《Meyer’s Critical and Exegetical Commentary Galatians》(Heinrich Meyer) Commentator

ἐνεργήσας Paul did not refer to Christ (Paulus, comp. Chrysostom), is evident not only from passages such as 1 Corinthians 12:6, Philippians 2:13, Colossians 1:29, but also from the fact that he constantly considers his apostleship to be the gift of God’s grace, bestowed upon him through the mediation of Christ (Galatians 1:1; Galatians 1:15; Romans 1:5; Romans 15:15; 1 Corinthians 15:10; Ephesians 3:2; Ephesians 3:7, et al.).

πέτρῳ is the dativus commodi; comp. Proverbs 29:12 (Proverbs 31:12), according to the usual reading, ἐνεργεῖ γὰρ τῷ ἀνδρὶ εἰς ἀγαθά.

εἰς τὰ ἔθνη] in reference to the Gentiles. The precise sense follows from the first half of the verse, namely, εἰς ἀποστολὴν τῶν ἐθνῶν. The well-known comparatio compendiaria. See Kühner, ad Xen. Mem. iii. 5. 4; Winer, p. 578 [E. T. 778]; Fritzschiorum Opusc. p. 217 f. There is therefore the less reason for assuming that Paul desired to avoid the expression εἰς ἀποστ. τ. ἔθνων (Holsten). Observe, however, how Paul places himself on a par with Peter; “perfecta auctoritas in praedicatione gentium,” Ambrosiaster.

Verse 9

Galatians 2:9. καὶ γνόντες] is connected, after the parenthesis, with ἰδόντες κ. τ. λ. in Galatians 2:7.⁽⁷⁹⁾

τὴν χάριν τὴν δοθεῖσάν μοι] is not arbitrarily to be limited either to the apostolic office (Piscator, Estius, and others; also Hofmann), or to the prosperos successus of the same (Morus, Koppe, Winer, Fritzsche; de Wette, both); but is to be left quite general: the grace which had been given me. They recognised that Paul was highly gifted with grace, and was—by the fact that God had so distinguished him by means of His grace and thereby legitimized him as His apostle—fully fitted and worthy to enter into the bond of collegiate fellowship with them. His apostolic mission, his apostolic endowments, the blessed results of his labour, are all included in the χάρις which they recognised,—a general term which embraces everything that presented itself in him as divinely-bestowed grace and working on behalf of his office.

ἰάκωβος] the same as in Galatians 1:19; not the brother of John (Augustine), who at that time had been long dead (Acts 12:2); also not the son of Alphaeus (Wieseler on Galatians 1:19, and in the Stud. u. Krit. 1842, p. 95 f.); but the brother of the Lord, as is obvious of itself after what has been remarked on Galatians 1:19. Comp. on Acts 12:17. See also Hilgenfeld, p. 158 ff.; and Ewald, Gesch. d. apost. Zeit. p. 221 ff. The mention of his name here before the other two is not in compliance with the view of the false teachers (Windischmann), but is quite in due form, as the apostle is relating an official act done in Jerusalem, where James stood at the head of the church (comp. Credner, Einl. I. 2, p. 571 ff). There is a certain decorum in this—the tact of a respectful consideration towards the mother-church and its highly-esteemed representative, who, as the Lord’s actual brother, sustained a more peculiar and unique relation to Him than any of the twelve. The higher rank possessed by Peter and the apostles proper generally as such, is surely enough established by Galatians 1:18 f. But James, just as the brother of the Lord, had already attained a certain archiepiscopal position in the Jewish-Christian mother-church, and consequently for Jewish Christianity generally, agreeably to the monarchic principle which was involved in the latter. If James had been precisely one of the twelve, Paul would not (comp. Galatians 1:18) have given him precedence over Peter; for, as mouthpiece of the twelve, Peter was the first for Jerusalem also and for the whole of the Jewish Christians (Galatians 2:7). The precedence, however, finds its explanation and its justification solely in the unique personal relation to Christ,—which belonged to none of the apostles. James, as the eldest of the brethren of the Lord (Matthew 13:55; Mark 6:3), was, as it were, his legitimate hereditary successor κατὰ σάρκα in Israel.

