ACC ~ Acts 21 v17 - 26

OVERVIEW:

This text narrates the arrival of Paul and his companions to Jerusalem, thus ending Paul’s third missionary journey. Various commentators point out that the description of Paul’s account of the mission and all that God accomplished among the Gentiles echoes a similar wording in Acts 15:4 and is followed by the account of the reaction of some belonging to the “party of the Pharisees” (Acts 15:5). They also point to the ambiguity of James’s role in the Jerusalem community. They are divided as to what the reference to the letter from the former Jerusalem meeting meant. Some argue it indicates that Paul was not there (unlikely) and is a Lukan way of linking the two Jerusalem encounters and recalling to the reader the first decision. Others argue that it is the Jerusalem community’s manner of recalling it all to Paul. They also point out that it is not clear whether Paul should repeat a Nazarite vow (see Acts 18:18) or merely pay the expenses of the other four while he “purified” himself through another ceremony. Bede takes the time to tell us the tradition about James, and Chrysostom admires Paul’s humility in ascribing all his success to God. Augustine, Chrysostom and Severus treat directly the problem of the continued practice of the law by Jewish Christians. They all advocate a gradual approach to the question, though they foresee a time when Jewish believers will cease practicing the law. This issue is being raised in our day, and their wisdom, if perhaps not their ultimate solution, is important to take into account. Severus notes how the apostles did not expect instant transformation but were patient and persevered in their teaching.

21:18 | Paul Goes to James

PAUL WENT WITH US TO JAMES. BEDE: This James was “the brother of the Lord,” that is, “the son of Mary, the sister of the Lord’s mother, whom John” the Evangelist “mentions.” It was he who “was appointed bishop by the apostles immediately after the Lord’s passion and ruled the church at Jerusalem for thirty years, that is, until Nero’s seventh year.” Since the Jews were not able to kill Paul, though they very much sought to, soon afterwards, as Festus had died and Albinus had not yet come to the province, they turned their hand against James, who “was buried next to the temple, where he had also been thrown down.” COMMENTARY ON THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES 21.18.

21:19 | What God Had Done Among the Gentiles

WISHING TO SHOW GOD’S MERCY. CHRYSOSTOM: Again Paul describes to them in detail the things relating to the Gentiles. He does this not to indulge in vainglory, God forbid, but because he wishes to show the mercy of God and fill them with great joy. Look at the result: “When they heard it, they glorified God.” It was not upon Paul that they bestowed their praise and admiration. For he described everything in such a way as to refer it all to [God]. HOMILIES ON THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES 46.

21:20 | Zealous for the Law

RESPECT FOR GOD-GIVEN ORDINANCES. AUGUSTINE: It is quite clear, I think, that James gave this advice in order to show the falsity of the views supposed to be Paul’s, which certain Jews who had come to believe in Christ, but who were still “zealous for the law,” had heard about him, namely, that through the teaching of Christ the commandments, written by the direction of God and transmitted by Moses to the fathers, were to be thought sacrilegious and worthy of rejection. These reports were not circulated about Paul by those who understood the spirit in which the Jewish converts felt bound to those observances, namely, because of their being prescribed by a divine authority and for the sake of the prophetic holiness of those ceremonies but not for the attaining of salvation, which has now been revealed in Christ and is conferred by the sacrament of baptism. Those who spread this rumor about Paul were the ones who wished to make these observances as binding as if without them there could be no salvation in the gospel for believers. For they had experienced him as a most vigorous preacher of grace and as one who taught the exact opposite of their view, that one is not justified by these but by the grace of Jesus Christ and that all the ordinances of the law were foreshadowings meant to announce him. That was why they tried to stir up hatred and persecution against him, making him out to be an enemy of the law and of the divine commandments, and there was no more fitting way for him to repel the injustice of this false charge than by performing personally the ceremonies that he was supposed to condemn as sacrilegious. In this way [Paul] would prove two things: that the Jews were not to be prevented from observing these obligations as if they were wrong and that the Gentiles were not to be forced to observe them as if they were necessary. LETTER 82.

SHADOWS OF THINGS TO COME. AUGUSTINE: I say, therefore, that circumcision and other ordinances of this sort were divinely revealed to the former people through the Testament which we call Old, as types of future things, which were to be fulfilled by Christ. When this fulfillment had come, those obligations remained for the instruction of Christians, to be read simply for the understanding of the previous prophecy, but not to be performed through necessity, as if people had still to await the coming revelation of the faith that was foreshadowed by these things. However, although they were not to be imposed on the Gentiles, they were not thereby to be removed from the customary life of the Jews, as if they were worthy of scorn and condemnation. Gradually, therefore, and by degrees, through the fervent preaching of the grace of Christ, by which alone believers were to know that they were justified and saved—not by those shadows of things, formerly future but now present and at hand—through the conversion of those Jews whom the presence of the Lord in the flesh and the times of the apostles found living thus, all that activity of the shadows was to be ended. This was to be enough praise for it, that it was not to be avoided and despised as idolatry was, but was to have no further development and was not to be thought necessary, as if salvation either depended on it or could not be had without it. This is what some heretics thought, who wanted to be both Jews and Christians and could be neither Jews nor Christians. You [i.e., Jerome] were so kind as to warn me very earnestly against that opinion, although I have never held it. LETTER 82.

21:21 | Teaching Jews to Forsake Moses

THE PATIENCE AND PERSEVERANCE OF THE APOSTLES. SEVERUS OF ANTIOCH: Thus the apostles and the holy disciples of the Savior, in the beginning, allowed converts from Judaism to the life of the gospel to be circumcised according to the law of Moses in order that they would just believe in the Lord. Later, they themselves on their own, filled with worship in the Spirit and with evangelical perfection, rejected the small shadowy observances of the law. CATENA ON THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES 21.21-22.

21:26 | Paul Purified Himself and Went into the Temple

PAUL CONDESCENDS TO THE JEW’S SENSIBILITIES. CHRYSOSTOM: Against this Paul defends himself and shows that he does this not of his choice. How did they persuade him? It was part of the divine plan and condescension on his part. So this was no hindrance to the preaching, since it was they themselves who decided such things. So he does not accuse Peter in any way. For what he himself did here is what Peter did on that occasion when he held his peace and established his doctrine. And he did not say, “But why? It is not necessary to teach those among the Gentiles.” It is not enough that he does not preach so there; he had to do something more to persuade them that you observe the law. Condescension is what it is. Do not be alarmed. HOMILIES ON THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES 46.