Paul vs Peter

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Revision as of 09:58, 29 August 2005 by Peter Kirby (talk | contribs) (→‎Con)
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Pro

Acts 15 is the Lucan account of the Council of Jerusalem. Galatians 2 is Paul's account. In the Lucan account, it is Peter who comes out in defense of not forcing the Gentiles to abide by Jewish purity laws ... yet in Galatians, Paul takes the lead in this role. Indeed, the Galatians account even has Paul chivying Peter into accepting this point of view.

Now, this fits into a larger chronology: according to Acts 10, Peter had the vision of the sheet coming down from heaven, filled with all kinds of animals--the vision that taught him that Jewish Christians were not supposed to separate themselves from Gentile Christians. According to Acts 11, Peter then defended his actions to the Jerusalem elders. Then acording to Acts 15, Peter cites that the Gentiles should not be placed under the Law. So then after all this, here we have Galatians 2 stating that Peter withdrew himself from the Gentile Christians?

Somebody's doing some "spinning." Of the possible suspects that we have, there is either the Lucan author--who did not witness the events in Jerusalem, and who has a vested interest in presenting the Church as a unified and coherent body; or Paul--who was a witness (indeed, he was one of the participants), and who is not afraid to show the Church divided, because he's dealing with a divided church in Galatia.

--JustinEiler 20:08, 28 Aug 2005 (CDT)

Con

According to one school of thought, the letter of Galatians was written before the Council of Jerusalem recorded in Acts 15, and the events of Galatians 2:1-10 correspond to Acts 11:30.

Neutral

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