6) Galatians 2:6-10
And from those who seemed to be influential (what they were makes no difference to me; God shows no partiality)—those, I say, who seemed influential added nothing to me. On the contrary, when they saw that I had been entrusted with the gospel to the uncircumcised, just as Peter had been entrusted with the gospel to the circumcised (for he who worked through Peter for his apostolic ministry to the circumcised worked also through me for mine to the Gentiles), and when James and Cephas and John, who seemed to be pillars, perceived the grace that was given to me, they gave the right hand of fellowship to Barnabas and me, that we should go to the Gentiles and they to the circumcised. Only, they asked us to remember the poor, the very thing I was eager to do. (Galatians 2:6-10, ESV Bible)
And from those who seemed to be influential (what they were makes no difference to me; God shows no partiality)—those, I say, who seemed influential added nothing to me. (Galatians 2:6, ESV Bible)
Is Paul Dismissing the Apostles Authority?
By"those who seemed to be influential," Paul referred to James, Peter, John, and any other elders of the community who were present at the big meeting. It sounds like he dismissed their authority when referred to them as "those who seemed to be influential" and when he said "what they were makes no difference to me; God shows no partialitv."
Despite the dismissive air, Paul submitted to their authority. He had already conceded that, if they had rejected his gospel of Gentile inclusion, he would have been running his race in vain. They had the power to utterly discredit the gospel message he had been presenting. Therefore, he certainly did respect their authority. But he seems less than reverentially respectful in Galatians 2:5.
In his commentary on Galatians, Richard Longenecker suggests that the influencers in Galatia based their appeal upon the practice of the elders in Jerusalem. That is, those teaching "some other gospel" to the Galatian Gentiles and compelling them to be circumcised did so in continuity with apostolic authority from Jerusalem, and they set that authority in antithesis to Paul. They pointed out to the Galatian God-Fearers that Peter and James received Gentiles into the faith as proselytes through circumcision and conversion. Therefore, Paul must be wrong. They may have asked, "Do you want to follow the real disciples of Yeshua -or Paul?"
As a result, Paul is a bit cheeky as he refers to their authority. This explains why he carefully taught in the first chapter of Galatians that he did not receive his gospel from the other apostles; he received it directly by divine revelation, confirmed by the Scriptures. Regarding the apostles in Jerusalem, he only sought validation, as a man under authority, but that authority was not the source of his gospel.
The people to whom Paul was writing (if Longenecker's suggestion is correct) had been told,' "Yes, Paul says one thing, but the 'Pillars in Jerusalem,' James, Peter, and John, disagree with him." If so, Paul's point in retelling the whole story was to demonstrate that the charge is false. Remember, the entire Epistle to the Galatians predates the decision of the Jerusalem Council (Acts 15) which ruled on this issue in a definitive manner.
Paul's recitation of the story is consistent with Talmudic disputation. In the Talmud, when a halachic (legal) decision is in question, the sages relate anecdotes about their teachers or earlier generations as evidence to support their opinions. This is the situation here. "Not even Titus was compelled to be circumcised," Paul told the Galatians.
Paul's tone may sound dismissive, but he ultimately was not dismissive at all. Instead, he leaned heavily upon that apostolic endorsement as he declared, "Those, I say, who seemed influential added nothing to me" (Galatians 2:6).
What does it mean that they added nothing to him? Only this: that they did not add anything to his gospel. They did not correct him in any way. They did not say, "You must also teach the Gentile believers to keep the Sabbath and undergo circumcision." They added no further obligation than what Paul was already teaching to the Gentiles.
On the contrary, when they saw that I had been entrusted with the gospel to the uncircumcised, just as Peter had been entrusted with the gospel to the circumcised (for he who worked through Peter for his apostolic ministry to the circumcised worked also through me for mine to the Gentiles), and when James and Cephas and John, who seemed to be pillars, perceived the grace that was given to me, they gave the right hand of fellowship to Barnabas and me, that we should go to the Gentiles and they to the circumcised.. (Galatians 2:7-9, ESV Bible)
The apostles in Jerusalem saw that Paul had been entrusted with the gospel to the uncircumcised, meaning that they acknowledged that Paul had been given a mission by God. They recognized that God had given Paul grace and favor to declare the message of the gospel to the Gentile world. They recognized his calling; they endorsed his message, and they endorsed his apostleship to the Gentile world. One might say, they ordained him.
Henceforth, Paul refers to himself as "the apostle to the Gentiles." For example, in Romans 11:13, Paul says, "Now I am speaking to you Gentiles. Inasmuch then as I am an apostle to the Gentiles ..." Again, in 1 Timothy 2:7, Paul declares: "For this I was appointed a preacher and an apostle (I am telling the truth, I am not lying), a teacher of the Gentiles in faith and truth."
