Galatians 2
Chapter 2 starts
- Paul has been stressing:
- No consultations
- Speaking from revelation
- Gospel of Jesus
- His apostleship was genuine
Galatians 2:1-10
- Paul begins to make his second point
- First:
- Direct appointment to apostleship
- Preaching by revelation of Jesus
- Second:
- Fellowship with other apostles
- Others endorsed his message
- First:
- After 14 years (Galatians 2:1) – a time during which:
- Galatians heard the gospel and believed
- Paul established churches
- No change in message over time
- He went “up” to Jerusalem
- Not north/south
- To Jerusalem – “up”
- Compare:
- II Samuel 19:34
- I Kings 12:28 – Jeroboam, calves
- II Kings 24:10
- Ezra 1:3
- Isaiah 7:1
- Zechariah 14:17
- Matthew 20:17
- Acts – 9 times
- Which trip was this? The same as Acts 15?
- Arguments for this being the same trip as mentioned in Acts 15:
- Together with Barnabas – Acts 15:2; Galatians 2:1
- From Syria – Acts 14:26-28; Galatians 1:21
- To Jerusalem – Ats 15:2-4; Galatians 2:1
- Opposition of Judaizing Christians – Acts 15:5; Galatians 2:3-5
- Involvement of Peter and James
- Peter – Acts 15:7-11; Galatians 2:7-9
- James – Acts 15:13-21; Galatians 2:9
- All agreed on a conclusion – Acts 15:19-29; Galatians 2:7-10
- Arguments for this being the same trip as mentioned in Acts 15:
- Why take Titus along?
- Ideas: Challenge to Judaizing Christians:
- Show of force?
- See if apostles objected or commanded he be circumcised?
- Ideas: Challenge to Judaizing Christians:
- Paul says he went up because of a revelation in Galatians 2:2.
- Acts 15:2 says they were sent by brethren.
- Discrepancy? No!
- Look at Peter and Cornelius in Acts 10
- Cornelius – vision – sent messengers
- Peter – vision – received messengers – went
- What he sent or was he summoned?
- By vision or by human request?
- Both, of course, just as in Acts 15 and Galatians 2
- What are these false brethren in Galatians 2:4 – pseudadelphos
- Two references: Galatians 2:4 and II Corinthians 11:26
- Pretending, but not brethren
- Planted by others to spy – motivation
- Bring Gentile Christians into the bondage of the Law of Moses
- Why?
- Jealousy? (Acts 13:45; 17:5)
- Paul and his group did not give in to them – kept gospel pure for them (Galatians 2:5)
- Key apostles (those of high reputation, pillars) added nothing to Paul’s message
- Instead, they granted the right hand of fellowship
- Agreed to continue the two paths:
- The twelve to the Jews
- Paul to the Gentiles
- Strictly? Who first preached to the Gentiles?
- How about the men of Cyprus and Cyrene? Barnabas? Acts 11:19-26
- Who did Paul always go to first? Jews
- Who had Peter already gone to? Jews AND Gentiles
- The two-gospel heresy
- Central reference is Galatians 2:7
- Gospel “of,”, “for,” or “to” the circumcision/uncircumcision implies separate gospels.
- Gospel for the Jews, different gospel for the Gentiles.
- Repentance and baptism for the Jews.
- Faith and grace for the Gentiles.
- Problems with this two-gospel idea:
- Paul in Galatians 1:8-9 (sent to a mixed audience)
- How did this message change when leaving the synagogue for the Gentiles?
- Conclusion
- This is a heresy
- Perpetrators are to be “anathema”
- Central reference is Galatians 2:7
- At the conference’s end:
- The pillars of Jerusalem extend the right hand of fellowship to Paul’s group
- Only ask to remember the poor
- What about Acts 15
- Things polluted by idols
- Fornication
- Things strangled
- Blood
- These were directed, required, “only burdens” from Old Law
- “Remember the poor” was a request – Don’t neglect to preach to the poor.
- Possibly reminiscent of references in Acts 7 and 11 to famines, both actual and prophesied.