Now this man had four virgin daughters who prophesied.
Paul and his companions stop at Caesarea on the way to Jerusalem and stay in the home of Philip the evangelist. Luke adds one detail: the four unmarried daughters there had the gift of prophecy — but what was prophesying, and where did they use it?
The stop came at the end of a long sea voyage.
Reaching Ptolemais, they stayed one day with the brothers. Then they moved on by land to Caesarea. In the home of Philip the evangelist they found rest, hospitality, and surely a most hearty welcome. Here they stayed many days — a rest for Paul after all the strain of the voyage, and a little quiet time before facing the storm at Jerusalem. We have no account of what happened during their stay. Luke mentions only that Philip had four daughters who prophesied — gifted women who, in their proper sphere, helped on the work of God.
Philip still carries his old title, and the daughters add to the praise.
Though nothing more is said of Philip's work, he was still called "the evangelist," and he had four daughters who prophesied, a lovely commendation. Of course this does not imply at all that they were public speakers, since prophesying can certainly happen in private. This is a valuable gift for sisters to cultivate.
Prophecy in the New Testament is not mainly about predicting the future.
A popular idea is that a prophet foretells future events. But that is only part of his work, and in some cases it may be missing altogether. The mark of New Testament prophesying is speaking "to people for their upbuilding and encouragement and consolation" (1 Cor. 14:3).
The gift also ranks at the very top.
The fact stated in verse nine deserves full attention. Philip had four unmarried daughters, and we are told that they prophesied. That is, they had the highest form of gift for acting on souls from God. Such prophesying was yet more than teaching or preaching.
Kelly puts the question plainly. Can a woman have such a gift, and what is it for?
As unmarried women, they were still living in their father's house, and they prophesied. There is no reason why a woman should not have this or most other gifts as much as a man. I do not say the same kind of gift always. Surely God is wise and gives suited gifts whether to men or women... Certainly He did clothe these four daughters of Philip with a very special spiritual power. They had one of the highest characters of spiritual gift — they prophesied. And if God gave them this power, it was certainly not to be hidden away but used: the only question is how.
So how did they use it? Knapp answers that the verse gives no sign of public speaking.
The case of Philip's daughters who prophesied is often brought forward as proof that it is right for a woman to preach. But this scripture does not say, nor does it even hint, that these women exercised their gift in public. They evidently spoke their prophecies in the privacy of their father's house.
Commentators differ on how to class what the daughters did. Kelly puts prophecy above teaching. Another writer separates the two, and points to what happens next.
The four daughters of Philip prophesied but did not teach (Acts 21:9). Note that the Lord did not use them to warn Paul, even though there seem to have been no men present who could have done this in their place. Instead, He specifically arranged for a prophet from Jerusalem, Agabus, to travel to Caesarea and deliver this prophecy (Acts 21:10-11).
Some call this note a stray detail with no link to the story around it. One writer answers that its place is the point.
One cannot say that this account of Philip's daughters stands in no immediate connection with the events related here. Why should we make our own ability to see such things the measure of what is really in them?... The Church is losing its great apostle. Is it not fitting that God should show us how fully the gift of the Spirit is still upon it, even in its weakest members? that the Lord's care for it neither fails nor is cut short; and that it need neither fail nor fear because of this?
- Guest — Philip's home at Caesarea gave Paul rest and hospitality, and quiet days before the storm at Jerusalem.
- Gift — prophesying is more than predicting the future. It is speech that builds up, encourages and comforts, and it ranks among the highest gifts.
- Given — God gives such power to women as well as to men, and He does not give it to be hidden.
- Guided — the question is not whether they had the gift but how they used it. The verse gives no hint of public ministry, so they spoke in the privacy of their father's house.
- Guarded — as the church loses its great apostle, four unnamed women show that the Spirit's supply does not fail. The church need neither fail nor fear.
