4) Galatians 2:1-2

Aug 2

Then after fourteen years I went up again to Jerusalem with Barnabas, taking Titus along with me. I went up because of a revelation and set before them (though privately before those who seemed influential) the gospel that I proclaim among the Gentiles, in order to make sure I was not running or had not run in vain. (Galatians 2:1-2, ESV Bible)

Then after fourteen years I went up again to Jerusalem with Barnabas, taking Titus along with me. (Galatians 2:1, ESV Bible)

Back to Jerusalem

In the second chapter of Galatians, Paul recounts a trip to Jerusa-lem. He wrote, "After fourteen years I went up again to Jerusalem with Barnabas, taking Titus along with me" (Galatians 2:1). It had been fourteen years since the Damascus road incident, or perhaps it had been fourteen years since he had last been to Jerusalem. The point is that after a long time, more than a decade, he finally went back to Jerusalem.

Try to understand the significance of Jerusalem for the believers: They cherished it, not only as the Holy City, as the place of the Temple, as the place of the Master's tomb, and as the place of the future kingdom, but also as the place of the apostles. Jerusalem was where the elders and the original disciples could be found.

Jerusalem was to the first-century believers what the Vatican is to Catholics. Jerusalem of that era is difficult for Protestants to understand because we have inherited disrespect for ecclesiastical authority, but Catholics will better understand the analogy. The first-century believers respected the authority of James the brother of the Master on par with the authority that the Roman Catholic Church accords to the pope. The apostles had the authority to bind and loose: according to the Master's word, whatever they bound on earth was bound in heaven, and whatever they loosed on earth was loosed in heaven. That is to say, they had the authority to make rulings and decisions for all believers everywhere.

After more than a decade, Paul went back up to Jerusalem. He took with him Barnabas, the man who vouched for him on his last visit, and he brought along Titus. Barnabas was a Jewish believer with good credentials among the apostles. Barnabas represented the original school of the Jerusalem-Yeshua movement; he was a veteran apostle and had belonged to the inner circle since the year of the Master's death and resurrection. Titus represented the opposite extreme: a God-fearing Gentile from Antioch, uncircumcised, who had not accepted conversion and did not seem to be planning on it. He was one of Paul's Gentile disciples.

I went up because of a revelation and set before them (though privately before those who seemed influential) the gospel that I proclaim among the Gentiles, in order to make sure I was not running or had not run in vain. (Galatians 2:2, ESV Bible)

The Revelation

Paul explained to the Galatians, "I went up [to Jerusalem] because of a revelation" (Galatians 2:2). A "revelation" is something revealed from Heaven. After that first encounter on the Damascus road, revelations like that directed Paul's life. The Master appeared to him in the Temple; the Spirit of Jesus prevented him from entering Bithynia; the LORD told him in a dream to remain in the city of Corinth; etc. Heavenly revelations, visions, and prophecies dictated Paul's comings and goings.

Acts 11 describes how some Jewish believers reputed to be prophets came to Antioch from Jerusalem while Paul and Barnabas were teaching there. The word of the LORD came to the prophet Chagavah (Agabus, a name that means "locust"). He predicted that a great famine was soon to come upon the Roman world:

And one of them named Agabus stood up and foretold by the Spirit that there would be a great famine over all the world (this took place in the days of Claudius). So the disciples determined, everyone according to his ability, to send relief to the brothers living in Judea. And they did so, sending it to the elders by the hand of Barnabas and Saul. (Acts 11:28-30)

The communal believers in Jerusalem would be particularly hard-hit by such a famine. Sharing all things in common had taken its toll, and the impoverished community did not have the means to lay up provisions for themselves. In keeping with our Master's teachings about giving one's wealth to the poor, the early Jewish believers came to be known as Evyonim, i.e., "Ebionites." The Hebrew word evvonim means "poor ones." The early Church Fathers knew of the name. Centuries later they applied the name "Ebionite" to a particular sect of Jewish believers, but the name may have originated in the early days of the Yeshua movement in Jerusalem.

