Galatians 2:11-21

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 concerning our justification before God, and in a moment of weakness betrayed the cause of the Gentiles by yielding to the pressure of the Judaizing ritualists. Then Paul stood all alone as the champion of Christian liberty. In Galatians 2:15 he passes from the personal and historical part to the doctrinal part, namely, the defence of his evangelical view of the way of salvation in opposition to the Judaizing legalism of the false teachers.

The Acts make no mention of this controversy with Peter, but they relate a dispute between Paul and Barnabas (Acts 15:36-40), which took place likewise at Antioch soon after the Apostolic conference, and although referring mainly to a personal matter concerning Mark, was in all probability connected with the other dispute, inasmuch as Barnabas suffered himself to be led into a similar inconsistency by the example of Peter (Galatians 2:2; Galatians 2:13).