Galatians 2:14
Walking in line with the truth of the gospel
- The gospel’s word εὐαγγέλιον euangelion · gospel
Original
Translations
When I saw that they were not walking in line with the truth of the gospel, I said to Cephas in front of them all, “If you, who are a Jew, live like a Gentile and not like a Jew, how can you compel the Gentiles to live like Jews?”
But when I saw that they walked not uprightly according to the truth of the gospel, I said unto Peter before them all, If thou, being a Jew, livest after the manner of Gentiles, and not as do the Jews, why compellest thou the Gentiles to live as do the Jews?
But when I saw that they are not walking uprightly to the truth of the good news, I said to Peter before all, “If you, being a Jew, live in the manner of the nations, and not in the manner of the Jews, how do you compel the nations to live like Jews?
그러므로 나는 저희가 복음의 진리를 따라 바로 행하지 아니함을 보고 모든 자 앞에서 게바에게 이르되 네가 유대인으로서 이방을 좇고 유대인답게 살지 아니하면서 어찌하여 억지로 이방인을 유대인답게 살게 하려느냐 하였노라
그러나 그들이 복음의 진리에 따라 바르게 걷지 아니하는 것을 내가 보고 그들 모두 앞에서 베드로에게 이르되, 네가 유대인임에도 불구하고 이방인들의 방식대로 살고 유대인들처럼 살지 아니하면서 어찌하여 이방인들을 강요해서 유대인들처럼 살게 하느냐? 하였노라.
Commentaries
Matthew Henry on Gal 2:11-14 as a whole
Notwithstanding Peter's character, yet, when Paul saw him acting so as to hurt the truth of the gospel and the peace of the church, he was not afraid to reprove him. When he saw that Peter and the others did not live up to that principle which the gospel taught, and which they…
Read the whole commentary →Wesley Gal 2:14
I said to Cephas before them all - See Paul single against Peter and all the Jews! If thou being a Jew, yet livest, in thy ordinary conversation, after the manner of the gentiles - Not observing the ceremonial law, which thou knowest to be now abolished. …
Read the whole commentary →
Note
At Antioch Peter used to eat with Gentile believers. When "certain men came from James," he "began to draw back and separate himself," and the other Jewish believers, even Barnabas, followed him (verses 12–13). The account has no one saying that Gentiles must live like Jews; the empty places at the table said it. Paul saw it and spoke to Peter "in front of them all."
The noun stands in the same phrase as in verse 5, "the truth of the gospel." There it was something to keep; here it is a path. "Walking in line with" renders , found only here in the New Testament, a word built from "straight" and "foot." The truth of the gospel is something believed and also a direction for the feet, and Peter's feet had left it. Paul's question names the gap: you live like a Gentile, so how can you compel Gentiles "to live like Jews"? That verb, ioudaizein, also appears only here in the New Testament.
The KJV has "Peter" here, the BSB "Cephas." The Greek manuscripts differ: the text the KJV translated reads Petros, and many older manuscripts read Kēphas, the Aramaic form of the same name, which the KJV itself has in verse 9.
The KJV's "walked not uprightly according to the truth of the gospel" keeps the walking and makes its straightness moral; the BSB's "not walking in line with" keeps the straight line of the path. Wesley sees the scene in one line: "See Paul single against Peter and all the Jews!" Wesley. Matthew Henry notes that "as Peter's offence was public, he publicly reproved him" Matthew Henry, and he sets Paul's own care with the ceremonies against the timid conduct of Peter, "who, by withdrawing from the Gentiles, led others to think that these ceremonies were necessary" Matthew Henry.
The rebuke troubled the church early. In letters exchanged between 394 and 405, Jerome read it as a dispute the two apostles staged, and Augustine answered that Paul's rebuke was real and that Scripture holds no falsehood the letters of Augustine and Jerome. Luther's Lectures on Galatians of 1535 dwell long on this scene: even an apostle could stumble, and the truth of the gospel stands above the standing of any person.
ObjectionDid Peter and Paul part for good?
The New Testament does not say how things ended at Antioch. But Paul names Cephas among the witnesses of the risen Lord, "He appeared to Cephas and then to the Twelve" (1 Corinthians 15:5), and the letter that bears Peter's name calls Paul "our beloved brother Paul" (2 Peter 3:15). The rebuke did not end the fellowship.
The truth of the gospel can be kept or blurred by whom we eat with as well as by what we say. The verse asks whether what is believed and where the feet go still match.
Source
- Augustine and Jerome, Their letters 아우구스티누스 서신 28, 40, 82; 히에로니무스 서신 112 — 394–405. On Paul's rebuke of Peter in Galatians 2:11–14: Jerome read it as a dispute the two apostles staged, and Augustine answered that Paul's rebuke was real and that Scripture holds no falsehood.
- Martin Luther, Lectures on Galatians 1535 — Luther's classic on law and gospel and on justification by faith.