Galatians 2:8 and the Question of Paul's Apostleship‪.‬

It has often been noted that Gal 2:8 [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] refers to Peter's missionary activity as an "apostleship" or "apostolate" [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] but does not explicitly apply the same label to that of Paul. (1) The omission is indeed surprising, given Paul's vehement insistence on his own apostolic status earlier in the Galatian letter (1:1) (2) and his references elsewhere to his mission as an "apostleship" ([TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII]Rom 1:5; 1 Cor 9:2). Thus, many scholars have assumed that the wording of the latter part of the verse ([TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII]) is to be seen as an ellipsis--"an abbreviated form of speech which would be understood by Paul's readers to explicitly attribute apostleship to Paul as well as Peter." (3) Ernest De Witt Burton, for example, asserts that "[TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] is manifestly a condensed expression equivalent to [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII], or the like, used for brevity's sake or through negligence." (4) To support this latter interpretation of Gal 2:8, the ellipsis in the verse immediately preceding (v. 7) is sometimes cited as a parallel. Thus, for example, Frank J. Matera insists: