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JUDAIZING

Voluntary actions by Gentiles who adopt Jewish customs and practices, usually short of full conversion (Gk. Ioudaïzō, “to live as a Jew”; Heb. yāhaḏ hithpael; used in both Jewish and Christian ancient sources). Secondarily the term refers to the actions of those who urge Judaism upon Gentiles.

Jewish and Greco-Roman usage of this verb illustrates these two meanings. When the royal edict against the Jews inspired by Haman failed and a new edict allowed Jews to destroy their enemies, many Gentiles “professed to be Jews” out of fear (Esth. 8:17); the LXX adds that they were circumcised. Josephus (BJ 2.17.10 [454]) says that the captured Roman general Metilius escaped death by promising to Judaize. Josephus also relates how the Syrians thought they had eliminated Judaism in their territories, “but each city had its Judaizers, who aroused suspicion” (BJ 2.18.2 [463]). Plutarch somewhat disdainfully relates that Caecilius, a freed slave, adopted Jewish practices (Cic. 7.6).

In Gal. 2:14, the only use of the term in the NT, Paul defends his law-free gospel, relating his rebuke of Peter for withdrawing, under pressure from strict Jewish Christians, from table fellowship with Gentile Christians in Antioch. Paul implies that to require Gentile Christians “to live like Jews” (NRSV) contradicts the gospel. To judge from Galatians, this Judaizing meant circumcision and keeping at least a minimum of Jewish laws, e.g., keeping kosher well enough to enable strict Jewish Christians to eat with the Galatians. Paul’s argument against Judaizing is one element of his overall argument in Galatians that to force or persuade Gentile Christians to adopt Jewish customs is a betrayal of the meaning of Jesus’ salvific work on the cross. He bitterly opposes those who urge adoption of Jewish laws and customs, and argues with his full rhetorical skills to keep the Galatians true to his law-free gospel.

Christian tradition and NT scholarship have generally used the term “Judaizers,” but Paul does not use this word, and thus it should not be attributed to him. Moreover, in Galatians Paul does not attack Judaism as such, but those Jewish Christians who undertake missions to the Gentiles to urge them to live as Jews. Their argument is not that Gentiles must become Jews before becoming Christians; rather, they want all Christians to be Jewish Christians, to “live as Jews” while following Christ. They do so no doubt out of a concern for the essence of Christianity and the unity of the Church, but Paul rejects this basis of faith and unity.

Second-century Christian usage of the word largely mirrors Paul’s antipathy to Judaizing. Ignatius of Antioch vigorously opposes those who are Christians and yet (voluntarily) live according to Judaism (Magn. 8.1); “it is monstrous” to be a Christian and Judaize (10.3). Ignatius cites only the observance of Saturday rather than Sunday, but other customs are doubtless involved. A probable exception to this negative view is the apocryphal Acts of Pilate, which approvingly says that Pilate’s wife revered the true God and “favored the customs of the Jews” (Acts Pil. 2:1). The Church’s mainly negative attitude to Judaizing is suggested by the 4th-century Council of Laodicea, which condemned those who Judaize. To this day, Christians who adopt Jewish customs not historically practiced by the mainstream Church (e.g., Saturday observance, circumcision as a religious duty, avoidance of pork) are usually considered outside the Christian mainstream by reason of their “Judaizing.”

These uses of “Judaizing” show that Jewish religious practices had a strong, continuing appeal to many ancient Christians. To judge from these passages, the initiative for this appeal came mostly from the Christian side, and not as a result of Jewish pressure or persecution. In the dynamic, sometimes difficult relationship between Jewish Christianity and Gentile Christianity, several Gentile Christian authors had to defend what they considered the essential truth and uniqueness of Christianity by warning Christians against “Judaizing.”

Bibliography. L. Gaston, “Judaism of the Uncircumcised in Ignatius and Related Writers,” in Anti-Judaism in Early Christianity, ed. P. Richardson (Waterloo, 1986), 2:33-44.

Robert E. Van Voorst

Prayer Tents Bible References - Prayer Tents

JUDAIZING

Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible (2000)