Expositor's Bible Commentary Commentary Acts 21:9

"Now this man had four virgin daughters, who prophesied." — Acts 21:9 (ASV)

Paul and his party came to Caesarea, the magnificent harbor and city built by Herod the Great as the port of Jerusalem and the Roman provincial capital of Judea (cf. comment on 10:1). There they stayed with Philip the evangelist, one of the seven who had been appointed in the early days of the Jerusalem church to take care of the daily distribution of food (cf. 6:1–6). He had evangelized in Samaria and the maritime plain of Palestine (cf. 8:4–40), after which he apparently settled at Caesarea for some twenty years. Paul stayed at his home for “a number of days.” For a man in a hurry to get to Jerusalem, this delay of several days may seem strange. But he wanted to be in Jerusalem on the Day of Pentecost (cf. 20:16)—not just get there as early as possible. So Paul’s stay in Caesarea was probably a deliberate matter of timing.

Luke speaks of Philip’s four unmarried daughters as prophetesses, yet says nothing about what they prophesied. Perhaps these prophesying maidens and their father gave Luke source material for Luke and Acts—for example, on Philip’s mission in Samaria and to the Ethiopian eunuch.