{"id":2559,"date":"2017-11-29T09:00:12","date_gmt":"2017-11-29T14:00:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theologyisforeveryone.com\/?p=2559"},"modified":"2022-07-23T18:22:40","modified_gmt":"2022-07-23T22:22:40","slug":"galatians-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theologyisforeveryone.com\/galatians-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Galatians 2"},"content":{"rendered":"

This post follows the Bible reading plan available at oaktreechurch.com\/soap<\/a>. You can read all my New Testament notes in my book New Testament: Chapter by Chapter<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

Chapter two<\/strong> records yet another visit Paul made to Jerusalem, this time with Barnabas and Titus (Galatians 2:1-5). The fact that Luke never mentioned Titus in Acts makes it difficult to make a certain determination, but the \u201cFOURTEEN YEARS\u201d Paul mentioned makes it possible that this was the famine relief visit in Acts 11:30. This interpretation is preferred because this visit was \u201cONLY . . . A PRIVATE MEETING WITH THE INFLUENTIAL PEOPLE\u201d rather than all the apostles and elders and congregation at the Jerusalem Council. 1<\/sup><\/a> In this meeting, Paul made sure to emphasize that he preached justification by grace through faith alone and did not insist on circumcision for Gentiles (Galatians 2:6-10). The other apostles agreed with his message and agreed that he and Barnabas \u201cWOULD GO TO THE GENTILES AND THEY TO THE CIRCUMCISED.\u201d (This also implies that their Acts 13-14 missionary tour had not taken place yet.)<\/p>\n

In a show of \u201cgoodwill\u201d for Paul and Barnabas\u2019 ministry in Antioch, Peter made a visit there (Galatians 2:11-14). Although he had good relations with them for a while, including eating meals with them, when \u201cCERTAIN PEOPLE CAME FROM JAMES\u201d 2<\/sup><\/a> he began to pull away from the Gentiles. This hypocrisy grew to such a level \u201cTHAT EVEN BARNABAS\u201d got caught up in it. Because of the public humiliation these Jews imposed on their Gentile brothers, Paul publicly called them out.<\/p>\n

Paul used the recollection of this event to segue into his first major doctrinal statement of the letter\u2019s body and introduced his main thesis: \u201cWE KNOW THAT NO ONE IS JUSTIFIED BY THE WORKS OF THE LAW BUT BY THE FAITHFULNESS OF JESUS CHRIST\u201d (Galatians 2:16). To the Jews God gave the covenants, promises, etc. (Romans 9:1-5), and Jesus said that \u201cSALVATION IS FROM THE JEWS\u201d (John 4:22). Paul\u2019s emphasis that he was a Jew \u201cBY BIRTH\u201d (literally, \u201cby nature\u201d) rather than \u201cby conversion\u201d was to show that he was not justified by any of those. Even a Jew must believe in Jesus, something Paul expands in detail in Romans.<\/p>\n

One debated point in this passage and several others in Paul\u2019s writings has to do with the phrase \u201cTHE FAITHFULNESS OF JESUS.\u201d Although this is often considered the best translation of the Greek text, most translations offer \u201cFAITH IN JESUS.\u201d This seems to do damage to Paul\u2019s meaning, emphasizing our faith rather than his work. 3<\/sup><\/a> Much has been written on this, and it is impossible to work through the whole debate here.<\/p>\n

\n

Notes:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Some of this depends on whether \u201cFOURTEEN YEARS\u201d goes back to Paul\u2019s salvation, including the \u201cTHREE YEARS\u201d of Galatians 1:18, or if it follows consecutively after those three years. In the latter case, this visit may be the Jerusalem Council in Acts 15, meaning this letter must have been written later. I prefer the former view. ↩<\/a><\/li>\n
  2. There are some who believe this means that James instigated this display. While this was possible, there is nothing else in Scripture to corroborate this charge. ↩<\/a><\/li>\n
  3. The Greek text of Galatians 2:16 reads in part \u1f35\u03bd\u03b1 \u03b4\u03b9\u03ba\u03b1\u03b9\u03c9\u03b8\u1ff6\u03bc\u03b5\u03bd \u1f10\u03ba \u03c0\u1f77\u03c3\u03c4\u03b5\u03c9\u03c2 \u03a7\u03c1\u03b9\u03c3\u03c4\u03bf\u1fe6 \u03ba\u03b1\u1f76 \u03bf\u1f50\u03ba \u1f10\u03be \u1f14\u03c1\u03b3\u03c9\u03bd \u03bd\u1f79\u03bc\u03bf\u03c5, \u201cso that we might be declared righteous by faith\/faithfulness of Christ and not by works of <\/em>law.\u201d<\/em> To translate the first half \u201cby faith in Christ\u201d loses the effect of the parallel between \u201cfaithfulness of Christ<\/span>\u201d and \u201cworks of <\/span>law.\u201d ↩<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    This post follows the Bible reading plan available at oaktreechurch.com\/soap. You can read all my New Testament notes in my book New Testament: Chapter by Chapter. Chapter two records yet another visit Paul made to Jerusalem, this time with Barnabas and Titus (Galatians 2:1-5). The fact that Luke never mentioned Titus in Acts makes it […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_eb_attr":"","_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[99],"tags":[36,33,37,35],"class_list":["post-2559","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bible-studies","tag-acts","tag-galatians","tag-john","tag-romans"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"gutentor_comment":0,"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":false,"thumbnail":false,"medium":false,"medium_large":false,"large":false,"1536x1536":false,"2048x2048":false,"widget-thumbnail":false,"rpwe-thumbnail":false,"woocommerce_thumbnail":false,"woocommerce_single":false,"woocommerce_gallery_thumbnail":false},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"Daniel Goepfrich","author_link":"https:\/\/www.theologyisforeveryone.com\/author\/dgoepfrich\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"This post follows the Bible reading plan available at oaktreechurch.com\/soap. You can read all my New Testament notes in my book New Testament: Chapter by Chapter. Chapter two records yet another visit Paul made to Jerusalem, this time with Barnabas and Titus (Galatians 2:1-5). The fact that Luke never mentioned Titus in Acts makes it…","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theologyisforeveryone.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2559"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theologyisforeveryone.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theologyisforeveryone.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologyisforeveryone.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologyisforeveryone.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2559"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologyisforeveryone.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2559\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theologyisforeveryone.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2559"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologyisforeveryone.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2559"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologyisforeveryone.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2559"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}