Circumcision Controversy in Early Christianity - Circumcision Controversy

Circumcision Controversy

Disputes over the Mosaic Law or Old Covenant generated intense controversy in Early Christianity. This is particularly notable in the mid-1st century, when the circumcision controversy came to the fore. Alister McGrath, a proponent of Paleo-orthodoxy, claimed that many of the Jewish Christians were fully faithful religious Jews, only differing in their acceptance of Jesus as the Messiah. As such, they believed that circumcision and other requirements of the Mosaic Law were required for salvation, if one equates fully faithful religious Jews with Legalism (theology); for a counterview, see Covenantal nomism. Those in the Christian community who insisted that biblical law, including laws on circumcision, continued to apply to Christians were pejoratively labeled Judaizers by their opponents and criticized as being elitist and legalistic, besides other claimed sins.