Acts 21:24 - Printer Friendly

ESV: take these men and purify yourself along with them and pay their expenses, so that they may shave their heads. Thus all will know that there is nothing in what they have been told about you, but that you yourself also live in observance of the law.

NIV: Take these men, join in their purification rites and pay their expenses, so that they can have their heads shaved. Then everyone will know there is no truth in these reports about you, but that you yourself are living in obedience to the law.

NASB: take them along and purify yourself together with them, and pay their expenses so that they may shave their heads; and then everyone will know that there is nothing to what they have been told about you, but that you yourself also conform, keeping the Law.

CSB: Take these men, purify yourself along with them, and pay for them to get their heads shaved. Then everyone will know that what they were told about you amounts to nothing, but that you yourself are also careful about observing the law.

NLT: Go with them to the Temple and join them in the purification ceremony, paying for them to have their heads ritually shaved. Then everyone will know that the rumors are all false and that you yourself observe the Jewish laws.

KJV: Them take, and purify thyself with them, and be at charges with them, that they may shave their heads: and all may know that those things, whereof they were informed concerning thee, are nothing; but that thou thyself also walkest orderly, and keepest the law.

NKJV: Take them and be purified with them, and pay their expenses so that they may shave their heads, and that all may know that those things of which they were informed concerning you are nothing, but that you yourself also walk orderly and keep the law.

Paul is in Jerusalem, reporting how many Gentiles have come to Christ through his ministry. This was especially effective in Ephesus where he settled for three years. The elders of the church are glad, but they're worried about a rumor: that Paul has been telling Jewish Jesus-followers to abandon the Mosaic law. To disprove those rumors, they ask Paul to help four men fulfill their Nazirite vow (Acts 21:18–23).

A Nazirite vow is a voluntary period of dedication to God. Adherents avoid wine or anything else from grapes. They do not cut their hair. And they do nothing to make themselves ceremonially unclean—especially have contact with a corpse (Numbers 6:1–8).

If the vow is interrupted—for example, if the person accidentally contacts a dead body—the adherent must go through an eight-day purification process and sacrifice two birds before restarting the vow (Numbers 6:9–12). Once the vow is completed, the person will bring an offering and shave his or her head (Numbers 6:13–20). Some say that because the men's process takes seven days (Acts 21:27), this may be a restart of a broken vow. But since the elders ask Paul to pay their expenses, and two turtledoves or two pigeons are not an exorbitant expense, this is probably the conclusion of the men's successful vow. In this case, Paul will have to provide a male lamb, an ewe lamb, a ram, a basket of unleavened bread, loaves of flour mixed with oil, unleavened wafers with oil, and a grain and drink offering—for each. That's kind of a lot to ask of someone who typically pays his own expenses as he ministers (Acts 18:2–3; 1 Corinthians 9:4–7; 1 Thessalonians 2:9).

While Paul is in the temple, shortly before the final ceremony, Jews from the same province as Ephesus wrongly accuse him. They claim he brought Trophimus, a Gentile from Ephesus, into the temple. The men start a riot and nearly kill Paul before the Roman tribune "rescues" him by having him arrested (Acts 21:27–36). This starts Paul's five years of house arrest.

The irony and tragedy here are intense. Paul is wrongly accused of breaking Mosaic law while fulfilling Mosaic law. The elements of sacrifice he pays for are part of a fellowship meal between the person giving the vow, the priest, and God. During the sacrifice, the priest will burn the lambs to God, take some of the ram and bread, and give some of the ram and bread back to the one making the offering. That all three—the man, the priest, and God—take part in a communal meal reaffirms their covenant commitment to one another. Even this is taken from Paul: he is denied communion with God within Judaism.

Acts 21:17–26 is an account of Paul reporting to the "upper management" of the early church. He has spent the last several years along the coastline of the Aegean Sea, establishing the church in Ephesus and building up the congregations in Troas, Macedonia, and Corinth. Now he returns to Jerusalem to give an account of his ministry. James and the elders of the Jerusalem church also have news: a rumor is going around claiming Paul teaches that Jews who worship with Gentiles should entirely forsake the Mosaic law. Ironically, when he cooperates with the elders' recommendation to prove his respect for Old Testament truth, Paul is again falsely accused and arrested.

Acts 21 fulfills the fears of many of Paul's friends. Throughout the last part of his third missionary journey the Holy Spirit has been telling him he will be arrested in Jerusalem (Acts 20:23–25). When Paul reacts to dire personal prophecy, the Jesus-followers in Caesarea Maritima try to stop him from going on (Acts 21:8–14). Through a complicated trail of rumors, lies, and wrong assumptions, things go according to the Holy Spirit's foreknowledge and Roman soldiers arrest Paul. He will face the next 5 years in custody in Caesarea and Rome, but he will spread Jesus' story the entire time (Acts 22—28).

The summary of the book of Acts is provided in Jesus' words in Acts 1:8: ''But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.'' In Acts 2:1–13, the Christ-followers receive the Holy Spirit. Acts 2:14—7:60 describes the rapid growth of the church in Jerusalem. Chapters 8—12 find Jewish persecution inadvertently spreading the gospel throughout Judea and Samaria. And in chapters 13—28, Paul and his companions spread the good news throughout the Roman Empire.