I Opposed Him to His Face
11 But when Peter came to Antioch, I resisted him to his face, because he stood condemned. 12 For before some people came from James, he ate with the Gentiles. But when they came, he drew back and separated himself, fearing those who were of the circumcision. 13 And the rest of the Jews joined him in his hypocrisy, so that even Barnabas was carried away with their hypocrisy. 14 But when I saw that they didn’t walk uprightly according to the truth of the Good News, I said to Peter before them all, “If you, being a Jew, live as the Gentiles do, and not as the Jews do, why do you compel the Gentiles to live as the Jews do?
The problem at Antioch was not a doctrine but a withdrawal from a table, and Paul names it hypocrisy because Peter's conviction had not changed.
The scene shifts to Antioch and the tone hardens. I resisted him to his face, because he stood condemned — and the man resisted is the first-named pillar of the previous paragraph.
The sequence is given precisely. Before certain men came from James, Peter ate with the gentiles. When they came, he drew back and separated himself. The two verbs describe a gradual movement and then a completed separation, and the motive is stated without charity: fearing those who were of the circumcision.
Nothing here is a change of belief, which is why Paul's word for it is hypocrisy rather than error. Peter still held what he had held; he stopped acting on it when the room changed. A doctrinal argument can be answered with an argument, and this could not.
Verse 13 tracks the spread. The rest of the Jews joined him — and then the clause carrying the grief, even Barnabas was carried away. Barnabas had stood with Paul in Jerusalem two paragraphs earlier. The verb is passive: he was swept along.
Paul's public question in verse 14 is a piece of exact logic. If you, a Jew, live like a gentile — as Peter had been doing at that table — why do you compel the gentiles to live like Jews? The inconsistency is not in Peter's theology but in the pressure his behavior applied to other people.
What Paul calls the failure is walking not uprightly according to the truth. Conduct is treated as a truth claim.
settled What this mark means