Galatians 2
New Catholic Bible
Chapter 2
The Council of Jerusalem[a]
Confirmation of Paul’s Gospel and Mission. 1 Fourteen years later, I traveled up to Jerusalem again, this time with Barnabas, and I also took along Titus. 2 I went up in response to a revelation, and I set before them the gospel that I preach to the Gentiles—in a private meeting with the leaders—to ensure that I was not running, or had not run, in vain.
3 Yet not even Titus, who was accompanying me, was compelled to be circumcised, even though he was a Greek. 4 Yet some false brethren were secretly brought in to spy on the freedom we have in Christ Jesus, so that they might reduce us to slavery. 5 But not for a single moment did we submit to them, in order that the truth of the gospel might remain untouched for you.
6 As for those who were regarded as men of importance—whether or not they actually were important makes no difference to me, nor does it matter to God—these men did not add anything further to my message. 7 On the contrary, they realized that I had been entrusted with preaching the gospel to the uncircumcised, just as Peter had been entrusted with preaching the gospel to the circumcised ( 8 for the one who worked through Peter in his mission to the Jews was also at work in me in my mission to the Gentiles).
9 Therefore, when James and Cephas and John, who were acknowledged as pillars of the community, recognized the grace that had been bestowed upon me, they gave to Barnabas and me the right hand of fellowship, agreeing that we should go to the Gentiles while they concentrated on the Jews. 10 They asked only one thing: that we remember the poor, which is the very thing I was eager to do.
Paul Rebukes Peter[b]
11 Peter’s Inconsistency at Antioch. However, when Cephas came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he was in the wrong. 12 For until some people came from James,[c] he had been eating with the Gentiles; but when they arrived, he drew back and kept himself apart because he was afraid of the circumcised. 13 And the rest of the Jews[d] carried out the same pretense that he did, so that even Barnabas was led astray by their pretense.
14 Paul’s Rebuke. But when I saw that their conduct was not in accordance with the truth of the gospel, I said to Peter in front of all of them, “You are a Jew, yet you are living like a Gentile and not like a Jew. How then can you require the Gentiles to live like Jews?”
Paul Defends the Freedom of Christians[e]
It Is Faith That Saves[f]
Justified by Faith in Christ.[g] We ourselves are Jews by birth and not Gentile sinners,[h] 16 yet we know that a man is justified not by the works of the Law but through faith in Jesus Christ. So we too came to believe in Christ Jesus so that we might be justified by faith in him and not by the works of the Law, for no one will be justified by the works of the Law.17 But if, in seeking to be justified in Christ, we ourselves are found to be sinners, is Christ then a servant of sin? By no means! 18 However, if I am now rebuilding what I previously tore down, then I prove myself to be a transgressor. 19 For through the Law I died to the Law[i] so that I might live to God.
I have been crucified with Christ. 20 And now it is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me. The life I live now in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself up for me. 21 I do not set aside the grace of God, for if justification comes through the Law, then Christ died for nothing.
Footnotes
- Galatians 2:1 Despite slight differences of detail, the passage speaks of the same assembly in Jerusalem that Acts 15 narrates: the same apostles, the same opponents, the same discussions, the same results in essentials. Paul was with Barnabas, who had an important place in the early stages of his mission (Acts 9:27; 11:25; 13:2; 15:2). When Paul wrote this Letter, about seven years after the events, he was completing the collection for the poor Christians of Jerusalem; this collection was for him a sign of unity (see 1 Cor 16:1; 2 Cor 8–9).
- Galatians 2:11 The Council of Jerusalem had acknowledged the freedom of Gentile Christians from the Jewish Law, but the question of table fellowship between Jewish Christians and Gentile believers was not yet settled. When Peter came to Antioch, he at first ate with non-Jews, since faith in Christ brings all people together. But when Jewish Christians arrived from Jerusalem, he gave up doing so. Paul rebuked Peter’s inconsistency in an important religious matter. Peter’s behavior was clearly wrong, and even grievously wrong if the table fellowship in question involved the meal at the Lord’s Supper (see 1 Cor 11:17-25). The reason why Jews would not eat with Gentiles was that they were considered to be unclean. If Peter was refusing to eat with Gentile Christians, he was implicitly saying that they were still in sin, which would mean that their Baptism had no effect, which meant that their cross did not redeem them.
- Galatians 2:12 Some people came from James: i.e., Jewish Christians who still believed in the Law and in circumcision (Acts 15:1, 5; 21:20f) and either came from James or claimed to be from him. Circumcised: i.e., Jewish Christians.
- Galatians 2:13 Jews: i.e., Jewish Christians.
- Galatians 2:15 Paul has explained his view of the apostolate; almost by degrees he now passes on to the defense of freedom for the new converts. He reverses the accusation brought against him. Indeed, one can falsify the Gospel by making the practices of the Jewish Law a prerequisite for becoming Christian. Faith in Christ, and it alone, saves believers and sets them free. Paul sketches his thinking about Baptism and about the indissoluble bond that must exist between faith and the Sacrament.
- Galatians 2:15 Law or faith: the famous antithesis. Two religious outlooks are opposed: to accept the one is to reject the other. Christianity’s purpose is not to produce a better Law but to offer faith. On one side, there is an objective, external norm of good and evil, and even a slavery; on the other side, there is a principle of internal action, a spiritual dynamism, a call, even more the very life of God in the heart of human beings, a freedom.
15
Christianity cannot shut itself up in a code, no matter how noble; it is a Person, and Christians are those in whom Christ lives (Gal 2:20) and the Spirit acts (Gal 4:6). If there is a moral for Christians, a “law of Christ” (Gal 6:2), it can only be the living and free expression of the love that God inspires in the human heart: “You shall love!” - Galatians 2:15 The baptized must not look elsewhere: Christ has become their very self, and faith lays hold of and permeates their entire life. This statement of Paul is at the same time a self-revelation of a highly mystical nature.
- Galatians 2:15 Gentile sinners: a usual formula for describing pagans as opposed to the chosen people. In this passage it has no pejorative meaning; Paul will in fact say that Jews and Gentiles alike are sinners and in need of redemption (see Rom 3:23f).
- Galatians 2:19 I died to the Law: the formula is obscure because it is overly concise. Christians have died to the Law because it left them frustrated since it helped them recognize their brokenness but did not liberate them from that brokenness. Only the love of Jesus can do that.
