Acts 21:26 - Coke's Commentary on the Holy Bible

To signify the accomplishment, &c.— Dr. Heylin renders this, and declared how many days the purification was to last, and when the offering was to be made for each of them. This seems to be the true meaning of the passage: accordingly Dr. Benson's account of it is this: "The next day, taking the four men, St. Paul began to purify himself along with them; entering into the temple, and publicly declaring that he would observe the separation of a Nazarite, and continue itfor seven days: at the end of which days of purification he would bring an offering for himself and the other four who joined with him, according to what was appointed in the law of Moses." See on Numbers 6:4. To what has been said in the preceding note, in order to vindicate the apostle's character in this transaction, we may observe, that he had not taught all the Jewish Christians in Gentile countries to forsake the law of Moses; nay, he does not appear to have taught it as yet to any of them directly and immediately: that he took upon him the vow of a Nazarite, because it was an indifferent thing, or lawful for him to comply with the deep-rooted prejudices of the Jewish Christians: that if he had not complied at this time, and in the present circumstances, the Christianity of the Jewish converts would have been in danger, or at least their charity for, and union with, the Gentile churches which he had planted; and that if he had gone about to have explained himself immediately and at large, the consequence would probably have been as bad.