οἱ δοκοῦντες στῦλοι εἶναι] who pass (not passed, see Galatians 2:2; Galatians 2:6) as pillars, namely, of the Christian body, the continued existence of which, so far as it was conditioned by human agency (for Christ is the foundation), depended chiefly on them. The metaphor (comp. 1 Timothy 3:15; Revelation 3:12; Clem. Cor. I. 5) is current in all languages. Pind. Ol. ii. 146, ἕκτορʼ ἔσφαλε τροίας ἄμαχον ἀστραβῆ κίονα; Eur. Iph. T. 50. 67 (Jacobs, ad Anthol. VII. p. 120); Hor. Od. i. 35. 13, and Mitscherlich in loc. Comp. Maimonides, in More Nevoch. ii. 23, “accipe a prophetis, qui sunt columna generis humani;” also the passages in Schoettgen, Hor. p. 728 f.; and the Fathers in Suicer, Thes. II. p. 1045 f. Looking at the frequent use of the figure, it cannot be maintained that Paul here thought of the body of Christians exactly as a temple (1 Corinthians 3:16; Ephesians 2:21), although he certainly regarded it as οἰκοδομή, 1 Corinthians 3:9. These δοκοῦντες στῦλοι⁽⁸⁰⁾ εἶναι, according to their high repute now, when the decisive final result is brought forward, designated with solemn precision and mentioned by name, are the very same who were characterized in Galatians 2:2 as οἱ δοκοῦντες, and in Galatians 2:6 as δοκοῦντες εἶναί τι, as is evident from the uniform term οἱ δοκοῦντες being used three times. Hofmann nevertheless understands the expression in Galatians 2:2; Galatians 2:6 more generally, so that what the three δοκοῦντες στῦλοι εἶναι did is supposed to be designated as that which was done for the sake of the false brethren on the part of those standing in special repute; but this view is based on the misinterpretation, by which an awkward grammatical connection with Galatians 2:9 is forced upon the anacoluthic ἀπὸ δὲ τῶν δοκοῦντων in Galatians 2:6, and at the same time—in the interest of harmonizing (with Acts 15.)—a position in relation to the older apostles, unwarranted by the text, is invented to explain the notice διὰ δὲ τοὺς παρεισάκτ. ψευδαδέλφ. in Galatians 2:4.

δεξιὰς … κοινωνίας] On the separation of the genitive from its governing noun (in this case, because the following clause of purpose, ἵνα ἡμεῖς κ. τ. λ., gives the explanation of κοινωνίας), see Winer, p. 179 f. [E. T. 238]; Kühner, § 865. 1; Fritzsche, ad Rom. II. p. 330 f. Both words are without the article, because δεξιάς did not require it (1 Maccabees 6:58; 1 Maccabees 11:62, et al.; Krüger, § 50. 2. 13); and in κοινωνίας the qualitative element is to be made prominent: right hands of fellowship. For the giving of the right hand is the symbol of alliance (Dougt. Anal. p. 123), 1 Maccabees 6:58, and Grimm in loc. In opposition to the idea of an alliance being concluded, the objection must not be made (with Hofmann, who finds merely a promise of fellowship) that the act took place on the part of the apostles only; for, as a matter of course, Paul and Barnabas clasped the proffered hands.

