Charles Ellicott Commentary Acts 24:6

"who moreover assayed to profane the temple: on whom also we laid hold: [and we would have judged him according to our law.]" — Acts 24:6 (ASV)

Who also hath gone about to profane the temple.—Better, who even attempted to profane. Here the case was clearly to be supported by the evidence of the Jews of Asia. The charge, we see, was modified from that in Acts 21:28. Then they had asserted that he had actually taken Trophimus within the sacred precincts. Now they were contented with accusing him of the attempt.

Whom we took . . .—The advocate throughout identifies himself, in keeping with his profession, with his clients; and in his hands the tumult in the Temple becomes a legal arrest by the officers of the Temple, which was to have been followed in due course by a legal trial, as for an offence against the law of Israel, before a religious tribunal.

The words from “according to our law” to “come unto you” are omitted in many manuscripts, and may have been either the interpolation of a scribe, or a later addition from the hand of the writer. Assuming them to be part of the speech, they are an endeavour to turn the tables on Lysias by representing him as the real disturber of the peace. All was going on regularly until his uncalled-for intervention.