Section 2:1–10

The church leaders accepted Paul’s apostleship and his message

In this section, Paul explained to the Galatians one reason why they should hold firm to the gospel that he had taught them. He did this by telling them about the meeting that he had in Jerusalem with the apostles there. At this meeting, the apostles recognized Paul’s authority as an apostle. They also agreed that he preached the true gospel.

This meeting became necessary because of the message of some false teachers. These false teachers insisted that a person was not truly saved unless he also became circumcised and kept the laws of Moses. (See Acts 15:1–2 and Galatians 2:4.) At the meeting, the apostles agreed with Paul. They agreed that no one should force non-Jewish believers to be circumcised and obey the Law that God gave to Moses. This showed the Galatians that these teachers were wrong.

Some other possible headings for this section are:

Paul Was Accepted as an Apostle by the Leaders in Jerusalem (God’s Word)
-or-
The apostles accept Paul
-or-
Paul’s apostleship and message
-or-
The Jerusalem leaders recognized Paul’s apostleship and message

Paragraph 2:1–5

In this paragraph, Paul told about the meeting that he and Barnabas had with church leaders in Jerusalem. In this meeting, Paul wanted to see whether the leaders would accept the message that he was teaching to Gentiles. The fact that the leaders did not require Titus, a Greek, to be circumcised showed that they accepted Paul’s message. They accepted his message in spite of some opposition from false brothers.

2:1a

Fourteen years later: There are two ways to interpret the phrase Fourteen years later :

(1) It means fourteen years after Paul’s previous visit to Jerusalem to see Peter in 1:18.

(2) It means fourteen years from Paul’s conversion in 1:16.

If possible, you should translate as generally as in the Berean Standard Bible and the Greek. In other words, you should not specifically state from which event these fourteen years are counted. However, if you cannot leave it ambiguous, follow interpretation (1). Most scholars agree with interpretation (1).

Another way to translate this phrase is:

Then fourteen years after my visit to Jerusalem

I went up again to Jerusalem: The verb that the Berean Standard Bible translates as went up indicates that the city of Jerusalem was built on a hill. So anyone going to Jerusalem had to walk up or ascend the hill.

In some languages, it is important to say whether people go up or go “down” when they travel. In other languages, this will be unusual or may be confusing. If it is confusing in your language, you should simply say:

I went to Jerusalem again (God’s Word)

The same Greek verb occurs in 1:18b.

again: The word again indicates that this was another visit that Paul made to Jerusalem.

Some ways to translate this entire clause are:

I ascended to Jerusalem again
-or-
I went back to Jerusalem once again
-or-
I returned to Jerusalem

accompanied by Barnabas: The word Barnabas is the name of a man. Barnabas had accompanied Paul on his mission trip to Galatia. He went again with Paul on this trip to Jerusalem.

Some other ways to translate this phrase are:

this time with Barnabas (New Century Version)
-or-
taking Barnabas as a companion
-or-
Barnabas went with me

2:1b

I took Titus along also: The verb took…along implies that Paul and Barnabas invited Titus to go with them to Jerusalem.

Some other ways to translate this clause are:

and we took Titus with us (Phillips’ New Testament in Modern English)
-or-
I also took Titus with me. (New Century Version)

Titus: Titus was a Greek man who became a Christian as a result of Paul’s ministry. As a Greek, a non-Jew, he was not circumcised.

© 2016 by SIL International®
Made available under the terms of a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License (CC BY-SA) creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0.
All Scripture quotations in this publication, unless otherwise indicated, are from The Holy Bible, Berean Standard Bible.
BSB is produced in cooperation with Bible Hub, Discovery Bible, OpenBible.com, and the Berean Bible Translation Committee.