time that we should have had no knowledge of most of these troubles, had not the apostle `become a fool' in his

`In labours more abundant, in stripes above measure, in prisons more frequent, in deaths oft. Of the Jews five

times received I forty stripes save one. Thrice was I beaten with rods, once was I stoned, thrice I suffered

shipwreck, a night and a day I have been in the deep' (2 Cor. 11:23-25).

Added to this almost unprecedented suffering, is a list of `perils' that beset the apostle in his ministry, and the

passage concludes:

`Beside those things that are without, that which cometh upon me daily, the care of all the churches' (2 Cor.

Coming back to Acts 18, it would appear that the apostle, who was still an Israelite, still looking for the hope of

Israel, and yearning for the salvation of his own kinsmen, could find no means of expressing his thankfulness for so

great a deliverance more appropriate than the taking upon him of the Nazarite vow. Paul was not `under the law' so

far as salvation was concerned, but at the same time he was not standing in the full light of

the Mystery, as made known in his prison epistles. Christianity was still a movement among the Jews. It destroyed

no legitimate Jewish aspirations, but rather pointed to the Lord Jesus as the true Messiah and the fulfilment of all

their hopes. It is this fact that colours the whole of the Acts up to 28:28, and all the epistles written before that

period (namely, Galatians, Thessalonians, Hebrews, Corinthians and Romans).

Lightfoot, referring to Rabbinical teaching, writes as follows;

`Nazarism was, most ordinarily, for thirty days; though sometimes it was for years, and sometimes for term of

life. He whose vow was expired, was to bring three beasts, one for a burnt offering, another for a sin offering,

and a third for a peace offering. If he polled his head in the country, as Paul did at Cenchrea, he was to bring his

hair, and burn it under the caldron' (Lightfoot, Vol. ix. 307).

Josephus, also, in speaking of Bernice who sacrificed her hair as part of a vow, gives the period as thirty days

(B.J. II. 15. 1).

Coming back to the Acts, let us next notice the accuracy of Luke's language. In Acts 18:18 the word translated

`shorn' is keiramenos, while in 21:24 we have the word xuresontai, `shave'. Keiro refers to the cutting or cropping

of the hair (as, for example, the polling of the head of Absalom) and we find that the Mishna (I. c. Vol. ii. page 167)

permitted this to be done by a temporary Nazarite in foreign lands. Acts 21:24, however, refers to the actual

`shaving' of the head. The apostle recognises the distinction between these two words in 1 Corinthians 11:6: `If it

be a shame for a woman to be shorn or shaven'. Dion Cassius, also, tells us that when the Prefect of Egypt, for his

own ends, sent an unusually large tribute, that had been wrung out of the people by extortion, Tiberius rebuked him

by saying that he wished his sheep `shorn' (keiresthai) and not `shaved' (aposuresthai).

Bearing in mind the apostle's vow, we can at once understand his desire to get to Jerusalem without delay. At

Ephesus he enters the synagogue and reasons with the Jews, but although `they desired him to tarry longer time with

them', we read that `he consented not; but bade them farewell, saying, I must by all means keep this feast that

cometh in Jerusalem'.

Luke gives no details of the visit to Jerusalem, or of the keeping of the feast, or the conclusion of the Nazarite

vow. All he says is:

`And when he had landed at Cæsarea, and gone up, and saluted the church, he went down to Antioch' (Acts

The details were apparently not necessary for Luke's purpose in writing the Acts, and we must abide by the

inspired decision. Nothing of moment seems to have taken place, no conference with the leaders at Jerusalem, and

no turmoil or riot among the Jews. The apostle was permitted to fulfil his vow in peace. `He saluted the church',

and turned his steps once more to the regions beyond.