_Conference of Paul with the Jewish Apostles at Jerusalem_. Chapter Galatians 2:1-10. Continuation of the personal defence. Fourteen years after his conversion, Paul had an interview with the Apostles of the circumcision at Jerusalem concerning his mode of preaching the gospel, and was recognized b... [ Continue Reading ]
_Excursus on the Relation of Paul to the Jewish Apostles._ Compare here my _History of the Apostolic Church_ (1853), pp. 245-260 and pp. 282 ff., 616 ff., and an able Excursus of Dr. Lightfoot on ‘St. Paul and the Three,' in his _Com. on Galat.,_ p. 283 ff. (second ed. 1866). The Epistle to the Gal... [ Continue Reading ]
Galatians 2:1. THEN AFTER AN INTERVAL OF FOURTEEN YEARS I WENT UP AGAIN TO JERUSALEM. The fourteen years of independent apostolic labor are to be reckoned not from the journey last mentioned (Galatians 1:18), but from Paul's conversion, this being the great turning point in his life (Galatians 1:15)... [ Continue Reading ]
Galatians 2:2. BY REVELATION. In consequence of a divine monition such as he often experienced (comp. Acts 16:6-7; Acts 19:21; Acts 20:22-23; Acts 22:17; Acts 27:23; 2 Corinthians 12:1). This was the inward, personal motive. Luke in Acts 15:2 omits this, but mentions the external, or public occasion... [ Continue Reading ]
Galatians 2:3. YET NOT EVEN TITUS.... BEING A GREEK, or although he was a Greek, that is, a heathen. Far from declaring my labors fruitless and disapproving my gospel, the Jewish Apostles did not force even Titus, my companion and co-laborer, much less the body of the Gentile converts, to submit to... [ Continue Reading ]
Galatians 2:4. AND THAT (happened, or, was done) ON ACCOUNT OF THE FALSE BRETHREN. The words ‘and that' (δέ _=nempe_) are explanatory, and assign the reason why Titus was not compelled by the chief Apostles to be circumcised. It explains and qualifies the general assertion (Galatians 2:3), and intim... [ Continue Reading ]
Galatians 2:5. These false brethren, it must be remembered, required circumcision and the observance of the whole ceremonial law not only from the Jewish, but also from the Gentile Christians, and that not only as an old venerable custom, but as a necessary condition to salvation. Paul and his compa... [ Continue Reading ]
Galatians 2:6. FROM THOSE REPUTED TO BE SOMETHING; lit., ‘those who have the estimation of being something,' that is, something great, or ‘those who are held in chief reputation,' ‘who are looked up to as authorities,' the ‘pillar' apostles, Galatians 2:9, or as Paul expresses it in 2 Corinthians 11... [ Continue Reading ]
Galatians 2:7. WHEN THEY SAW, from the communications of Paul (Galatians 2:2) and the abundant results of his missionary labors among the Gentiles (Acts 15:12). THAT I AM (not was) INTRUSTED. I have been and am still intrusted. The Greek perfect implies that the commission and trust is still in ac... [ Continue Reading ]
Galatians 2:8 is a parenthetic explanation of Galatians 2:7. GAVE STRENGTH TO (or WORKED FOR), _i.e.,_ enabled them successfully to discharge the duties of the Apostolic office, by conferring upon them the necessary spiritual gifts and qualifications and accompanying their preaching with signs and... [ Continue Reading ]
Galatians 2:9. PERCEIVING (or KNOWING) indicates the conviction arrived at in consequence of the successful labors of Paul, as the divine attestation of his apostleship. THE GRACE implies here the call, the spiritual outfit and the success, all of which Paul regards as a free gift of God in Christ... [ Continue Reading ]
Galatians 2:10. REMEMBER THE POOR of the Jewish Christians in Palestine, who suffered much from famine and persecution (comp. Acts 11:29). Charity should thus not only afford temporal relief to the needy, but be a moral bond of union also between the Jewish and the Gentile Christians and furnish a p... [ Continue Reading ]
_Excursus on the Controversy of Peter and Paul._ The collision of the two Apostles was of course only temporary. Peter showed weakness, Paul rebuked him, Peter submitted, and both continued to labor, at a respectful distance, yet as brethren (comp. 1 Corinthians 9:5; 2 Peter 3:15-16), for their comm... [ Continue Reading ]