The Evyonim (the poor ones) stood to be the hardest hit by a coming famine. The prophets from Jerusalem saw that the result would be devastating if some measure was not set aside for the Jerusalem community. Following the Torah's example of Joseph's preparations for the seven-year famine, they requested a collection from the Antioch community. In the Jewish community, such collections were common. The Talmud preserves several anecdotes and incidents regarding similar collections for charity in the Diaspora.

The Antioch disciples collected funds for their brothers and sisters in Jerusalem and sent them back to the Holy City by way of Paul and Barnabas. The gift served a twofold purpose. On the one hand, it provided for the Jerusalem believers, much as the careful preparations of the patriarch Joseph in the Torah had provided for his brothers. On the other hand, the collection might buy the mixed-blood Antioch community a little bit of favor in the eves of the Jewish Jerusalem assembly.

The predicted famine came to Judea in about the year 44 and lasted three vears. The Talmud refers to it as the "years of scarcity." The famine in Judea was severe, and not only in Judea, but also up the coast in Phoenicia as well. It stemmed from a great drought which lasted several years. Josephus reports that food was scarce, extremely expensive, and many people died for want. When King Izates of Adiabene heard from his mother about the famine in Judea, "he sent great sums of money to the principal men in Jerusalem." In so doing, he emptied out the coffers of accumulated wealth that he had inherited from his fathers. The Talmud tells the story:

It is related of King Monobaz [Izates] that he exhausted all his own treasures and the stores of his fathers during the years of scarcity. His brothers and his father's household brought a delegation before him and said to him, "Your father saved money and added to the treasures of his fathers, and you are wasting it." He replied, "Truth springs from the earth, and (charity] looks down from heaven' (Psalm 85:11). My fathers stored their wealth in a place which is vulnerable to tampering, but I have stored my wealth in a place invulnerable to tampering, as it says, '[Charity] and judgment are the foundation of his throne' (Psalm 97:2). My fathers stored something which produces no fruits, but I have stored something which does produce fruits, as it is written, 'Tell the [charitable] that it shall be well with them, for they shall eat the fruit of their deeds' (Isaiah 3:10). My fathers gathered treasures of money, but I have gathered treasures of souls, as it is written, 'The fruit of [charity] is a tree of life, and whoever captures souls is wise' (Proverbs 11:30). My fathers gathered for others and I have gathered for myself, as it says, 'It shall be [charity] for you' (Deuteronomy 24:13). My fathers gathered for this world, but I have gathered for the world to come, as it says, 'Your charity shall go before you'" (Isaiah 58:8). (b.Bava Batra 11a)

Izates' words sound like a midrashic expansion on the Master's own teaching and provide the closest Talmudic parallel to Yeshua's teaching about treasure in heaven:

"Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also" (Matthew 6:19-21).

Izates sent his famine relief to Jerusalem after the famine was already severe. Paul, Barnabas, and Titus brought the Antioch collection up to Jerusalem before the famine had even begun.

The Authority of the Apostles

Paul's controversial gospel message does not sound too controversial to Christians today, but Paul had a sinking feeling in his stomach as he and Barnabas and Titus approached Jerusalem. He knew that he was teaching a radical interpretation outside of the apostolic norm. Special revelations from Heaven are good, but Paul had not yet cleared this teaching with the authority in Jerusalem. He had never submitted it to the court of the apostles. He had been teaching on his own initiative, without authority and without sanction from those to whom our Master gave the power to bind and to loose and to govern the body.

