Sunday, June 29, 2014 (ST. PETER & ST. PAUL)

Sunday, June 29, 2014 (St. Peter & St. Paul)

Galatians 2:1-9

This famous passage from Paul’s angry letter to the Galatians provides precious and rare information about various aspects of the fledgling church. In particular, one of the most contentious issues amongst the apostles was what was the status of the Jewish Law for Gentiles? Here, the apostle Paul, who unlike Peter had never known the historical Jesus, had a novel idea in that he did not think that Gentiles had to observe the Law in order to follow another Jew, namely Jesus. This made Paul, a Jew himself, a rather radical person. The verses, which form part of his backdrop for the overall argument Paul makes in his letter to the Galatians, describes how he met with the other leaders in Jerusalem, including the “pillars” such as James, John and Cephas (Aramaic name for Peter) and points out that they agreed to his proclamation of a Law-free gospel to the “uncircumcised.” By rehearsing this scenario, Paul is defending his mission and his authority as an apostle, making it clear that what he had preached to the Gentiles in Galatia was consistent with what was agreed to by the Jewish leaders, including Peter, in Jerusalem. Paul needs to defend his legitimacy before he launches into an impassioned argument throughout the rest of the letter about why the Galatians should not follow the Law. 

It is important to remember that Paul’s position on the Jewish Law was a minority view in the first few decades after the death of Jesus. The Jesus movement was a movement within Judaism. In a sense, Paul is trying to expand the notion of “Israel” to include Gentiles. In addition, because Paul did not think that Gentiles had to follow the Law does not mean that he thought that the Law was bad, or to be rejected summarily. Unfortunately many subsequent Christians have read Paul’s letters in this way, which has contributed to the long and horrible tradition of Christian anti-Judaism. Paul did not reject his Jewish identity, nor did Peter, and according to tradition, they both suffered martyrdom in Rome.

- Alicia Batten