Role in Pauline Christianity
Judaising Gentiles and God-fearers are considered by modern scholars to be of significant importance to the growth of
early Christianity;
[ they represented a group of Gentiles who shared religious ideas and practices with Jews, to one degree or another. However, the God-fearers were only "partial" converts, engaged in certain
Jewish rites and traditions without taking a step further to actual
conversion to Judaism, which would have required full adherence to the
613 Mitzvot, including various prohibitions (
kashrut,
circumcision,
Shabbat observance etc.) that were generally unattractive to would-be Gentile (largely Greek) converts. The
rite of circumcision was especially unappealing and execrable in
Classical civilization because it was the custom to spend an hour a day or so exercising
nude in the
gymnasium and in
Roman baths, therefore Jewish men did not want to be seen in public deprived of their
foreskins.
Hellenistic and
Roman culture both found circumcision to be cruel and repulsive.
The
Apostle Paul in his
letters fiercely criticized the
Judaizers that
demanded circumcision for Gentile converts, and opposed them; he stressed instead that
faith in
Christ constituted a
New Covenant with God,
[a
covenant which essentially provides the
justification and
salvation for Gentiles from the harsh edicts of the
Mosaic Law, a New Covenant that didn't require circumcision (see also
Justification by faith,
Pauline passages supporting antinomianism,
Abrogation of Old Covenant laws).
Lydia of Thyatira, who became Paul's first convert in Europe, is described as "a worshipper of God" (
Acts 16:14); the Roman soldier
Cornelius and the
Ethiopian eunuch are also considered by modern scholars as God-fearers.
In Paul's message of salvation through faith in Christ as opposed to submission under the Mosaic Law, many God-fearers found an essentially Jewish group to which they could belong without the necessity of their accepting Jewish Law. Aside from earning Paul's group a wide following, this view was generalized in the eventual conclusion that converts to Christianity need not first accept all Jewish Law (see
Apostolic Decree), a fact indispensable to the spread of the early Christians which would eventually lead to the
distinction between Judaism and Christianity as two separate religions.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/God-fearer
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In his writings, Paul is particularly critical of the "Judaizers" early Jewish Christians who taught that Gentiles must convert to Mosaic Law, which included "circumcision," before one could convert to Christianity!
Paul, who taught the Christian new covenant of salvation through faith, was viewed with deep suspicion by the Jerusalem Church, and documents the incident whereby it even had sent out "Judaizers" to ensure that Apostle Peter was following the correct teaching that Gentiles must convert to Mosaic Law!
Gentiles who believed Christ's teaching, but were not committed to observing the Mosaic Laws, were referred to as "God-fears" - partial Christians!
