Acts 24:17

Alms - Acts and deeds of mercy.

Now, after many years, etc. - And as a full proof that I act according to the dictates of this Divine and beneficent creed, though I have been many years absent from my own country, and my political relation to it is almost necessarily dissolved, yet, far from coming to disturb the peace of society, or to injure any person, I have brought Alms to my nation, the fruits of my own earning and influence among a foreign people, and Offerings to my God and his temple, proving hereby my attachment to my country, and my reverence for the worship of my country's God.

Now after many years - After many years' absence. Paul here commences a reply to the charge of Tentullus, that he had endeavored to profane the temple, Acts 24:6. He begins by saying that his design in coming up to Jerusalem was to bring to his countrymen needed aid in a time of distress. It would be absurd to suppose, therefore, that his object in coming was to violate the customs of the temple, and to defile it.

I came to bring - See Acts 11:29-30; compare the notes on Romans 15:25-26.

Alms - Charities; the gift of the churches.

To my nation - Not to all the nation, but to the poor saints or Christians who were in Judea, and who were suffering much by persecutions and trials.

And offerings - The word used here properly denotes "an offering or gift" of any kind; but it is usually applied to an oblation or offering made to God in the temple - "a thank-offering, a sacrifice." This is probably its meaning here. He came to bring aid to his needy countrymen, and an offering to God; and it was, therefore, no part of his purpose to interfere with, or to profane the worship of the temple.