06 — Peter and Paul
The two chief apostles, joined in the Church’s memory and on its calendar: Peter, the apostle of the circumcision, and Paul, the apostle to the Gentiles, whose one recorded clash at Antioch (Gal 2:11–14) the Orthodox tradition reads not as rivalry but as concord-in-truth, and whose joint feast on June 29 and shared iconography proclaim them the two coryphaei — the “leaders” or “chiefs” — of the apostolic choir. These files treat the Antioch incident and the union of the two pillars.
Tradition: Pan-Orthodox (Apostle)
The New Testament shows Peter and Paul meeting, conferring, and once disagreeing, but never as rivals for a throne. Paul “went up to Jerusalem to visit Cephas” and stayed fifteen days (Gal 1:18); the “pillars” James, Cephas, and John gave Paul and Barnabas “the right hand of fellowship” (Gal 2:9); and even the sharp confrontation at Antioch is, in the apostolic memory, an episode of mutual correction within one apostolic communion, not a schism. The later tradition bound the two ever more closely — martyred at Rome, commemorated together, depicted embracing — so that “Peter and Paul” became a single liturgical and iconographic unit, the two foundation-apostles of the one Church. This section reads the Antioch incident as concord-in-truth (METHODOLOGY §4) and traces the joint veneration of the two coryphaei.
Files in This Section
| File | Description |
|---|---|
| Antioch and Concord | The confrontation at Antioch (Gal 2:11–14): Peter’s withdrawal from Gentile table fellowship and Paul’s rebuke “to his face”; read as concord-in-truth, not rivalry; the patristic readings (Chrysostom’s “feigned dispute” vs Augustine–Jerome on a real fault); the underlying agreement on the gospel (Gal 2:7–9, 15–16). |
| The Two Coryphaei | Peter and Paul as the two “chiefs” (coryphaei) of the apostles; Paul’s visit to Cephas (Gal 1:18) and the pillars (Gal 2:9); the joint witness and martyrdom at Rome (1 Clement 5; Ignatius, Romans 4); the feast of June 29 and the Synaxis of the Twelve (June 30); the iconography of the embrace. |
See Also
- Cornelius and the Gentiles — the Gentile-table question that underlies Antioch
- The Martyrdom — the shared death at Rome
- Veneration and the Feast — the joint feast of June 29
- The Church Fathers — Chrysostom, Jerome, Augustine on Antioch
References
- The Holy Bible — Galatians 1:18–2:21.
- 1 Clement 5; Ignatius, To the Romans 4.3. Trans. Holmes, The Apostolic Fathers (2007).
- John Chrysostom. Commentary on Galatians, on 2:11–14. Trans. NPNF I/13.
- Augustine and Jerome, Letters (the Antioch correspondence). Trans. NPNF I/1.