The Apostles approved his teachings 1 Then, after fourteen years, I went up again to Jerusalem with Barnabas, taking Titus also with me. 2 And I went up according to revelation; and communicated to them the gospel, which I preach among the Gentiles, but apart to them who seemed to be some thing: lest perhaps I should run, or had run in vain. 3 But neither Titus, who was with me, being a Gentile, was compelled to be circumcised. 4 But because of false brethren unawares brought in, who came in privately to spy our liberty, which we have in Christ Jesus, that they might bring us into servitude. 5 To whom we yielded not by subjection, no not for an hour, that the truth of the gospel might continue with you. 6 But of them who seemed to be some thing, (what they were some time, it is nothing to me, God accepts not the person of man,) for to me they that seemed to be some thing added nothing. 7 But contrariwise, when they had seen that to me was committed the gospel of the uncircumcision, as to Peter was that of the circumcision. 8 (For he who wrought in Peter to the apostleship of the circumcision, wrought in me also among the Gentiles.) 9 And when they had known the grace that was given to me, James and Cephas and John, who seemed to be pillars, gave to me and Barnabas the right hands of fellowship: that we should go to the Gentiles, and they to the circumcision: 10 Only that we should be mindful of the poor: which same thing also I was careful to do.
Paul reproves Cephas 11 But when Cephas came to Antioch, I withstood him to the face, because he was to be blamed. 12 For before that some came from James, he ate with the Gentiles: but when they came, he withdrew and separated himself, fearing them who were of the circumcision. 13 And to his dissimulation the rest of the Jews consented, so that Barnabas also was led by them into that dissimulation. 14 But when I saw that they did not walk uprightly to the truth of the gospel, I said to Cephas before them all: If you, being a Jew, live after the manner of the Gentiles, and not as the Jews do, how do you compel the Gentiles to live as do the Jews?
Justification comes through faith in Christ 15 We by nature are Jews, and not of the Gentiles sinners. 16 But knowing that man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ; we also believe in Christ Jesus, that we may be justified by the faith of Christ, and not by the works of the law: because by the works of the law no flesh shall be justified. 17 But if while we seek to be justified in Christ, we ourselves also are found sinners; is Christ then the minister of sin? God forbid. 18 For if I build up again the things which I have destroyed, I make myself a prevaricator. 19 For I, through the law, am dead to the law, that I may live to God: with Christ I am nailed to the cross. 20 And I live, now not I; but Christ lives in me. And that I live now in the flesh: I live in the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and delivered himself for me. 21 I cast not away the grace of God. For if justice be by the law, then Christ died in vain.
Commentary on Galatians 2
2 For Luke in Acts 15 the Council of Jerusalem expresses the action of the Holy Spirit, for Paul Gal 2 it represents the crucial recognition of freedom shared among all who participate in it: a freedom from the obligations that derive from circumcision and from the Law… The two accounts of Paul and Luke of the Assembly of Jerusalem have in common the liberating action of the Spirit. (Pope Benedict XVI St. Paul 6)
2:1 St. Jerome says that the fourteen years was from the time of his first journey to Jerusalem as we see in Gal 1:18 to this one here in 2:1. St. Thomas Aquinas says that it was fourteen years from the time of his conversion until this time in 2:1, in which seems to be best calculated. Paul made 5 trips to Jersualem according to the Acts of the Apostles. This trip mentioned in this passage is probably the 3rd trip that he made, which is mentioned in Acts15. Barnabas and Titus: Now Barnabas was a Jew, but Titus a Gentile. He went up with them, therefore, in order to have witnesses to his teaching and to show that he leaned neither to the side of the Jews nor the Gentiles. (St. Thomas Aquinas)
2:2 Here Paul made an assertion on behalf of his preaching because many people, having been disturbed by Jews, were now worried about the Paul’s teaching. That is why he says he discussed it with the Apostles, thereby demonstrating that he had no assuredness of the Gospel unless his preaching could be confirmed by Peter and the others. (Peter Lombard)
2:3 circumcised: The Apostles were aware that Titus was not circumcised, and they still did not subject him to it, which is a convincing proof that they coincided in opinion with St. Paul, respecting the inutility of the Jewish ceremonies for salvation. (Bishop John McEvilly) This discussion occasioned the decree handed down by the apostles on not observing the rites of the law, as is had in Acts 15:28. The reason why these rites were not to be observed after the passion of Christ is assigned in the following way by Chrysostom: “For it is evident that the instrument drawn up for any promise or pact binds only until the pact and promise are fulfilled; but when fulfilled, the instrument no longer binds on that point.” Now circumcision is an instrument of the promise and pact between God and believing men. Hence it was that Abraham underwent circumcision as a sign of the promise, as is said in Genesis 11:26. And because the promise was fulfilled and the pact completed by the passion of Christ, neither the pact holds after the passion nor is circumcision of any value. (St. Thomas Aquinas)
2:4 false brethren: He refers to those who were secretly introduced by Jews into that place where the apostles were congregating. For the unfaithful were scheming through the false brethren to accomplish what they could not do by themselves....They did this in order to bring Christians back into the fleshly observances from which they had been liberated through the faith in Christ. (Peter Lombard)
2:6 seemed to be some thing: That is, they seemed to be of some authority because they had walked with the Lord and were present at the Transfiguration. They seemed to be of such in the eyes of those false brethren because those who seem to be something seem to be something to fleshly human beings. (Peter Lombard)