This is not to say that Paul would never again declare the gospel of Yeshua to Jewish people. His first calling, mission, and goal, however, was to minister to the Gentile world, i.e., to call God-fearing Gentiles to faith in Yeshua.
Simon Peter, on the other hand, as head over the Twelve, worked primarily among the circumcised, that is, among Jewish people and proselytes to Judaism. His apostleship (and that of the twelve) was first and foremost to the Jewish people. Not that Peter would never present the gospel to non-Jews. He certainly did, but he followed the Master's mission in seeking first the lost sheep of Israel, the sinners among the Jewish people, calling them to repent, turn back to the Torah, and believe in the risen Messiah for the forgiveness of sins.
Distinct Gospels - One for the Jew and One for the Gentile
For the last eighteen hundred years, the church has triumphantly declared that the gospel has cancelled the Torah and that Gentile Christians have replaced the Jewish people. Those dogmas stem from a failure to understand the distinction between Peter's ministry and Paul's ministry, between Peter's apostleship and Paul's apostleship. Christians quickly forgot that Paul was the apostle to the Gentiles and that his letters needed to be read as addressed primarily to God-fearing Gentile readers, not to Jewish readers.
We forgot this detail. Since Gentiles were at the center of Paul's concern, we came to believe that Gentiles were at the center of the gospel's concern. We forgot that Paul's gospel was distinct from the gospel of the rest of the apostles and that his mission was an outgrowth of the mission of Messiah to redeem Israel.
We forgot that Galatians, Ephesians, 1 and 2 Thessalonians, Colossians, Philippians, Romans and 1 and 2 Corinthians-the whole batch of Paul's epistles- were written by the apostle to the Gentiles. Therefore, when Paul speaks of not being "under the law" and free from the obligation of circumcision, having freedom in the Spirit, and all of that, he was speaking to Gentiles-not to Jewish believers. Christianity overlooked that important detail, and Christian theology became a Gentile theology positioned against Torah observance that taught (and still teaches today) that if a Jewish person becomes a believer, he should be compelled to set aside Torah and leave Judaism. What happened here? The theological tail of the New Testament has been wagging the dog.
If faith in Yeshua means that Jewish people should be exempt from circumcision or the other sign commandments and distinctions enjoined upon them by the Torah, then faith in Yeshua, for a Jewish person, is a sin against God. According to the Bible's own testimony, Jesus must be castigated as a false prophet, and the gospel message should be rejected (Deuteronomy 13).
We are one body, many parts. The foot is not the eye; the eye is not the foot. Oneness is not sameness. We can be one in the body but not have the same function and calling. There is one faith, one baptism, and one body, but that body has many parts.
Theologically, we run into trouble whenever we fail to make a distinction between one thing and another. Historically, in Christianity, we have obliterated distinctions between the Father and the Son, between the holy and the profane, between the seventh day and the six days, between Israel and the nations.
God is a God of distinction. He is called HaMavdil, "The One who separates." He formed the earth, separating light from dark, the waters above from the waters below, the sea from the dry ground, and the female from the male. At havdalah-time (end of the Sabbath), we say, "HaMavdil, he who separates between the holy and the profane, between light and dark, between the seventh day and the six days of labor, between Israel and the nations."
If there is no havdalah-no distinction between Israel and the nations, then why did the apostles appoint one apostle to the nations and another to the Jewish people? If the end goal for the Gentiles was the same as that of the Jewish believers, why a distinct mission? Why appoint an apostle to the Gentiles with a gospel for the Gentiles distinct from the apostleship to the Jewish people?
You might ask, "But aren't we all one in Messiah?" Yes. But we are not the same. We are swinging the pendulum back to correct the error of the last two thousand years that said Jewish Christians are one with Gentile Christians, so they should behave as if they are Gentiles.
Some of us, however, have crossed the center and gone to the opposite extreme, now saying that Gentile Christians are the same as Jewish Christians so they should therefore be Jewish. It blurs the line of distinction, and ultimately it is the same mistake.
This does not mean that the God-fearing Gentile believers should not participate in commandments such as the Sabbath. As we will see later, there are good reasons for Gentile God-Fearers to do so, but they should not consider themselves as Gentile-Jews.