To Peter, Yeshua said, "I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; and whatever you bind on earth shall have been bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall have been loosed in heaven" (Matthew 16:19). In saying this, he promoted Peter to the head over the Twelve, made him the chief disciple, and gave him, along with the other disciples, the legal authority to make Torah decisions regarding the community of believers (and all Israel). Rabbinic literature uses the terms "to bind" or "to loose" thousands of times to describe the rabbis' authority to interpret Torah, to set halachah, and to make legal decisions. The Roman Catholic Church understood that authority, from which it derived the tradition of papal authority. In essence, Yeshua set the apostles in the position of the Sanhedrin, not a replacement (not until the kingdom is revealed), but a higher authority with veto power if necessary. The Torah instructs:

"If any case arises requiring decision between one kind of homicide and another, one kind of legal right and another, or one kind of assault and another, any case within your towns that is too difficult for you, then you shall arise and go up to the place that the LORD your God will choose [i.e., Jerusalem]" to seek a ruling from the judges (Deuteronomy 17:8).

In the late Second Temple era, the judges in Jerusalem were the Sanhedrin. Our Master, however, appointed a higher power above the Sanhedrin: the twelve thrones of the twelve disciples. He said they will sit upon twelve thrones judging over the twelve tribes. The twelve thrones should be understood as places of judicial authority immediately under the authority of the throne of David, i.e. the Messiah's throne.

In the absence of King Messiah, the authority over the throne of David passed on to a steward. Another from the same line and the same family, the next Davidic heir in line, took the position. In the days of the Apostle Paul, James the Righteous, the brother of the Master, took the position. Not that James was the Messiah or the Messiah King, but he was the steward of that position of authority in Messiah's absence. The apocryphal Gospel of Thomas reports a tradition about James:

The disciples said to Jesus, "We know that you will depart from us. Who is to be our leader?" Jesus said to them, "Wherever you are, you are to go to James the Righteous, for whose sake heaven and earth came into being."(Gospel of Thomas 12)

The expression "for whose take heaven and earth came into being" may sound jarring to Christian ears, but it is a common hyperbole employed by the rabbis to praise a person's virtue. Over the Sanhedrin our Master appointed the twelve thrones, and above the twelve thrones he left the empty throne of David. In those days, temporarily occupying the throne of David on behalf of his older brother James, the brother of our Master, presided.

The Master said, "Wherever you are, you are to go to James the Righteous" as it says in the Torah, "If any case is too difficult for you to decide, between one kind of homicide or another, between one kind of lawsuit or another, and between one kind of assault or another, being cases of dispute in your courts, then you shall arise and go up to the place which the LORD your God chooses," i.e., to Jerusalem.

Apostolic Authority Challeneged

American Protestants have a hard time with the notion of apostolic authority. We want to be more like Paul; we are more like Paul. Paul was not interested in that ecclesiastical authority. He received a private revelation from God, confirmed it in the Scriptures himself, and went with that. He had not bothered to check with the apostles above him. He boasted, "The gospel which was preached by me is not according to man. For I neither received it from man, nor was I taught it, but I received it through a revelation of Jesus Christ" (Galatians 1:11-12). He also boasted, "I did not immediately consult with anyone; nor did I go up to Jerusalem to those who were apostles before me" (Galatians 1:16).

I think that many of us can identify with Paul's sentiments. Who needs the rabbis, the sages, the Sanhedrin, all that Jewish tradition? Traditions and interpretations of men! And the same impulse says, "Who needs the twelve thrones? Who needs the interpretations of the apostles? Why do we need them to tell us what the Bible means?"

Spiritual authority grates against us, not because it is wrong, but because in this Western culture we resent authority. Protestants especially are trained and theologically inculcated with a distrust of spiritual authority, and that is why we tout the sola scriptura mantra. We cite the abuses. We point out the apostasies. We point to church history. In the past, men in authority over the church have twisted Scripture and abused authority and led us away from the truth. Therefore, we do not want to submit to apostolic authority.

The sola scriptura Protestant says, "I can read the Torah myself and come to my own conclusions."

The defendant who represents himself in court has a fool for an attorney.