ἵνα ἡμεῖς εἰς τὰ ἔθνη κ. τ. λ.] The verb to be supplied must be furnished by the context, and must correspond with εἱς; see Buttmann, neut. Gr. p. 338. Therefore either πορευθῶμεν and πορευθῶσι (Bengel, Fritzsche, Wieseler), or apostolatu fungeremur, Galatians 2:8 (Erasmus, Schott, and many others), or εὐαγγελισώμεθα (Winer, Usteri, de Wette). The latter, in no way unsuitable to εἰς (see on 2 Corinthians 10:16), is to be preferred, because it is suggested immediately by the protasis in Galatians 2:7, from which, at the same time, it is evident that the recognition was not merely that of a συνεργός, but really amounted to an acknowledgment of apostolic equality (in opposition to Holsten). Moreover, as regards the partition here settled, the ethnographical bearing of which coincided on the whole with the local division of territory, we must not supply any such qualification as praecipue (Bengel, Schott, and others). On the contrary, the agreement was, “Ye shall be apostles to the Gentiles, and we to the Jews;” and nothing beyond this, except the appended clause in behalf of the poor, was thereby settled: so that the state of things hitherto existing in respect to the field of labour on both sides remained undisturbed. The modifications of this arrangement obviously and necessarily connected with its practical working, primarily occasioned by the existence of the Jewish διασπορά—in accordance with which the principle of the division of the spheres of labour could in fact be carried out merely relatively, and without exclusive geographical. or ethnographical limitation (comp. Lechler, p. 415)—were left an open question, and not discussed. The idea that the recognition of Paul on the part of the apostles was merely external—simply an outward concordat—and that they themselves would have wished to know nothing of the ministry among the Gentiles (Baur, Zeller), is not conveyed in the text, but is, on the contrary, inconsistent with the representation given Galatians 2:7-9. According to this, the apostles recognised the twofold divine call to apostleship, by which two nationally different spheres of labour were to be provided with the one gospel; but a merely external and forced agreement, without any acknowledgment or ratification of the principles and modes of procedure which had long regulated the action of Paul and Barnabas, would have been as little compatible with such a recognition as with the apostolic character generally. If, however, we take the κοινωνία in our passage to be true and heartfelt,⁽⁸¹⁾ then the doubts thrown by Baur and his followers upon the truth of the account of the apostolic council in Acts fall in substance to the ground. How little Paul especially considered his apostolic call to the Gentiles as excluding the conversion of the Jews from his operations, may be gathered, even laying Acts out of view, from passages such as 1 Corinthians 9:20, Romans 1:16; Romans 9:1 ff; Romans 11:14.

Verse 10

Galatians 2:10. After μόνον interpreters usually supply a verb such as αἰτοῦντες or παρακαλοῦντες, which in itself would be allowable (Buttmann, neut. Gr. p. 207 f.), but is nevertheless quite superfluous; for μόνον τῶν πτωχῶν ἵνα μνημ. appears dependent on δεξιὰς ἔδωκαν ἐμοὶ καὶ βαρν. κοιν., so that it is parallel with the preceding ἵνα and limits it. Comp. Matthies, Fritzsche, Hofmann. “They made with us a collegiate alliance, to the end that we should be apostles to the Gentiles; … only that we should not omit to remember the poor of the περιτομή (not merely of the mother-church) as to support.” In that alliance nothing further, in respect to our relation to the περιτομή, was designed or settled. On μνημονεύειν in the sense of beneficent care, comp. Psalms 9:12; Hom. Od. xviii. 267.

μόνον, which belongs to the whole clause, and τῶν πτωχῶν stand before ἵνα on account of the emphasis laid upon them. Comp. on Ephesians 3:18; 1 Corinthians 7:29; 2 Corinthians 2:4; 2 Thessalonians 2:7, et al. The poverty of the Christians of Palestine, which was the principal motive for this proviso being added, finds its explanation in the persecutions which they underwent, in the community of goods which they had at first, and perhaps also in the expectation of the Parousia as near which they most of all cherished. Moreover, the μόνον κ. τ. λ. by no means excludes the ordinances of the apostolic council, for Paul here has in view nothing but his recognition as apostle on the part of the original apostles in the private discussions held with the latter. How Baur misuses μόνον κ. τ. λ., as contrasted with the supposed irreconcilable diversity subsisting in doctrine, may be seen in the theol. Jahrb. 1849, p. 470; Paulus, I. p. 142 ff. ed. 2; comp. also Holsten. In the face of real antagonism of doctrine, the older apostles certainly would not have tendered Paul their hands; and had they desired to do so, Paul would have refused them his.⁽⁸²⁾

