What did the Judaizers and Orthodox Jews both require for salvation?
Both groups insisted that salvation required keeping the Law and practicing circumcision. They rejected the idea that Paul’s message alone could save, teaching that without these works a person could not be saved. This legalistic requirement was pressed upon the Galatian churches by the Jewish element from Jerusalem.
Les explains that the Judaizers were the Jewish element from Jerusalem, whether Orthodox Jews who still rejected Jesus of Nazareth or Judaizers who had embraced Christ as Messiah. He says it did not make much difference, because both were hung up on the same requirement: you had to keep the Law and practice circumcision, or you could not be saved. These Judaizers came into the little congregations Paul had planted and told them they could not be saved by Paul’s message alone, that they could not be saved like he said. This happened in Galatia, in what is today Turkey, where Paul had earlier labored and suffered, including the stoning episode between Derbe and Lystra.