Paul now tells us what happened when he opposed Peter in public, as he has already mentioned in verse 11. Paul did not take a position of open opposition to Peter immediately, but only after the events narrated in verses 12 and 13 had taken place.
Walking a straight path translates a Greek verb which occurs in the New Testament only here and which usually means “to make a straight path,” referring either to one’s attitude or to one’s conduct, but it is extremely difficult to distinguish between these. Some translations seem to focus on the attitude (Jerusalem Bible “they were not respecting the true meaning of the Good News”; New American Bible “they were not being straightforward about the truth of the gospel”). The focus on conduct, however, is preferred by most translations (New English Bible “their conduct did not square with the truth of the Gospel”; Phillips “this behavior was a contradiction of the truth of the Gospel”). This verbal phrase can also mean to progress or to advance in the direction of something, and therefore it is possible to translate this clause as “they were not on the right road toward the truth of the gospel” (New English Bible margin “not making progress towards…”).
Though in a number of languages the metaphor of walking a straight path is quite acceptable, it may be relatively meaningless in other languages. One may express the same idea in such languages as “not doing what they should do,” “not behaving as they should,” or “not living as they should,” for example, “When I saw that they were not living as they should live, in accordance with the true words of the good news, I said to Peter…,” or “When I saw that they were not conforming their actions to what the true words of the good news had said, I said to Peter….”
For the truth of the gospel, see 2.5.
In front of them all means in the presence of all the members of the Christian congregation in Antioch.
The quotation that follows is a conditional sentence in the Greek (“If … then…”), and this form is followed in most translations. The conditional clause refers not, however, to a hypothetical case, but to something which is true because it is borne out by the facts. Good News Translation makes this clear by changing the conditional clause into a simple statement of fact (compare Jerusalem Bible “In spite of being a Jew, you live like the pagans and not like the Jews, so you have no right to make the pagans copy Jewish ways”).
Living like a Gentile and (living) like a Jew translate Greek words which suggest adhering to Gentile and Jewish customs respectively, particularly in the matter of food. Paul is saying that in eating with the Gentiles Peter disregarded Jewish laws, and therefore was living like a Gentile. This may frequently be expressed as “following the customs of the Gentiles,” or “doing what Gentiles do.”
Similarly, (living) not like a Jew may be expressed as “and you have not been following the customs of the Jews,” or “you have not been doing what Jews customarily do.”
Try to force Gentiles to live like Jews has reference to the fact that by drawing back Peter was actually forcing the Gentile Christians to find ways to be acceptable to the Jewish Christians, and that way could very well be by following the Jewish Law, which in effect would make them live like Jews. The verb force may be rendered as a causative, for example, “How can you try to cause the Gentiles to live like Jews?” or “… to follow the customs of the Jews?” It is also possible to express the causative sense by a statement of direct discourse involving some verb of “require” or “insist,” for example, “How can you try to insist, Gentiles must live like Jews live?”
Quoted with permission from Arichea, Daniel C. and Nida, Eugene A. A Handbook on Paul’s Letter to the Galatians. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1976. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .