HOLY BIBLE: Galatians 2 (original) (raw)

1 Ἔπειτα διὰ δεκατεσσάρων ἐτῶν πάλιν ἀνέβην εἰς Ἱεροσόλυμα μετὰ Βαρναβᾶ, συμπαραλαβὼν καὶ Τίτον: 2 ἀνέβην δὲ κατὰ ἀποκάλυψιν: καὶ ἀνεθέμην αὐτοῖς τὸ εὐαγγέλιον ὃ κηρύσσω ἐν τοῖς ἔθνεσιν, κατ' ἰδίαν δὲ τοῖς δοκοῦσιν, μή 3 ἀλλ' οὐδὲ Τίτος ὁ σὺν ἐμοί, Ἕλλην ὤν, ἠναγκάσθη περιτμηθῆναι: 4 διὰ δὲ τοὺς παρεισάκτους ψευδαδέλφους, οἵτινες παρεισῆλθον κατασκοπῆσαι τὴν ἐλευθερίαν ἡμῶν ἣν ἔχομεν ἐν Χριστῷ Ἰησοῦ, ἵνα ἡμᾶς καταδουλώσουσιν: 5 οἷς οὐδὲ πρὸς ὥραν εἴξαμεν τῇ ὑποταγῇ, ἵνα ἡ ἀλήθεια τοῦ εὐαγγελίου διαμείνῃ πρὸς ὑμᾶς. 6 ἀπὸ δὲ τῶν δοκούντων εἶναί τι, ὁποῖοί ποτε ἦσαν οὐδέν μοι διαφέρει: πρόσωπον ὁ θεὸς ἀνθρώπου οὐ λαμβάνει ἐμοὶ γὰρ οἱ δοκοῦντες οὐδὲν προσανέθεντο, 7 ἀλλὰ τοὐναντίον ἰδόντες ὅτι πεπίστευμαι τὸ εὐαγγέλιον τῆς ἀκροβυστίας καθὼς Πέτρος τῆς περιτομῆς, 8 ὁ γὰρ ἐνεργήσας Πέτρῳ εἰς ἀποστολὴν τῆς περιτομῆς ἐνήργησεν καὶ ἐμοὶ εἰς τὰ ἔθνη, 9 καὶ γνόντες τὴν χάριν τὴν δοθεῖσάν μοι, Ἰάκωβος καὶ Κηφᾶς καὶ Ἰωάννης, οἱ δοκοῦντες στῦλοι εἶναι, δεξιὰς ἔδωκαν ἐμοὶ καὶ Βαρναβᾷ κοινωνίας, ἵνα ἡμεῖς εἰς τὰ ἔθνη, αὐτοὶ δὲ εἰς τὴν περιτομήν: 10 μόνον τῶν πτωχῶν ἵνα μνημονεύωμεν, ὃ καὶ ἐσπούδασα αὐτὸ τοῦτο ποιῆσαι.

1 Then, after an interval of fourteen years, once again I went up to Jerusalem with Barnabas; and Titus also accompanied me.[1] 2 I went up in obedience to a revelation, and there I communicated to them (only in private, to men of repute) the gospel I always preach among the Gentiles; was it possible that the course I had taken and was taking was useless? 3 And it is not even true to say that they insisted on my companion Titus, who was a Greek, being circumcised; 4 we were only thinking of those false brethren who had insinuated themselves into our company so as to spy on the liberty which we enjoy in Christ Jesus, meaning to make slaves of us. 5 To these we did not give ground for a moment by way of obedience; we were resolved that the true principles of the gospel should remain undisturbed in your possession.[2] 6 But as for what I owe to those who were of some repute—it matters little to me who or what they were, God makes no distinction between man and man—these men of repute, I say, had nothing to communicate to me.[3] 7 On the contrary, those who were reputed to be the main support of the Church, James and Cephas and John, saw plainly that I was commissioned to preach to the uncircumcised, as Peter was to the circumcised; 8 he whose power had enabled Peter to become the apostle of the circumcised, had enabled me to become the apostle of the Gentiles. 9 And so, recognizing the grace God had given me, they joined their right hands in fellowship with Barnabas and myself; the Gentiles were to be our province, the circumcised theirs. 10 Only we were to remember the poor; which was the very thing I had set myself to do.[4]

1 Deinde post annos quatuordecim, iterum ascendi Jerosolymam cum Barnaba, assumpto et Tito. 2 Ascendi autem secundum revelationem: et contuli cum illis Evangelium, quod prædico in gentibus, seorsum autem iis qui videbantur aliquid esse: ne forte in vacuum currerem, aut cucurrissem. 3 Sed neque Titus, qui mecum erat, cum esset gentilis, compulsus est circumcidi: 4 sed propter subintroductos falsos fratres, qui subintroierunt explorare libertatem nostram, quam habemus in Christo Jesu, ut nos in servitutem redigerent. 5 Quibus neque ad horam cessimus subjectione, ut veritas Evangelii permaneat apud vos: 6 ab iis autem, qui videbantur esse aliquid (quales aliquando fuerint, nihil mea interest: Deus personam hominis non accipit): mihi enim qui videbantur esse aliquid, nihil contulerunt. 7 Sed e contra cum vidissent quod creditum est mihi Evangelium præputii, sicut et Petro circumcisionis 8 (qui enim operatus est Petro in apostolatum circumcisionis, operatus est et mihi inter gentes): 9 et cum cognovissent gratiam, quæ data est mihi, Jacobus, et Cephas, et Joannes, qui videbantur columnæ esse, dextras dederunt mihi, et Barnabæ societatis: ut nos in gentes, ipsi autem in circumcisionem: 10 tantum ut pauperum memores essemus, quod etiam sollicitus fui hoc ipsum facere.

