Who repeated the demand for circumcision and the Law in Acts 15:5?
In Acts 15:5, the demand for circumcision and Law-keeping was repeated by Pharisees who had become believers. They were Judaizers from Jerusalem, believing Jews who taught that circumcision after the manner of Moses and keeping the Law of Moses were required for salvation.
Les explains that the letter to the Galatian churches was needed because false teaching was submarining them, insisting that salvation required faith plus keeping the Law of Moses. He takes the reader back to Acts 15, where certain men from Judea came to Antioch and taught that unless one was circumcised after the manner of Moses, one could not be saved. Then in verse 5, Les points out that the demand is repeated again, especially by the Pharisees who had become believers. These Judaizers from Jerusalem, though believing Jews, were pressing circumcision and Law observance as necessary for salvation.
But there rose up certain of the sect of the Pharisees which believed, saying, That it was needful to circumcise them, and to command them to keep the law of Moses.