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
  • 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
  • Why take Titus along?
    • Ideas: Challenge to Judaizing Christians:
      • Show of force?
      • See if apostles objected or commanded he be circumcised?
  • 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”
  • 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.