Expositor's Bible Commentary Commentary Acts 21:30

"And all the city was moved, and the people ran together; and they laid hold on Paul, and dragged him out of the temple: and straightway the doors were shut." — Acts 21:30 (ASV)

“The whole city,” Luke tells us in natural hyperbole, “was aroused.” The crime Paul was alleged to have committed was a capital one and could easily ignite the fanatical zeal of the many pilgrims in Jerusalem. So they seized Paul in one of the inner courts of the temple and dragged him out to the Court of the Gentiles. Then the temple police who patrolled the area and stood guard at the gates leading into the inner courts closed the gates to prevent the inner courts from being defiled by the tumult and possible bloodshed.