who had received it directly from him; to which I made answer:  my revelation was not from Jesus when he lived in the flesh, but from the spiritual Jesus; the spirit descended out of heaven to instruct me, and if God has created us, which none will deny, he has created our souls wherewith to know him, and he needs not the authority of other apostles who speak as men, falling into the errors that men must fall into when they speak, for every man’s truth is made known unto him by God.

One day we came out of a house heated with argument, and as we loitered by the pavement’s edge regretting we had not said certain things whereby we might have confuted each other, we came upon Peter in a public inn, eating and drinking with the uncircumcised, whereupon the Hierosolymites said we see now what ye are, Peter, a Jew that eats with Gentiles and of unclean meats.  Peter did not withstand them and say as he should have done:  how is it that you call them that God has made unclean? but being a timid man and anxious always to avoid schism, he excused himself and withdrew, and was followed by Barnabas and Silas.

It was for this that I withstood him before all in the assembly, reproaching him for his inconsequences, saying to him:  if thou that art a Jew livest according to the manner of Gentiles, how is it that thou wouldst compel the Gentiles to live as the Jews do? and until this man came thou wert one with us, saying as we say, that none is justified by conforming to the law and practising it, but by the faith in Jesus Christ.  But if we seek justification in Christ, and in him alone, and yet are found to be sinners, of what help is Christ then to us?  Is he a minister of sinners?  God forbid!  By his life and death he abolished the law, whereby we might live in faith in Christ, for the law stands between us and Christ.  I say unto thee, Peter, that if Christ was crucified for me I live in Christ; no longer my own life of the flesh, but the spiritual life that Christ has given me.  I say unto thee likewise, that if we care only to know Christ through the law then Christ has died in vain.  To which Peter answered nothing, but went his way, as is his custom, in silence, and my grief was great; for I could see that the many were shocked, and wondered at our violence, and could not have said else than that we were divided among ourselves, though they said it under their breath.  Nor did peace come till the emissaries of James left us to go to the churches I had founded in Galatia and undo the work I had done there.  Whereupon I collected all my thoughts for an epistle that would comfort those, and enable them to resist, saying:  though an angel from heaven tell you a different doctrine from the one that I have taught you, listen not to him.  Copies of this letter were sent to the churches that I had founded, but the sending of the letter did not calm my anger.  An angry soul I have been since God first separated me from my mother’s womb, gaining something on one side and losing on