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"I have confidence in you through the
"I rejoice therefore that I have
Lord that ye will be none otherwise
confidence in you in all things" (7: 16)
minded" (5: 10).
"From henceforth let no man trouble
"Forty stripes save one, five times:
me, for I bear in my body the marks of
thrice beaten with rods: once stoned:
the Lord Jesus" (6: 17).
thrice shipwrecked . . ." (11: 24, 25).
"Behold, before God I lie not" (1: 20).
"The God and Father of our Lord Jesus
Christ, which is blessed for evermore,
knoweth that I lie not" (11: 31).
"If ye bite and devour one another, take
"If a man devour you"; "Backbitings,
heed that ye be not consumed one of
whisperings, swellings, tumults" (11: 20;
another" (5: 15).
12: 20).
"As we said before, so say I now again,
"I told you before, and foretell you, as if
if any man preach . . ." (1: 9).
I were present the second time" (13: 2).
"Having begun in the Spirit, are ye now
"That as he had begun, so he would
made perfect by the flesh" (3: 3).
also perfect in you the same grace also"
(8: 6).
"For in Christ Jesus, neither
"Therefore if any man be in Christ, he
circumcision availeth anything, nor
is a new creature" (5: 17).
uncircumcision, but a new creature"
(6: 15).
The words "with Barnabas" of Gal. 2: 1 have a bearing upon the date of this visit to
Jerusalem. It was evidently necessary for the apostle to explain Titus "a Greek", and to
explain Peter, James and John as "pillars" but Barnabas needs no explanation. Barnabas
had been "separated" together with Paul to preach the gospel to the Galatians (Acts 13:,
14:) and is evidently included in the plural pronoun "we", when referring to the
preaching of the gospel (Gal. 1: 8). At the close of Acts 15: Barnabas parts company
with Paul and we have no record that he ever accompanied Paul on a missionary journey
again. It seems certain therefore that the conference at Jerusalem described in Acts 15:
could not be the one referred to in Gal. 2:, but rather the contention that led up to the
conference, and to the writing of the epistle. The "decrees" formulated at the Council are
never mentioned in the epistle. This omission is important. He would have been obliged
in all honesty to have referred to them had they already been written (see Acts 15: 25, 26;
16: 4, 5), and to have quoted them would have silenced the Judaizers in Galatia and
made the epistle to the Galatians as we now have it, unnecessary. We can have no doubt
but that the apostle used the strongest arguments that were at the time available.
Altogether there are five recorded visits of the apostle to Jerusalem, the one before us in
Gal. 2: 1 being the second. The visits are as follows:
PAUL'S VISITS TO JERUSALEM.
FIRST VISIT
Acts 9: 26-30
Compare "Cęsarea and "Tarsus"
(3 years)
Gal. 1: 17-21
with "Syria and Cilicia".
SECOND VISIT
Acts 11: 29, 30
Before the first missionary journey
(14 years)
(see also 12: 25),
to Galatia.
Gal. 2: 1
THIRD VISIT
Acts 15: 2-4
After the first missionary journey
to Galatia.
FOURTH VISIT
Acts 18: 21, 22
To keep the Feast.
FIFTH VISIT
Acts 21: 15 - 23: 30
Taken prisoner.