'Ac 21:17-26

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Ac 21:17-23:35 JERUSALEM FINALLY REJECTS THE GOSPEL

Danger in Jerusalem (Ac 21:21:17-26)

Over the previous ten years the church in Jerusalem had become narrower in its outlook. As leaders of broader outlook such as Peter, John and Barnabas moved out to other areas, the Jewish Christians left in Jerusalem slipped back into legalism.

At the Jerusalem meeting of Chapter 15, James and his like-minded fellow elders had successfully defended the Gentiles, but they now had little influence over the members at large. Those who wished to put all Christians under the Jewish law, though silenced at the Jerusalem meeting, had not changed their former views, and now their number had grown to many thousands (see Ac 21:20).

The elders of the Jerusalem church were glad to receive the offering from the Gentile churches (Ac 21:17-19), but this had little effect on the thinking of most of the church members. The legalistic Jews were not concerned greatly about what Paul taught the Gentiles, but they were angered to hear reports that he taught the Jews not to keep the law of Moses or the traditions of their ancestors (Ac 21:20-21).

James and his friends suggested that Paul prove to the Jerusalemites that he was as religious a Jew as any, by joining with four other Jews in a purification ceremony in the temple (Ac 21:22-25).

Being willing to do almost anything to win his fellow Jews, Paul joined in the ceremony (Ac 21:26; cf. 1 Cor 9:20-23).

Whether he was right or wrong in doing so is not clear. Certainly the plan was not a success, for it got Paul into serious trouble that left him a prisoner of Rome for most of the next five years.