Galatians 2:6–10

Galatians 2:6 — "Those reputed to be important…imparted nothing to me" Paul's language here is carefully calibrated. He does not deny the authority of the Jerusalem apostles — Peter, James, and John — but he insists that at the Jerusalem meeting, they added nothing to his Gospel. The phrase "whatever they were, it makes no difference to me" is not contempt; it is a theological assertion grounded in the axiom "God shows no partiality" (prosōpolēmpsia), a phrase Paul uses also in Romans 2:11 and which echoes Deuteronomy 10:17. Paul's point is that apostolic weight derives from divine commission, not human reputation or seniority. The Jerusalem pillars had nothing to correct because Paul's Gospel was already complete — received not from them, but by revelation (Gal 1:12). The verb "imparted" (prosanethento) is the same word used in 1:16 when Paul says he did not confer with flesh and blood after his Damascus revelation. The echo is intentional: just as Paul did not seek human validation at his conversion, neither did the Jerusalem leaders find anything lacking at the council.

Galatians 2:7 — "Entrusted with the Good News for the uncircumcised…even as Peter" The parallel construction is striking: Paul uses the passive "had been entrusted" (pepisteumai), a divine passive, indicating that both commissions — his to the Gentiles, Peter's to the Jews — originate from God. This verse is perhaps the clearest statement in Paul's letters of the two-pronged apostolic structure of the early Church. The unity of the Gospel is preserved precisely in this distinction: it is the same Good News, but calibrated in its missionary field. "The uncircumcised" and "the circumcised" are shorthand for Gentile and Jewish worlds respectively, not theological categories of value. Paul does not subordinate his mission to Peter's; they are coordinate, divinely assigned vocations.

Galatians 2:8 — "He who worked through Peter…also worked through me" This is the theological hinge of the passage. Paul invokes the single divine agent — God working through both apostles — as the ultimate guarantor of the unity of their missions. The verb "worked" (energēsas) is the same root used for the Spirit's energeia in 1 Corinthians 12:6 and Ephesians 1:11. Both apostolates are pneumatically energized expressions of the one mission of Christ. Peter is here named by his Greek title "Peter" (Petros) rather than the Aramaic "Cephas" used elsewhere, perhaps for rhetorical clarity when making the parallel. Importantly, Paul is not diminishing Peter — he is placing himself in the same category of divine commissioning.

Galatians 2:9 — "James and Cephas and John…pillars…gave the right hand of fellowship" The order "James and Cephas and John" — with James listed first — reflects the Jerusalem leadership structure at the time of this visit (likely the famine-relief visit of Acts 11–12, or the Council of Acts 15, debated among scholars). James the Lord's brother led the Jerusalem community. "Pillars" (styloi) is a rich architectural and cosmic metaphor: in Jewish literature, pillars support both the Temple and the world. By calling them pillars, Paul grants them genuine structural dignity in the Church even while asserting the independence of his commission. The "right hand of fellowship" (dexias koinōnias) was a formal Greco-Roman gesture of covenant partnership, used in treaty-making and commercial agreements alike. Here it carries ecclesial weight: this is a recognition scene, a moment of visible communion between two apostolic streams. Barnabas is included — a reminder that Paul's mission was never solitary but collegial.

Galatians 2:10 — "Remember the poor" The single practical requirement the Jerusalem pillars placed on Paul was the collection for the poor — most likely the impoverished believers in Jerusalem. Paul's eagerness ("which very thing I was also zealous to do") suggests this was not a burden but a shared theological conviction. The collection was not merely charitable; it was an act of ecclesial solidarity across the Jew-Gentile divide, a material embodiment of the spiritual unity just ratified by the handshake. Paul would later devote enormous energy to this collection (cf. 1 Cor 16:1–4; 2 Cor 8–9; Rom 15:25–27), treating it as a near-sacramental sign of the unity of the Body of Christ.

Typological and Spiritual Senses Typologically, the two missions — to the circumcised and the uncircumcised — recapitulate the Old Testament pattern of Israel as a priestly nation destined to draw all nations to God (Is 49:6). Peter's mission fulfills the covenant promises to Abraham's physical descendants; Paul's mission enacts the "blessing of all nations" promised to Abraham in Genesis 12:3. The right hand of fellowship becomes a type of the Church's fundamental sacramental unity: diverse charisms, one Spirit; diverse missions, one Gospel.

Catholic tradition finds in this passage a remarkably nuanced portrait of apostolic authority, collegiality, and the unity of the Gospel — themes central to the Church's self-understanding.

On Apostolic Collegiality: The Second Vatican Council's Lumen Gentium §22 teaches that the college of bishops, with Peter as its head, exercises supreme authority over the universal Church. Galatians 2:6–10 offers the primitive form of this collegiate structure: Peter (Cephas), James, and John functioning as pillars of a Jerusalem "college," extending formal recognition to Paul's distinct but coordinate mission. Crucially, their authority does not originate with each other — it derives from Christ, as Paul's "divine passive" in verse 7 insists. Catholic ecclesiology has always held both truths in tension: genuine apostolic hierarchy and the divine source of all apostolic authority.

On Peter's Primacy: The Fathers consistently read this passage not as an attack on Peter but as a confirmation of his centrality. St. John Chrysostom (Homilies on Galatians) notes that Paul's very willingness to seek recognition from the Jerusalem church — even while asserting independence — shows his respect for ecclesial order. St. Augustine (Epistle 28) famously debated with St. Jerome whether Paul's rebuke of Peter in 2:11–14 was real or rhetorical, but both agree that Peter's authority is presupposed, not denied, by the encounter.

On the Universal Mission: The Catechism of the Catholic Church §849 cites the Church's missionary mandate as rooted in the love of the Trinity, not merely in strategic expansion. Paul's mission to the Gentiles, recognized here by the Jerusalem pillars, is the historical instantiation of what the Catechism calls the Church's "universal sacrament of salvation." Two missions, one Body — this is not theological compromise but Trinitarian logic: the same God sends differently gifted apostles to the same broken world.

On Care for the Poor: The request to "remember the poor" resonates with Catholic Social Teaching. Caritas in Veritate (Benedict XVI, §3) roots solidarity in the logic of gift and reception at the heart of the Trinity. The Jerusalem collection was not an afterthought; it was the material seal of a spiritual unity, a recurring pattern in Catholic life from the diaconate (Acts 6) to the preferential option for the poor articulated in Gaudium et Spes §69.

Contemporary Catholics live in a Church that is visibly diverse — in rite, in culture, in apostolic charism — and this passage offers a theological foundation for holding that diversity together without dissolving into either uniformity or fragmentation. The handshake at Jerusalem is a model for ecumenical and intra-ecclesial dialogue: genuine recognition of another's mission does not require identical methods or constituencies, but it does require accountability to the same Gospel.

More concretely, verse 10 — "remember the poor" — arrives as the single non-negotiable mandate across both apostolic streams. In an age when Catholics can retreat into ideological silos, the Jerusalem agreement reminds us that care for the materially poor is not a "liberal" or "conservative" Catholic distinctive — it is the one thing all the pillars agreed upon. Pope Francis's repeated insistence on a "poor Church for the poor" (Evangelii Gaudium §198) stands in direct continuity with this apostolic compact. For the ordinary Catholic, the invitation is concrete: active participation in parish outreach, support for Catholic Charities, and personal encounter with those on the margins are not optional apostolic extras — they are the handshake renewed.