Expositor's Bible Commentary Commentary Acts 21:19

"And when he had saluted them, he rehearsed one by one the things which God had wrought among the Gentiles through his ministry." — Acts 21:19 (ASV)

On this occasion Paul “reported in detail what God had done among the Gentiles through his ministry.” Undoubtedly he also presented the collection from the Gentile churches to James and the elders, for that was his chief motive for going to Jerusalem (see comments on vv.10–14). Nowhere in Acts does Luke mention this collection, probably because he did not know how to explain to his Gentile readers (1) its significance as being much more than a way of currying favor and (2) Paul’s fears that the Jerusalem Christians might not accept it.

To understand Paul’s fears, we must realize that the Jerusalem church was increasingly being caught between its allegiance to the nation and its fraternal relation to Paul’s Gentile mission. To accept the contribution from the Gentile churches was to be identified further with that mission and to drive another wedge between themselves and their compatriots. True, they had accepted such a contribution earlier (cf. 11:27–30) and had declared their fraternity with Paul in previous meetings (cf. Galatians 2:6–10; Acts 15:13–29). But with the rising tide of Jewish nationalism and a growing body of scrupulous believers in the Jerusalem church, Jewish Christian solidarity with the Gentile mission was becoming more and more difficult to affirm if the Jerusalem church’s relations with the nation were to be maintained and opportunities for an outreach to Israel kept open. Undoubtedly Paul recognized the increased tensions at Jerusalem. No wonder he feared that James and the elders, for the sake of their Jewish relations and mission, might feel themselves constrained to reject the contribution (Romans 15:31), thus severing, in effect, the connection between the Pauline churches and the Jerusalem church.