And certain men which came down from Judea
To Antioch; they were not sent by the apostles, they came down of
"themselves"; who they were, is not certain; that they were
"judaizing" Christians, and teachers among them, is plain from
the following account: according to Epiphanius F7 they
were Cerinthus, and some of his followers: these
taught the brethren;
the Gentile converts at Antioch, who are styled "brethren",
though they were Gentiles, because they were regenerated by the
grace of God, and were of the same faith with the believing Jews,
and in the same church state with them at Antioch: and said,
except ye be circumcised after the manner of
Moses;
or custom of Moses, which had been used from the time of Abraham,
and was revived and reinforced by Moses; wherefore the Syriac
version renders it, "the law of Moses"; (See Gill on John
7:19)
ye cannot be saved;
these men were not only for retaining circumcision, which was now
abolished, but they made it necessary to salvation; which was
carrying the matter further than even the unbelieving Jews
themselves did, at least some of them: for though indeed it is a
notion with them, that no circumcised persons go to hell, but are
all saved; and some of them say, that God rejects uncircumcised
persons, and brings them down to hell F8; yet
others of them speak of the godly among the nations of the world,
and of the proselytes of the gate, who keep the seven precepts of
Noah, as persons that shall be saved; so Ananias the Jew,
preceptor to King Izates, when he signified his great desire to
be circumcised, in order to put him off of it, told him, that if
he was determined to follow the customs of the Jews, he might
worship God without circumcision, which was more peculiar to the
Jews than to be circumcised F9.