Acts 15:1-3

The Demand that All Believers in Christ Be Circumcised And Its Consequence (15:1-3).

News had reached Judaea of the many Gentiles who had become Christians and had not been circumcised. This had horrified many Jewish believers, especially many Pharisees who were believers, for they considered that it was not possible to be within God's salvation without being circumcised and keeping the whole Law of Moses. They considered that Jesus' purpose had been to make all men good Jews.

But they were not at first too perturbed. They recognised the principle that it was right for God-fearers to attach themselves to a gathering of believers, with the aim in view that they eventually become full proselytes and be circumcised. So just as the prophets from Jerusalem had previously gone to give assistance to the work in Antioch by giving them spiritual enlightenment, some decided that they too must go to Antioch and guide these new Gentile converts into ‘the full truth' as they saw it. (They may well at first have been taken by surprise by the vehement opposition of Paul and Barnabas).