Acts 21:1-6 meaning

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Paul and his team sail from Miletus to Lycia, where they board a ship bound for Phoenicia. In Tyre, Phoencia, they stay with believers for a week. The Tyrian believers warn Paul not to go to Jerusalem, but Paul is determined. They have a time of prayer before Paul departs.

In Acts 21:1-6, Paul finishes the last leg of his voyage across the Mediterranean Sea to Israel/Judea, but his friends worry for him the closer he gets to Jerusalem.

In Acts 20, Paul had been abroad in the Roman Empire on his third missionary journey for multiple years. He decided to return to Jerusalem, hoping to make it to the holy city in time to celebrate Pentecost. While sailing back from Macedonia and the Roman province of Asia, Paul avoided visiting the city of Ephesus. He was afraid that he would be enticed to stay too long among the community of believers there. Instead, he stopped in the neighboring city of Miletus and summoned the elders of the Ephesian church to meet him.

Paul warned the elders about false teachers who would come and try to corrupt the Ephesian church. He also informed them that he would never see them again, and that the Holy Spirit had repeatedly told him that he would suffer and be taken captive in Jerusalem. The elders wept and embraced Paul.

Luke, the author of Acts, was present for this particular event. He is among the team of ministers accompanying Paul back to Israel (Acts 20:6). He writes,

When we had parted from them and had set sail, we ran a straight course to Cos and the next day to Rhodes and from there to Patara (v. 1).

After they had parted from them—the Ephesian elders—they continued their sea voyage back to Israel. In the previous chapter and this one, Luke has recorded details about the various places where Paul’s team has harbored along their travels. Other travelogue accounts in the book of Acts have been detailed, but arguably not quite to this degree. The probable reason for this is because Luke was present in the flesh for this journey. Earlier episodes of travel were based on accounts given to Luke secondhand.

But here, where Luke is able to provide his own firsthand account, the details regarding locations are more numerous and granular. He was part of Paul’s team in Acts 16:11-12, specifying multiple stops during their voyage. In another sea voyage later on in Acts, Luke will likewise have lived through it personally, and will provide ample details of all they experienced in their travels (Acts 27-28). This is in accordance with Luke’s goal to write “the exact truth” in the accounts of his gospel and the Acts in as great of detail as he can, based on his investigation into eyewitnesses and his own personal experiences (Luke 1:1-4).

Having set sail from Miletus, Paul and his team ran a straight course to Cos, which is the third largest island in the Dodecanese island chain. The Dodecanese island chain consists of fifteen neighboring islands off the southwest coast of Anatolia/Asia Minor (modern-day Turkey).

On the next day, Paul and company reached Rhodes, the most well-known and largest island in the Dodecanese chain. Rhodes once boasted one of the seven wonders of the ancient world, “the Colossus,” a 108-foot-tall statue of Helios the Greek sun god watching over the harbor. An earthquake knocked down the statue at the legs in 226 BC, but it was left to lie where it fell. Paul and his team possibly saw the great statue in its collapsed state while harboring in Rhodes.

From Rhodes, they arrived at the port city of Patara. Patara was a city on the southern coast of Anatolia/Asia Minor (modern-day Turkey), so Paul has temporarily stopped island hopping and has returned to the mainland. Patara belonged to the Roman province of Lycia-Pamphylia. Of note, Saint Nicholas was born in Patara two hundred years after Paul’s brief stay there. Faith in Christ would spread to all these places where Paul was passing through in the years to come.

In Patara, Paul and company were obliged to find another ship to continue their journey east. The ship they sailed on down the coast of Asia Minor was evidently not going further, and may have been turning back around to complete a trade route.

But the Mediterranean Sea was busy with ships in the first century. Paul and company continued the journey home: and having found a ship crossing over to Phoenicia, we went aboard and set sail (v. 2).

