SEV Biblia, Chapter 21:20
Cuando ellos lo oyeron, glorificaron al Seor, y le dijeron: Ya ves, hermano, cuntos millares de judíos hay que han creído; y todos son celosos de la ley:
Clarke's Bible Commentary - Acts 21:20
Verse 20. How many thousands] posai muriadev; How many myriads, how many times 10,000. This intimates that there had been a most extraordinary and rapid work even among the Jews; but what is here spoken is not to be confined to the Jews of Jerusalem, but to all that had come from different parts of the land to be present at this pentecost. They are all zealous of the law] The Jewish economy was not yet destroyed; nor had God as yet signified that the whole of its observances were done away. He continued to tolerate that dispensation, which was to be in a certain measure in force till the destruction of Jerusalem; and from that period it was impossible for them to observe their own ritual. Thus God abolished the Mosaic dispensation, by rendering, in the course of his providence, the observance of it impossible.
John Gill's Bible Commentary
Ver. 20. And when they heard it , etc.] The narrative of the wonderful spread of the Gospel among the Gentiles, and the numerous conversions of them: they glorified the Lord ; or God, as the Alexandrian copy, the Vulgate Latin, and Ethiopic versions read; as Paul ascribed all to God, so they give the glory of it to him, and in this they were both agreed: and said unto him ; perhaps James in the name of them all, and as their mouth: thou seest, brother ; for so he was to James, both as a believer, and a minister of the word, and as an apostle: how many thousands of Jews there are which believe ; there were many thousands converted at Jerusalem upon the first preaching of the Gospel, after Christs ascension; (see Acts 2:41,47, 4:4,14, 6:7) and the number might be much increased since; though it may be, that reference is had not only to the number of the members of the church at Jerusalem, but to all the believing Jews in Judea, who were now come up to Jerusalem, to keep the feast of Pentecost; since it is in the Greek, how many myriads there are, and one myriad contains ten thousand: and they are all zealous of the law ; of the law of Moses, of the ceremonial law, as Paul might see by their being at Jerusalem, to keep this feast; for though they believed in Jesus of Nazareth as the true Messiah, yet they had not light enough to see, that he was the sum and substance of all the ceremonies of the law, and that they all ended in him; and therefore were zealous in the observance of them, and could not bear to hear of their abrogation.
Matthew Henry Commentary
Verses 19-26 - Paul ascribed all his success to God, and to God they gave the praise God had honoured him more than any of the apostles, yet they did no envy him; but on the contrary, glorified the Lord. They could not d more to encourage Paul to go on cheerfully in his work. James and the elders of the church at Jerusalem, asked Paul to gratify the believin Jews, by some compliance with the ceremonial law. They thought it wa prudent in him to conform thus far. It was great weakness to be so fon of the shadows, when the substance was come. The religion Pau preached, tended not to destroy the law, but to fulfil it. He preache Christ, the end of the law for righteousness, and repentance and faith in which we are to make great use of the law. The weakness and evil of the human heart strongly appear, when we consider how many, even of the disciples of Christ, had not due regard to the most eminent ministe that even lived. Not the excellence of his character, nor the succes with which God blessed his labours, could gain their esteem an affection, seeing that he did not render the same respect as themselve to mere ceremonial observances. How watchful should we be agains prejudices! The apostles were not free from blame in all they did; an it would be hard to defend Paul from the charge of giving way too muc in this matter. It is vain to attempt to court the favour of zealots or bigots to a party. This compliance of Paul did not answer, for the very thing by which he hoped to pacify the Jews, provoked them, an brought him into trouble. But the all-wise God overruled both their advice and Paul's compliance with it, to serve a better purpose tha was intended. It was in vain to think of pleasing men who would be pleased with nothing but the rooting out of Christianity. Integrity an uprightness will be more likely to preserve us than insincer compliances. And it should warn us not to press men to doing what is contrary to their own judgment to oblige us.
Greek Textus Receptus
οι 3588 T-NPM δε 1161 CONJ ακουσαντες 191 5660 V-AAP-NPM εδοξαζον 1392 5707 V-IAI-3P τον 3588 T-ASM κυριον 2962 N-ASM ειπον 2036 5627 V-2AAI-3P τε 5037 PRT αυτω 846 P-DSM θεωρεις 2334 5719 V-PAI-2S αδελφε 80 N-VSM ποσαι 4214 Q-NPF μυριαδες 3461 A-NPM εισιν 1526 5748 V-PXI-3P ιουδαιων 2453 A-GPM των 3588 T-GPM πεπιστευκοτων 4100 5761 V-RAP-GPM και 2532 CONJ παντες 3956 A-NPM ζηλωται 2207 N-NPM του 3588 T-GSM νομου 3551 N-GSM υπαρχουσιν 5225 5719 V-PAI-3P
Robertson's NT Word Studies
21:20 {Glorified} (edoxazon). Inchoative imperfect, began to glorify God, though without special praise of Paul. {How many thousands} (posai muriades). Old word for ten thousand (#Ac 19:19) and qen an indefinite number like our "myriads" ( this very word) as #Lu 12:1; Ac 21:20; Jude 1:14; Re 5:11; 9:16. But it is a surprising statement even with allowable hyperbole, but one may recall #Ac 4:4 (number of the men--not women--about five thousand); #5:14 (multitudes both of men and women); #6:7. There were undoubtedly a great many thousands of believers in Jerusalem and all Jewish Christians, some, alas, Judaizers (#Ac 11:2; 15:1,5). this list may include the Christians from neighboring towns in Palestine and even some from foreign countries here at the Feast of Pentecost, for it is probable that Paul arrived in time for it as he had hoped. But we do not have to count the hostile Jews from Asia (verse #27) who were clearly not Christians at all. {All zealous for the law} (pantes zelwtai tou nomou). Zealots (substantive) rather than zealous (adjective) with objective genitive (tou nomou). The word zealot is from zelow, to burn with zeal, to boil. The Greek used zelwtes for an imitator or admirer. There was a party of Zealots (developed from the Pharisees), a group of what would be called "hot-heads," who brought on the war with Rome. One of this party, Simon zelotes (#Ac 1:13), was in the number of the twelve apostles. It is important to understand the issues in Jerusalem. It was settled at the Jerusalem Conference (#Ac 15; Ga 2) that the Mosaic ceremonial law was not to be imposed upon Gentile Christians. Paul won freedom for them, but it was not said that it was wrong for Jewish Christians to go on observing it if they wished. We have seen Paul observing the passover in Philippi (#Ac 20:6) and planning to reach Jerusalem for Pentecost (#20:16). The Judaizers rankled under Paul's victory and power in spreading the gospel among the Gentiles and gave him great trouble in Galatia and Corinth. They were busy against him in Jerusalem also and it was to undo the harm done by them in Jerusalem that Paul gathered the great collection from the Gentile Christians and brought it with him and the delegates from the churches. Clearly qen Paul had real ground for his apprehension of trouble in Jerusalem while still in Corinth (#Ro 15:25) when he asked for the prayers of the Roman Christians (verses #30-32). The repeated warnings along the way were amply justified.
