James's counsel, and four men under a vow
15 After these days we took up our baggage and went up to Jerusalem. 16 Some of the disciples from Caesarea also went with us, bringing one Mnason of Cyprus, an early disciple, with whom we would stay. 17 When we had come to Jerusalem, the brothers received us gladly. 18 The day following, Paul went in with us to James; and all the elders were present. 19 When he had greeted them, he reported one by one the things which God had worked among the Gentiles through his ministry. 20 They, when they heard it, glorified God. They said to him, “You see, brother, how many thousands there are among the Jews of those who have believed, and they are all zealous for the law. 21 They have been informed about you, that you teach all the Jews who are among the Gentiles to forsake Moses, telling them not to circumcise their children and not to walk after the customs. 22 What then? The assembly must certainly meet, for they will hear that you have come. 23 Therefore do what we tell you. We have four men who have taken a vow. 24 Take them and purify yourself with them, and pay their expenses for them, that they may shave their heads. Then all will know that there is no truth in the things that they have been informed about you, but that you yourself also walk keeping the law. 25 But concerning the Gentiles who believe, we have written our decision that they should observe no such thing, except that they should keep themselves from food offered to idols, from blood, from strangled things, and from sexual immorality.” 26 Then Paul took the men, and the next day purified himself and went with them into the temple, declaring the fulfillment of the days of purification, until the offering was offered for every one of them.
The Jerusalem church rejoices at the Gentile mission and then asks Paul to disprove a rumor — and the plan they agree on is what gets him arrested.
The delegation arrives and the brothers received us gladly. The next day Paul goes in to James with all the elders present, and reported one by one the things which God had worked among the Gentiles through his ministry. The same formula as ever, and the response is the right one: they glorified God.
Then the problem, and it is stated without hostility. You see, brother, how many thousands there are among the Jews of those who have believed, and they are all zealous for the law. A very large Jewish church exists in Jerusalem, and its members keep the law with conviction. Nothing in the ruling of the council asked them to stop, and they have not.
The rumor is quoted exactly: that you teach all the Jews who are among the Gentiles to forsake Moses, telling them not to circumcise their children and not to walk after the customs.
The charge is false, and it is important to see precisely how. Paul fought to keep circumcision from being required of Gentiles as a condition of salvation. He never told Jewish believers to abandon their own practice; he circumcised Timothy, kept a vow at Cenchreae, and was at that moment hurrying to reach a feast. What his opponents had done was take a position about Gentiles and report it as a position about Jews, which is the standard method of the rumor in every generation.
The proposal is practical. Four men are under a vow; Paul is to join their purification and pay their expenses so that they may shave their heads. Bearing another man's costs in such a case was a recognized act of piety, and an expensive one. Then all will know that there is no truth in the things that they have been informed about you.
The elders also restate the council's decision, unchanged and unweakened, in the same breath: concerning the Gentiles who believe, we have written our decision that they should observe no such thing. Nothing is being renegotiated. The Jerusalem leadership is holding both halves at once — Gentiles are free, and Jewish believers are free to keep what they have always kept.
Whether the advice was wise is a question the text does not answer, and honest readers have long differed. What can be said is that it asked Paul to do nothing he had not already done voluntarily, and that it was aimed at a genuine danger — a church splitting along the very line the council had refused to draw.
Paul agrees at once, and the writer records it flatly: Then Paul took the men, and the next day purified himself and went with them into the temple. This is the man who wrote that in Christ there is neither Jew nor Greek, in the temple, paying for four men's sacrifices, to prove a point about his own loyalty.
He is doing exactly what he said he did — becoming as a Jew to the Jews, to gain Jews 1 Corinthians 9:20. And it is inside the temple, on the last of the seven days, that men from Asia recognize him.
held with reason What this mark means