Editing Judaizers (section)

{{Short description|Faction of Jewish Christians}}
{{For|the 15th–16th-century Russian religious sect|Heresy of the Judaizers}}
{{Jewish Christianity|Pejoratives}}

The '''Judaizers''' were a faction of the [[Jewish Christianity|Jewish Christians]], both of [[Jews|Jewish]] and [[Gentile|non-Jewish]] origins, who regarded the [[Book of Leviticus|Levitical laws]] of the [[Old Testament]] as still binding on all Christians.<ref name="Oxford Dictionary">{{cite book |editor1-last=Cross |editor1-first=F. L. |editor1-link=F. L. Cross |editor2-last=Livingstone |editor2-first=E. A. |editor2-link=Elizabeth Livingstone |title=The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church |year=2005 |location=[[Oxford]] |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |edition=3rd Revised |doi=10.1093/acref/9780192802903.001.0001 |page=912 |isbn=978-0-19-280290-3 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fUqcAQAAQBAJ}}</ref> They tried to enforce [[Religious male circumcision#Judaism|Jewish circumcision]] upon the Gentile converts to [[early Christianity]] and were strenuously opposed and criticized for their behavior by the [[Paul the Apostle|Apostle Paul]], who employed many of [[Pauline epistles|his epistles]] to refute their [[Christian theology|doctrinal]] positions.<ref name="Oxford Dictionary"/><ref name="Dunn 1993">{{cite journal |last=Dunn |first=James D. G. |author-link=James Dunn (theologian) |date=Autumn 1993 |title=Echoes of Intra-Jewish Polemic in Paul's Letter to the Galatians |editor-last=Reinhartz |editor-first=Adele |editor-link=Adele Reinhartz |journal=[[Journal of Biblical Literature]] |publisher=[[Society of Biblical Literature]] |volume=112 |issue=3 |pages=459–477 |doi=10.2307/3267745 |issn=0021-9231 |jstor=3267745}}</ref><ref name="Thiessen 2014">{{cite journal |last=Thiessen |first=Matthew |editor1-last=Breytenbach |editor1-first=Cilliers |editor2-last=Thom |editor2-first=Johan |date=September 2014 |title=Paul's Argument against Gentile Circumcision in Romans 2:17-29 |journal=[[Novum Testamentum]] |location=[[Leiden]] |publisher=[[Brill Publishers]] |volume=56 |issue=4 |pages=373–391 |doi=10.1163/15685365-12341488 |eissn=1568-5365 |issn=0048-1009 |jstor=24735868}}</ref><ref name="Klutz 2002">{{cite book |author-last=Klutz |author-first=Todd |year=2002 |orig-date=2000 |chapter=Part II: Christian Origins and Development – Paul and the Development of Gentile Christianity |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6fyCAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA178 |editor-last=Esler |editor-first=Philip F. |title=The Early Christian World |location=[[New York City|New York]] and [[London]] |publisher=[[Routledge]] |edition=1st |series=Routledge Worlds |pages=178–190 |isbn=9781032199344}}</ref>

The term is derived from the [[Koine Greek]] word {{Lang|grc|Ἰουδαΐζειν}} ({{Transliteration|grc|Ioudaizein}}),<ref>{{Cite book|last=Murray|first=Michele|title=Playing a Jewish Game: Gentile Christian Judaizing in the First and Second Centuries CE|publisher=[[Wilfrid Laurier University Press]]|year=2004|isbn=978-0889204010|location=Waterloo, Canada|pages=3}}</ref> [[Hapax legomenon|used once]] in the [[Novum Testamentum Graece|Greek New Testament]] ({{bibleverse||Galatians|2:14|NKJV}}),<ref>''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.</ref> when Paul publicly challenged the [[Saint Peter|Apostle Peter]] for compelling Gentile converts to early Christianity to "judaize".<ref>{{cite journal |last=Dunn |first=James D. G. |author-link=James Dunn (theologian) |date=Autumn 1993 |title=Echoes of Intra-Jewish Polemic in Paul's Letter to the Galatians |editor-last=Reinhartz |editor-first=Adele |editor-link=Adele Reinhartz |journal=[[Journal of Biblical Literature]] |publisher=[[Society of Biblical Literature]] |volume=112 |issue=3 |page=462 |doi=10.2307/3267745 |issn=0021-9231 |jstor=3267745 |quote=Galatians 2:14: ''“how is it that you compel the Gentiles to judaize?”'' “To judaize” was a quite familiar expression, in the sense “to live like a Jew”, “to adopt a distinctively Jewish way of life”-with reference to Gentiles taking up Jewish customs like observance of the [[Biblical Sabbath|sabbath]]. The polemical note sounds in the verb “compel”. [...] The element of compulsion would enter because there were Gentiles who were making claims, or for whom claims were being made, to enter into what generations of Jews had always regarded as their exclusive privileges (in terms of the argument of Galatians, into the direct line of inheritance from [[Abraham]]). To safeguard the character of these privileges it was evidently seen as necessary to ensure that such claimants conformed fully to the traditional notes of the [[Covenant (biblical)#Abrahamic covenant|covenant people]]. This Paul regarded as compulsion.}}</ref><ref>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."</ref> This episode is known as the [[incident at Antioch]].

[[Christian views on the Old Covenant|Most Christians believe]] that much of the [[Mosaic covenant|Old Covenant]] has been [[Supersessionism|superseded]], and many believe it has been [[Abrogation of Old Covenant laws|completely abrogated]] and replaced by the [[Law of Christ]].<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Donaldson|first=Terence L.|date=2016|title=Supersessionism and Early Christian Self-Definition|url=http://www.jjmjs.org/uploads/1/1/9/0/11908749/jjmjs-3_donaldson.pdf|journal=JJMJS|volume=3|pages=2–3}}</ref> The Christian debate over judaizing began in the [[Christianity in the 1st century|lifetime of the apostles]], notably at the [[Council of Jerusalem]] and the incident at Antioch.<ref name="Dunn 1993"/><ref name="Thiessen 2014"/> It has been carried on parallel to continuing debates about [[Paul the Apostle and Jewish Christianity|Paul the Apostle and Judaism]], [[Ten Commandments#Christianity|Protestant views of the Ten Commandments]], and [[Christian ethics]].