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  • From: Harold Holmyard <hholmyard AT ont.com>
  • To: Corpus-Paul <corpus-paul AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [Corpus-Paul] The Antioch Incident
  • Date: Thu, 30 Mar 2006 11:18:10 -0600

Dear Ian,

Yes, as you say, it is commonly suggested that Paul felt the requirement
that common meals be kosher would put undue pressure on Gentiles to keep
Torah. We might go further and say that it would amount to a requirement
that they keep food laws, at least in community contexts. This may be all
there was to Paul's statement that Peter was requiring Gentiles to
"Judaize." In my reply to Mark, though, I wanted to acknowledge that many
commentators still wonder whether this explanation is sufficient. If I am
going to push what I think is required by the expression "living like a
Gentile" I don't want to let myself off the hook too easily in trying to
explain what "living like a Jew" means. At the moment I'm content to allow
for some uncertainty on this point.


HH: But note that Paul rebukes Peter for separating himself from Gentiles' at their meals, not only as hypocritcal behavior, since he previously had no problem with such shared meals, but because it was contrary to the gospel:

Gal. 2:14 When I saw that they were not acting in line with the truth of the gospel, . . . .

HH: Paul speaks of rebuilding what was torn down:

Gal. 2:18 If I rebuild what I destroyed, I prove that I am a lawbreaker.

HH: Peter, by returning to Jewish standards about food, was putting himself back under the law's food obligations, and Paul said it was wrong to do so. He does not say that putting oneself under the law is a neutral matter, or that one who is Jewish should do it as an identity marker. He said that one who realized, as Peter had, that we are free of the law, should not put himself back under it:

Gal. 2:15-16 “We who are Jews by birth and not ‘Gentile sinners’ know that a man is not justified by observing the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ. So we, too, have put our faith in Christ Jesus that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by observing the law, because by observing the law no one will be justified.

HH: Paul viewed Peter's conformity to a presumed standard for Jews as implying he sought justification that way. One had to do that to be "right." But there is no rightness to be gained by observing the standards of the law where they are not eternal morality written on the human heart and confirmed by the Spirit's guidance under new covenant standards.

HH: So this episode strongly argues against the rightness of Jewish Christians who suppose there is any special obligation for them to live according to Mosaic law, or even any special appropriateness in them doing so. Now, if they do so for gospel reasons, to bring unsaved Jews to Christ, that is another matter:

1Cor. 9:20 To the Jews I became like a Jew, to win the Jews. To those under the law I became like one under the law (though I myself am not under the law), so as to win those under the law.

Yours,
Harold Holmyard






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