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The Judaizers were a faction of the Jewish Christians, both of Jews and Gentile origins, who regarded the Levitical laws of the Old Testament as still binding on all Christians. 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 Pauline epistles to refute their doctrinal positions.
The term is derived from the Koine Greek word Ἰουδαΐζειν (), Hapax legomenon in the Greek New Testament (), Greek New Testament, Galatians 2:14 ἀλλ᾽ ὅτε εἶδον ὅτι οὐκ ὀρθοποδοῦσιν πρὸς τὴν ἀλήθειαν τοῦ εὐαγγελίου εἶπον τῷ Πέτρῳ ἔμπροσθεν πάντων Εἰ σὺ Ἰουδαῖος ὑπάρχων ἐθνικῶς ζῇς καὶ οὐκ Ἰουδαϊκῶς τί τὰ ἔθνη ἀναγκάζεις Ἰουδαΐζειν. when Paul publicly challenged the Saint Peter for compelling Gentile converts to early Christianity to "judaize".Michele Murray Playing a Jewish Game: Gentile Christian Judaizing in the First and Second Centuries CE, Canadian Corporation for Studies in Religion, 2004, p. 33: "From Paul's perspective, by withdrawing from Gentile table fellowship, Peter was sending a message to the Gentile believers of Antioch. The message to Antiochene Gentile Christians was that they were to judaize." This episode is known as the incident at Antioch.
Most Christians believe that much of the Mosaic covenant has been Supersessionism, and many believe it has been completely abrogated and replaced by the Law of Christ. The Christian debate over judaizing began in the lifetime of the apostles, notably at the Council of Jerusalem and the incident at Antioch. It has been carried on parallel to continuing debates about Paul the Apostle and Judaism, Protestant views of the Ten Commandments, and Christian ethics.
The word Judaizer comes from judaize, which is seldom used in English Bible translations (an exception is the Young's Literal Translation for Galatians 2:14).
Before Paul's conversion, Christianity was part of Second Temple Judaism. Gentiles who wished to join the early Christian movement, which at the time comprised mostly Jewish followers, were expected to convert to Judaism, which likely meant Brit milah, following the dietary restrictions of kashrut, and more. During the time period there were also "partial converts", such as gate proselytes and (i.e. Greco-Roman sympathizers who made an allegiance to Judaism but refused to convert and therefore retained their Gentile (non-Jewish) status), hence they were uncircumcised and it was not required for them to follow any of the commandments of the Mosaic Law.
The inclusion of Gentiles into early Christianity posed a problem for the Jewish identity of some of the early Christians: the new Gentile converts were not required to be circumcised nor to observe the Mosaic Law. Circumcision in particular was regarded as a token of the membership of the Abrahamic covenant, and the most traditionalist faction of Jewish Christians (i.e., converted Pharisees) insisted that Gentile converts had to be circumcised as well. Paul insisted that faith in Jesus (see also Faith or Faithfulness) was sufficient for salvation, therefore the Mosaic Law was not binding for the Gentiles. (2025). 9780190271756, Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780190271756 (2017). 9780190636647, Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780190636647
Paul was severely critical of the Judaizers within the early church and harshly reprimanded them for their doctrines and behavior. Paul saw the Judaizers as being both dangerous to the spread of the Gospel and propagators of grievous doctrinal errors. 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 publicly condemned Saint Peter for his seemingly ambivalent reaction to the Judaizers, embracing them publicly in places where their preaching was popular while holding the private opinion that their doctrines were erroneous (cf. , , , , , , ).
That Gentile Christians should obey the Law of Moses was the assumption of some Jewish Christians in the early church, as represented by the group of Pharisees who had converted to Christianity in . Paul opposed this position, concluding that Gentiles did not need to obey to the entire Law of Moses in order to become Christians. The conflict between Paul and his Judaizing opponents over this issue came to a head with the Council of Jerusalem. According to the account given in Acts , 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 Idolatry, and from blood, and from things strangled, and from fornication" ().
