And when James, Cephas, and John, who seemed to be pillars, perceived the grace that was given unto me, they gave to me and Barnabas the right hand of fellowship; that we should go unto the Gentiles, and they unto the circumcision.
All Commentaries on Galatians 2:9 Go To Galatians 2
John Chrysostom
AD 407
That we should go unto the Gentiles and they unto the Circumcision.
Observe that here also he means by the Circumcision, not the rite, but the Jews; whenever he speaks of the rite, and wishes to contrast it, he adds the word uncircumcision; as when he says, For circumcision indeed profits, if you be a doer of the law; but if you be a transgressor of the law, your circumcision has become uncircumcision. Romans 2:25 And again, Neither circumcision avails any thing, nor uncircumcision. But when it is to the Jews and not to the deed that he gives this name, and wishes to signify the nation, he opposes to it not uncircumcision in its literal sense, but the Gentiles. For the Jews are the contradistinction to the Gentiles, the Circumcision to the Uncircumcision. Thus when he says above, For He that wrought for Peter into the Apostleship of the Circumcision, wrought for me also unto the Gentiles; and again, We unto the Gentiles and they unto the Circumcision, he means not the rite itself, but the Jewish nation, thus distinguishing them from the Gentiles.
