The Hyperlinked Bible
Intertextuality Pair
Allusion
Later text
Acts 21:24BSB
Take these men, purify yourself along with them, and pay their expenses so they can have their heads shaved. Then everyone will know that there is no truth to these rumors about you, but that you also live in obedience to the law.
Earlier text
Now this is the law of the Nazirite when his time of separation is complete: He must be brought to the entrance to the Tent of Meeting, and he is to present an offering to the LORD of an unblemished year-old male lamb as a burnt offering, an unblemished year-old female lamb as a sin offering, and an unblemished ram as a peace offering— together with their grain offerings and drink offerings—and a basket of unleavened cakes made from fine flour mixed with oil and unleavened wafers coated with oil. The priest is to present all these before the LORD and make the sin offering and the burnt offering. He shall also offer the ram as a peace offering to the LORD, along with the basket of unleavened bread. And the priest is to offer the accompanying grain offering and drink offering. Then at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting, the Nazirite is to shave his consecrated head, take the hair, and put it on the fire under the peace offering. And the priest is to take the boiled shoulder from the ram, one unleavened cake from the basket, and one unleavened wafer, and put them into the hands of the Nazirite who has just shaved the hair of his consecration. The priest shall then wave them as a wave offering before the LORD. This is a holy portion for the priest, in addition to the breast of the wave offering and the thigh that was presented. After that, the Nazirite may drink wine. This is the law of the Nazirite who vows his offering to the LORD for his separation, in addition to whatever else he can afford; he must fulfill whatever vow he makes, according to the law of his separation.”
To prove he lives in observance of the Law, Paul is urged to join four men in the completion of a vow and to "pay their expenses so they can have their heads shaved" (Acts 21:24) — the Nazirite ritual of Numbers 6:13-21, which prescribes the offerings and the shaving of the consecrated head at the vow's end. Paul, though free from the Law as a way of righteousness, accommodates himself to it to avoid needless offense, becoming as one under the law to win those under the law (1 Corinthians 9:20). The episode carries a quiet contrast: the Nazirite's temporary, external consecration stands over against the permanent, inward holiness given in Christ, the truly consecrated One, whose consecration belongs to a different register from the vow's. Within the canon-wide theme of separation unto God, it is in the Holy One of God that his people are set apart forever.