Acts 21:26

26 Then Paul took the men, and in the day following he was purified with them, and entered into the temple, and showed the filling of days of purifying [showing the fulfilling of days of purifying], till the offering was offered for each of them.

Acts 21:26 Meaning and Commentary

Acts 21:26

Then Paul took the men
The four men that had the vow on them; he joined himself to them, and put himself in the same condition, and under a like vow: this he did, not as what he thought himself bound to do in obedience to the law, and much less as necessary to salvation; but to satisfy weak minds, and remove their prejudices, that he might gain them, and be useful to them; and in such a case he would very easily and readily condescend; but when such like things were insisted upon as points of duty, and especially when urged as necessary to salvation, no one more stiffly opposed them:

and the next day purifying himself with them;
that is, not separating himself along with them, from what they were obliged by the vow of the Nazarite, as from drinking of wine and shaving, and from everything that was unclean by the law; for this was now done, but cleansing himself afterwards with them: he

entered into the temple, to signify the accomplishment of the days
of the purification:
the sense is, that when the days of separation were fulfilled, which the four men had vowed, as everyone might vow what time he pleased, he went to the priests in the temple, to signify it to them, that the time of their purification was expiring:

until that an offering should be offered for everyone of them;
as the law directs in ( Numbers 6:13-20 ) when he proposed to pay the charges of it, or at least part of it.

Acts 21:26 In-Context

24 Take thou these men [These take to], and hallow thee with them; hang on them, that they shave their heads; and that all men know, that those things that they heard of thee be false, but that thou walkest, and thyself keepest the law.
25 But of these that believed of heathen men, we have written, deeming that they abstain them from thing offered to idols, and from blood, and also from strangled thing [deeming that they abstain them from things offered to idols, and blood, and strangled things], and from fornication.
26 Then Paul took the men, and in the day following he was purified with them, and entered into the temple, and showed the filling of days of purifying [showing the fulfilling of days of purifying], till the offering was offered for each of them.
27 And when seven days were ended, the Jews that were of Asia, when they saw him in the temple, stirred all the people, and laid hands on him,
28 and cried [crying], Men of Israel, help ye us. This is the man, that against the people and the law and this place teacheth every where all men, moreover and hath led heathen men into the temple, and hath defouled this holy place.
Copyright © 2001 by Terence P. Noble. For personal use only.