Galatians 2:6-14

2:6 But from those who were influential ¹  (whatever they were makes no difference to me; God shows no favoritism between people ² ) – those influential leaders ³  added ⁴  nothing to my message. ⁵  2:7 On the contrary, when they saw ⁶  that I was entrusted with the gospel to the uncircumcised ⁷  just as Peter was to the circumcised ⁸  2:8 (for he who empowered ⁹  Peter for his apostleship ¹⁰  to the circumcised ¹¹  also empowered me for my apostleship to the Gentiles) ¹²  2:9 and when James, Cephas, ¹³  and John, who had a reputation as ¹⁴  pillars, ¹⁵  recognized ¹⁶  the grace that had been given to me, they gave to Barnabas and me ¹⁷  the right hand of fellowship, agreeing ¹⁸  that we would go to the Gentiles and they to the circumcised. ¹⁹  2:10 They requested ²⁰  only that we remember the poor, the very thing I also was eager to do.

Paul Rebukes Peter

2:11 But when Cephas ²¹  came to Antioch, ²²  I opposed him to his face, because he had clearly done wrong. ²³  2:12 Until ²⁴  certain people came from James, he had been eating with the Gentiles. But when they arrived, he stopped doing this ²⁵  and separated himself ²⁶  because he was afraid of those who were pro-circumcision. ²⁷  2:13 And the rest of the Jews also joined with him in this hypocrisy, so that even Barnabas was led astray with them ²⁸  by their hypocrisy. 2:14 But when I saw that they were not behaving consistently with the truth of the gospel, I said to Cephas ²⁹  in front of them all, “If you, although you are a Jew, live like a Gentile and not like a Jew, how can you try to force ³⁰  the Gentiles to live like Jews?”

[2:6]  ¹ tn Or “influential leaders.” BDAG 255 s.v. δοκέω 2.a.β has “the influential men Gal 2:2, 6b. A fuller expr. w. the same mng., w. inf. added…vss. 6a, 9.” This refers to the leadership of the Jerusalem church.

[2:6]  ² tn Grk “God does not receive the face of man,” an idiom for showing favoritism or partiality (BDAG 887-88 s.v. πρόσωπον 1.b.α; L&N 88.238).

[2:6]  ³ tn Or “influential people”; here “leaders” was used rather than “people” for stylistic reasons, to avoid redundancy with the word “people” in the previous parenthetical remark. See also the note on the word “influential” at the beginning of this verse.

[2:6]  ⁴ tn Or “contributed.” This is the same word translated “go to ask advice from” in 1:16, but it has a different meaning here; see L&N 59.72.

[2:6]  ⁵ tn Or “added nothing to my authority.” Grk “added nothing to me,” with what was added (“message,” etc.) implied.

[2:7]  ⁶ tn The participle ἰδόντες (idontes) has been taken temporally to retain the structure of the passage. Many modern translations, because of the length of the sentence here, translate this participle as a finite verb and break the Greek sentences into several English sentences (NIV, for example, begins new sentences at the beginning of both vv. 8 and 9).

[2:7]  ⁷ tn Grk “to the uncircumcision,” that is, to the Gentiles.

[2:7]  ⁸ tn Grk “to the circumcision,” a collective reference to the Jewish people.

[2:8]  ⁹ tn Or “worked through”; the same word is also used in relation to Paul later in this verse.

[2:8]  ¹⁰ tn Or “his ministry as an apostle.”

[2:8]  ¹¹ tn Grk “to the circumcision,” i.e., the Jewish people.

[2:8]  ¹² tn Grk “also empowered me to the Gentiles.”

[2:9]  ¹³ sn Cephas. This individual is generally identified with the Apostle Peter (L&N 93.211).

[2:9]  ¹⁴ tn Or “who were influential as,” or “who were reputed to be.” See also the note on the word “influential” in 2:6.

[2:9]  ¹⁵ sn Pillars is figurative here for those like James, Peter, and John who were leaders in the Jerusalem church.

[2:9]  ¹⁶ tn The participle γνόντες (gnontes) has been taken temporally. It is structurally parallel to the participle translated “when they saw” in v. 7.

[2:9]  ¹⁷ tn Grk “me and Barnabas.”

[2:9]  ¹⁸ tn Grk “so,” with the ἵνα (Jina) indicating the result of the “pillars” extending the “right hand of fellowship,” but the translation “they gave…the right hand of fellowship so that we would go” could be misunderstood as purpose here. The implication of the scene is that an agreement, outlined at the end of v. 10, was reached between Paul and Barnabas on the one hand and the “pillars” of the Jerusalem church on the other.

[2:9]  ¹⁹ tn Grk “to the circumcision,” a collective reference to the Jewish people.

[2:10]  ²⁰ tn Grk “only that we remember the poor”; the words “They requested” have been supplied from the context to make a complete English sentence.

[2:11]  ²¹ sn Cephas. This individual is generally identified with the Apostle Peter (L&N 93.211).

[2:11]  ²² map For location see JP1 F2; JP2 F2; JP3 F2; JP4 F2.

[2:11]  ²³ tn Grk “because he stood condemned.”

[2:12]  ²⁴ tn The conjunction γάρ has not been translated here.

[2:12]  ²⁵ tn Grk “he drew back.” If ἑαυτόν (Jeauton) goes with both ὑπέστελλεν (Jupestellen) and ἀφώριζεν (afwrizen) rather than only the latter, the meaning would be “he drew himself back” (see BDAG 1041 s.v. ὑποστέλλω 1.a).

[2:12]  ²⁶ tn Or “and held himself aloof.”

[2:12]  ²⁷ tn Grk “the [ones] of the circumcision,” that is, the group of Jewish Christians who insisted on circumcision of Gentiles before they could become Christians.

[2:13]  ²⁸ tn The words “with them” are a reflection of the σύν- (sun-) prefix on the verb συναπήχθη (sunaphcqh; see L&N 31.76).

[2:14]  ²⁹ sn Cephas. This individual is generally identified with the Apostle Peter (L&N 93.211).

[2:14]  ³⁰ tn Here ἀναγκάζεις (anankazei") has been translated as a conative present (see ExSyn 534).