Galatians Chapter 2 verse 14 Holy Bible

Pulpit Commentary

Pulpit CommentaryVerse 14. - But when I saw that they walked not uprightly (ἀλλ ὅτε εϊδον ὅτι οὐκ ὀρθοποδοῦσι); but when I saw that they were not walking rightly. The strongly adversative ἀλλὰ seems to imply: But I set myself to stem the mischief; comp. "withstood" (ver. 11). The precise force of ὀρθοποδεῖν is doubtful. The verb occurs nowhere else except in later writers, who, it is thought, borrowed it from this passage. Etymologically, according to the ambiguous meaning of ὀρθός - "straight," either vertically or horizontally - it may be either "walk up- rightly," that is, "sincerely," which, however, is an unusual application of the notion of ὀρθότης; or, "walk straight onward," that is, "rightly." As the apostle is more concerned on behalf of the truth which he was contending for than on behalf of their sincerity or consistency, the latter seems the preferable view. Compare the force of the same adjective in ὀρθοβατεῖν ὀρθοπραγεῖν, ὀρθοδρομεῖν ὀρθοτομεῖν, etc. According to the truth of the gospel (πρὸς τὴν ἀλήθειαν τοῦ αὐαγγελίου); with an eye to the truth of the gospel. Πρός, "with an eye towards," may refer to the truth of the gospel, either as a rule for one's direction (as in 2 Corinthians 5:10, Πρὸς α{ ἔπραξεν) or as a thing to be forwarded (cf. Ὑπὲρ τῆς ἀγηθείας, 2 Corinthians 13:8). The same ambiguity attaches to the use of the preposition in Luke 12:47. The "truth of the gospel," as in ver. 5, is the truth which the gospel embodies, with especial reference to the doctrine of justification by faith. Peter and Barnabas were acting in a manner which both was inconsistent with their holding of that truth, and contravened its advancement in the world. I said unto Peter (εϊπον τῷ Κηφᾶ [Receptus, Πέτρῳ]); I said to Cephas. Here again we are to read Cephas. Before them all (ἔμπροσθεν πάντων). At some general meeting of the Antiochian brethren. Both the expression and St. Paul's proceeding are illustrated by 1 Timothy 5:20, "Them who sin [sc. of the elders] reprove in the sight of all (ἐνώπιον πάντων ἔλεγχε)." If thou, being a Jew (εἰ σύ Ἰουδαῖος ὑπάρχων); if thou, originally a Jew, as thou art. ὘πάρχων, as distinguished from ὤν, denotes this, together with a reference to subsequent action starting from this foregoing condition. Compare, for example, its use in Galatians 1:14; Philippians 2:6. This distinctive shade of meaning is not always discernible. Livest after the manner of Gentiles, and not as do the Jews (ἐθνικῶς ζῇς καὶ οὐκ Ἰουδαι'κῶς); livest as do the Gentiles and not as the Jews. In what sense, and to what extent, were these words true of St. Peter? When, in the vision at Joppa, unclean animals together with clean were offered to him for food, he had answered, "Not so, Lord; for! have never eaten anything that is common and unclean." This shows that, up to that time, the personal teachings of Christ when he was upon earth had not relieved his mind of the sense that to use certain kinds of meat was for him an unlawful thing. The heavenly rejoinder, "What God hath cleansed, make not thou common," appears to have been understood by him with reference, at least in the first instance, to human beings (Acts 10:28). There seems to be no doubt that the habit of mind generated by long subjection to the Levitical Law. producing repugnance to Gentiles as habitually using unclean meats, he brought with him when crossing Cornelius's threshold; and that it is quite supposable that, in "eating with Gentiles" while his visit to Cornelius continued, he had had no occasion to break through those barriers of restriction which the Law of itself imposed. But, on the other hand, it is also quite supposable that the answer made to him in the vision had, if not at once, at least later, led him on to the further conviction that God had now made all kinds of meat lawful for a Christian's use, although, when consorting, as in the main he had to do, with Jews, he would still bow to the Levitical restrictions. The Petrine Gospel of St. Mark appears, according to the now by many accepted reading of καθαρίζων in the text of Mark 7:19, to have stated that Christ in teaching, "Whatsoever from without goeth into the man, it cannot defile him," had said this, "making all meats clean." There is no question that in St. Paul's own view at that epoch of his ministry when he wrote this