What did the Judaizers claim was necessary for Paul's converts to be saved?
The Judaizers claimed Paul’s converts could not be saved unless they kept the Law of Moses, practiced circumcision, and observed related legal requirements. They insisted the Gentile believers had to return under the Law, adding these works to salvation, which troubled the congregations Paul and Barnabas established.
Les explains the setting was the predominantly Gentile church at Antioch, where Paul and Barnabas labored and from which they moved into the Gentile world of Asia Minor and Greece. Everywhere they went, their congregations were constantly subjected to Judaizers who tried to bring them back under the Law. These Judaizers claimed Paul’s converts could not be saved unless they kept the Law of Moses, practiced circumcision, and so forth. Eventually the issue came to a head, and Paul and Barnabas, by the Lord’s direction, were sent to Jerusalem to confront Peter and the hierarchy there, which Paul rehearses in Galatians 2 and which is also recorded in Acts 15.