Cambridge Greek Testament Commentary

Galatians 2:12

ὅτε δὲ ἦλθον. ACDb.cHKL vulg. syrutr. ὅτε δὲ ἦλθεν אBD*G. Compare Orig. c. Cels. 11. 1 (ἐλθόντος Ἰακώβον πρὸς αὐτὸν�). But probably the -εν is due to careless assonance with the preceding and the following verbs.

12. πρὸ τοῦ γὰρ ἐλθεῖν τινὰς�. Acts 15:24 makes it probable that ἀπὸ Ἰακ. is to be taken with τινάς rather than with ἐλθεῖν. If so there is no need to ask why St James sent them to Antioch. They were from him, perhaps on a tour to get alms for the poor, but they did not come with any special message to Antioch. In Acts 15:5 those who assert the necessity of keeping the Law are said to have belonged once to the sect of the Pharisees. Hort, understanding St Peter’s visit to Antioch to have taken place after the Council at Jerusalem, rather strangely supposes ἀπὸ Ἰακώβου to imply that St James himself suggested that St Peter ought not to eat with Gentile Christians for fear of giving further offence to the Jewish Church at Jerusalem, and that St Paul, notwithstanding, had no occasion to include St James in his rebuke because the latter had made no public exhibition of ὑπόκρισις at Antioch (Judaistic Christianity, p. 81).

μετὰ τῶν ἐθνῶν συνήσθιεν. συνέφαγεν in Acts 11:3 marked some days at most; the imperfect a long period.

No good Jew eats with Gentiles, because Gentile food is “unclean.” The μετά suggests more intimate relationship than a dative dependent on συνήσθιεν.

ὅτε δὲ ἧλθον. See notes on Textual Criticism.

ὑπέστελλεν καὶ�. The tenses “give a graphic picture of Peter’s irresolute and tentative efforts to withdraw gradually from an intercourse that gave offence to the visitors” (Rendall). ὑπέστελλεν: elsewhere in the N.T. the verb is always in the middle voice, therefore probably here with ἑαυτόν.

ἀφώριζεν, Galatians 1:15 note. Possibly here also there is some play on the word, as though Peter were changing himself into a Pharisee. Whether this be so or not it is a semi-technical word in the LXX. for separation from unclean things, implying that St Peter regarded Gentile Christians under this category (cf. Isaiah 52:11; Leviticus 20:25-26).

φοβούμενος τοὺς ἐκ περιτομῆς. Chrysostom (688 B) in accordance with his strange theory of accommodation (vide supra, Galatians 2:11) thinks that his fear was not for himself but for these Jewish Christians, lest they should leave the faith. τ. ἐκ περιτ. Colossians 4:11 note.

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Cambridge Greek Testament Commentary

Galatians 2:12

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