Only they would that we should remember the poor; the same which I also was eager to do.
All Commentaries on Galatians 2:10 Go To Galatians 2
John Chrysostom
AD 407
This is his meaning: In our preaching we divided the world between us, I took the Gentiles and they the Jews, according to the Divine decree; but to the sustenance of the poor among the Jews I also contributed my share, which, had there been any dissension between us, they would not have accepted. Next, who were these poor persons? Many of the believing Jews in Palestine had been deprived of all their goods, and scattered over the world, as he mentions in the Epistle to the Hebrews , For you took joyfully the spoiling of your possessions; and in writing to the Thessalonians, 1 Thessalonians 2:14 he extols their fortitude, You became imitators of the Churches of God which are in Judæa,...for you also suffered the same thing of your own countrymen, even as they did of the Jews. And he shows throughout that those Greeks who believed were not under persecution from the rest, such as the believing Jews were suffering from their own kindred, for there is no nation of a temper so cruel. Wherefore he exercises much zeal, as appears in the Epistles to the Romans Romans 15:25-27 and Corinthians 1 Corinthians 16:1-3 that these persons should meet with much attention; and Paul not only collects money for them, but himself conveys it, as he says, But now I go unto Jerusalem ministering unto the saints, Romans 15:25 for they were without the necessaries of life. And he here shows that in this instance having resolved to assist them, he had undertaken and would not abandon it.
Having by these means declared the unanimity and harmony between the Apostles and himself, he is obliged to proceed to mention his debate with Peter at Antioch.