We need to consider our hearts. God's spirit works through authority structures. He instituted the authority structures. The LORD instituted priesthood, king, judge, the seventy judges, the Sanhedrin, the apostles, the twelve thrones, the court systems, the beit din (a rabbinical court in Jewish law), and even the eldership over the local body: heads over thousands, over hundreds, over tens.

What about when your leadership is wrong? Or what do you do if you disagree? Daniel Lancaster from FFOZ wrote in his book about an incident from his church that he leads:

“A friend of mine told me an amusing story about Beth Immanuel. He informally polled the congregation about the authority of the elders. In every conversation, he asked, "Do you think we should submit to the authority of the elders?" In every conversation, the people answered, "Absolutely. The elders have the authority." Then he asked, "What if you disagreed with them on some matter?" And the answer was, "Well, in that case, then I would not submit." Some said, "I would leave." Others simply said, "I would not cooperate." The irony is that we have a mentality that believes in submission to authority so long as we agree with that authority. That's a dangerous mindset because if that is how we treat human authority, that is how we will treat God's authority. That will be the answer to Torah: I submit to the mitzvah so long as it makes sense to me and I agree with it. Likewise: I submit to the apostle's rulings so long as they make sense to me and I agree with them. That's not submission at all.”

Running in Vain

Paul had not confirmed his calling, his ministry, or his gospel with the authorities. His message of salvation for Gentiles had not been confirmed with the Twelve, the elders at Jerusalem, or with James the brother of the Master.

He took advantage of the famine-relief trip to Jerusalem to seek a private audience with James, the brother of the Master, and with Peter, the first over the Twelve, and with John the son of Zebedee, the beloved disciple. He sought the counsel of those three pillars, and whoever of the Twelve might be available.

What does he mean by "I might be running, or had run, in vain?" He was talking about his gospel to the God-fearing Gentiles. Suppose Paul came to Jerusalem and said, "Shalom, I have good news. Lots of Gentiles have embraced the faith, and I told them that they don't even have to become Jewish to enter the kingdom of heaven, to merit the resurrection, the world to come, and a position within the people of God. In fact, I've been telling them they don't even need to be circumcised. Isn't that great?" And suppose that James and the apostles reply, "Paul, are you out of your mind? That's heretical and contradicts the teachings that Yeshua entrusted with us. You cannot teach that."

If they said that, Paul would have been running his race in vain. It's like a runner in a footrace who takes off from the starting line, running as hard as he can to win the race. He runs for miles. He sees no one around. He assumes he must be in the lead, but then someone tells him, "Hey, you are off the race route. You've been running in the wrong direction."

What does it profit a man if he expends his life proclaiming some other gospel? How do you know if you are off the path? Paul's teacher, Rabban Gamliel, used to say, "Do not rely on your own interpretation. Take upon yourself a teacher, and remove all doubt."

Paul was a brilliant, spiritually gifted protégé, but he was also a man under authority. He turned to the authority, to the men of reputation regarded as the pillars of the assembly of Messiah:

If any case arises ... that is too difficult for you, then you shall arise and go up to the place that the LORD your God will choose [i.e., Jerusalem]. (Deuteronomy 17:8)

Wherever you are, you are to go to James the Righteous. (Gospel of Thomas 12)

Paul did not want to run his race in vain. He once wrote to the God-fearing Gentile believers in the city of Philippi, beseeching them to prove their faith and commitment to Messiah "so that in the day of Christ I may be proud that I did not run in vain or labor in vain" (Philippians 2:16). He regarded the Gentile believers as proof that he had not run or toiled in vain. They were the fruit of his unique gospel message. If the apostles in Jerusalem were to tell him that there was no such thing as a "God-fearing Gentile believer" and that a Gentile must be circumcised and become Jewish to be secure in the kingdom, then his efforts were in vain.

Referneces

This lesson was curated from teachings from First Fruits of Zion “Holy Epistle to the Galatians.”

Disciple X