Galatians 2:7 - Exposition

But contrariwise ( ἀλλὰ τοὐναντίον )l as 2 Corinthians 2:7 ; 1 Peter 3:9 . This " contrariwise " is illustrated by the foregoing note. When they saw ( ἰδόντες ); when they got to see. This implies that the fact was new to them. A few of them, no doubt, were apprised of it previously, Cephas in particular (see Galatians 1:18 and note); but the majority of that assemblage of apostles and elders knew Paul chiefly by hearsay, and hearsay not always the most friendly to him. The three named in the next verse are to be conceived of as acting as they did in order to give expression to this newly awakened feeling of the general body, and not merely to their own individual judgment. That the gospel of the uncircumcision was committed unto me, as the gospel of the circumcision was unto Peter ( ὅτι πεπίστευμαι τὸ εὐαγγέλιον τῆς ἀκροβυστίας καθὼς πέτροβ τῆς περιτομῆς ); that I had been put in trust of the gospel … as Peter of that of , etc. The perfect present πεπίστευμαι , viewed from the time of their seeing it. So the present ὀρθοποδοῦσιν in 1 Peter 3:14 , and μέναι in John 1:40 . The perfect is used anti not the aorist (cf. Romans 3:2 ), as marking the then still continuing holding of the trust, and also perhaps, as implying the con-tinning identity of the doctrine preached. Gospel of the uncircumcision. The word "gospel" is frequently used by St. Paul to denote, not so much the substance of its doctrine as the business of proclaiming it (comp. Romans 1:1 , Romans 1:9 ; Romans 15:19 ; 1 Corinthians 9:14 , 1 Corinthians 9:18 ; 2 Corinthians 2:12 ); and thus the gospel of the uncircumcision does not indicate any diversity in the doctrine communicated to the uncircumcision from that communicatcd to the Jews, but simply a diversity in the sphere of its proclamation. ἀκροβυστία denotes the class of the uncircumcised in contrast to περιτομή , that of the circumcised, as in Romans 3:30 . As Peter of that of the circumcision. This distinction between the spheres of work entrusted severally to the two apostles held good of them only as viewed in the main in either case; for as St. Peter was, in fact, the first who opened the gospel to the Gentiles, and afterwards, towards the close of Iris work, cared for the welfare of Gentile Christians by writing his two Epistles to them, so also St. Paul everywhere in his ministerial work addressed himself in the first instance to the Jews. Nevertheless, in the main, Peter was the head of the Church of the circumcised, Paul of that of the uncircumcised. But how completely the substance of Peter's doctrine was one with that of Paul's is strikingly evinced by his two Epistles (see 1 Peter 5:12 ). It is difficult to feel that St. Paul could have written as he here does, if he was aware that St. Peter had been constituted by the Lord Jesus to be his own vicar upon earth, supreme over the whole Church and all its ministers.