Then after a period of fourteen years I went up again to Jerusalem with Barnabas, taking Titus also with me.
ExplanationCommentary
Verse 1. Then fourteen years after. That is, after my former going to Jerusalem, which was seventeen years after my conversion, an. 51. See Tillemont. Witham. The cause of Saint Paul’s second journey to Jerusalem was as follows. Some brethren coming from Judea to Antioch, there maintained the necessity of circumcision and the other Mosaic rites, asserting that without them salvation could not be obtained. Saint Paul, upon his return to Antioch, strongly defended, in conjunction with Barnabas, the liberty of the gospel. As the contest grew warm, it was resolved to depute Paul and Barnabas to consult the other apostles and ancients of Jerusalem. By the approbation of the living and speaking tribunal, which all are commanded to hear, the Scriptures are not made true, altered or amended; they merely are declared to be the infallible word of God, a point only to be learned by authority; hence that memorable saying of Saint Augustine: “I would not believe the gospel unless the authority of the Church moved me.” Cont. ep. fund. c. v.