<p>21:24- see on Acts 18:18.</p><p><i>These take and purify yourself along with them, and pay <em>their expenses</em></i>- Paul was clearly not poor at this time; or probably it was known that he was bringing funds to Jerusalem on behalf of the Gentile churches. See the note on &quot;baggage&quot; on :15. It was considered a work of piety to relieve needy Jews from the expenses connected with short term Nazirite vows, as Paul does here. Adam Clarke notes: &quot;It was also customary for the richer sort to bestow their charity on the poorer sort for this purpose; for Josephus, <em>Ant. lib. xix. cap. 6, sec. 1</em>, observes that Agrippa, on his being advanced from a prison to a throne, by the Emperor Claudius, came to Jerusalem; and there, among other instances of his religious thankfulness shown in the temple, &Nu;&alpha;&zeta;&alpha;&rho;&alpha;&iota;&omega;&nu; &xi;&upsilon;&rho;&alpha;&sigma;&theta;&alpha;&iota; &delta;&iota;&epsilon;&tau;&alpha;&xi;&epsilon; &mu;&alpha;&lambda;&alpha; &sigma;&upsilon;&chi;&nu;&omicron;&upsilon;&sigmaf;, he ordered very many Nazarites to be shaven, he furnishing them with money for the expenses of that, and of the sacrifices necessarily attending it&quot;. The idea of the Jerusalem poor fund was that Paul would relieve needy believers who had been affected by recent famines. But we get the impression that this noble intention got caught up in church politics; the funds were spent on temple sacrifices to prove that poor Jewish Christians had achieved legal obedience in ending their vows, and Paul was publicly demonstrating his support of such legalism.</p><p><i>That they may shave their heads; and<em> all shall know that there is no truth in the things of which they have been informed concerning you, but you yourself also walk orderly, keeping the law</em></i>- Note how hurtful this must have been, since Paul was bringing funds for their ecclesia which he had collected at the cost of damaging his relationship with the likes of Corinth. He meekly obeyed, perhaps it was playing a part in the politics in the church, although he had written to the Colossians and others that there was no need for any to be circumcised nor keep the Law, indeed these things were a denial of faith in Jesus. Paul later uses the same word to describe how we are to 'walk' not according to the Law but the Spirit (Gal. 5:25; 6:16; Phil. 3:16); perhaps this was written from prison with a glance back at the fact that he was imprisoned exactly because he had attempted to impress others by how he walked according to the Law, which had led to the riot and his subsequent incarceration. He likewise uses the term 'keeping the law' in a negative sense in Rom. 2:26 and Gal. 6:13.</p>