And as we stayed there many days, a certain man, by name Agabus, a prophet, came down from Judaea,
Paul and his companions are staying at Caesarea, in the home of Philip the evangelist. A visitor arrives from Judea, and he raises the question of the whole chapter: what should a servant of God do when warning after warning comes about the road ahead?
Agabus appears only twice in Acts, and both times he speaks of trouble coming. One reference work sets the two side by side and notes the wording of each:
A prophet who came from Jerusalem to Antioch, and foretold a famine "over all the world," which happened in the days of Claudius Caesar (Acts 11:28). He also foretold that Paul would be bound at Jerusalem and delivered to the Gentiles, which also came to pass (Acts 21:10). In the first passage it says that Agabus "signified by the Spirit" that there would be a great famine. In the second he said, "Thus says the Holy Spirit." This plainly shows that the prophetic spirit in man was under the immediate guidance of the Holy Spirit.
Predicting the future was only one strand of the prophet's work, and not the main one. One writer describes what the gift mainly was, and where Agabus fits:
Prophecy is in a special way characteristic of Christianity. It does not pass down a line of succession. It springs out of close fellowship with God — the opening up of His mind, so as to bring souls into His presence. Prediction was never more than a fairly small and changing part of it. Yet prediction is just what we find in Agabus, on the only two occasions when he appears in the history. He is a prophet of sorrow both times, though of sorrow that God overrules for good.
The verse marks a long stay at Caesarea. That time had a use, and what Agabus did pointed Paul to his Lord:
Notice that Paul had much time on this journey to consider whether he actually ought to go to Jerusalem. Agabus bound his own hands and feet with Paul's belt, and prophesied that the Jews would bind its owner in the same way and hand him over to the Gentiles. This is just what happened to the Lord Jesus, and no doubt Paul thought of this — not in a way that would turn him from going, but the opposite. He would apparently not seek to avoid being treated in the same way as his Lord.
Agabus is not the first to warn Paul about Jerusalem. One commentator marks where this warning stands, and answers a doubt about the prophet:
Here then came another warning. It was the last and by far the strongest. Did Agabus really speak by the Spirit? The exact fulfilment of what he acted out gives the answer. The whole company, both his fellow travellers and the believers in Caesarea, began to beg him not to go up to Jerusalem.
Commentators differ here. Some point out that Agabus tells Paul what is coming but does not forbid the journey:
Note that the disciples at Tyre told Paul by the Spirit that he should not go to Jerusalem. Once Paul had reached Caesarea, Agabus does not forbid his going to Jerusalem. Did he take it for granted that he was determined to go there? He warned him by the Spirit what awaited him — persecution, and being handed over to the Gentiles.
Another writer reads the repeated warnings differently:
The Holy Spirit does not usually warn of danger. He leads in the path of the Lord, and if persecution comes, He gives strength to endure it. Here Paul was continually warned. His friends beg him not to go up. He will not be persuaded. They hold their peace, hardly satisfied, and say, "Let the will of the Lord be done." And I have no doubt it was His will. But it served purposes that Paul did not know through the understanding the Holy Spirit gave. He only felt pressed in spirit to go, and ready to suffer everything for the Lord.
- Messenger. Agabus is already known — a prophet from Judea whose earlier famine warning came true. That is why his arrival at Caesarea carries weight.
- Message. He speaks in the Holy Spirit's own name, and what he acted out came true exactly. That settles whether he really spoke by the Spirit.
- Mercy. Prediction was only a small part of the prophetic gift. Agabus brings sorrow both times he appears — but sorrow that God overrules for good.
- Margin. The long stay at Caesarea gave Paul time to weigh the journey. What Agabus acted out pointed him to the path his own Lord had walked.
- Mystery. Commentators differ on whether Paul should have gone. Some note that Agabus forbids nothing and only tells him what lies ahead. Others hold that repeated warning marks a path the Spirit was not leading him down. Either way, God worked out His own purposes through it.
and coming to us and taking the girdle of Paul, and having bound his own hands and feet, said, Thus saith the Holy Spirit, The man whose this girdle is shall the Jews thus bind in Jerusalem, and deliver him up into the hands of [the] Gentiles.
