Acts 21:17-26

New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition

Paul Visits James at Jerusalem

¹⁷ When we arrived in Jerusalem, the brothers welcomed us warmly.^{(A) 18} The next day Paul went with us to visit James, and all the elders were present.^{(B) 19} After greeting them, he related one by one the things that God had done among the gentiles through his ministry.^{(C) 20} When they heard it, they praised God. Then they said to him, “You see, brother, how many thousands of believers there are among the Jews, and they are all zealous for the law.^{(D) 21} They have been told about you that you teach all the Jews living among the gentiles to forsake Moses and that you tell them not to circumcise their children or observe the customs. ²² What then is to be done? They will certainly hear that you have come. ²³ So do what we tell you. We have four men who are under a vow.^{(E) 24} Join these men, go through the rite of purification with them, and pay for the shaving of their heads. Thus all will know that there is nothing in what they have been told about you but that you yourself observe and guard the law.^{(F) 25} But as for the gentiles who have become believers, we have sent a letter with our judgment that they should abstain from what has been sacrificed to idols and from blood and from what is strangled^[a] and from sexual immorality.”^{(G) 26} Then Paul took the men, and the next day, having purified himself, he entered the temple with them, making public the completion of the days of purification when the sacrifice would be made for each of them.^(H)