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Home Bible Commentary Acts Chapter 21Acts 21:15

Acts 21:15-26 meaning

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Paul, Luke, Timothy, and the rest of the team go to Jerusalem. The elder James, half-brother of Jesus, greets Paul warmly. He and the other elders praise God for all the Gentiles who now believe in Him through Paul’s ministry. They warn Paul that some of the believers in Jerusalem take the Mosaic Law extremely seriously, and have heard rumors that Paul teaches against the Law. To prove this slander wrong, the elders advise that Paul help pay for the temple sacrifices necessary to complete a vow which four of their men have taken. Paul agrees.

Acts 21:15-26 describes Paul’s return to Jerusalem and his meeting with the church elders there.

After years preaching the gospel and planting churches in Greece and the Roman province of Asia (modern-day Turkey), Paul has returned to Israel. The Holy Spirit has informed him that he will suffer and be arrested in Jerusalem. Paul is prepared to die for Jesus, if it comes to it. During his return journey, Paul has stayed in the houses of believers in Phoenicia and Caesarea.

These believers have begged Paul not to go to Jerusalem. Agabus, a prophet from Jerusalem, traveled to meet Paul in Caesarea and gave a demonstration of how Paul will be tied up hand to foot. Once more, Paul’s friends beg him to stay away from Jerusalem. But Paul is ready to suffer and potentially die for Jesus. Paul’s friends relent. They pray that God’s will be done.

At last, after years abroad and weeks at sea, Paul is on the last road to return to Jerusalem. Luke, the author of Acts, is in Paul’s traveling party in this passage. He writes:

After these days we got ready and started on our way up to Jerusalem (v. 15).

After these days refers to their time in Caesarea in the house of Philip the evangelist (Acts 21:8). After Agabus the prophet prophesied about Paul’s captivity, Paul’s friends tried to persuade him not to go. But Paul made it clear he was going to Jerusalem. The matter was settled. So, Luke, who was present during these verses, writes briefly that we got ready. He and Paul’s other traveling companions (Acts 20:4) prepared for the journey to Jerusalem. The walk from the coast up to the hills of Judea would take approximately 3 days. Once ready, Paul and his team started on their way.

They left with a larger company than that with which they had arrived: Some of the disciples from Caesarea also came with us, taking us to Mnason of Cyprus, a disciple of long standing with whom we were to lodge (v. 16).

Luke does not name them, but a group from among the disciples from Caesarea took the opportunity to travel with Paul and his team to Jerusalem. These disciples apparently knew of a good place for Paul and company to stay: the house of Mnason of Cyprus.

This is the only mention of Mnason of Cyprus in the Bible. Luke provides a notable detail about him, that Mnason was a disciple of long standing. The words long standing are translated from the Greek, “archaios.” Other translations render it “an old disciple” or “an early disciple.” “Archaios” is the word from which we get our English word “archaic.”

Mnason was possibly one of the original disciples, from among the greater group of disciples outside of the twelve. He may have followed Jesus during the years of His ministry. Or he may have been one of the early believers in Jerusalem. However long he had been a disciple, it was a long time. Acts 21 likely took place around the year 57 or 58 AD. Jesus is believed to have been crucified in the year 33 AD. The events of Acts 21 are around twenty-five years after Jesus resurrected and ascended into heaven.

With new believers in his company and a place to stay once in Jerusalem, Paul presses on to the holy city of Israel, where trouble waits for him. Luke is still with Paul, and writes of the warm reception they receive:

After we arrived in Jerusalem, the brethren received us gladly. And the following day Paul went in with us to James, and all the elders were present (vs. 17-18).

Paul, Luke, and the others in his team (we), arrived safely in Jerusalem, where the other believers (the brethren) received them gladly, probably referring to Mnason and whoever else was at his house. Paul has been away from Jerusalem for years and has not seen the brethren since he briefly visited Jerusalem at the end of his second mission trip in Acts 18:22.

They may have arrived late at night, for it was not until the following day that Paul went to see the leaders of the Jerusalem church. The day after entering Jerusalem, Paul and his team (Paul went in with us) go to James, the half-brother of Jesus, traditionally understood to be the lead elder in Jerusalem, as well as all the other elders who were also present.

Paul had been friends with James for years; James was one of the first men to believe that Paul had repented from persecuting believers and was a believer in Jesus himself (Galatians 1:19, 2:9). James had been one of the chief voices at the Council of Jerusalem, affirming that Gentiles did not need to convert to Judaism to be righteous in God’s eyes (Acts 15:13-21).

