Judaizers
Encyclopedia : J : JU : JUD : Judaizers
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Judaizers is a pejorative term used by Pauline Christianity, particularly after the third century, to describe Jewish Christian groups like the Ebionites and Nazarenes who believed that followers of Jesus needed to keep the Law of Moses. Paul of Tarsus accused them of teaching that observance of the law was necessary to be justified and hence saved, i.e. Legalism (theology), though this view has been challenged by the New Perspective on Paul. These groups taught that Gentile followers of Jesus needed to become proselytes and observe the various requirements of the Old Testament, most importantly circumcision, or at least that the Jewish followers of Jesus needed to do so, with Noahide Law being required for Gentile followers. According to Eusebius' History of the Church 4.5.3-4: the first 15 Bishops of Jerusalem were "of the circumcision".
The issue was an early source of controversy in the church of and came to a head during the Council of Jerusalem. According to the account given in Acts [15], it was determined that Gentile converts to Christianity did not have to be circumcised; rather, they were asked to "abstain from things sacrificed to idols, and from blood, and from things strangled, and from fornication."
Paul also addressed this question in his Epistle to Galatians in which he condemned those who insisted that Jewish law had to be followed for justification as "false brothers" (Galatians 2:4)([Disputed statementdisputed]—see [Epistle to Titus 1:11, often attributed to Paul, is, according to some Biblical scholars, also a condemnation of these practices.
The influence of the Judaizers in the church diminished significantly after the destruction of Jerusalem, when the Jewish-Christian community at Jerusalem was destroyed by the Romans during the Great Jewish Revolt.
In the second century, Marcion opposed the Judaizers. According to the 1911 Encyclopedia Brittanica article on [Marcion]: "It was no mere school for the learned, disclosed no mysteries for the privileged, but sought to lay the foundation of the Christian community on the pure gospel, the authentic institutes of Christ. The pure gospel, however, Marcion found to be everywhere more or less corrupted and mutilated in the Christian circles of his time. His undertaking thus resolved itself into a reformation of Christendom. This reformation was to deliver Christendom from false Jewish doctrines by restoring the Pauline conception of the gospel, —Paul being, according to Marcion, the only apostle who had rightly understood the new message of salvation as delivered by Christ. In Marcion's own view, therefore, the founding of his church—to which he was first driven by opposition—amounts to a reformation of Christendom through a return to the gospel of Christ and to Paul; nothing was to be accepted beyond that. This of itself shows that it is a mistake to reckon Marcion among the Gnostics. A dualist he certainly was, but he was not a Gnostic."
However, Christian groups following Jewish practices did not vanish immediately; though most had been suppressed[[Citing sources citation needed]] as heretical by the 5th century, in some (particularly Coptic) churches, Old Testament practices have survived to this day, including circumcision, and in the Ethiopian Orthodox church, dietary laws and Saturday Sabbath as well. [link]
Judaize, from the Koine Greek Ioudaizō (Ιουδαϊζω), means literally to live as a Jew.
It occurs once in the Septuagint, in Esther 8:16-17 written around 200 BC in Susa, Persia:
The Council of Laodicea of around 365 decreed 59 laws, #29:
The Judaizing teachers were a group of Jewish Christians who taught that converts to Christianity must first be circumcised and thus must observe the Law of Moses in order to be justified. This group was very active in the church of the first century CE prior to the destruction of the Temple of Jerusalem in the Great Jewish Revolt. These requirements made Christianity a much less appealing religious choice to many Gentiles.
Paul saw these teachers as being both dangerous to the spread of Christianity and propagators of grievous doctrinal error. Many of his letters included in the New Testament (the so-called Pauline epistles) contain considerable material disputing the view of this group and condemning its practitioners. In 2 Corinthians 11:5 and 12:11 he called his opponents super-apostles. Also, in 2 Corinthians 11:13 -15 Paul refers the Judaizers as False Apostles. Paul publicly condemned Peter for his seemingly ambivalent reaction to the Judaizers, embracing them publicly in places where their concepts were popular while holding the private opinion that the teachings were erroneous.
Judaizing teachers are even more strongly condemned in the Epistle of Barnabas. (Although it did not become part of the New Testament canon, it was widely circulated among Christians in the first two centuries.) Whereas Paul acknowledged that the Law of Moses and its observance were good when used correctly ("the law is good, if one uses it lawfully", 1 Tim. 1:8), the Epistle of Barnabas condemns most Jewish practices, claiming that Jews had grossly misunderstood and misapplied the Law of Moses.
The term Judaize is also employed as a condemnatory one in some English translations of the Qur'an as voicing Muhammad's displeasure with those who converted to Judaism instead of converting to Islam.
The letter to the Galatians strongly influenced Martin Luther at the time of the Protestant Reformation because of its exposition of Justification by Grace. See also Law and Gospel.
From Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Original article here. Support Wikipedia by contributing or donating.Origin of the word
It occurs once in the New Testament, in Paul's Epistle to Galatians 2:14 (part of the "Incident at Antioch") written around the year 50:
It occurs once in Josephus' Jewish War 2.18.2, referring to the Great Jewish Revolt (66-73), written around the year 75:
It occurs once in Plutarch on Cicero 7.6 written in about 75:
The Romans may have considered all Christians to be Judaizers. According to Suetonius, during the reign of Domitian (81-96):
It occurs once in the Apostolic Fathers collection, in Ignatius' Letter to the Magnesians 10:3 written around the year 100:
It occurs once in the Acts of Pilate, chapter 2, roughly dated from 150 to 400:
The Synod of Elvira [link] of around 306 prohibited Christians from marrying, worshipping with, or publicly eating with Jews, Pagans and Heretics.Judaizing Teachers
Later effects of Judaizer controversy
See also
External links
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