section_path: Biography/Incident at Antioch
section_name: Incident at Antioch
paragraph_text: Incident at Antioch
  
  Despite the agreement achieved at the Council of Jerusalem, Paul recounts how he later publicly confronted Peter in a dispute sometimes called the " Incident at Antioch ", over Peter's reluctance to share a meal with Gentile Christians in Antioch because they did not strictly adhere to Jewish customs.
  
  Writing later of the incident, Paul recounts, "I opposed to his face, because he was clearly in the wrong", and says he told Peter, "You are a Jew, yet you live like a Gentile and not like a Jew. How is it, then, that you force Gentiles to follow Jewish customs ?" Paul also mentions that even Barnabas, his traveling companion and fellow apostle until that time, sided with Peter.
  
  The outcome of the incident remains uncertain. The Catholic Encyclopedia suggests that Paul won the argument, because "Paul's account of the incident leaves no doubt that Peter saw the justice of the rebuke". However, Paul himself never mentions a victory, and L. Michael White 's From Jesus to Christianity draws the opposite conclusion: "The blowup with Peter was a total failure of political bravado, and Paul soon left Antioch as persona non grata, never again to return".
  
  The primary source account of the incident at Antioch is Paul's letter to the Galatians.