This reunion is also good-natured. Each time Paul has occasioned to visit Jerusalem at the end of a mission trip, he gives a ministry update to the elders there (Acts 15:4, 12):

After he had greeted them, he began to relate one by one the things which God had done among the Gentiles through his ministry (v. 19).

Once they had greeted one another, Paul began to relate one by one, in great detail, all the things which had happened on his third missionary journey. Luke, the author of Acts, attributes the results of Paul’s mission to God, that these were things which God had done among the Gentiles.

It was through Paul’s ministry, Paul had been faithful to preach the gospel to the Gentiles as Jesus commanded him, but all that had been done among the Gentiles was ultimately the work of God (Romans 1:16, Ephesians 2:8-9, Colossians 1:13-14). The church in Jerusalem would have been made up of Jews, so this news of the word of God spreading among the Gentiles might have been something they heard little about.

Paul told James and the other elders one by one, event by event, about his return visit to the Galatian churches (Acts 18:23), how he settled in Ephesus for several years, first teaching in the synagogue and then in the school of Tyrannus, how the gospel spread throughout the Roman province of Asia, of the many extraordinary miracles God performed through Paul, the healings and the casting out of demons, and how many Ephesians believed in Jesus and burned their spell books in public. Paul related how the silversmiths and craftsmen of Ephesus started a riot because the gospel was turning hearts and profits away from idolatry (Acts 19). He told James and the others of the resurrection of Eutychus in Troas, and how the Ephesian church was thriving, and how Paul had warned the Ephesian elders to guard its flock from false teachers (Acts 20).

James and the other Jerusalem elders are delighted to learn about the impact of the gospel in the Roman province of Asia. It is wonderful news that God has performed such miracles among the Gentiles, that so many churches have been formed in Asia, and so many Greeks have believed in Jesus.

The Jewish elders of the Jerusalem church of Jews who had believed in Jesus praise God for His mighty works and love which extended to all peoples: And when they heard it they began glorifying God (v. 20).

They give credit and honor to God for the things which He had done among the Gentiles in Ephesus and beyond. The believers always give thanks to God when the gospel spreads, taking no credit for themselves. The elders may have patted Paul on the back for his faithfulness and obedience in his ministry—believers ought to encourage one another (1 Thessalonians 5:11, Hebrews 3:13) —but it was God they were glorifying for the success of Paul’s preaching and the miracles which God had worked through his hands. Paul himself gave glory to God for the Gentiles coming to faith, not himself (2 Timothy 1:9, Romans 5:8-9, Titus 3:5-6).

Here James changes topics to something worrying him about Paul’s return to Jerusalem. There is slander about Paul being spread. It is prevalent among a certain group of believing Jews, and James and the elders want Paul to help dispel this lie to keep the peace among believers. They explain the situation and will propose a plan to Paul:

and 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; and they have been told about you, that you are teaching all the Jews who are among the Gentiles to forsake Moses, telling them not to circumcise their children nor to walk according to the customs (vs. 20-21).

The problem Paul (and the elders) are facing is from a specific group of Jewish believers: You see, brother Paul, how many thousands there are among the Jews of those who have believed. James is referring to the thousands of Jews who have believed that Jesus was the Messiah who died for the sins of the world and was raised from the dead.

But from among the Jews who have believed, there are many thousands who are all zealous for the Law. These Jews have both believed in Jesus but are also zealous for keeping the Mosaic Law. This is fine, as it was decided in the Jerusalem Council that the Jews would continue to practice Jewish customs (Acts 15:10-11, 21). It is this group of zealous Jews who have been taught something false about Paul: they have been told that he is teaching all the Jews who are among the Gentiles to forsake Moses.

James doesn’t specify who is teaching these zealous Jewish believers this misinformation about Paul, but it may have been some of the believers from among the Pharisees (Acts 15:5). The lie was that Paul, on his various mission trips outside of Judea, was teaching all the Jews living in the cities of Gentiles (in Galatia, in the province of Asia, in Macedonia, and Greece) that they should stop following the Law of Moses. James names some specific slanders, that Paul was teaching the Jews scattered across the Roman empire not to circumcise their children nor to walk according to the customs.

This accusation was, of course, false. Paul never taught that Jews should forsake Moses, should not circumcise their children, and should not walk (live) according to the customs of Judaism. Paul had taught very strongly that Jewish believers should not impose the Jewish Law on Gentile believers. Gentile believers did not need to convert to Judaism or circumcise themselves to be “saved” or to grow in maturity in their faith. Paul also taught that Jesus had fulfilled the Law (Romans 10:4), and that the Law was fulfilled when believers obey the Spirit (Romans 8:4). But Paul did not teach that Jews should stop being Jewish and cease following Jewish customs. In fact, Paul will claim to the leading men of the Jews in Rome that he “had done nothing against our people or the customs of our fathers” (Acts 28:17).

