But when Peter was come to Antioch, I withstood him to the face, because he was to be blamed.
Peter - `Cephas' in the oldest manuscripts Paul's withstanding Peter proves the independence of Paul's apostleship in relation to the other apostles, and upsets Peter's alleged supremacy. The apostles were not always inspired; but were so always in writing the Scriptures. If, then, the inspired men who wrote them were not at other times infallible, much less were the uninspired men who kept them. The Christian fathers may be trusted as witnesses to facts, but not implicitly followed in matters of opinion.
Come to Antioch - then the citadel of the Gentile church, where first the Gospel was preached to idolatrous Gentiles, and the name "Christians" was first given (Acts 11:20; Acts 11:26). Peter is said to have been subsequently its Bishop. Paul and Barnabas went there from the Jerusalem council (Acts 15:30; Acts 15:35); and Peter soon followed. The question at Antioch was not whether the Gentiles were admissible to the Christian covenant without becoming circumcised-that was the question settled at the Jerusalem council just before-but whether the Gentile Christians were to be admitted to social intercourse with the Jews without conforming to the Jewish institution. The Judaizers, soon after the council passed the resolutions recognizing the Gentile Christians, repaired to Antioch, the scene of the gathering in of the Gentiles (Acts 11:20-26), to witness, what to Jews would look so extraordinary, the receiving of men to communion without circumcision. Regarding the Jerusalem decree with prejudice, they explained away its force; they probably also watched to see whether the Jewish Christians among the Gentiles violated the law, which that decision did not verbally sanction them, but only Gentiles, in doing (Acts 15:19).
To be blamed - `(self) condemned' х kategnoosmenos (G2607)]; his act at one time condemning his contrary acting at another (Alford) 'He was, condemned by the sounder Christians at Antioch' (Ellicott). The English version gives a better reason for Paul's withstanding him (Revelation 21:8, so uses perf. passive participle for a verbal in-teos).