11 ὅτε δὲ ἦλθεν Κηφᾶς εἰς Ἀντιόχειαν, κατὰ πρόσωπον αὐτῷ ἀντέστην, ὅτι κατεγνωσμένος ἦν. 12 πρὸ τοῦ γὰρ ἐλθεῖν τινας ἀπὸ Ἰακώβου μετὰ τῶν ἐθνῶν συνήσθιεν: ὅτε δὲ ἦλθον, ὑπέστελλεν καὶ ἀφώριζεν ἑαυτόν, φοβούμενος τοὺς ἐκ περιτομῆς. 13 καὶ συνυπεκρίθησαν αὐτῷ καὶ οἱ λοιποὶ Ἰουδαῖοι, ὥστε καὶ Βαρναβᾶς συναπήχθη αὐτῶν τῇ ὑποκρίσει. 14 ἀλλ' ὅτε εἶδον ὅτι οὐκ ὀρθοποδοῦσιν πρὸς τὴν ἀλήθειαν τοῦ εὐαγγελίου, εἶπον τῷ Κηφᾷ ἔμπροσθεν πάντων, εἰ σὺ Ἰουδαῖος ὑπάρχων ἐθνικῶς καὶ οὐχὶ Ἰουδαϊκῶς ζῇς, πῶς τὰ ἔθνη ἀναγκάζεις ἰουδαΐζειν; 15 ἡμεῖς φύσει Ἰουδαῖοι καὶ οὐκ ἐξ ἐθνῶν ἁμαρτωλοί, 16 εἰδότες δὲ ὅτι οὐ δικαιοῦται ἄνθρωπος ἐξ ἔργων νόμου ἐὰν μὴ διὰ πίστεως Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ καὶ ἡμεῖς εἰς Χριστὸν Ἰησοῦν ἐπιστεύσαμεν, ἵνα δικαιωθῶμεν ἐκ πίστεως Χριστοῦ καὶ οὐκ ἐξ ἔργων νόμου, ὅτι ἐξ ἔργων νόμου οὐ δικαιωθήσεται πᾶσα σάρξ.

11 Afterwards, when Cephas came to Antioch, I opposed him openly; he stood self-condemned. 12 He had been eating with the Gentiles, until we were visited by certain delegates from James; but when these came, he began to draw back and hold himself aloof, overawed by the supporters of circumcision. 13 The rest of the Jews were no less false to their principles; Barnabas himself was carried away by their insincerity. 14 So, when I found that they were not following the true path of the gospel, I said to Cephas in front of them all, Since thou, who art a born Jew, dost follow the Gentile, not the Jewish way of life, by what right dost thou bind the Gentiles to live like Jews? 15 We are Jews by right of nature, we do not come from the guilty stock of the Gentiles; 16 yet we found out that it is through faith in Jesus Christ, not by obeying the law, that a man is justified. We, like anyone else, had to learn to believe in Jesus Christ, so that we might be justified by faith in Christ, not by observance of the law. Observance of the law cannot win acceptance for a single human creature.[5]

11 Cum autem venisset Cephas Antiochiam, in faciem ei restiti, quia reprehensibilis erat. 12 Prius enim quam venirent quidam a Jacobo, cum gentibus edebat: cum autem venissent, subtrahebat, et segregabat se, timens eos qui ex circumcisione erant. 13 Et simulationi ejus consenserunt ceteri Judæi, ita ut et Barnabas duceretur ab eis in illam simulationem. 14 Sed cum vidissem quod non recte ambularent ad veritatem Evangelii, dixi Cephæ coram omnibus: Si tu, cum Judæus sis, gentiliter vivis, et non judaice: quomodo gentes cogis judaizare? 15 Nos natura Judæi, et non ex gentibus peccatores. 16 Scientes autem quod non justificatur homo ex operibus legis, nisi per fidem Jesu Christi: et nos in Christo Jesu credimus, ut justificemur ex fide Christi, et non ex operibus legis: propter quod ex operibus legis non justificabitur omnis caro.

[1] As before, the fourteen years may be dated either from St Paul’s conversion, or from his return to Damascus. Some commentators, accordingly, would identify this visit with that mentioned in Ac. 11.30; others identify it with that of Ac. 15, and suppose that the Apostle left the earlier visit unrecorded, through forgetfulness or some other cause.

[2] vv. 3-5: The simplest explanation of these verses is that St Paul did have Titus circumcised, but not because anybody insisted on it, only so as to avoid giving any scandal to the Judaizing brethren. (Cf. Ac. 16.3, where the phrase used is exactly the same.) It was not (he adds in verse 5) by way of obedience to any demands from them, as the Galatians had perhaps been told. Other commentators reject this idea as inconsistent with St Paul’s principles, and explain that St Paul forgot to finish the sentence he began in verse 4.

[3] ‘Those who were of some repute’, perhaps including the apostles, but evidently others too, who are left unnamed.

[4] Cf. Ac. 11.30, if that is the occasion referred to.

[5] The end of this verse refers to Ps. 142.2.

[6] That is, when I deny the doctrine of being justified through the law, but assert instead that of being justified by faith. The more usual interpretation, which makes the sentence a statement, not a question, is explained as meaning: ‘It is not by breaking the law that a man becomes a transgressor, but by going back, like Peter, to the old observances he has abandoned’.

Knox Translation Copyright © 2013 Westminster Diocese
Nihil Obstat. Father Anton Cowan, Censor.
Imprimatur. +Most Rev. Vincent Nichols, Archbishop of Westminster. 8th January 2012.
Re-typeset and published in 2012 by Baronius Press Ltd