There was a counter-movement to Paul’s ministry which reached Galatia sometime before or during the controversy in Acts 15, where some Jews were teaching Gentile believers they needed to be circumcised to be saved (Galatians 3:1-4, 6:11-13). The council in Jerusalem tried to close this matter. At this council, chronicled in Acts 15, James (along with the Apostle Peter) was a leading voice.

The consensus from the council leadership was that Gentiles did not need to become circumcised or follow the Jewish Law. All people, Jewish or Gentile, were declared righteous in the sight of God by believing in Jesus the Messiah (Acts 15:11). All believers, Jewish or Gentile, mature in their faith by living in obedience to the Holy Spirit, not by religious rituals or rule-following. However, Jews were not told to stop following Jewish customs. In fact, the Gentiles were asked to follow certain customs in order to prevent breaking of fellowship with Jewish believers (Acts 15:18-21).

After this council concluded, Paul carried letters written by the elders and Apostles to new churches in Gentile cities explaining this consensus. These letters asked them to avoid sexual immorality and eating things polluted by idols (Acts 15:23-29).

The counter-attack to Paul’s teachings was that since Paul emphasizes God’s unlimited grace (favor) which we receive through faith in Jesus, then we ought to sin (“do evil”) so that God’s grace will abound even more (“that good may come”) (Romans 3:8). Paul’s opponents claimed that if Gentiles don’t need to follow the Law, then Paul is saying they ought to sin a lot. It will glorify God to sin, because then He can give more grace/favor (Romans 6:1).

Paul wrote his letters of Romans and Galatians largely to deal with this attack against his ministry. Those who desired Gentiles to be circumcised and follow Jewish customs slandered Paul’s gospel in order to win converts of their own (Galatians 6:13). In his letter to the believers in Rome, Paul made clear right off the bat that choosing to sin brings about very negative consequences (Romans 1:24, 26, 28). Paul makes the point in Romans that although believers are free to sin, it is self-destructive to do so. When we sin, we go back into slavery (addiction) to the very sinfulness from which we were delivered. Paul asks, “Why would we want to do such a self-destructive thing?”

It is true that Jesus paid for all sins on the cross (Colossians 2:14). Therefore, we can never out-sin His favor (Romans 5:20, 1 John 2:1-2). Because of the power of the Spirit, we are now free from sin. But our freedom is to choose whether to follow the Spirit or the flesh (Galatians 5:13-15).

If we follow the flesh, then we reap the fruits of the flesh (Galatians 5:19-21). These consequences lead to unhappiness, turmoil, and strife. If we are deliberately sinning then we are not following the Holy Spirit (Romans 8:5, 13, Galatians 5:16, 1 Corinthians 3:1). Even though God has forgiven all of our sins because they were placed on Jesus at His sacrifice, we still experience “death” when we sin (Romans 8:6).

Death is separation. And sinning separates us from God’s good design for us. Therefore, sin leads to futility. Paul taught his followers that their greatest fulfillment of life and blessings comes by obeying the word of God and following the Spirit. Sin will always produce a kind of death, even for believers. Its wages (results) are always a separation from healthy relationship with God and other people (Romans 6:23, Galatians 5:15).

Paul taught consistently that following the Jewish Law does not make anyone right in God’s eyes (Romans 3:20, Galatians 3:10-11). The law sets forth God’s good design. But the ultimate role of the Law was to reveal our sin and our inability to follow the Law (Romans 7:7). The Law exposed our need for God to come down to us and be the final sacrifice for our sins, so that anyone with enough faith to trust in Jesus will be declared righteous in God’s sight (Galatians 3:24, John 3:14-16).

Through all of these debates, Paul was never interested in nor a proponent of Jewish believers ceasing to follow Jewish custom. He himself continued to follow Jewish custom (Acts 28:17). If Jews chose to follow the Law to honor God, that was fine, if indeed their intent was to honor Him (Romans 14:5-6). On the other hand, if their intent was to earn their way to God, it was ineffective and useless (Romans 3:20-21).

James calls the law “the law of liberty;” actually walking according to the Law (such as loving our neighbor) is following God’s design, so it sets us free from the negative consequences of sin (Galatians 5:13-14). But, again, the problem is that apart from Christ humans do not have the power to walk according to the Law. It is only by walking in the power of the Spirit that believers can fulfill the Law (Romans 8:4).

