Then after fourteen years I went up again to Jerusalem with Barnabas, and took Titus with me also.
Read Chapter 2
Ambrosiaster
AD 400
His renown had been growing for a long time among all the Jews, though he had not been seen face to face … but on account of the law he had acquired a bad reputation among the Jews, as though his preaching was out of harmony with the preaching of the other apostles. Many were having doubts on account of this, which were sufficient to make the Gentiles anxious, in case they had been trained in something other than that which was preached by the apostles who had been with the Lord. For on this precise occasion the Galatians were undermined by Jews who were saying that Paul taught something other than Peter taught. This is the reason for his going up to Jerusalem, at the bidding of the Lord’s revelation, disclosing to them the implications of his preaching, with Barnabas and Titus as witnesses of his preaching, one from the Jews and one from the Gentiles, so that if any took offense at him it might be assuaged by their testimony. .
Then fourteen years after I went up again to Jerusalem. Are these years to be reckoned from the date of Paul"s conversion, or from the end of the three years spent in Arabia and Damascus? S. Jerome takes the latter, and so gets a date of seventeen years after the conversion, or A.D54 , the twelfth of the Emperor Claudius, for this journey of S. Paul. But since Claudius ceased to reign in the next year, and was succeeded by Nero, in whose second year Paul was sent bound to Rome (Acts xxvii.), it would follow that all the history of Paul that is contained in Acts 15-27—I shall show directly that the journey alluded to here and that described in Acts 15 are the same—must be compressed into two years, which, considering the number and importance of the events recorded, seems very improbable. Moreover, it is clear, from Acts 18:11, that Paul, after what took place at Jerusalem, spent a year and a half at Corinth and then three years at Ephesus ( Acts 20:31). Accordingly, the opinion of Bar...
SYNOPSIS OF THE CHAPTER
i. Paul declares that he had compared his Gospel with Peter, James , and John , and that it had been approved of them so completely that there was nothing to be added to it or subtracted from it.
ii. He declares (ver7) that it had been mutually agreed between them that they should preach to the Jews and he to the Gentiles.
iii. He describes (ver11) how he had rebuked Peter openly for heedlessly assuming the appearance of a Judaiser, and so tempting the Gentiles into a similar error.
iv. He proves (ver16) that we are justified not by the works of the law but by the faith of Christ, and that for three reasons: (a) because (ver17) otherwise in abolishing the law Christ would be the minister of sin; because (b) the law itself proclaims its own abrogation in Christ, because (Ver21) otherwise Christ would have died in vain.
These men he had as witnesses, through whom he proved that his gospel was given to him through revelation, seeing that he said “Barnabas went up with me,” and he also took Titus, whose faith and gospel were approved by everyone. .
Then fourteen years after. That is, after my former going to Jerusalem, which was seventeen years after my conversion, an. 51. See Tillemont. (Witham) The cause of St. Paul's second journey to Jerusalem was as follows. Some brethren coming from Judea to Antioch, there maintained the necessity of circumcision and the other Mosaic rites, asserting that without them salvation could not be obtained. St. Paul, upon his return to Antioch, strongly defended, in conjunction with Barnabas, the liberty of the gospel. As the contest grew warm, it was resolved to depute Paul and Barnabas to consult the other apostles and ancients of Jerusalem. By the approbation of the living and speaking tribunal, which all are commanded to hear, the Scriptures are not made true, altered or amended; they merely are declared to be the infallible word of God, a point only to be learned by authority; hence that memorable saying of St. Augustine: "I would not believe the gospel unless the authority of the Church move...