This ship was bound for Phoenicia, which is modern-day Lebanon. Phoenicia (“Purple Land”) was the Greek name for that ancient region, where some of the oldest cities in history, Tyre and Sidon, stand to this day. The Phoenicians were Canaanites of old (Genesis 10:15). During His ministry, Jesus went to Tyre briefly, and was impressed by a Canaanite woman who displayed great faith that He could heal her daughter of demonic possession. The woman persisted in asking Him to heal her daughter, though she was a Gentile (Mark 7:24-31, Matthew 15:21-28).

This cargo ship (v. 3) departing from Patara had charted a course crossing over the Mediterranean Sea to make port in Tyre, Phoenicia (v. 3), which was one of the main ports and gateways into the Middle East. Phoenicia was north of Israel and not far. Paul and his team went aboard and set sail, drawing nearer to Jerusalem and the pain waiting there for Paul.

Luke notes that the ship sailed south of the island nation of Cyprus: When we came in sight of Cyprus, leaving it on the left, we kept sailing to Syria (v. 3).

Cyprus was where Paul and his original ministry partner, Barnabas, preached the gospel on their first missionary journey. They preached from one end of the island to the other (Acts 13:5-7). On the eve of their second missionary journey, Paul and Barnabas had a serious disagreement about whether or not to bring John Mark with them; John Mark was Barnabas’ cousin and had abandoned them during the first journey.

Unable to agree, Paul and Barnabas parted ways, and Barnabas took John Mark to Cyprus. The book of Acts makes no mention of Paul ever returning to Cyprus. Barnabas had been born and raised in Cyprus (Acts 4:36) and apparently ministered there multiple times until the end of his life, where, according to tradition, he died a martyr’s death in the city of Salamis.

But here in Acts 21, Paul’s ship does not stop at Cyprus, only coming within sight of it, leaving it on the left side of the boat, meaning that they sailed south of the island. The ship kept sailing for Syria, which was the Roman province within which the region of Phoenicia was included.

The lengthy sea voyage finally comes to an end, where Paul, Luke, and the others make port in the Middle East: and landed at Tyre; for there the ship was to unload its cargo (v. 3).

Tyre has existed and been inhabited since the Bronze Age. It is thought to be one of the oldest cities in the world, dating back as far as 4700 BC. During the reigns of David and Solomon, it enjoyed an alliance with Israel (around 1000 BC). David bought cedar lumber, other materials, and hired craftsmen from Lebanon for Solomon to use to build the Temple in Jerusalem.

King Hiram of Tyre shipped these materials down the coast to Jewish ports, and sent a Tyrian craftsman to help build the Temple (2 Samuel 5:11, 1 Kings 5:1, 1 Kings 5:6-12, 1 Kings 9:26-28). Cedar trees from Tyre were used again to rebuild the Temple in the days of Ezra (Ezra 3:7). There were many prophecies speaking of judgement against Tyre as well (Isaiah 23:1-18, Jeremiah 25:22, 47:4, Ezekiel 26:1-21, 27:1-36). At one point, Tyre was condemned by God for selling slaves to Edom (Amos 1:9-10).

In the first century, Tyre was still a place of international commerce. The ship on which Paul had sailed was a cargo ship, and it was due to unload its unspecified cargo in Tyre.

We learn that there was a church in Tyre: After looking up the disciples, we stayed there seven days; and they kept telling Paul through the Spirit not to set foot in Jerusalem (v. 4).

When the believers in Jesus were persecuted after the murder of Stephen (Acts 8:1-3), most fled Jerusalem. Some went into Phoenicia and preached the gospel to their fellow Jews (Acts 11:19). So, this community of believers in Tyre (and Ptolemais, Acts 21:7) possibly began when the refugees came into the region. Paul may have known these disciples already, since he also stayed with Phoenician believers on his return journey after his first mission trip years earlier (Acts 15:3).

Luke describes how Paul and company went to the house of the disciples in Tyre and were able to lodge in the city for seven days. After so many days at sea and sleeping on a boat, it was probably a welcome relief to rest in one place on land for a week before going up to Jerusalem.

While there, the Tyrian disciples kept telling Paul through the Spirit not to set foot in Jerusalem. Just as the Spirit was solemnly testifying to Paul in every city he went to, telling him that “bonds and affliction” await him, likewise these believers were through the Spirit receiving the same message (Acts 20:23). Through the Spirit, or “because of impressions made by the Spirit,” they had a sense of foreboding for Paul if he went to Jerusalem.

