The remaining chapters of Acts describe the “bonds and hardships” that Paul had to endure. That so much of the book is given to this may be due to a desire on Luke’s part to simulate the passion narrative of the Gospel, in which the events of a few days are told at a length that seems disproportionate to the whole (see disc. on 19:21–41). But it must also be remembered that Luke himself was probably involved in these events, so that they would have loomed large in his mind and he would have had a wealth of firsthand experience on which to draw.

21:17 Luke does not say whether they reached Jerusalem in time for the festival (20:16), but their leisurely progress as their journey drew to an end and the presence of many visitors in the city (cf. v. 20), including a number of Jews from Asia, …