_The Collision of Paul with Peter at Antioch._ Paul continues to prove his independent Apostolic dignity, and shows that he asserted it even in open opposition to Peter at Antioch before the mother congregation of Gentile Christianity, when the latter acted inconsistently with his own view concerni... [ Continue Reading ]
Galatians 2:11. The scene here related is of great importance for the history of Apostolic Christianity, but has often been misunderstood and distorted both in the interest of orthodoxy and heresy. It took place between the Apostolic conference (A. D. 50) and the second great missionary journey of P... [ Continue Reading ]
Galatians 2:12. CERTAIN PERSONS FROM JAMES, not simply members of his congregation at Jerusalem, out followers, and (as the word ‘from' seems to indicate) delegates of James of Jerusalem (Galatians 2:9), and invested with some authority, which they abused. We are not to understand by them ‘false bre... [ Continue Reading ]
Galatians 2:13. THE OTHER JEWS, _i.e._, Jewish Christians of Antioch, who very naturally suffered themselves to be carried away by the example and the high authority of Peter. DISSEMBLED LIKEWISE WITH HIM, were guilty of the same hypocrisy. A very strong, yet truthful expression. For we have here n... [ Continue Reading ]
Galatians 2:14. STRAIGHT, uprightly, honestly. ACCORDING TO (the rule of) THE TRUTH. Others, ‘towards,' _i.e._, so as to maintain the truth of the gospel (comp. Galatians 2:5). BEFORE ALL, _i.e.,_ the assembled congregation. For only in this public way the censure could have its desired effect upo... [ Continue Reading ]
Galatians 2:15. Many commentators close here the speech of Paul to Peter; others with Galatians 2:16; still others with Galatians 2:18. But the words, ‘we _who are Jews_ by nature,' would not suit the Galatians, most of whom were Gentiles by birth, and there is no mark of a return of the speech to t... [ Continue Reading ]
Galatians 2:16. YET KNOWING THAT A MAN IS NOT JUSTIFIED BY WORKS OF LAW (law-works, _Gesetzeswerke),_ BUT ONLY THROUGH FAITH IN JESUS CHRIST, WE OURSELVES ALSO BECAME BELIEVERS IN CHRIST JESUS. Here the term ‘justify' is first introduced in this Epistle. On the important doctrine of justification se... [ Continue Reading ]
_Excursus on justification._ The doctrine of justification by faith is one of the fundamental doctrines of Paul, and is set forth most fully in this Epistle and in that to the Romans. How shall a sinner be justified before a holy God? This was a vital question in the Apostolic age, and came very ne... [ Continue Reading ]
Galatians 2:17. WERE FOUND, discovered, in the eyes of God and men, at the time of our conversion to Christ and our justification by faith in him. SINNERS in the Jewish sense, _i.e.,_ lawless heathen, as in Galatians 2:15. A MINISTER OF SIN, helper, promoter. LET IT NEVER BE! or ‘Far be it;' ‘B... [ Continue Reading ]
Galatians 2:17-19; Galatians 2:17-19 furnish an example of the condensed and nervous dialectics of Paul, similar to Romans 3:3-8. The sense is somewhat obscured by brevity, and has been differently explained. Some make Paul reason from _false_ premises of the Judaizers, by drawing from them a logica... [ Continue Reading ]
Galatians 2:18. The sin is the other way, in going back from Christ to Moses, from the gospel of freedom to the law of bondage. Paul speaks with delicate consideration in the first person, but really means Peter and the Judaizers. He supposes a case which actually occurred, and exposes its folly. Pe... [ Continue Reading ]
Galatians 2:19. FOR I THROUGH LAW DIED TO LAW (a dative of disadvantage) THAT I MIGHT LIVE TO GOD (dative of advantage). The same idea is expressed in Romans 7:4-6; Colossians 2:20. Paul gives here, in a single sentence, the substance of his own experience, which he more fully explains in the sevent... [ Continue Reading ]
Galatians 2:20. I HAVE BEEN CRUCIFIED WITH CHRIST (not ‘ _am_ crucified,' as the E. V. has it). Paul means the past act which took place in his conversion. It is an explanation of the word ‘ _died_,' _Galatians 2:19_ (not ‘ _am dead_,' E. V.). Since the law is a school master to Christ who fulfilled... [ Continue Reading ]
Galatians 2:21. I DO NOT FRUSTRATE, or set at nought, make of no effect, nullify, as the Judaizers do with their assertion of the necessity of the law for justification. THE GRACE OF GOD, which revealed itself in the infinite love and atoning death of Christ, Galatians 2:20. CHRIST DIED (not ‘is... [ Continue Reading ]