Judaizers


Judaizers are Christians who teach it is necessary to adopt Jewish customs and practices, especially those found in the Law of Moses, to be saved. The term is derived from the Koine Greek word Ἰουδαΐζειν, used once in the Greek New Testament, when Paul publicly challenges Peter for compelling Gentile converts to Early Christianity to "judaize". This episode is known as the incident at Antioch.
This term includes groups who claim the necessity of continued obedience to the Law of Moses found in the Pentateuch for gentiles. Members of such groups dispute the label because "Judaizers" is typically used as a pejorative.
Most Christians believe that much of the Old Covenant has been superseded, while according to some modern Protestants it has been completely abrogated and replaced by the Law of Christ.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.

Origin

The word Judaizer comes from Judaize, which is seldom used in English Bible translations.
The meaning of the verb Judaize, from which the noun Judaizer is derived, can only be derived from its various historical uses. Its biblical meaning must also be inferred and is not clearly defined beyond its obvious relationship to the word "Jew." The Anchor Bible Dictionary, for example, says: “The clear implication is that gentiles are being compelled to live according to Jewish customs."

In the Early Church

New Testament

The Judaizing teachers were a group of Jewish Christians who taught that converts to Christianity must first be circumcised. Although such requirements may have made Christianity a much less appealing religious choice for some gentiles, the evidence afforded in Paul's letter to the Galatians exhibits that a significant number of the Galatian gentile converts appear readily disposed to adopt these nomistic requirements; indeed, Paul strenuously labors throughout the letter to dissuade them from doing so.
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 contain considerable material disputing the view of this group and condemning its practitioners. 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, for example.
That gentile Christians should obey the Law of Moses was the assumption of some in the Early Church, as represented by Pharisees who had become believers in Acts 15. Paul opposed this position, concluding that Gentiles did not need to convert and obey the entire Law of Moses.
The conflict between Paul and his opponents over this issue came to a head with the Council of Jerusalem. According to the account given in Acts, it was determined that Gentile converts to Christianity did not have to go through circumcision; but in addressing the second question as to whether or not they should obey the Torah, they encouraged the Gentiles 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 the Galatians in which he condemned those who insisted that circumcision had to be followed for justification as "false believers" :
Also Paul warned the early Galatian church that Gentile Christians who submit to circumcision will be alienated from Christ: "2 Indeed I, Paul, say to you that if you become circumcised, Christ will profit you nothing. 3 And I testify again to every man who becomes circumcised that he is a debtor to keep the whole law. 4 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."
According to Daniel Botkin,

Extra-biblical sources

"Judaizer" occurs once in Josephus' Jewish War 2.18.2, referring to the First Jewish–Roman War, written around the year 75:
It occurs once in the Apostolic Fathers collection, in Ignatius's letter to the Magnesians 10:3 written around the year 100:
There are several direct interpolations by a later forger regarding anti-Judaizing in Ignatius's epistles that are considered authentic, it can be assumed the redactor was either trying to build upon Ignatius' positions or responsible for what is perceived as Ignatius' anti-Judaizing altogether.
Judaizing teachers are strongly condemned in the Epistle of Barnabas. Whereas Paul acknowledged that the Law of Moses and its observance were good when used correctly, the Epistle of Barnabas condemns most Jewish practices, claiming that Jews had grossly misunderstood and misapplied the Law of Moses.
Justin Martyr 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 communion – and those who believe the Mosaic law to be obligatory on all, whom he considers heretics.
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, and that they observed biblical circumcision and thus likely the rest of Torah as well.
The eight homilies Adversus Judaeos of John Chrysostom 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 didn't necessarily mean an end to Jewish Christianity, any more than Valerian's Massacre of 258,, meant an end to Roman Christianity.
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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."
Christian groups following Jewish practices never completely vanished, although they had been designated as heretical by the 5th century.

Later history

The Sect of Zacharias the Jew

Skhariya or Zacharias the Jew from Caffa led a sect of Judaizers in Russia. In 1480, Grand Prince Ivan III invited some of his prominent adherents to visit Moscow. The Judaizers enjoyed the support of high-ranking officials, statesmen, merchants, Yelena Stefanovna and Ivan's favorite deacon and diplomat Fyodor Kuritsyn. The latter even decided to establish his own club in the mid-1480s. However, in the end Ivan III renounced his ideas of secularization and allied with the Orthodox Christian clergy. The struggle against the adherents was led by hegumen Joseph Volotsky and his followers and 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 with the aim "not to debate them, but to burn them." Such councils were held in 1488, 1490, 1494 and 1504. 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. In 1491, Zacharias the Jew was executed in Novgorod by the order of Ivan III.
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 Karaimites or Karaimizing-Subbotniks like Alexander Zaïd who successfully settled in the Holy Land.

Protestantism

The Epistle to the Galatians strongly influenced Martin Luther at the time of the Protestant Reformation because of its exposition of justification by grace. Nevertheless, various sects of Messianic Jews such as Jews for Jesus have managed to stake out territory for themselves in the Protestant camp.

Inquisitions

This behavior was particularly persecuted from 1300 to 1800 during the Spanish and Portuguese Inquisitions, using as a basis the many references in the Pauline epistles regarding the "Law as a curse" and the futility of relying on the Law for attaining salvation, known as legalism. Thus, in spite of Paul's agreement at the Council of Jerusalem, Gentile Christianity came to understand that any Torah Laws were anathema, not only to Gentile Christians but also to Christians of Jewish extraction. Under the Spanish Inquisition, the penalty to a converted Jew for "Judaizing" was usually death by burning.
The Spanish word Judaizante was applied both to Jewish conversos to Catholicism who practiced Judaism secretly and sometimes to Jews who had not converted, in Spain and the New World at the time of the Spanish Inquisition.
The term "Judaizers" was used by the Spanish Inquisition and the inquisitions established in Mexico City, Lima, and Cartagena de Indias for Conversos accused of continuing to observe the Jewish religion, as Crypto-Jews. 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.

Contemporary Christianity

and Ethiopian and Eritrean Orthodox Churches continue to practice male circumcision. but critics charge this may reflect ancient Egyptian influence or be a response to the culture of the Islamic majority. In Torah-submissive Christian groups which include the Ethiopian Orthodox church, dietary laws and Saturday Sabbath are observed as well.
The prohibitions against fornication and idolatry are still observed by most Christian denominations although these appear in Jewish law.