There is nothing in the text that indicates that the Spirit was commanding Paul to avoid this danger, to not go to Jerusalem. Paul was consistent to obey the Spirit’s direction (Acts 16:6-10, 18:9-11, Galatians 5:16-17, 1 Corinthians 2:12-13). In Acts 20:22, it seems as though Paul is saying that the Spirit Himself is directing Paul to Jerusalem. The Spirit was preparing Paul for what would happen to him in Jerusalem.

Similarly, Jesus knew He went to Jerusalem to die, and His disciples tried to persuade Him not to go (Matthew 16:21-22, John 11:7-8, 16). Paul was prepared to suffer, even to die; as he told the Ephesian elders, he did not “consider [his] life of any account as dear to [himself]” (Acts 20:23). From his initial calling by Christ, it was told to Paul that he would suffer (Acts 9:15-16). He had experienced suffering before, and knew he would experience it again (2 Corinthians 11:25).

Paul is imitating Christ’s example (1 Corinthians 11:1). He is adopting the same “phroneo” or mindset as that of Jesus, as Paul encouraged the Philippian believers to do in his letter to them. In the letter to the Philippians, Paul describes how Jesus’s mindset (“phroneo”) was to choose to obey God in all things, all the way to the point of dying on the cross. This was because Jesus trusted God’s promise to reward Him with kingship over all creation for His faithful witness (Philippians 2:5-11). His “phroneo” mindset was on God’s reward.

Whatever pain there will be in Paul’s future, he is also choosing to overlook it and keep his eyes on God’s promised reward for him. Paul kept his focus on the prize (1 Corinthians 9:24, Philippians 3:14).

Furthermore, it was not certain that Paul would die in Jerusalem. The Spirit only warned him of “bonds and afflictions” (Acts 20:23). However, the disciples in Tyre did not want to see their friend suffer, so they kept telling Paul to stay away from Jerusalem, to not even set foot there for any period of time, no matter how brief, but to avoid Jerusalem altogether.

Both Paul and the Tyrian disciples had the same message from the Spirit, but Paul was convicted that this was part of the course he was called to complete for the gospel of Jesus Christ (Acts 20:24). The disciples understandably viewed the revelation through the Spirit as information to be used to protect Paul.

But Paul was unpersuaded by the Tyrians. He was determined to go to Jerusalem. So, at the end of the seven days in Tyre, he continued on his way just as before. Luke describes how the believers in Tyre bid Paul and his team a loving farewell:

When our days there were ended, we left and started on our journey, while they all, with wives and children, escorted us until we were out of the city. After kneeling down on the beach and praying, we said farewell to one another (v. 5).

They had spent a full week in Tyre, and when their days there were ended, Paul and his team went back to the harbor to sail south down the coast of Phoenicia to a Judean port. The believers in Tyre escorted them on their walk out of the city to the shore itself.

Luke describes how entire families of believers saw them off: they all, with their wives and children, escorted them to their boat. Before leaving, Paul’s team and the Tyrians pray on the shore together. It was only After kneeling down on the beach and praying that they said farewell to one another.

Though Paul would not submit to their pleas to avoid Jerusalem, the Tyrian believers and their families care for Paul and his mission. They spend time praying, likely for Paul’s safety, while Paul and his team possibly spent time praying for the Tyrian believers to persist in faith and obedience to God and harmony with one another (2 Timothy 1:13-14, Galatians 6:9, Colossians 3:12-14, Romans 12:9-21.).

Then they said farewell, and Paul’s team departed: Then we went on board the ship, and they returned home again (v. 6).

This serves as a good example to believers to maintain fellowship, support, and affection, even if there are disagreements. The Tyrian believers kept telling Paul not to go to Jerusalem throughout his week among them; they probably had not stopped worrying about him when he left, but they parted ways on good, loving terms despite their disagreement. Ultimately, the Tyrians and Paul both would have to trust in God’s sovereignty in the outcome.