Paul challenges Simon Peter. (2.11-14)

by Kent Leslie ✉️

Throughout Galatians, Paul calls Simon Peter “Cephas,” which is Κηφᾶς/Kifás, a Greek form of his Aramaic nickname ܟ݂ܺܐܦ݂ܳܐ/Kifá [Jn 1.42] which I wrote about already. I didn’t bring this up in class, but some Christians like to claim Paul was calling Peter that because he somehow “fell from grace” after denying Jesus. That’s rubbish. Cephas and Peter mean the very same thing in different languages. It’s a translation!

Simon Peter is a very important apostle. He’s the first in every list of the Twelve. He’s Jesus’s best student. He’s the first to declare Jesus is Messiah, the only one who tried walking on water, the first to realize, “Who else are we gonna follow?” [Jn 6.68] Yes he denied Jesus, but unlike Judas Iscariot, he came back, and Jesus restored him. Empowered by the Holy Spirit, Peter’s also the guy who spoke at the first Christian Pentecost and led thousands to Jesus. He cured the sick, raised the dead, and was the first to share the gospel with gentiles. Two of Peter’s letters are in our bible. A big part of Mark’s gospel is probably based on Peter’s personal recollections.

But Peter wasn’t infallible! None of us are. Peter messed up big-time here.

First Peter’s visiting Antioch, interacting with gentile Christians, going to their houses, eating with them. Then “certain men from James” show up [Ga 2.12] —and let me remind you just because they came from James, it doesn’t mean James shared their beliefs. Acts 15 makes it very clear James didn’t. But thanks to peer pressure from them, suddenly Peter stops interacting with gentile Christians, and only interacts with Jewish Christians. Suddenly Peter gets racist.

This is a big deal because the Antioch church wasn’t set up to segregate Jews and gentiles. At all. They worshiped together. They ate together. Ancient Christians had dinner together as part of their church services. Had communion together, during dinner. Communion’s meant to remind us we’re all one, in the body of Christ; we’re all family. So how messed up is it when someone says, “Um, I can’t eat with you dirty foreigners”? “I can’t take share Christ’s body and blood with you dirty foreigners”? Especially when it’s Simon Peter of all people.

That’s what swayed the other Antiochean Jews, and Barnabas. And why Paul absolutely had to stand up to Peter about this, and tell him, “Up to now you’ve been living like a gentile like the rest of us. Now suddenly you’re all Jewish? Now you’re telling gentiles to act like Jews, when you weren’t doing any of that till just recently?” It’s pure hypocrisy, and as you recall from the gospels, hypocrisy is the one thing that annoys Jesus the most.

I got an email from someone asking whether Paul should have gone to Peter privately and personally, as in Matthew 18. We don’t know that Paul didn’t do just that—and Peter ignored him, so Paul had to do it again in front of the whole church, thus following Jesus’s instructions in Matthew 18. (Honestly, that’s how I’d deal with it myself. Public confrontation tends to make people double down, not repent.)