Paul is Apprehended; Acts 21:27-36 Part 5

Church History: Date: A.D.57 - 59

The tribune, or chief captain, got his forces together with all possible expedition, and went to suppress the mob: He took soldiers and centurions, and ran down to them. Now at the feast, as at other such solemn times, the guards were up, and the militia more within call than at other times, and so he had them near at hand, and he ran down unto the multitude; for at such times delays are dangerous. Sedition must be crushed at first, lest it grow headstrong. The very sight of the Roman general frightened them and they stopped beating Paul; for they knew they were doing what they could not justify, and were in danger of being called in question for this day's uproar.

There was no knowing the sense of the people; for when the chief captain enquired concerning Paul, having perhaps never heard of his name before (such strangers were the great ones to the excellent ones of the earth, and affected to be so), some cried one thing, and some another, among the multitude; so that it was impossible for the chief captain to know their mind, when really they knew not either one another's mind or their own, when everyone pretended to give the sense of the whole body. Those that will hearken to the clamors of the multitude will know nothing for a certainty, any more than the builders of Babel, when their tongues were confounded.