2:8 Peter to the circumcison and Paul uncircumcision: For even this distinction makes no difference, since it was a dispensation of divine grace, except that the Jews, who by the ancient custom of the law were not allowed to associate with Gentiles because they had for long been separated from them by the law, were admitted to the faith in Christ through the blessed Peter, while the Gentiles would similarly be conducted to faith through blessed Paul. But afterwards the shared character of the faith brought them together as one. Indeed, they all worked as one, as is clearly shown to be the case by the facts themselves. In fact, even Paul called as many of the Jews as he could to faith, as he did in Corinth (Acts 18:8). And it is clear in many places that he disputed with the Jews in the synagogues. Peter also went to the Gentiles as often as he could and did not disdain to do so as with Cornelius. (Theodore of Mopsuestia)
2:9 seemed to be pillars: Or sustainer of the Church. They were held in higher esteem than the rest of the apostles because Christ always admitted them into his more private moments. (St. Bruno)
2:11 I withstood him to his face: Paul must be admired because he believed that truth must be honored before everything, and for it he did not hesitate to oppose the most excellent and distinguished of the Apostles to his face. But Peter must be admired because, granted that he appeared to be convicted, nevertheless he remained quiet, bearing it all with silence. Though he was capable of asserting his primacy on the basis of many considerations, he treated his own affairs as of no importance and thought that people should honor truth above all. But their agreement in the time that followed has demonstrated that their dispute did not cause any division. |
(Theodore of Mopsuestia) Because he was to be blamed. It may be asked whether Peter was really blameworthy and was actually blamed by Paul. For many years there was a sharp dispute on this point between St. Jerome and St. Augustine, as may be seen in their epistles. Jerome, Chrysostom, Theophylact, Baronius answer in the negative, and hold that the rebuke was only theatrical. They argue that Peter, who had lawfully followed the Jewish customs at Jerusalem among Jews, lived as a Gentile among Gentiles at Antioch; when, however, the Jews arrived who had been sent to Antioch from Jerusalem by James, he withdrew from the Gentiles in favor of the Jews, lest he should offend those who had been the earliest to receive the faith (see ver. 9), and also that he might at the same time give Paul, the Apostle of the Gentiles, an opportunity of rebuking him, that by yielding he might teach the Jews that the time for Judaising was past. On the other side St. Augustine maintains that Peter was really blameworthy, and was blamed by Paul, as the record distinctly declares. (Cornelius a Lapide)
2:12-14 fearing them: the Jews, not with a human or worldly fear but a fear inspired by charity, namely, lest they be scandalized, as is said in a Gloss. Hence he became to the Jews as a Jew (1 Cor 9:20), pretending that he felt the same as they did in their weakness. Yet he feared unreasonably, because the truth must never be set aside through fear of scandal. (St. Thomas Aquinas) In all likelihood the approaches of Peter and Paul were different: Peter did not want to lose the Jews who had adhered to the Gospel, and Paul did not want to diminish the saving value of Christ's death for all believers. (Pope Benedict XVI St. Paul 6)
Why would the Apostles have, as we see Peter here, take up the old customs that were fulfilled by Christ in the New Law? St. Bede clarifies it when commenting on Acts 16:3 concerning Paul circumcising Timothy, saying, “This was done so that the Jewish Christians would not fall away from the faith because of the pretext of the Gentiles. Nevertheless, the old trace of the law was to be gradually removed for them, just as the depravity of the ancient ways was to be removed in the case of the Gentiles. For these traces of the law were used from time to time by the Apostles, as if they were at one time established by the Lord, in order to avert the lack of faith on the part of the Jewish Christians.”
For although Barnabas correctly believed that such laws had been abolished for both peoples, still with the same intention as Peter, he withdrew himself from the Gentiles and pretended to think just like the weak did. This hypocrisy was not helpful to the Gentiles, however, and that is why Paul rebuked Peter. (Peter Lombard) For unless Peter had been publicly corrected in this matter and thus confessed that he was in fact reprehensible, not only would Jews think faith was useless without the Law but Gentiles would as well. (St. Bruno)
2:15 Gentiles sinners: Because the Gentiles were without the benefit of the law. (Bishop John McEvilly) Or, according to Augustine and Anselm, the Jews contemptuously called the Gentiles, as being idolaters. (Cornelius a Lapide)
2:16 works of the law: For St Paul, as for all his contemporaries, the word "Law" meant the Torah in its totality, that is, the five books of Moses. The Torah, in the Pharisaic interpretation, that which Paul had studied and made his own, was a complex set of conduct codes that ranged from the ethical nucleus to observances of rites and worship and that essentially determined the identity of the just person. In particular, these included circumcision, observances concerning pure food and ritual purity in general, the rules regarding the observance of the Sabbath, etc. (Pope Benedict XVI St. Paul 13) justified by the faith of Christ: The Apostle does not say that by faith good works are thereby meaningless, for God renders to each person according to that person’s works. Rather, it is because works proceed from grace, not grace from works. Faith working through love does nothing unless the love of God is poured into us through the Holy Spirit. Nor does faith itself abide within us unless God bestows it. Paul says we are justified by faith because faith comes first. It is from this that the rest of these things are accomplished. (Peter Lombard) may be justified: means being made righteous, that is, being accepted by God's merciful justice to enter into communion with him and, consequently, to be able to establish a far more genuine relationship with all our brethren: and this takes place on the basis of the complete forgiveness of our sins. (Pope Benedict XVI St. Paul's new outlook)
2:19-20 In these words, I am crucified with Christ, he alludes to Baptism and in the words nevertheless I live, yet not I, our subsequent manner of life whereby our members are mortified. By saying Christ lives in me, he means nothing is done by me, which Christ disapproves; for as by death he signifies not what is commonly understood, but a death to sin; so by life, he signifies a delivery from sin. For a man cannot live to God, otherwise than by dying to sin; and as Christ suffered bodily death, so does Paul a death to sin. (St. John Chrysostom) |
Catechism Cross-reference
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