Verse 1
Two major divisions of this chapter are: (1) Paul's appeal to the fact that fourteen years after his conversion (long after he had been successfully preaching the gospel), the leading apostles in Jerusalem fully endorsed his preaching and extended to him the right hand of fellowship (Galatians 2:1-10), and (2) that in one very important particular he had withstood the apostle Peter face to face, exposing his sin and hypocrisy, the obvious conclusion from such an incident being that (in one particular at least) he was superior to the apostles in Jerusalem (Galatians 2:11-21).
Around these two major themes of the chapter, however, Paul wove some of the most important theological principles revealed in the New Testament, introducing the main theme of Galatians in Galatians 2:16, which is "Justification by the Faith of Christ, and not by the Law of Moses."
Then after fourteen years I went up again to Jerusalem with Barnabas, taking Titus with me. (Galatians 2:1)
Paul's intention here was to justify his apostleship, as not having been received through human beings; and, since that apostleship began with his conversion, the "fourteen years" here means fourteen years after his conversion. It is remarkable how religious fads can blind the eyes of expositors, and a startling example of it is seen in the usual treatment of this visit, making it fourteen years after his last visit to Jerusalem. This is based on the mistaken view that Paul in this letter had set out to name every trip he had ever made to the capital of Judaism. He obviously had no such intention. He left out of consideration altogether a trip to Jerusalem which he and Barnabas had made to deliver famine relief "to the elders" in Jerusalem (Acts 11:30); but, as that trip came about the time when Peter was imprisoned, James had been martyred, and all of the apostles were in hiding, it could have had no bearing whatever on what Paul was emphasizing here.
I went up again to Jerusalem ... has the simple meaning of "upon another occasion I went up to Jerusalem." It is totally wrong to read this as if it said, "the second time I went up to Jerusalem." The New Testament merely states that he went up "again." As Ridderbos said, "Once one has rid himself of the idea that Paul wants to give a summary here of all his trips to Jerusalem,"[1] it is easy to see that the meeting described in these verses is the so-called Jerusalem Council (Acts 15:1ff), and that there is no need to identify it as the famine visit of Acts 11:30. McGarvey was in perfect agreement with this view;[2] and, as Harrison asked, "If the question of the admission of Gentiles into the church had been settled on the famine visit,"[3] why was another conference necessary to settle the same question?
Titus ... For full discussion of this man, see under 2 Corinthians 7:6.
Barnabas ... It should be noted that Paul, in order to avoid assuming any domination over Barnabas, stated that he went "with" him; whereas, in the case of Titus, one of his faithful followers, he referred to "taking him."
One of Paul's purposes, in addition to that of defending his apostleship by making this journey, was to prove that he properly respected and honored those who were apostles before him; and, as Barclay noted, "To prove that his independence was not anarchy, nor schismatic and sectarian, but that his gospel was indeed no other than the faith delivered to the church."[4]
Another important sidelight here is that Paul spoke of Barnabas here with the necessary implication that he was already known to the Christians in Galatia, "a further indication that they were the churches of the first missionary journey,"[5] in which Barnabas shared.
[1] H. N. Ridderbos, The Epistles of Paul to the Churches of Galatia (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1953), p. 78.
[2] J. W. McGarvey, The Standard Bible Commentary, Galatians (Cincinnati, Ohio: The Standard Publishing Company, 1916), p. 256.
[3] Everett F. Harrison, Wycliffe Bible Commentary (Chicago: Moody Press, 1971), p. 698.
[4] William Barclay, The Letters to the Galatians and Ephesians (Philadelphia: The Westminster Press, 1964), p. 16.
[5] F. Roy Coad, A New Testament Commentary (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan Publishing House, 1969), p. 449.
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