Judaizers

[1] They tried to enforce Jewish circumcision upon the Gentile converts to early Christianity and were strenuously opposed and criticized for their behavior by the Apostle Paul, who employed many of his epistles to refute their doctrinal positions.

[2][3] It has been carried on parallel to continuing debates about Paul the Apostle and Judaism, Protestant views of the Ten Commandments, and Christian ethics.

Acts 15 and Galatians 2 both suggest that the meeting was called to debate whether male Gentiles who were converting to become followers of Jesus were required to become circumcised; the rite of circumcision was considered execrable and repulsive during the period of Hellenization of the Eastern Mediterranean[13][14][15][16] and was especially adversed in Classical civilization both from ancient Greeks and Romans, which instead valued the foreskin positively.

[1][2][3][19][20][21][23] Although such repressive and legalistic requirements may have made Christianity a much less appealing religious choice for the vast majority of Gentiles,[4][13][14][15] the evidence afforded in Paul's Epistle to the Galatians exhibits that initially a significant number of the Galatian Gentile converts appeared disposed to adopt these restrictions; indeed, Paul strenuously labors throughout the letter to dissuade them from doing so (cf.

[1][2][3][23][24][25][26][27] Many of his letters included in the New Testament (the Pauline epistles) contain considerable material disputing the view of this faction and condemning its practitioners.

Paul opposed this position, concluding that Gentiles did not need to obey to the entire Law of Moses in order to become Christians.

[2][3][23][24][25] According to the account given in Acts 15, it was determined by the Great Commission that Gentile converts to Christianity did not have to go through circumcision to be saved; but in addressing the second question as to whether or not they should obey the Torah, James the Just, brother of Jesus encouraged the Gentiles to "abstain from things sacrificed to idols, and from blood, and from things strangled, and from fornication" (Acts 15:19–29).

But because of false believers secretly brought in, who slipped in to spy on the freedom we have in Christ Jesus, so that they might enslave us – we did not submit to them even for a moment, so that the truth of the gospel might always remain with you.

The Catholic Encyclopedia notes: "Paul, on the other hand, not only did not object to the observance of the Mosaic Law, as long as it did not interfere with the liberty of the Gentiles, but he conformed to its prescriptions when occasion required (1 Corinthians 9:20).

In the case of Timothy, whose mother was a Jewish Christian but whose father was a Greek, Paul personally circumcised him "because of the Jews" that were in town.

[41][42]It occurs once in the Apostolic Fathers collection, in Ignatius's letter to the Magnesians 10:3 written around 100: It is absurd to profess Christ Jesus, and to Judaize.

Augustine in his Commentary on Galatians, describes Paul's opposition in Galatia as those qui gentes cogebant iudaizare – "who thought to make the Gentiles live in accordance with Jewish customs.

The struggle against the adherents was led by hegumen Joseph Volotsky and his followers (иосифляне, iosiflyane or Josephinians) and by Archbishop Gennady of Novgorod.

After uncovering adherents in Novgorod around 1487, Gennady wrote a series of letters to other churchmen over several years calling on them to convene sobors ("church councils") with the intention "not to debate them, but to burn them".

The councils outlawed religious and non-religious books and initiated their burning, sentenced a number of people to death, sent adherents into exile, and excommunicated them.

The most famous of the Russian Empire's Judaizing sects were the Karaimites[47][48] or Karaimizing-Subbotniks like Alexander Zaïd (1886–1938) who successfully settled in the Holy Land from 1904.

The Epistle to the Galatians strongly influenced Martin Luther at the time of the Protestant Reformation because of its exposition of justification by grace.

For example, while serving as professor of Biblical scholarship at the University of Salamanca, the Augustinian friar and Renaissance humanism Luis de León both wrote and translated many immortal works of Christian poetry into the Spanish language.

But, despite being a devout and believing Christian, Fray Luis was descended from a family of Spanish Jewish Conversos and this, as well as his vocal advocacy for teaching the Hebrew language in Catholic universities and seminaries, caused false accusations from the Dominicans of the heresies of being both a Marrano and a Judaiser.

Fray Luis was accordingly imprisoned for four years by the Spanish Inquisition before he was ruled to be innocent of any wrongdoing and released without charge.

While the conditions of his imprisonment were never harsh and he was allowed complete access to books, according to legend, Fray Luis started his first post-Inquisition University of Salamanca lecture with the words, "As I was saying the other day..."[51]

[55] In Torah-submissive Christian groups which include the Ethiopian Orthodox church, dietary laws and Saturday Sabbath are observed as well.