Galatians 1:18

Then after three years I went up to Jerusalem to visit Cephas, and tarried with him fifteen days.

This and the following verses were added by Paul as an explanation of what he had just said and to checkmate any denial of it by any one who might have known about the trip in view here. He noted that it was three whole years after he had become a preaching apostle and that even then he saw only Peter and James, the purpose being in no sense whatever to apply to them or to complete his knowledge of the gospel, but just in order to become acquainted. Ramsay says the word "visit" here was "used by those who go to see great and famous cities."[46] He also quoted Lightfoot and Chrysostom as maintaining the same thing. So Paul went to see two of the most distinguished persons in the early church in the same way one would go to see any celebrity. John Wesley also insisted that the word "implied the desire to see a celebrity."[47] That so busy and distinguished a person as Peter would have devoted an entire fifteen days to Paul shows that he received and entertained him as an equal, and not merely as some appellant seeking a favor.

[46] William M. Ramsay, op. cit., p. 283.

[47] John Wesley, op. cit., in loco.