Epistle, "nothing," to use his own words, "is unclean of itself" (Romans 14:14; 1 Corinthians 10:23, 25); and we have no reason to doubt that he had "been in the Lord Jesus persuaded" of this long before, - at the very outset probably of his ministry. It is, therefore, not unlikely that this same persuasion of the real indifferency of all kinds of meat had been by Christ instilled into St. Peter's mind as well. But if it were thus in respect to the use of meats, it would be thus also in reference to all other kinds of purely ceremonial restriction. Very shortly before these occurrences at Antioch, St. Peter had at Jerusalem openly and strongly expressed the feeling which he experienced, how intolerably galling were the restraints imposed by the Levitical, not to say by the rabbinical, ceremonialism; "a yoke," he said, "which neither our fathers nor we were able to bear " - language which seems to betoken a mind which had spiritually been set at liberty from the yoke. On the whole, the inference naturally suggested by St. Paul's words, "Thou livest as do the Gentiles, and not as do the Jews," commends itself as the true one; namely this - that St. Peter, not on that occasion only, but also on others, when thrown into contact with masses of Gentile converts, was wont to assert his Christian liberty; that, like as St. Paul did, so did he: while, on the one hand, to the Jews he became as a Jew, to them under the Law as under the Law, that he might gain the Jews, gain them that were under the Law, so also, on the other, to them that were without Law he became as without Law, that he might gain also them (1 Corinthians 9:20, 21). Why compellest thou the Gentiles to live as do the Jews? (πῶς [Receptus, τί] τὰ ἔθνη ἀναγκάζεις Ἰουδαί'ζειν;). In place of τί, why, recent editions read, πῶς, how, which is a more emphatic interrogatory with a tinge of wonderment; as if it were, "How is it possible that?' (so 1 Corinthians 15:12). The verb "Judaize" occurs in the Septuagint of Esther 8:17, "And many of the Gentiles had themselves circumcised and Judaized (ἰουδάι'ζον) by reason of their fear of the Jews." It is plainly equivalent to ἰουδαι'κῶς ζῇν. Compellest, i.e. settest thyself to compel. The "compulsion" applied by Cephas was a moral compulsion; he was, in effect, withholding front them Christian fellowship, unless they Judaized. Put into words, his conduct said this: "If you will Judaize, I will hold fellowship with you; if you will not, you are not qualified for full fraternal recognition from me." The withholding of Christian fraternization, short of formal Church excommunication such as 1 Corinthians 5:3-5, is a powerful engine of Christian influence, the use of which is distinctly authorized and even commanded in Scripture (Romans 16:17; 1 Corinthians 5:11; 2 Thessalonians 3:6, 14; 2 Timothy 3:5; Titus 3:10 2John 10), and may on occasion be employed by private Christians on their own responsibility. But its use, when not clearly justified, is not only a cruelty to our brethren, but an outrage upon what St. Paul here calls the truth of the gospel. It is at our peril that we grieve, by a cold or unbrotherly bearing towards him, one whom we have reason to believe God has "received" (Romans 14:3; Romans 15:7). If God in Christ owns and loves him as a son, we ought to frankly own and love him as a brother.

Ellicott's Commentary

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers(14) Walked not uprightly.--This is a single word in the Greek, and found here alone in the New Testament. It means, literally, "to walk on straight feet"--i.e., erect and straightforwardly, as opposed to "shuffling."Unto Peter before them all.--The true reading is again Cephas. The Apostle lays stress upon the publicity of his remonstrance, as showing that in his controversy with the Apostles of the circumcision he did something more than hold his own.Being a Jew.--"Being" is here emphatic, and means, "with all the antecedents of a Jew." It is implied that a different rule must be applied to the Gentiles, with totally different antecedents.Livest after the manner of Gentiles--i.e., in the matter of eating promiscuously with those whom the Law (or rather, the Pharisaic tradition) forbids you to eat with.Why.--The great preponderance of MSS. is here in favour of the reading how--i.e., how does it come about that?Compellest.--Do what you can to compel.