ὃ καὶ ἐσπούδασα αὐτὸ τοῦτο ποιῆσαι] The aorist, not used instead of the pluperfect, relates to the time from that apostolic alliance to the composition of the epistle. Paul, however, continues in the singular; for soon afterwards he separated himself from Barnabas (Acts 15:39). So, correctly, Estius, Winer, Usteri, Schott. Those who identify our journey with that related in Acts 11, 12 must conclude, with Fritzsche, that Paul desired to report concerning himself, and hence only mentioned Barnabas (and Titus) as well, where it was necessary. Nevertheless this joint-mention, although not necessary, would have been very natural in our passage; for ἵνα μνημονεύωμεν had just been said, and then in a single stroke of the representation, with ὃ καὶ ἐσπούδασα κ. τ. λ., is given the conclusion of the matter so referred to.

αὐτὸ τοῦτο] is not superfluous (Piscator, Vorstius, Grotius, Morus), as neither αὐτό alone (Winer, p. 140) nor τοῦτο alone (see Matthiae, p. 1050; Kühner, II. p. 527) is used; it is the emphatic epexegesis of ὅ, hoc ipsum (see Bornemann, Schol. in Luc. p. LIII.), whereby Paul makes his readers feel the contrast between the Jewish Christian antagonism and his zeal of love thus shown. Studer and Usteri find in αὐτὸ τοῦτο the tacit antithesis, “but nothing further which the apostles had imposed on me.” Inappropriately, for the idea of any other matters imposed was already excluded by the previous account. Schott proposes to take ὅ as διʼ ὅ (see on Acts 26:16), but the assumption of this poetical use cannot be justified except by a necessity such as is presented to us in the N.T. only at Acts 26:16. Still more easily might αὐτὸ τοῦτο be explained (Poppo, ad Xen. Cyrop. iv. 1. 21; Matthiae, p. 1041; Stallbaum, ad Plat. Symp. p. 204 A) as on that very account (2 Peter 1:5; Xen. Anab. i. 9. 21). But in that case ὅ would so naturally take up what preceded, that there would be no reason why Paul should have brought on that very account so prominently forward. It would rather have the appearance of suggesting that, if it had not been for the agreement in question, Paul would not have cared for the poor.

We have no historical vouchers for the truth of ὃ καὶ ἐσπούδασα κ. τ. λ.; for the conveyance of the contributions in Acts 11 took place earlier than our journey; and the collection mentioned 1 Corinthians 16., 2 Corinthians 8 f., Romans 15:27, comp. Acts 21:17 f., Acts 24:17, occurred after the composition of our epistle. But who would be inclined to doubt that assurance? Looking at the more or less fragmentary accounts in Acts and the Pauline epistles, who knows how often Paul may have sent pecuniary assistance to Palestine? as indeed he may have brought the like with him on occasion of his own journey, Acts 18:20-22. It has, however, been wrongly asserted that, by means of this obligation in respect to the poor, a connection was intended to be maintained between the Gentile churches and the primitive church, and that at the bottom of it lay the wish to bring over the preliminarily converted Gentiles gradually more and more to the principles and the mode of life of the primitive church (Hilgenfeld, in his Zeitschr. 1860, p. 141). This is an insinuation derived from mere fancy.