Jesus, and Jesus alone, is our once-and-for-all sacrifice and the only high priest who can truly provide for us mediation that we might be justified in the sight of God. The Law cannot and does not save anyone from the penalty of sin or make anyone right in God’s eyes because all have sinned, other than Jesus, who was sinless (Romans 3:23, Hebrews 10:10-18, 4:14-16, Galatians 2:15-16).

Similarly, the Law cannot save us from the power of sin to create negative consequences in our lives because apart from the Spirit we do not have the power to set aside sin and walk in full obedience to God. It is the Spirit living inside believers that empowers believers to walk in obedience to God (Galatians 5:16-18). To walk in the Spirit is to follow the spirit of the Law, the purpose and intent of God’s good design for us (2 Corinthians 3:6).

Walking in the Spirit is vastly superior to rule-following. Rule-following leads to self-justification (“I follow the rules better than that person”). This is a “me versus you” mindset, that leads to fleshly biting and devouring (Galatians 5:15). Rule-following also feeds the notion that our deeds transactionally obligate God to owe us, or that those who follow more rules are in better standing with God than others. This is the same basic perspective behind pagan idolatry, where making the sacrifice supposedly obligates the power to follow our direction.

Despite Paul’s years of public teaching and letter writing, his message concerning the Law was still being misunderstood and/or misconstrued. This hostility toward Paul had grown in Jerusalem while he was away for many years. James is sensitive to it and concerned that it will lead to trouble for Paul:

The elders then ask a rhetorical question: What, then, is to be done? They will certainly hear that you have come (v. 22).

This question is rhetorical because the elders already have an answer. The they who will certainly hear that you have come refers to the Jews who believe Paul is teaching Jews outside of Israel to raise their children apart from Jewish customs (Acts 21:21). The elders have an answer to their rhetorical question: What, then, is to be done? for Paul’s safety and reputation. In anticipation of his arrival in Jerusalem, the elders have thought up a way for Paul to demonstrate that he is observant and not an enemy of Moses or the Law:

Therefore do this that we tell you. We have four men who are under a vow; take them and purify yourself along with them, and pay their expenses so that they may shave their heads; and all will know that there is nothing to the things which they have been told about you, but that you yourself also walk orderly, keeping the Law (vs. 23-24).

The elders give Paul the opportunity to help cover the costs for some men who are under a vow. Based on the description, this sounds like a Nazarite vow. Paul himself seems to have taken a Nazarite vow years earlier when returning to Jerusalem after his second missionary trip (Acts 18:18).

For the duration of a Nazarite vow, the one who was keeping the vow was forbidden from cutting their hair (Numbers 6:5). The other stipulations of the vow were that the vower would abstain from alcohol and avoid any contact with dead bodies (Numbers 6).

These four men who are under a vow seem to belong to the community of Jewish believers, since the elders claim them (We have four men…). As a gesture of goodwill toward the Jews who are zealous for the law (v. 20), and to demonstrate that he is observant to Jewish custom, Paul is asked to help conclude their vow. Again, the point of this is to counter the narrative that Paul was teaching Jews to stop raising their children to keep Jewish customs.

To follow this suggestion will require Paul to purify himself before going into the temple. At least fifty mikva’ot (ritual immersion baths) have been uncovered through archeological digs located on the southern steps of the temple mount, and hundreds of others throughout Jerusalem and Israel. Every Jew who ascended to the temple would first have to be immersed/purified in the water of a mikvah. They would step down into the bath, dunk themselves under the water, and step out purified for their visit to the temple.

Paul was being asked to go with the men and purify himself along with them as they went into the temple. There he would also pay their expenses, probably to pay for the grain, lambs, and the ram needed in the final sacrifice (Numbers 6:13-15), as well as payment for the priest overseeing the ritual. The men would then be able to shave their heads and offer their hair as part of the completion sacrifice for their Nazarite vow.

If Paul will go along with this plan (Therefore do this that we tell you), James and the other elders feel confident there will be peace between Paul and the Jewish believers who are “zealous for the Law” (Acts 21:20). By publicly purifying himself and paying expenses for men under a vow, Paul will show the hostile Jews that he is not an enemy of the Mosaic Law. Paul’s detractors will then potentially see that they have been deceived, and that there is nothing to the slander which they have been told about Paul. Paul will show that he walks orderly, keeping the Law.

