All this while, it is not in a direct way, it may be observed, that this word _vow_ is employed, and application made of it to Paul's case: not in speaking of Paul himself in the first instance, but after speaking of the _four other men_, whom it is proposed he should take for his comrades, on his entrance into the temple. "We have four men," James and the Elders are made to say, Acts 21:23, 24, "We have four men which have a vow on them: Them take, and purify thyself with them ... that ... all may know, that those things, whereof they," the multitude, ver. 22, "were informed concerning thee, are nothing": no otherwise, therefore, than by the case these four men were in, is the case designated, in which it is proposed to Paul to put himself. As to the case these four men were in,--no otherwise than on account of its connection with the case Paul was in,--is it in anywise of importance. As probable a supposition as any seems to be--that of their being in the same case with him: accused, as well as he, of teaching "Jews to forsake Moses:" for, between their case and his, no intimation is given of any difference: and, as the _"purifying himself"_ is what is recommended to him, so is it what they are stated, as standing eventually engaged to do on their part. If then, in _his_ instance, purifying himself means--clearing himself of a charge made against _him_,--so in their instance must it naturally, not to say necessarily, have meant--clearing themselves of some charge made against _them_. Moreover, when, as above, he is, in the Greek original, stated as having actually purified himself, before his entrance into the temple, so are they likewise; for it is "_with them_," that his purification is stated as having been performed. This being assumed, it might not be impossible to find a use for the word _vow_, even in its proper sense--its _promissory_ sense: for, what might be supposed is--that before the entrance into the temple, at the same time with the _denegatory declaration_, a _vow_ was made--a solemn _promise_--to enter into the temple, and back of the declaration with the sanction of an oath, by going through the ceremony. But, forasmuch, as, in the import of the Greek word, no such idea, as that of a _promise_, is comprised,--the only use of this interpretation would be--to save the translators from the imputation of an impropriety, with which it seems rather more probable that they stand chargeable.