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Bible chapter guide
Galatians 2
Fourteen years later Paul goes up to Jerusalem with Barnabas and Titus, and the pillars recognise his mission to the Gentiles. At Antioch he opposes Peter to his face for withdrawing from eating with Gentiles. 'I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me.'
Summary written for the Labs; read the chapter itself for the full text.
See it in the Labs
- Paul's RoadsTitus · Paul's RoadsOpen
- Paul's RoadsGalatians · Paul's RoadsOpen
- Paul's RoadsJerusalem: famine relief (Early years) · Paul's RoadsOpen
- Paul's RoadsThe Jerusalem council (1st journey) · Paul's RoadsOpen
People in this chapter
Also in this chapter
The letter: who wrote it, where and when
These questions are debated; the views are shown side by side with how sure each is, as in Paul's Roads.
- Plausible
Galatians written from Antioch, before the Jerusalem council
If the Jerusalem visit of Galatians 2 is the famine visit (Acts 11:30) and the letter does not mention the council's decision, it may be Paul's earliest letter, written from Antioch about AD 48–49 to the South Galatian churches.
- Plausible
Galatians written from Corinth, on the second journey
After revisiting the Galatian churches (Acts 16:6), Paul could have written from Corinth on hearing they were deserting Christ for a different good news (1:6).
- Plausible
Galatians written from Ephesus, on the third journey
The common North Galatian dating: after Paul's second visit (Acts 18:23; 'the first time', Galatians 4:13), and close to Romans in its themes.
- Plausible
Galatians written from Macedonia, on the third journey
Others place it later still, in Macedonia shortly before Romans, because the two letters argue so alike.
- Plausible
Where Galatians was sent and when it was written are both debated.
The answers hang together: a South Galatian destination allows an early date (even before the Jerusalem council), a North Galatian one requires a date after Acts 16:6. The lab shows each option with its basis.
How sure can we be?
- Textually stated
Titus never appears in Acts.
Titus is known only from Paul's letters: Galatians, 2 Corinthians, 2 Timothy and the letter to him. Why Luke leaves him out is unknown; one guess is that he was Luke's relative.
- Plausible
This may be the visit Paul describes in Galatians 2:1–10.
Paul lists only two visits to Jerusalem before writing Galatians. If Galatians was written before the council of Acts 15, the famine visit is his second, 'fourteen years after'.
- Plausible
The council met about AD 48/49.
It falls between the first journey and the second, which the Gallio inscription places around AD 50–52; Galatians 2:1 counts fourteen years to a Jerusalem visit.
- Plausible
Paul's conversion was about AD 33/34.
Counting back from the Jerusalem council (c. AD 48/49) using 'after three years' (Galatians 1:18) and 'fourteen years after' (2:1), and allowing that ancient counting included part-years, gives a date in the early 30s. The death of Aretas IV (c. AD 40) sets a…