Warning after warning had already met Paul on his way to Jerusalem. Now one of them takes visible form: the prophet Agabus ties himself up with Paul's own belt. Was the Spirit telling Paul to stop? Or telling him what to expect if he went on?
Agabus does not just say the message. He acts it out. One commentator recognises an older pattern here, and notes what the sight did to the room.
This was just like the symbolic way of the ancient prophets, and it filled those who watched and listened with sorrow for the honoured apostle.
A reader may still ask whether the claim to speak for the Spirit was genuine. One writer answers by pointing to the outcome:
Here then came another warning. It was the last and by far the strongest. Did Agabus really speak by the Spirit? The literal fulfilment of his acted prediction supplies the answer.
It matters whose belt it is. Paul is not tied with a stranger's rope. He is tied with something off his own body, and one commentator sees Paul's service to his own nation in that:
It is Paul's own belt, however, that binds his hands and feet; that is, it is his own eager service to them that puts him into their hands. The meaning is given to him in the most emphatic way, as a declaration of the Spirit, of the Holy Spirit. In this way He shows His servant the unchanged evil in the hearts of those who once murdered the Saviour, and are now ready to do the same to him.
Paul was not the first man bound and handed over to the Gentiles. One writer weighs what that likeness would have done to him:
This is just what happened to the Lord Jesus, and no doubt Paul thought of this — not in a way that would turn him back from going, but the opposite. It seems he would not try to avoid the treatment his Lord had received.
The writer quoted earlier draws out how Paul could reason from that likeness:
Was He not handed over to the Gentiles too? That likeness was bound to move the apostle, who followed his Master's steps so closely. Yet the Gentile cross they gave Him up to was the very symbol of salvation for men. Paul might argue the same about himself. If this were only a means of striking the slow hearts of Israel into repentance, then such suffering would be light.
Commentators differ on how Paul should have taken this. Some read it as news, not a ban. Agabus says what waits for Paul; he never tells him to turn back:
It is clear that the apostle did not understand that the Lord meant him to turn away from Jerusalem. He only heard Agabus repeat, as others had so often warned him, what he must suffer there... Paul must surely have concluded that the Holy Spirit spoke, not to talk him out of his dangerous path, but to prepare him in it. That preparation was certainly for prison, and perhaps death.
Others read the whole chain of warnings as one signal Paul ignored. One writer adds a sobering note about this moment:
The apostle did not heed this command. Verse 11 then sets out in detail how his journey would end — a journey in which, as I see it, he was not led by the Spirit. God might, and did, overrule it for the blessing of His servant and of the whole Church... Now, it is a weighty fact that from that moment you never read of the Holy Spirit again in Acts. The one exception is Paul's reference to Him when a prisoner at Rome. History goes on, but the Holy Spirit is not named. Why, I will not venture to say.
The debate does not touch the outcome. One writer traces what God made of Paul's chains:
Yet the hand of God was over everything that happened. Agabus's prophecy came true. Paul lost his liberty... He knows also how to overrule any mistakes His servants may make. He closes certain lines of service before them, and He opens other lines which may in the end prove even more important. Paul's imprisonment led him to write those inspired letters, which have built up the church for nineteen centuries.
- Acted. Agabus preaches with a belt, not only with words — the old prophets' way, and it filled the room with sorrow.
- Owned. The belt is Paul's own; his eager service to his nation is the very thing that delivers him into their hands.
- Followed. Paul's Lord went that road first, handed over to the Gentiles on a cross that became salvation; Paul could count his own suffering light if it brought Israel to repentance.
- Disputed. Commentators differ. Some say the Spirit was preparing Paul for the road. Others say he pressed on without the Spirit's leading.
- Overruled. The chains came just as promised, and God used them. He closed one field of service and opened the letters that have fed the church ever since.