Acts 21:20

And when they heard it, they glorified the Lord The oldest MSS. read God. They took up the strain of thanksgiving which had run through all the Apostle's story.

and said unto him Their anxiety makes itself apparent at once, and we come here face to face with what must have been one of the greatest difficulties for the early Christians. Before Jerusalem was destroyed there must ever have been at that centre a party zealous for the law, with whom labour among the Gentiles would find small favour.

Thou seest, brother The verb is not the ordinary one for to see. It implies that there had been an opportunity for the Apostle to behold some Christian gathering. At this feast the Christians would have as much interest in a commemorative assembly as the Jews.

how many thousands The Greek is "myriads," but the word is used indefinitely, like our "thousand," to signify a large number.

of Jews there are which believe The most authoritative Greek text is rendered by the Rev. Ver." there are among the Jews of them which have believed." These were persons who, as was not unnatural, accepted Christianity as the supplement of Judaism, but made no break with their old faith, of the observances of which their life-long training had made them tenacious. To such men, as Christianity rested on the Old Testament Scripture, there would seem little need to make a rent between their old life and the new.

and they are all zealous of( for) the law i.e. rigorous maintainers of all the ceremonial of the Mosaic code. The word is the same as the name of the sect, Zealots.