The Pillars
Paul referred to "James and Cephas and John, who seemed to be pillars" (Galatians 2:9). In early midrash, the rabbis referred to Abraham as "the Rock." God said, "Upon this Rock I will build my world." In the Yeshua movement, Peter is called the Rock, and the Master said, "Upon this rock I will build my assembly." In the Midrash Rabbah, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob are also called the Pillars:
When the patriarchs came and showed themselves righteous, God said, "On these will I establish My world; as it says [in 1 Samuel 2:8]: 'For the pillars of the earth are the LORD's, and on them He has set the world.'" (Exodus Rabbah 15:7)
In the Talmud, the disciples of Rabban Yochanan ben Zakkai referred to him as "the Pillar of the right hand," perhaps alluding to the right-hand pillar at the entrance to the Temple. Likewise, the body of believers referred to themselves as a living temple. Yeshua was the door. The primary apostles were the pillars.
Paul uses this language when he speaks of the whole body of Messiah as Jewish and Gentile believers being built into a spiritual house, i.e., a temple. Not every part of the temple is identical. It is one temple of the Holy Spirit, but it has different parts. So when Paul refers to James, Peter, and John as "those who seemed to be pillars," he speaks of their position of authority in the spiritual temple of the body of Messiah.
Only, they asked us to remember the poor, the very thing I was eager to do. (Galatians 2:10, ESV Bible)
Remember the Evyonim
Paul said that James, Peter, and John, the reputed pillars, gave the right hand of fellowship to him and to Barnabas. They commissioned them to go to the Gentiles while they themselves continued to witness Messiah to the circumcised. Paul says, "Only, they asked us to remember the poor, the very thing I was eager to do" (Galatians 2:10).
I might have thought that the apostles laid upon the Gentile believers no greater obligation to Torah than the commandment of giving charity generously to the poor. In other words, they said to Paul, "We are fine with vour message to the Gentiles and about their exemption from the covenant signs. In fact, they do not need to keep any of the commandments of the Torah, just so long as they give generously to the poor." Paul agrees, "That's exactly what I was thinking, too!"
I might have read it this way, but that's problematic. Paul already said that they added nothing to his gospel. It sounds like they are adding something here: "That's fine Paul, but have everyone remember to give charity to the poor." Out of the entire Torah, is that the only commandment that the apostles thought should apply to Gentiles?
Paul did not say, "Only they asked the Gentiles to give charity to the poor." He said, "Only they asked us to remember the poor." Look at this carefully. Who is the "us"? In this context, it must be Paul and Barnabas. The apostles asked Paul and Barnabas to remember the poor. Why? What does that have to do with the entire question? "Paul, you be the apostle to the Gentiles, and we original apostles will take the message to the Jewish people, so long as you remember to give charity to the poor." That explanation does not work.
Why did they lay this one caveat on Paul's ministry? It does not even say that he should be generous with the poor or support the poor financially, just to remember them. In a Jewish context, to "remember" something can mean more than just remembering. For example, the Ten Commandments tell us to "remember the Sabbath day." The prophet says, "Remember the Torah of Moses." The LORD says, "Remember the covenant." In all of these contexts, to "remember" something is to be mindful of it and to remember one's obligations. It means to remember one's obligation to the thing remembered and to act upon that obligation.
I believe that the poor whom Paul and Barnabas are to remember are not just any poor. They are the Evyonim, the Poor Ones, i.e., the apostolic assembly of believers in Jerusalem: the pillars, the elders, the assembly of James and the apostles. In his commentary on Galatians, Richard Longenecker identifies "the Poor" in Galatians 2:10 as simply a shorthand abbreviation for the longer title that Paul gives them in Romans 15:26, where he refers to them as "the poor among the saints at Jerusalem."
In other words, the apostolic pillars at Jerusalem endorsed Paul's apostleship and his gospel message to the Gentiles. They put a heksher (kosher certification) on him and confirmed his message to the Gentiles with one caveat: "Remember the Evvonim," which is to say, "Remember us and our community in Jerusalem. Remember your obligation to us. Remember your position under our authority. Remember your obligations to this mother community, the Jerusalem community." Paul says that this was the very thing that he was eager to do.
This is the very thing that I am eager to do. I hope I can share with you my zeal to remember the authority of that community, to remember the Evyonim, the brothers of our Master, the original disciples of our Master, and the men in whom he invested his ministry. To them he gave the authority to bind and to loose and the keys to the kingdom of heaven. They preserved the gospel for us and transmitted it to us. They were the original mother of our faith, the pillars of the temple of the Holy Spirit, the assembly, the rock on which the assembly of Messiah is built, the men who endorsed Paul and to whom Paul submitted and to whom he was eager to submit.
Referneces
This lesson was curated from teachings from First Fruits of Zion “Holy Epistle to the Galatians.”