292 AGNOSTICISM: A REJOINDER vill 



And what is the state of things we find dis- 

 closed ? A bitter quarrel, in his account of which 

 Paul by no means minces matters, or hesitates to 

 hurl defiant sarcasms against those who were 

 " reputed to be pillars " : James " the brother of 

 the Lord," Peter, the rock on whom Jesus is said 

 to have built his Church, and John, "the beloved 

 disciple." And no deference toward " the rock " 

 withholds Paul from charging Peter to his face with 

 " dissimulation." 



The subject of the hot dispute was simply this. 

 Were Gentile converts bound to obey the Law or 

 not ? Paul answered in the negative ; and, acting 

 upon his opinion, he had created at Antioch (and 

 elsewhere) a specifically " Christian " community, 

 the sole qualifications for admission into which were 

 the confession of the belief that Jesus was the 

 Messiah, and baptism upon that confession. In 

 the epistle in question, Paul puts this his 

 " gospel," as he calls it in its most extreme form. 

 Not only does he deny the necessity of conformity 

 with the Law, but he declares such conformity to 

 have a negative value. "Behold, I, Paul, say 

 unto you, that if ye receive circumcision, Christ 

 will profit you nothing " (Galatians v. 2). He 

 calls the legal observances " beggarly rudiments/' 

 and anathematises every one who preaches to the 

 Galatians any other gospel than his own. That is 

 to say, by direct consequence, he anathematises the 

 Nazarenes of Jerusalem, whose zeal for the Law is 



