Judaizers: Not what you have been told!

There is a serious misunderstanding of both the designation, Judaizer and the term to Judaize.

This totally flawed understanding has been so ingrained over the centuries that almost all encyclopedias and dictionaries seriously mis-represent the meaning. This alone would not be so serious if it were not for the fact that the central effect of this misunderstanding and misrepresentation leads to a rejection of Torah by sincere but very misguided Christians and others who may be genuine seekers of truth.

This error is largely the result of another massive misunderstanding, and that is of the phrase, ‘the works of the law’ that the Apostle Paul uses in both Galatians and Romans. I suspect that the flawed perspective on the meaning of the term Judaizer and the issues around the context of its use in the New Testament is really a false inference based on the even more flawed and mis-guided understanding of ‘Works of the Law’. I discuss this issue in depth in my book ‘Defending the Apostle Paul: Weighing the Evidence’ and also include an article on it in the appendix. See here for a free pdf of the book: https://circumcisedheart.info/DefendingtheApostlePaul.pdf

We can see a connection between the two concepts/terms in Galatians 2.

14 But when I saw that they are not walking uprightly to the truth of the good news, I said to Peter before all, `If thou, being a Jew, in the manner of the nations dost live, and not in the manner of the Jews, how the nations dost thou compel to Judaize? 15 we by nature Jews, and not sinners of the nations, 16 having known also that a man is not declared righteous by works of law, if not through the faith of Jesus Christ, also we in Christ Jesus did believe, that we might be declared righteous by the faith of Christ, and not by works of law, wherefore declared righteous by works of law shall be no flesh.' – YLT

While it seems there are very few modern scholars that have identified this massive issue with the term Judaizer, one who has is Marvin Wilson. In his book ‘Our Father Abraham’, he defines Judaizer as ‘Gentile converts to Judaism – those that submitted to the entire Oral and Written Torah (including circumcision)’ [see page 25].

That is, he defines a Judaizer as a Gentile who has converted and become a Jew (a member of the tribe of Judah, which is where the term Jew derives from though it is now commonly used to refer to all 12 Tribes and not just the tribe of Judah). As an important aside, I do contend that the Apostle Paul did not wish to see Gentiles convert and become Jews. Again, I discuss all this in depth in my book so I will not repeat it here. Another Bible scholar who also addresses the correct meaning of Judaizer (and who also shares the exact same understanding of ‘works of the law’ that I argue for) is Prof. Mark Nanos. For a much more in-depth and comprehensive presentation on this topic I highly recommend ’Judaizers’? ‘Pagan’ Cults? Cynics?: Reconceptualizing the Concerns of Paul's Audience from the Polemics in Philippians 3:2, 18-19’ by Prof Mark Nanos, as well as his ‘Paul's Reversal of Jews Calling Gentiles 'Dogs' (Philippians 3:2): 1600 Years of an Ideological Tale Wagging an Exegetical Dog’.

While there are many passages in the New Testament that are wrongly interpreted to support the false conceptions and implications of the term ‘Judaizer’ one of the most common is a flawed interpretation of Philippians 3 that argues that it is a polemic against either ‘the circumcision’ (the Jewish people) or, even more commonly, against ‘Judaizers’. I discuss Philippians 3 in some detail here: https://circumcisedheart.info/Re-evaluating%20Philipians%203.pdf I should also add that the reason the Apostle Paul was against the idea of Gentiles converting and becoming Jews was because he saw the promise to Avraham being fulfilled before his eyes (that Avraham would be the father of many nations) and so he wanted to see all Gentiles who were coming into the Kingdom through Yeshua remaining as members of the nations.

Also, as he repeatedly explained, converting to Judaism (this is what 'works of the law' was), did not, in and of itself, bring any guarantee of salvation and entry into the Kingdom. But he still expected all those accepting Yeshua and becoming sons and daughters of HaShem to obey HaShem's divine instructions (i.e. Torah).