Verse 11

Galatians 2:11. Paul now carries still further the historical proof of his apostolic independence; “ad summa venit argumentum,” Bengel. For not only has he not been, instructed by the apostles; not only has he been recognised by them, and received into alliance with them; but he has even asserted his apostolic authority against one of them, and indeed against Peter. There is no ground in the text for assuming (with Hofmann) any suspicion on the part of the apostle’s opponents, that in Antioch he had been defiant, and in Jerusalem submissive, towards Peter.

ὅτε δὲ ἦλθε κηφᾶς κ. τ. λ.] After the apostolic conference, Paul and Barnabas travelled back to Antioch, Acts 15:30. During their sojourn there (Acts 15:33) Peter also came thither,—a journey, which indeed is not mentioned in Acts, but which, just because no date is given in our passage, must be considered as having taken place soon after the matters previously related (not so late as Acts 18:23, as held by Neander, Baumgarten, Lange; and by Wieseler, in favour of his view that the journey Galatians 2:1 coincides with that of Acts 18:22).⁽⁸³⁾

κηφᾶς] The opinion deduced from the unfavourable tenor of this narrative, as bearing upon Peter, by Clement of Alexandria ap. Euseb. i. 12, that the person meant is not the apostle, who certainly in this case is far from corresponding to his destination as “the rock” of the church, but a certain Cephas, one of the seventy disciples, has been already refuted by Jerome, and also by Gregory, Hom. 18 in Ez.

κατὰ πρόσωπον] To his face I opposed him. See Acts 3:13; often in Polybius. Comp. κατʼ ὀφθαλμούς, Herod. i. 120; Xen. Hiero, 1, 14: Galatians 3:1; and κατʼ ὄμμα, Eur. Rhes. 421, Bacch. 469. Not coram omnibus (Erasmus, Beza, Vatablus), which is not expressed until Galatians 2:14. The opinion of Jerome, Chrysostom, Theodoret, and several Fathers, that the contention here related was nothing more than a contention in semblance ( κατὰ πρόσωπον = secundum speciem!), is only remarkable as a matter of history.⁽⁸⁴⁾

ὅτι κατεγνωσμένος ἦν] not “quia reprehensibilis or reprehendendus erat” (Vulgate, Castalio, Calvin, Beza, Cornelius a Lapide, Elsner, Wolf, and others; also Koppe, Borger, Flatt, Matthies); for the Greek participle is never used, like the Hebrew, for the verbal adjective (Gesenius, Lehrgeb. p. 791; Ewald, p. 538), neither in Jude 1:12, Revelation 21:8, nor in Hom. Il. i. 388, xiv. 196, xviii. 427; and what a feeble, unnecessary reason to assign would be ὅτι κατεγνωσμένος ἦν in this sense! Moreover, καταγιγνώσκειν τινα (not to be confounded with καταγ. τινός τι, as is done by Matthias), so far as its significations are relevant here, does not mean reprehendere at all, but either to accuse, which here would not go far enough, or condemnare (comp. 1 John 3:20-21; Sirach 14:2; Sirach 19:5). Hence also it is not: quia reprehensus or accusatus erat (Ambrose, Luther, Estius, and others; also Winer, Schott, de Wette), but: quia condemnatus erat, whereby the notorious certainty of the offence occasioned is indicated, and the stringent ground for Paul’s coming forward against him is made evident. Peter, through his offensive behaviour, had become the object of condemnation on the part of the Christians of Antioch; the public judgment had turned against him; and so Paul could not keep silence, but was compelled to do what he certainly did with reluctance. The passive participle has not a vis reciproca (Bengel, comp. Rückert, “because he had an evil conscience”); the condemnation of Peter was the act of the Christian public in Antioch. The idea “convicted before God” (Ewald) would have been expressed, if it had been so meant. If the condemnation is understood as having ensued through his own mode of action (Bengel, Lechler, p. 423; comp. Windischmann and Hofmann), the question as to the persons from whom the condemnation proceeds is left unanswered.

Verse 12

ff

Galatians 2:12 ff. Paul now relates the particulars of the occurrence.