Paul addresses this question in his Epistle to the Galatians, in which he condemned those who insisted that circumcision had to be followed for justification as "false believers" ():
Paul warns the early Galatian church that gentile Christians who submit to circumcision will be alienated from Christ: "Indeed I, Paul, say to you that if you become circumcised, Christ will profit you nothing. And I testify again to every man who becomes circumcised that he is a debtor to keep the whole law. You have become estranged from Christ, you who attempt to be justified by law; you have fallen from grace." ().
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 (). Thus he shortly after circumcised Timothy (), and he was in the very act of observing the Mosaic ritual when he was arrested at Jerusalem ( sqq.)."
Later Paul more explicitly denounced the practice, rejecting and condemning those Judaizers who promoted circumcision to Gentile Christians. He accused them of turning from the Spirit to the flesh: "Are you so foolish, that, whereas you began in the Spirit, you would now be made perfect by the flesh?" Paul warned that the advocates of circumcision as a condition of salvation were "false brothers". He accused the advocates of circumcision of wanting to make a good showing in the flesh, and of glorying or boasting of the flesh. Paul instead stressed a message of salvation through faith in Christ opposed to the submission under the Mosaic Law that constituted a New Covenant with God, which essentially provides a justification for Gentiles from the harsh edicts of the Law, a New Covenant that did not require circumcision (see also Justification by faith, Pauline passages supporting antinomianism, Abrogation of Old Covenant laws).
His attitude towards circumcision varies between his outright hostility to what he calls "mutilation" in to praise in . However, such apparent discrepancies have led to a degree of skepticism about the reliability of Acts.For example, see Catholic Encyclopedia (1907–1914): Acts of the Apostles: Objections Against the Authenticity Baur, Schwanbeck, De Wette, Davidson, Mayerhoff, Schleiermacher, Friedrich Bleek, Krenkel, and others have opposed the authenticity of the Acts; an objection is drawn from the discrepancy between and . Some believe that Paul wrote the entire Epistle to the Galatians attacking circumcision, saying in chapter five: "Behold, I Paul say unto you, if ye be circumcised, Christ shall profit you nothing."
The division between the Jews who followed the Mosaic Law and were circumcised and the Gentiles who were uncircumcised was highlighted in his Epistle to the Galatians:
It occurs once in the Apostolic Fathers collection, in Ignatius's letter to the Magnesians 10:3 written around 100:
Judaizing teachers are strongly condemned in the Epistle of Barnabas. (Although it did not become part of the Christian Biblical canon, it was widely circulated among Christians in the first two centuries and is part of the Apostolic Fathers.) 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", ), the Epistle of Barnabas condemns most Jewish practices, claiming that Jews had grossly misunderstood and misapplied the Law of Moses.
Justin Martyr (about 140) distinguishes two kinds of Jewish Christians: those who observe the Law of Moses but do not require its observance of others—with these he would hold Eucharist—and those who believe the Mosaic law to be obligatory on all, whom he considers heretics ( Dialogue with Trypho 47).
The Council of Laodicea of around 365 decreed 59 laws, #29:
According to Eusebius' History of the Church 4.5.3-4: the first 15 Bishops of Jerusalem were "of the circumcision", although this in all likelihood is simply stating that they were Jewish Christians (as opposed to Gentile Christians), and that they observed biblical circumcision and thus likely the rest of Torah as well.McGrath, Alister E. Christianity: An Introduction. Blackwell Publishing (2006). , page 174.
The eight homilies Adversus Judaeos ("against the Jews") of John Chrysostom (347–407) deal with the relationship between Christians, Jews and Judaizers.
