The Antioch Confrontation and the Jerusalem Council

The year is now circa AD 50-51. It is some dozen years since Peter was led to Caesarea to witness the Spirit’s unconditional outpouring on the Gentiles; and also since the interracial church in Antioch was formed where Paul had been planted.

Since that time, Paul has been at Antioch ministering interracially, making but one brief visit to Jerusalem with Barnabas to bring famine relief, but not seeing Peter who was just being jailed, escapes and then goes into hiding (Acts 12)²⁷—some 7 years ago (AD 43-44). Shortly after this, the Holy Spirit sends Paul and Barnabas on their mission to Cyprus and Galatia, from which they have returned but 4-5 years ago (AD 45-46). And they have been teaching at Antioch ever since.

Meanwhile, all these years Peter has remained in Jerusalem, hence under the Pharisaic Messianic “cloud.” Except for his brief jailing about AD 43, the Spirit mentions none of his activities. Possibly he has traveled locally into Judea, but never into Gentile territory to visit the work at Antioch which his long-time friend Barnabas has helped pastor all along. But what we shortly learn is that his lesson in Caesarea, while remaining with him theoretically, has lost any practical meaning under the cloud.

- The Jerusalem / Antioch Relationship

The following is an unprovable but very plausible account of the Jerusalem / Antioch relationship based on the contextual spiritual evidence. This account helps us understand Peter’s eventual visit there, his confrontation with Paul and the Jerusalem Council that partly resulted from it.28

The Antioch assembly came into being while Peter was on his Judean trip, including his visit to Cornelius (circ. AD 38). The Messianic Pharisees already held an intimidating influence over Peter such that he felt compelled to have to “give account” to them of why he, Yeshua’s own appointed apostle, obeyed the Spirit to cross racial lines to minister the gospel.

While Peter is still away and the Pharisees await his “account,” word of Antioch’s interracial forming comes—a second blow to the Messianic mind. These same intimidators then send Barnabas to “check it out” and report back, since Peter is not there to go himself. (James will never leave Jerusalem for any reason.)

So Barnabas goes and is blessed, but does not return to Jerusalem. That’s because he doesn’t want to face the same intimidation awaiting Peter, especially without Peter there. Instead, he goes north to find Saul (Paul). He seeks out Paul because Barnabas has reason to believe what’s happening in Antioch will resonate with Paul. This is because while the brothers were escorting Paul out of Jerusalem two years earlier, Paul dared to confide in Barnabas (but not Peter) his fresh revelation from Yeshua about his call to the Gentiles.

Paul returns with Barnabas to Antioch. But Peter, having returned to face the Pharisees in Jerusalem over the Cornelius matter, is not inclined to venture now into Gentile territory to verify the Antioch situation. The fact that Barnabas never returned to report on Antioch is of concern to all. But since traveling great distances is not the easy thing it is today, and because the idea of travel into Gentile country at all is psychologically prohibitive, the Jerusalem Messianics and Peter just decide to “let it go, leave it be, whatever may come of it,” and stick to their work in Jerusalem.

Years pass. As Barnabas and Paul minister, news of this travels back also. The church in Antioch is apparently succeeding (impossible as that might seem to the Messianics). A few years later, the Antiochans prove their love by sending the relief offering with Paul and Barnabas. But Peter, being sought by Herod, is not there to receive it. James is, and given the surrounding pressures with Herod, nobody has time to talk about what’s been happening at Antioch the last 5 years. Paul and Barnabas return to Antioch.

- Antioch: The Confrontation Surfaces

On returning to Antioch, the Holy Spirit sends Paul and Barnabas on their first mission trip.²⁹ They then return to Antioch to keep teaching for another 4+ years. News of this trip also eventually reaches Jerusalem—as well as the fact that Antioch keeps thriving. A combination of curiosity and fear grows as clearly the spread of Yeshua’s Name outside Judea is beginning to get “out of control.” During this time, the Messianic Pharisees only increase their influence. Now, in response to the foreign reports, they cement their own viperous doctrine of salvation in Yeshua via submission to Jewish heritage through circumcision.

As perennial man in the middle, pressure mounts on Peter to find out what’s going on in Antioch. So he musters the fortitude to venture past Israeli territory to go to Antioch. On arrival, he begins getting acquainted with the work. Mindful of his lesson in Caesarea 12 years before, he freely associates with the Gentile believers, especially since no one from Jerusalem can bother him. (What relief he must have felt in the freedom of that inter-racial atmosphere.)

Meanwhile, back in Jerusalem, the Pharisaic Messianics don’t trust Peter. They saw what happened the last time he left on a significant mission! And they don’t want to lose him to this new movement the way Barnabas disappeared. Not only this, but their ultimate motive is to do what Peter will not. They intend to rein in this movement with their doctrine of salvation via Jewish legal heritage. So with the assent of James (who is unaware of the doctrine the men plan to bring), some make their own trip behind Peter, without his knowledge.

Once the men from James arrive, Peter’s fears are exposed, so he appeasingly sits with them apart from the Gentiles at a certain dinner. So great is this imported pharisaic pressure that the other Jews in the assembly are also pulled into this separation. Even Barnabas, though not so intimidated by the Pharisees, wants to be close to his long time friend whom he has not seen in so many years. Meanwhile, in the time between their arrival and this dinner, the vipers from Jerusalem have begun releasing their heritage salvation doctrine into the conversations with Antioch believers (though Peter is unaware of them.)

Paul, who witnesses this dinner separation and has begun hearing the trickle down of the conversations, is absolutely incensed. He publicly confronts Peter and the entire lot with his gospel of race transcendent grace, facing Peter with his own futility under the Law as a Jew. (Paul did not realize Peter wasn’t personally disseminating the doctrine, so included him in the charge against it.)

Finally, the effects of Pharisaic Messianism’s hidden poison have surfaced, and with it, the gospel formed around Yeshua’s legal Transcendence bursts out of the closet to be heard by the first Jerusalem apostle. Eighteen years of growing tension between the Messianics and the Transcendents—since the very first discrimination issue over widows—openly blazes forth on a single incident. The match has been lit to the keg.

- Road to the Council of Jerusalem

Stung and embarrassed by his own behavior more than by Paul’s confrontation, and left to mull the implications of what Paul has said, Peter returns quickly to Jerusalem.³⁰—the situation awaiting closure. Meanwhile, the men from James split up. Some return to Jerusalem. Others leave for Cilicia (and eventually Galatia to track down Paul’s churches) to fight Paul on Paul’s territory—without his knowledge and without authorization from James. Still others remain in Antioch to debate Paul and Barnabas over Jewish heritage salvation. The heat is past words. The war is on.

Unable to get their opponents to concede or even budge, the Antioch church finally determines by revelation that a meeting of the Jerusalem apostles is necessary to conclusively resolve the issue. In this, Paul’s gospel and his entire work in Galatia are on the line.

NEXT – PART 10: THE MEETING OF THE TRIUMVIRATE

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