Tool Beta
The Ancient World Behind the Text
Pick a passage anywhere in the New Testament. See the customs and ideas a first reader knew without being told.
Galatians 2:1-10, Titus, the pillars and the right hand of fellowship
Fourteen years later Paul goes up to Jerusalem with Barnabas and the uncircumcised Titus; Titus is not made to be circumcised, and the leaders reputed to be pillars give Paul the right hand of fellowship, asking only that he remember the poor.
Galatians 2:1-10, in every translation this tool compares.
Fourteen years later Paul went to Jerusalem with Barnabas and Titus, prompted by a revelation, and privately laid out his gospel before the leaders. Titus, a Gentile, was not made to be circumcised, despite pressure from people Paul calls false brothers. The leaders added nothing to Paul's message, and James, Peter and John, the men regarded as pillars, shook hands on a division of the work, asking only that Paul and Barnabas keep remembering the poor.
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/circumcision\/","n":"Circumcision and becoming a Jew","s":"Circumcision was the sign of God's covenant with Abraham and the mark of a Jewish man. A Gentile man who joined Israel was circumcised; the first great quarrel in the church was over whether Gentile believers had to be.","r":""}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/proselytes-and-god-fearers\/","n":"Converts and God-fearers","s":"Gentiles drawn to Israel's God stood at two distances. Converts took on the whole law, circumcision included, and became Jews. God-fearers worshiped Israel's God, gave to the synagogue and kept some customs, but did not convert.","r":""}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/honor-and-shame\/","n":"Honor before a crowd","s":"Public standing was the currency of the ancient Mediterranean. People competed for honor and dreaded being shamed in front of others.","r":""}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/collection-for-jerusalem\/","n":"The collection for Jerusalem","s":"Paul gathered money from his mostly Gentile churches for the poor believers in Jerusalem, much as Jews everywhere sent the temple tax to the holy city.","r":""}
Which visit this is, is debated. A majority, Keener among them, take 2:1-10 as the Jerusalem council of Acts 15, and the Zondervan dictionary agrees, explaining the differences as a private meeting beside Luke's public sessions; others match it to the famine visit of Acts 11:28-30, as the ESV Study Bible, Wright and Bird, and Carson, Moo and Morris do, the last finding it "much simpler to accept both accounts" as two visits. The dates move with it: Keener puts the conversion around AD 31, while Carson, Moo and Morris, counting years inclusively, allow 32 to 35, leaning to the later years. Many Jews believed non-idolatrous Gentiles would be saved, but "almost no one believed that they were adopted into the covenant on equal terms" until circumcised (Keener and his notes). Wright explains why circumcision became the test: a man was either circumcised or not. Some still think Paul did circumcise Titus, as he later did Timothy (Acts 16:3); Wright and the dictionary think he did not, the dictionary noting that Timothy's mother was Jewish while Titus, a Gentile, was the test case. Influential people were called pillars, and taking the right hand sealed an agreement (Keener and his notes).
- Craig S. Keener, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament, introduction to Galatians 2:1-10, and on Galatians 2:1, 2:3-5 and 2:9
- NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible, notes on Galatians 2:1-2, 2:3 and 2:9
- ESV Study Bible, chart, Paul's Visits to Jerusalem in Galatians and Acts
- N. T. Wright, Paul for Everyone: Galatians and Thessalonians, comment on Galatians 2:1-5
- N. T. Wright and Michael F. Bird, The New Testament in Its World, ch. 15, The Story of Paul's Life and Ministry
- D. A. Carson, Douglas J. Moo and Leon Morris, An Introduction to the New Testament, ch. 10, Galatians, Date
- D. A. Carson, Douglas J. Moo and Leon Morris, An Introduction to the New Testament, ch. 7, Paul, Paul's Missionary Career and Its Chronology
- J. D. Douglas and Merrill C. Tenney, Zondervan Illustrated Bible Dictionary, entries Paul, Titus and Timothy
