When they heard this, they glorified God. Then they said to Paul, “You see, brother, how many thousands of Jews have believed, and all of them are zealous for the law.
They travelled light, carrying their own bags like poor soldiers, perhaps bearing the collection for Jerusalem's poor. When Paul resolved to go despite their warnings, they would not abandon him; like Thomas toward Christ and Ittai toward David, they cleaved to him in danger.
AI summary
Commenting on Acts 21:15-26
They gave God the glory because Paul's own account traced everything to Him. These thousands of believing Jews at Jerusalem and throughout Judea were genuine converts, but they had not yet seen that Christ is the substance of all the ceremonial law and that those observances have ended in Him; they remained zealous for Moses' law out of incomplete light.
AI summary
True piety rejoices in the Gospel's spread regardless of who preaches it, without jealousy. These thousands of converts prove the work begun at Pentecost has not ceased. That they still observe the Mosaic ceremonies is remarkable given Christianity's design to abolish them, yet they were trained in those rites and had not yet received full clarity on Christian liberty.
AI summary