ τοὺς πόδας καὶ τὰς χεῖρας εἶπεν· τάδε λέγει τὸ
πνεῦμα τὸ ἅγιον· τὸν ἄνδρα οὗ ἐστιν ἡ ζώνη αὕτη, οὕτως δήσουσιν ἐν Ἰερουσαλὴμ οἱ Ἰουδαῖοι καὶ παραδώσουσιν
εἰς χεῖρας ἐθνῶν, He came to us and took Paul’s belt, bound his own feet and hands with it, and said, “Thus says the Holy
Spirit, ‘This is the way the Jews in Jerusalem will bind the man who owns this belt and will hand him over to the Gentiles.’ ”
What Agabus did in dramatic fashion, was to remove the belt like girdle around Paul’s waist and then tie
up both his hands and his feet with it. Once Paul’s was tied up, Agabus pronounced the divine interpretation of
this action. He introduced it with a distinctive Christian angle, rather than with the usual OT formula: τάδε λέγει
τὸ πνεῦμα τὸ ἅγιον, Thus the Holy Spirit says. 284 Thus Agabus was speaking in behalf of God to deliver God’s
message to Paul, and to the people gathered in the meeting. The message, stated in very generalized terms
rather than in specifics, interpreted the meaning of the symbolic action: τὸν ἄνδρα οὗ ἐστιν ἡ ζώνη αὕτη, οὕτως
δήσουσιν ἐν Ἰερουσαλὴμ οἱ Ἰουδαῖοι καὶ παραδώσουσιν εἰς χεῖρας ἐθνῶν, ‘This is the way the Jews in Jerusalem will
bind the man who owns this belt and will hand him over to the Gentiles.’ This was not news, for Paul had been receiving
signals along this very line for weeks in almost every port the group had stopped at on their trip. 285 Agabus, unlike
the believers in Tire (21:4), did not encourage Paul to abandon his plans to go to Jerusalem. Rather he merely
warned him of what would happen when Paul arrived in the city. The beginning signal of potential trouble ahead
in Jerusalem came to Paul at Corinth with the plot by the Jewish leaders to kill him (Acts 20:3).
But the dramatic ‘symbolic’ prophecy from Agabus really caught everyone’s attention: ὡς δὲ ἠκούσαμεν
ταῦτα, παρεκαλοῦμεν ἡμεῖς τε καὶ οἱ ἐντόπιοι τοῦ μὴ ἀναβαίνειν αὐτὸν εἰς Ἰερουσαλήμ, When we heard this, we and
the people there urged him not to go up to Jerusalem. Both the members of the delegation, as well as the gathered
believers in Caesarea, urged Paul to not go to Jerusalem. The imperfect tense verb παρεκαλοῦμεν underscores
282 In ancient Koine Greek the comparative forms of adjectives and adverbs often covered both the comparative and the superlative
ideas, as well as the illative idea of very many. Not all adjectives and adverbs had an alternative superlative spelling.
283 “For symbolic prophecies in the OT, see 1 Kgs 11:29–31; Isa 8:1–4; 20:1–4; Jer 13:1–11; 19:1–13; 27:1–22; Hos 1:2. This is
the only complete example in the NT of the form, which includes the symbolic act, the formula ‘thus says,’ and the interpretation of the
symbolism.” [John B. Polhill, vol. 26, Acts, The New American Commentary (Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 1995), 435.]
284For example, Hosea 1:2. the Lord said to Hosea, εἶπεν κύριος πρὸς Ωσηε (עֵׁ֑שֹוהְּב
הָ֖והְי־רֶּבִּדַ)
285Note Paul’s statement to the Ephesian leaders at Miletus, Acts 20:22-24. 22 And now, as a captive to the Spirit,c I am on my
way to Jerusalem, not knowing what will happen to me there, 23 except that the Holy Spirit testifies to me in every city that imprisonment
and persecutions are waiting for me. 24 But I do not count my life of any value to myself, if only I may finish my course and the
ministry that I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the good news of God’s grace.
22 Καὶ νῦν ἰδοὺ δεδεμένος ἐγὼ τῷ πνεύματι πορεύομαι εἰς Ἰερουσαλὴμ τὰ ἐν αὐτῇ συναντήσοντά μοι μὴ εἰδώς, 23 πλὴν ὅτι τὸ
πνεῦμα τὸ ἅγιον κατὰ πόλιν διαμαρτύρεταί μοι λέγον ὅτι δεσμὰ καὶ θλίψεις με μένουσιν. 24 ἀλλʼ οὐδενὸς λόγου ποιοῦμαι τὴν ψυχὴν
τιμίαν ἐμαυτῷ ὡς τελειῶσαι τὸν δρόμον μου καὶ τὴν διακονίαν ἣν ἔλαβον παρὰ τοῦ κυρίου Ἰησοῦ, διαμαρτύρασθαι τὸ εὐαγγέλιον τῆς
χάριτος τοῦ θεοῦ.
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