ἀπὸ ἰακώβου] sent by James. It belongs to ἐλθεῖν. Comp. Plat. Prot. p. 309 B, ἀπʼ ἐκείνου ἔρχομαι: Matthew 26:47; Mark 5:35; 1 Thessalonians 3:6. Why they—and, to judge from the impression made upon Peter, they were certainly men of importance, strict in their Jewish-Christian observances—were sent to Antioch by James, we know not, any more than why Peter journeyed thither.⁽⁸⁵⁾ But the conjecture that they belonged to the ψευδάδελφοι of Galatians 2:4 (Winer, Schott), conflicts directly with the fact, that they were sent by James: for at the apostolic conference the latter had nowise made common cause with the ψευδάδελφοι; and therefore in sending any of them to Antioch he would have acted very unwisely, or would, with reactionary intent (so de Wette, whereby, however, the character of James is placed in a very awkward position, which is not to be supported by Acts 21:18), have simply supplied new fuel to the scarcely settled controversy. Others (as Studer, Usteri, Zeller⁽⁸⁶⁾), connecting the words with τινάς, understand adherents of James (comp. οἱ ἀπὸ πλάτωνος and the like; Schaefer, Melet. p. 26 ff.; Bernhardy, p. 222), or, as Winer (comp. Wolf) says, “qui Jacobi auctoritate sive jure seu secus utebantur;” but this brings upon James the designation of a party-chief (some Jacobites!), which would be neither necessarily nor wisely introduced here, even supposing Winer’s modification to be mentally supplied. Lastly, the explanation of Beza, Grotius, Olshausen, Baumgarten-Crusius (following Chrysostom), that ἀπὸ ἰακώβου means nothing more than from Jerusalem, because James was the president of the church there (comp. Koppe), is an unauthorized setting aside of the person, who is named expressly and not without due reason.

μετὰ τῶν ἐθνῶν συνήσθιεν] he joined in meals with the Gentile Christians. Comp. on συνεσθίειν in this sense, Plat. Legg. ix. p. 881 D Luke 15:2; 1 Corinthians 5:11. Notice the imperfect. The Jew might not eat with Gentiles without incurring Levitical defilement (Acts 11:3); but Peter, who previously by special revelation (Acts 10 f.), had been instructed as to the invalidity of this separation in Christianity, had in the apostolic conference defended Christian freedom (Acts 15:7 ff.), and taken part in passing the decree that, as regards food, the Gentile brethren should only have to abstain from meat offered to idols, things strangled, and blood (Acts 15:29). This decree was received and accepted with joy by the church at Antioch (Acts 15:30 f.). It would therefore have been all the easier for Peter in Antioch to follow his divinely attained conviction,⁽⁸⁷⁾ and to take part without hesitation in the more familiar intercourse of meals with the Gentile Christians there—free from any scruple that he should defile himself by Gentile food, which no legal enactments restricted except as to those three points. But to this free and correct standpoint the stricter Jewish Christians, who were still entangled in the observances of the Levitical precepts as to purity (comp. Acts 21:20), had not been able to rise; and to this class belonged the τινές (Galatians 2:12). When, therefore, these peopled arrived from Jerusalem and from James, Peter unhappily no longer continued his previous liberal-minded conduct in Antioch, but drew back and separated himself from intercourse at meals with the Gentile Christians, whereby he gave a practical denial to his better conviction. How similar to his conduct in his former denial of the Lord! Calovius, however, justly, in conformity with the temperament of Peter, remarks, “una haec fuit Petri actio, non habitus.”

φοβούμενος τοὺς ἐκ περιτ.] By this are meant the Jewish Christians generally, as a class, so far as they were represented by those τινές, who belonged to the stricter school. Peter feared the Jewish-Christian strictness, displeasure, disapprobation, etc. The explanatory gloss of Chrysostom ( οὐ