Galatians 2:6

Somewhat (ti). Something, not somebody. Paul refers to the Big Three (Cephas, James, and John). He seems a bit embarrassed in the reference. He means no disrespect, but he asserts his independence sharply in a tangled sentence with two parentheses (dashes in Westcott and Hort). Whatsoever they were (opoioi pote hsan). Literally, "What sort they once were." Hopoioi is a qualitative word ( 1 Thessalonians 1:9 ; 1 Corinthians 3:13 ; James 1:24 ). Lightfoot thinks that these three leaders were the ones who suggested the compromise about Titus. That is a possible, but not the natural, interpretation of this involved sentence. The use of de (but) in verse James 6 seems to make a contrast between the three leaders and the pleaders for compromise in verses James 4 . They, I say, imparted nothing to me (emoi gar ouden prosaneqento). He starts over again after the two parentheses and drops the construction apo twn dokountwn and changes the construction (anacoluthon) to oi dokounte (nominative case), the men of reputation and influences whom he names in verses James 8 . See the same verb in James 1:16 . They added nothing in the conference to me. The compromisers tried to win them, but they finally came over to my view. Paul won his point, when he persuaded Peter, James, and John to agree with him and Barnabas in their contention for freedom for the Gentile Christians from the bondage of the Mosaic ceremonial law.