Galatians 1:18Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

At present men undertake journeys for profit, but the blessed Paul went not to learn anything, nor to correct some fault of his own. He went solely to see Peter and honor him by his presence. "To visit Peter," he says.

He did not say "to see Peter," but "to visit," istorēsai, that is, to become acquainted with him, as people usually say when they examine great and renowned cities. Thus he considered even the mere sight of this man worthy of special effort.

His deeds clearly show the same. Indeed, when he came to Jerusalem after converting many from the nations and accomplishing such things as none of the other apostles had accomplished, he first came to James with great humility, as to an elder and one honored with greater honor.

This was after he had converted Pamphylia, Lycaonia, the people of Cilicia, and all who lived in that part of the earth, and had brought them to Christ. Then he listened to James's advice, though it was contrary to what he himself now says.

"You see, brother," James said, "how many thousands of Jews have believed. But shave your head and purify yourself" (Acts 21:20-24). And he shaved himself and performed all the Jewish customs.

Where there was no harm to the Gospel, he was more yielding than all. But where he saw that harm would come to some from yielding, he did not make use of this abundance of humility. For then it would no longer have meant being humble, but destroying and corrupting those being taught.

"And I remained with him fifteen days." The journey undertaken for Peter was proof of Paul's great respect for him. His staying so many days showed their friendly disposition and sincere mutual love.

Then, after three years, he went to Jerusalem to see Peter. Of course, this was not in order to look at his eyes, cheeks, or expression, or to see whether he was thin or stout, whether he had an aquiline or straight nose, whether his forehead was covered with hair or whether he was bald, as Clement reports in his Periods.

I do not admit that, for apostolic seriousness, it was an important matter after so long a preparation of three years to desire acquaintance with some merely human aspect of Peter. Rather, Paul contemplated him with those eyes by which we now see him in his epistles.

With the same eyes he contemplated Cephas by which Paul himself is now contemplated by certain prudent men. But if this does not seem so to anyone, let him connect all this with the meaning stated above: that the apostles added nothing to him.

For even if he received a command to go to Jerusalem, he went to see the Apostle, not to be instructed by him. He himself had the same author, auctorem, of preaching, but he went to render honor to the first apostle.

"And I remained with him fifteen days." He did not need lengthy instruction, since he had prepared for his meeting with Peter over such a long time. Although to some it seems superfluous to pay attention to the reckoning of numbers in Scripture, I think it is useful to note that the fifteen days during which Paul was with Peter signify complete knowledge, perfected teaching.

Indeed, in the Psalter there are fifteen verses and fifteen steps by which one approaches God for singing, and the righteous man ascends in order to dwell in the habitations of God. Likewise, Hezekiah is counted worthy to receive a sign by means of the steps, when fifteen years were given to him for life (Is 38). The feasts of God also began from the fifteenth day.

Furthermore, since we follow a twofold understanding, when he indicates fifteen days, he does this to show that the time was not great in which he could have learned anything from Peter. Thus everything returns to the same meaning with which he began: he was taught not by man, but by God.

But they could have feared Saul even three years after the persecutions, if they had not seen him and knew very little about his conversion. Most interpreters, in considering the events of the Apostle Paul's life, follow the order indicated by him himself. That is, they hold that his first visit to Jerusalem was three years after his conversion.

"To visit Peter." "He did not say, 'to see,' idein, Peter, but 'to visit,' istorēsai, Peter, as people usually say when they examine great and renowned cities. Thus he considered even the mere sight of this man worthy of special effort" (Chrysostom).

"And I remained with him fifteen days." The Apostle specifies even the length of his stay in Peter's company, in order to show the Galatians more clearly that in such a short time he could not have learned everything necessary for preaching.

This would be true even if he had wished in this matter to resort to the mediation of the older apostles. On the other hand, it was not a fleeting meeting that gave the apostles no possibility of becoming more closely acquainted with the content of Paul's preaching. In fifteen days they could well learn what he taught.

"Paul began his preaching five years after the death of the Savior on the Cross." But after how many years following His death and His rising could Christ no longer appear to men?

On the contrary, He can appear always, since He said, "I will love the one who is loved by My Father, and I will manifest Myself to him" (Jn 14:21). And above, "You will see Me, because I live, and you will live" (v. 19).

"Saul, the cruel persecutor of the first disciples of Jesus." This is precisely what is wondrous, and precisely what requires the miraculous appearance of Christ, which alone could transform Saul from a cruel persecutor into an apostle.

"He renamed himself Paul and began his preaching with the assertion that he had been personally authorized for this by Jesus in a revelation and vision on the road to Damascus."

As though Paul preached more, and above all, about himself, and not about Jesus, "that He is the Son of God" (Acts 9:20). That he was Christ's "chosen vessel" people first learned not from him, but from Christ Himself, in the manifestation that came to Ananias (v. 15).

"He did not know the spiritual essence of the teaching from the immediate disciples of Christ." But he knew it through the revelations given to him.

"The beginning of Paul's preaching corresponds to the year 38 after the Nativity of Christ, and only in the year 41 did he come to see the Apostle Peter."

We know this from the Apostle Paul himself (Gal 1:18). But it confirms only that he did not receive the Gospel from man and was not taught it by man, but through the revelation of Jesus Christ.

"Fourteen years after this first visit, Paul once more arrived in Jerusalem, but now in order to impose his teaching on the apostles."

This was the teaching that the ceremonial Law of Moses was not obligatory for Christians from the nations. Does Tolstoy then think that it would have been more consistent with the spiritual essence of Christianity to preach the opposite?

Thus Tolstoy boldly denies the divinely revealed dignity of the preaching of the Apostle Paul. But the Apostle, who gave his very life for the Word of God, assures us of it with an oath, saying, "What I write to you, behold, before God, I do not lie" (Gal 1:20). Whom, then, should we believe?

"He says this not to humble the apostles, and not to praise himself, but everywhere guarding the security of the Gospel and wishing to show the importance and dignity of his preaching. And if he had needed to consult, the One who revealed to him the word of preaching would have commanded him to do this also."

Nevertheless, after three years had passed, Paul did visit the apostles in Jerusalem. "This journey, undertaken for Peter, proves Paul's great respect for him," says St. John Chrysostom. "And his staying with him for so many days, fifteen in number, proves their friendly disposition and sincere mutual love."

Concerning the Apostle James, Chrysostom says: "Notice with what honor he named him also. He could have said, 'the son of Clopas,' as the Evangelist said. But he did not call him this. How then? 'The brother of the Lord,' although in fact he was not the Lord's brother according to the flesh, but was considered such, as the son of Joseph or of the sister of the Theotokos. He shows in many other places also that he was disposed toward all the apostles with all the sincerity fitting to him."

To this blessed Jerome adds: "That St. Paul saw none of the apostles except these was not because he did not wish to see them, but because they had gone out to preach the Gospel."

In the book of the Acts of the Holy Apostles, where Paul's conversion is recounted in detail, nothing is said about his journey to Arabia. But it says that "many days had passed" (Acts 9:23) before the Apostle Paul came to Jerusalem after his conversion.

During this considerable time he could have visited Arabia, both for preaching, which was easier among those who did not know him, and to withdraw from unfavorable reports caused by his sudden conversion. Finally, he could do so in order to live through more calmly the great change that had taken place in him.

Therefore he says that he went there not to learn, but to “visit Peter,” to see his face and become personally acquainted with him. The Greek ἱστορῆσαι is used of travelers' observations. Consequently, he went in order to learn in practice what sort of man Peter was, about whom it was known everywhere that he was the first Apostle. “Not in order to learn from him, because he himself had the same teacher of the Gospel, but in order to honor the first Apostle” (blessed Jerome). “Who could be more humble-minded than such a man?” writes Chrysostom. “After such great and numerous struggles, he had no need of Peter or of his voice, but was equal in honor to him, and I shall say nothing more now. Yet he comes to him as to one greater and older, and gives as the reason for his journey only this, to see Peter. Do you see how he gives the other Apostles their due honor? He not only does not consider himself better than all, but does not even place himself on their level. The journey he undertook shows this. For just as many of our brethren now go to holy men, so Paul went then to Peter with the same disposition, or rather with still greater humility. Now people travel for benefit. But this blessed man traveled not to learn anything, nor to correct any fault of his own, but only to see Peter and honor him by his presence. He said ‘to visit,’ ἱστορῆσαι, Peter. He did not say ‘to see,’ ἰδεῖν, Peter, but ‘to visit’ Peter, as people usually say when they inspect great and distinguished cities. He considered even the mere sight of this man worthy of special effort.” “And I remained with him fifteen days.” Chrysostom writes on these words: “The journey undertaken for Peter proves Paul's great respect for him. His remaining with him so many days shows their friendly disposition and sincere mutual love. Do you see how great a disposition he has toward Peter? For him he undertook the journey, and with him he remained. I mention this often, wishing you to preserve it in memory. Then, when later you hear words that seem to be spoken against Peter, you will suspect the Apostle of nothing. As a warning against this, he himself speaks of his visit to Peter. Thus, when he says, ‘I withstood him to his face’ (cf. Gal 2:11), no one should think these words are the fruit of enmity or contentiousness. For he honors this man and loves him more than all. He came to Jerusalem not for any other of the Apostles, but solely for him.” The thought of Ambrosiaster is similar: “He remained with him fifteen days, as a fellow Apostle of one mind with him. He declares this to show that he agrees with the Apostles in everything and differs from them in nothing. The false apostles whispered otherwise about him, in order to disgrace him in the Churches from the Gentiles. Thus they could more easily sow their evil in simple souls, saying that their teaching agreed with the teaching of the elder Apostles, but Paul's did not.” Here holy Paul says of himself that he went to Jerusalem of his own accord, in order to see Peter. But in Acts it is narrated that he was forced to leave Damascus by the plot of Jews, and even Gentiles, angered against him for preaching Christ the Savior (cf. 2 Cor 11:32). They had conspired to kill him (cf. Acts 9:23-25). When he came to Jerusalem, he tried to draw near to the believers. They avoided him, not knowing that he had turned to Christ. Only after Barnabas brought him to the Apostles and told them how the Lord had appeared to him on the road, and how he had spoken boldly in the name of Jesus in Damascus, could he freely enter into communion with all and with the Apostles. He went about the houses, speaking boldly in the name of the Lord Jesus (cf. Acts 9:27-29). In this account of holy Luke in Acts, the external history of holy Paul is contained. Holy Paul himself indicates what aims he had in these or those circumstances. His desire to see holy Peter could have arisen before the uprising of the Damascenes against him. This latter event only gave occasion for fulfilling it, or hastened it. He was forced to leave Damascus, but he directed himself to Jerusalem because he wished to see holy Peter. Further, when he came to Jerusalem, he did not immediately approach Peter by himself. He was introduced to him by Barnabas. From that time he remained with him fifteen days. Together with him and the other Apostles, he preached the Gospel throughout Jerusalem. Holy Paul does not mention all this in the Epistle because, in general, he gives only a brief outline of his life. For his purpose he considered it sufficient to mention only his stay with holy Peter. By this, according to Chrysostom, their friendly disposition and sincere mutual love were signified.