A Case for Not Reading The Bible Literally

[biblestudent78]

Inquisitor:
There was a face to face confrontation between Paul and Peter
• Table fellowship with Gentiles: Peter used to freely eat and fellowship with uncircumcised Gentile Christians.
• Fear of the circumcision group: When a group of Jewish Christians sent by James arrived from Jerusalem, Peter became afraid of them and stopped eating with the Gentiles, withdrawing himself to keep separate.
• Hypocrisy and the Gospel: Other Jewish believers—and even Barnabas—followed Peter's example. Paul saw this behavior as hypocrisy and a betrayal of the truth of the gospel, which united Jews and Gentiles through faith in Christ rather than adherence to ritual Jewish laws.
• The Confrontation: Paul publicly opposed Peter "to his face" in front of everyone, arguing that if Peter—a Jew—lived like a Gentile, he had no right to pressure Gentiles to adopt Jewish custom

Galatians 2: 11-14
But when Cephas came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he had clearly done wrong. Until certain people came from James, he had been eating with the Gentiles. But when they arrived, he stopped doing this and separated himself because he was afraid of those who were pro-circumcision. And the rest of the Jews also joined with him in this hypocrisy, so that even Barnabas was led astray with them by their hypocrisy. But when I saw that they were not behaving consistently with the truth of the gospel, I said to Cephas in front of them all, “If you, although you are a Jew, live like a Gentile and not like a Jew, how can you try to force the Gentiles to live like Jews?”