The influence of the Judaizers in the church diminished significantly after the destruction of Jerusalem, when the Jewish-Christian community at Jerusalem was dispersed by the Romans during the First Jewish–Roman War. The Romans also dispersed the Jewish leadership in Jerusalem in 135 during the Bar Kokhba Revolt. Traditionally it is believed the Jerusalem Christians waited out the Jewish–Roman wars in Pella in the Decapolis. These setbacks, however, did not necessarily mean an end to Jewish Christianity, any more than Valerian's Massacre of 258, (when he killed all Christian bishops, presbyters, and deacons, including Pope Sixtus II and Antipope Novatian and Cyprian of Carthage), meant an end to Roman Christianity.
The Latin verb iudaizare is used once in the Vulgate where the Greek verb ioudaizein occurs at Galatians 2:14. 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."Eric Plumer Augustine's Commentary on Galatians: Introduction, Text, Translation, and Notes p124 footnote "5 Literally, 'who were compelling Gentiles to Judaize (Latin: iudaizare)'—in other words, '... to live in accordance with Jewish customs'. In the Latin Bible the term occurs only at Gal. 2: 14, where it virtually transliterates the Greek ioudaizein"
Christian groups following Jewish practices never completely vanished, although they had been designated as heresy by the 5th century.
At various times since then, the Russian Orthodox Church has described several related Spiritual Christian groups as having a Judaizing character; the accuracy of this label – which was influenced by the early Christian polemics against Judaizers – has been disputed. The most famous of the Russian Empire's Judaizing sects were the KaraimitesS.V. Bulgakov "Handbook of heresies, sects and schisms", under Караимиты under Louis H. Gray's entry "Judaizing" section 8 "Recrudescent forms" subsection C "Karaimites" on page 612 in Volume 7 of "Encyclopædia of Religion and Ethics" HardPress. 2013. or Karaimites like Alexander Zaïd (1886–1938) who successfully settled in the Holy Land from 1904.
The Spanish word Judaizante was applied both to Jewish conversos who practiced some traditions from Judaism secretly and sometimes to Jews who had not converted,Seymour B. Liebman The inquisitors and the Jews in the New World 1975 "The term Judaizante was applied to Jewish apostates to Catholicism who practiced Judaism secretly. In some instances the term was synonymous with Jew." in Spain and the New World at the time of the Spanish Inquisition. Zumárraga and the Mexican Inquisition, 1536-1543 "The first activity of the Mexican Inquisition against Jews and Judaizantes came in 1523 with the ordinance against heretics and Jews."
Sometimes, accusations of being a Judaizer led to the persecution of Catholics of Converso descent who were completely innocent of preaching or doing anything heretical by the Catholic Church. For example, while serving as professor of Biblical scholarship at the University of Salamanca, the Augustinians 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 Conversos and this, as well as his vocal advocacy for teaching the Hebrew language in Catholic universities and seminaries, caused false accusations from the Dominican Order 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..."Edith Grossman (2006), The Golden Age: Poems of the Spanish Renaissance, W.W. Norton, New York. Page 101.
The term "Judaizers" was used by the Spanish Inquisition and the inquisitions established in Mexico City, Lima, and Cartagena de Indias for (also termed ) accused of continuing to observe the Jewish religion, as Crypto-Judaism.Ricardo Escobar Quevedo. Inquisición y judaizantes en América española (siglos XVI-XVII).Bogota: Editorial Universidad del Rosario, 2008.Márquez Villanueva. Sobre el concepto de judaizante. Tel Aviv : University Publishing Projects, 2000.Universidad de Alicante. Sobre las construcciones narrativas del “judío judaizante” ante la Inquisición. Universidad de Alicante. Departamento de Filología Española, Lingüística General y Teoría de la Literatura; Rovira Soler, José Carlos. Universidad de Alicante 2014 Entry of Portuguese New Christians into Spain and the Spanish realms occurred during the Union of Crowns of Spain and Portugal, 1580–1640, when both kingdoms and their overseas empires were held by the same monarch. The Bnei Anusim are modern day Hispanic Judaizers.
A list of notable contemporary groups of Judaizers includes:
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