When I saw that they were not acting consistently with the truth of the good news, I spoke to Peter in front of everyone. I said, “You’re a Jew, but you live like a Gentile, not a Jew. So why are you trying force the Gentiles to follow Jewish ways?
Certain people came down from Judea to Antioch and started teaching the believers, “If you aren’t circumcised the way Moses commanded, you can’t be saved.”
Dear friends, I was very eager to write to you about the salvation we share. But I felt that I had to write and urge you to stand up for the faith that God’s holy people have been trusted with once and for all time.
James, Peter, and John, who are respected as pillars in the church, recognized that God had given me this privilege. So they shook hands with Barnabas and me to welcome us as partners. They agreed that we should go to the Gentiles while they went to the Jews.
It was just the opposite! They recognized that I had been trusted with the task of preaching the good news to the Gentiles, just as Peter had been trusted with preaching to the Jews.
I’ve made a fool of myself, but you forced me to. You should have been the ones to praise me. I’m not the least bit inferior to the “super-apostles,” even though I’m nothing.
Jesus turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You’re like a rock in my path to trip me. You’re not thinking about what God wants. You’re only thinking about what people want.”
Some of the believers who’d been scattered by the attacks that started after Stephen was killed traveled as far as Phoenicia, Cyprus, and Antioch, spreading the word among Jews.
Andrew brought Simon to Jesus. Jesus looked at him and said, “You’re Simon, the son of John, but you’ll be known as Cephas.” (Cephas means Peter, or Rock.)