Galatians 2:6

2:6 But from those who were influential ¹  (whatever they were makes no difference to me; God shows no favoritism between people ² ) – those influential leaders ³  added ⁴  nothing to my message. ⁵ 

Galatians 2:9

2:9 and when James, Cephas, ⁶  and John, who had a reputation as ⁷  pillars, ⁸  recognized ⁹  the grace that had been given to me, they gave to Barnabas and me ¹⁰  the right hand of fellowship, agreeing ¹¹  that we would go to the Gentiles and they to the circumcised. ¹² 

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¹ tn Or “influential leaders.” BDAG 255 s.v. δοκέω 2.a.β has “the influential men Gal 2:2, 6b. A fuller expr. w. the same mng., w. inf. added…vss. 6a, 9.” This refers to the leadership of the Jerusalem church.

² tn Grk “God does not receive the face of man,” an idiom for showing favoritism or partiality (BDAG 887-88 s.v. πρόσωπον 1.b.α; L&N 88.238).

³ tn Or “influential people”; here “leaders” was used rather than “people” for stylistic reasons, to avoid redundancy with the word “people” in the previous parenthetical remark. See also the note on the word “influential” at the beginning of this verse.

⁴ tn Or “contributed.” This is the same word translated “go to ask advice from” in 1:16, but it has a different meaning here; see L&N 59.72.

⁵ tn Or “added nothing to my authority.” Grk “added nothing to me,” with what was added (“message,” etc.) implied.

⁶ sn Cephas. This individual is generally identified with the Apostle Peter (L&N 93.211).

⁷ tn Or “who were influential as,” or “who were reputed to be.” See also the note on the word “influential” in 2:6.

⁸ sn Pillars is figurative here for those like James, Peter, and John who were leaders in the Jerusalem church.

⁹ tn The participle γνόντες (gnontes) has been taken temporally. It is structurally parallel to the participle translated “when they saw” in v. 7.

¹⁰ tn Grk “me and Barnabas.”

¹¹ tn Grk “so,” with the ἵνα (Jina) indicating the result of the “pillars” extending the “right hand of fellowship,” but the translation “they gave…the right hand of fellowship so that we would go” could be misunderstood as purpose here. The implication of the scene is that an agreement, outlined at the end of v. 10, was reached between Paul and Barnabas on the one hand and the “pillars” of the Jerusalem church on the other.

¹² tn Grk “to the circumcision,” a collective reference to the Jewish people.