Galatians 2:11-20

New Catholic Bible

Footnotes

1. 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.
2. 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.
3. Galatians 2:13 Jews: i.e., Jewish Christians.
4. 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.
5. 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.

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   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!”

6. 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.
7. 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).
8. 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.