This suited Paul (v. 26). It was part of his mission strategy to meet cultures where they are and honor their customs as long as they were not sinful (Acts 14:13-18). In his letter to the Corinthians, he explains his efforts to be in harmony with all cultures so that he can preach the gospel to them:

“To the Jews I became as a Jew, so that I might win Jews; to those who are under the Law, as under the Law though not being myself under the Law, so that I might win those who are under the Law…I have become all things to all men, so that I may by all means save some.”
(1 Corinthians 9:20, 22)

James and the elders are quick to add that they have not changed their outlook on whether or not Gentiles ought to follow the Law:

“But concerning the Gentiles who have believed, we wrote, having decided that they should abstain from meat sacrificed to idols and from blood and from what is strangled and from fornication” (v. 25).

James’ decision at the Council of Jerusalem years earlier was that Gentiles who believed in Jesus did not need to fully convert to Judaism (become circumcised and submit to the Mosaic Law). They are telling Paul, But concerning the Gentiles who have believed, we have not changed our stance. What we wrote in the letter at the end of the Council is what we still believe.

In the letter they wrote, of which copies were distributed to the Gentile churches per James’s judgment (Acts 15:19-20, 16:4), the other elders and the apostles decided to advise the Gentiles to abstain from (avoid):

meat sacrificed to idols
blood
what is strangled
and from fornication.

These are minimal expectations which are all practical ways to live out faith in Jesus and lead the Gentiles who have believed away from old pagan norms and from the world’s corruption. The elders and apostles’ letter describe these things as “essentials” which, if the Gentiles abstain from them, they “will do well.” (Acts 15:28, 29). Each of the actions which the Gentile believers should abstain from typically take place in pagan rituals and worship settings.

Gentile believers should avoid meat sacrificed to idols, so as not to give the impression that they worshipped idols. They should avoid eating or drinking blood, which was a part of some Greek forms of idol worship, as well as strangled animals. Lastly, fornication, sexual relations outside of a marriage between husband and wife, should also be avoided. Another part of pagan worship involved sleeping with temple prostitutes.

The underlying message is that these are the core elements of sanctification (living out God’s good design, set apart from the world’s ways), that we are to love God with all our heart rather than worship idols. In 1 Thessalonians 4:3, Paul asserts that God’s will for believers is to be sanctified. And the first description he uses for sanctification is to abstain from sexual immorality. Sexual sin is destruction to our own bodies (1 Corinthians 6:18).

The inference is that by avoiding these pagan practices, the Greek believers would be able to fellowship with the Jewish believers (Acts 15:21). Gentiles who abstained from the items on the list would be better able to associate with Jewish believers in their city. But beyond what the council’s letter exhorted, the Gentiles did not need to bother with any sort of set of religious rules. The Jerusalem elders and Apostles of the Jerusalem Council were not pressuring Gentiles to add Jewish customs to their way of life, but rather to cut out sinful pagan customs that were self-destructive and created barriers to fellowship.

Paul makes no objection to James and the elders’ plan for peace. He willingly submits to what they ask of him to extinguish the slander against him:

Then Paul took the men, and the next day, purifying himself along with them, went into the temple giving notice of the completion of the days of purification, until the sacrifice was offered for each one of them (v. 26).

We can pause and observe that if Paul disagreed with the elders’ assertion that he kept the law and desired Jews to continue in Jewish customs, he most certainly would not have agreed with this plan. If he did, indeed, believe that Jews should stop keeping Jewish customs, he would have made it known and refused to participate. But throughout his ministry Paul maintained a testimony to the Jews. He circumcised Timothy, who had a Jewish mother, as a testimony to the Jews (Acts 16:3). Toward the end of his ministry, he asserted to the leading Jews of Rome that he had never broken the customs of their fathers (Acts 28:17).

Just as James and the elders prescribed, Paul took the four men who were under the vow on the next day and underwent basic purification ceremonies in a mikveh baptismal so that he could enter the temple, purifying himself along with the four men. They went into the temple and gave notice of the completion of the days of purification to the attendant priest there, informing him that the men’s Nazarite vow was ended. Paul paid the priest and purchased animals, and remained with the men in the temple until the sacrifice was offered for each one of them (v. 26).

Paul may have doubted that this effort would achieve the intended purpose, since he had been warned for weeks by the Holy Spirit Himself that he would be arrested and harmed in Jerusalem (Acts 20:23). But he did his best to counter the lies about him that he was an enemy of the Jewish Law. Paul stood for the truth of God, which led him into contentious situations (Acts 13:45, 15:1-2, 18:4-6, 19:8-10, Galatians 2:11, 14), but all in all his aim was to bring harmony to all men through the gospel message. As best as he could manage, he tried to “be at peace with all men” (Romans 12:18).