Galatians

Ver 11. But when Peter came to Antioch, I resisted him to his face, because he stood condemned.

The Alexandrian manuscript, along with other versions like the Vulgate Latin, Syriac, and Ethiopic translations, replace "Peter" with "Cephas." Some ancient writers suggest that this "Cephas" might not be the Apostle Peter, who was named Cephas by Christ, but instead one of the seventy disciples. Clement, for instance, mentions that the Cephas whom Paul speaks of, the one who confronted him face to face in Antioch, was a disciple from the seventy who shared the name with the Apostle Peter. Jerome also notes that there were those who believed that the Cephas mentioned by Paul, who confronted him face to face, might not be the Apostle Peter but a disciple from the seventy with the same name. However, these opinions lack any substantial basis. The context of the discourse and the flow of the narrative make it abundantly clear that the same Cephas, or Peter, one of the twelve disciples referred to as pillars alongside James and John (Galatians 2:9), is being referred to here.

However, the Papists greedily catch at this, to secure the infallibility of the bishops of Rome, who pretend to be the successors of Peter, lest, should the apostle appear blameworthy, and to be reproved and opposed, they could not, with any grace, assume a superior character to his: but that Peter the Apostle is here designed is so manifest, that some of their best writers are obliged to own it, and give up the other as a mere conceit. When Peter came to Antioch is not certain; some have thought it was before the council at Jerusalem concerning the necessity of circumcision to salvation, because it is thought that after the decree of that council Peter would never have behaved in such a manner as there related; though it should be observed, that that decree did not concern the Jews, and their freedom from the observance of the law, only the Gentiles; so that Peter and other Jews might, as it is certain they did, retain the rites and ceremonies of the law of Moses; and according to the series of things, and the order of the account, it seems to be after that council, when Paul and Barnabas returned to Antioch, and with others continued there for some time, during which time Peter came (Acts 15:30) and the following contention happened.

Marius Victorinus comments, "Not only was my gospel approved, says Paul, on the part of the apostles who were in Jerusalem; not only was I charged to be mindful of the poor... but also I did not keep quiet about Peter's sin, he says... And if there were some sin in me, the congregation would in an equal manner be reprimanding me just as they did him." (Commentary on Galatians, translated by Stephen Cooper).

Ver 12. For before some people came from James, he ate with the Gentiles. But when they came, he drew back and separated himself, fearing those who were of the circumcision.

David DeSilva comments, "This is the 'truth of the gospel' that Peter will himself shortly violate as he draws back from this practice to honor, once again, the lines of purity that place gentiles on the outside rather than honoring the new lines of purity drawn by the Holy Spirit poured out on gentile Christian alongside Jewish Christians." (The Letter to the Galatians, NICNT: Eerdmans, 2018).

Ver 13. And the rest of the Jews joined him in his hypocrisy, so that even Barnabas was carried away with their hypocrisy.

Siricius writes, "O miserable boldness, O craft of a desperate mind! Already was this unknown language of heresy spreading through the Church like a cancer, seeking to fill the breast, and plunge the whole man in destruction: and unless the Lord of Sabaoth had broken through the snare which they had laid, the public exhibition of so much evil and hypocrisy would have led to ruin the hearts of many simple ones, for the human mind is easily drawn aside towards evil, choosing rather to fly through open space, than to travel with pain along the narrow way...

And indeed from the times of the Apostles up to now we have heard and known by experience of many malignant heresies, but the sacred truth of the Church has never been assailed by the barking of such dogs as those who have now suddenly broken in upon us, with the doctrines of unbelief fully sprouted, enemies of the faith; who by the fruit of their works have betrayed whose disciples they are. For while other heretics misunderstanding single points have proposed to bear away and abstract from the Divine system of teaching, these men, not having on a wedding garment, wound the Catholics, perverting, as I have said, the continuity of the New and Old Testament, and interpreting it in a diabolical spirit, have by their alluring and false arguments already begun to ruin some Christians, and to make them associates of their madness, not keeping within themselves the poison of their iniquity: but some of their chosen ones have betrayed their blasphemies by writing a rash discourse, which the rage of a desperate mind has led them openly to publish, favouring, as it does, the cause of the Heathens." (Siricius to the Church of Milan, 2 and 4).

Ver 14. But when I saw that they didn’t walk uprightly according to the truth of the Good News, I said to Peter before them all, “If you, being a Jew, live as the Gentiles do, and not as the Jews do, why do you compel the Gentiles to live as the Jews do?

Jerome comments, "By specifying 'the traditions of my forefathers' rather than 'the commandments of the Lord,' he indicates that he was a Pharisee of Pharisees and that his zeal for God was not according to understanding. Down to the present day, those who interpret Scripture according to a Jewish mentality persecute the church of Christ and devastate it not out of zeal for the Law of God but because they have been corrupted by the traditions of men." (Commentary on Galatians).

Richard Longnecker comments, "In attempting to be considerate of the Jerusalem church in its existence under zealot-nationalistic pressures, and so to preserve the integrity of the Jewish Christian mission, Cephas had acutally, even though inadvertently, destroyed the integrity of Gentile Christians." (Galatians, WEB: Zondervan, vol 41, 1990).