Paul, His Opponents, and Their Persecutors - A Study Based on Galatians 5:11; 6:12-13

This study, through Galatians 5:11 and 6:12-13, aims to examine Paul before and after the conversion, Paul’s opponents in Galatia and the persecutors of whom the opponents were afraid, and to reconstruct their interrelationships. Before the conversion, Paul had supported strict Judaism as a zealot, but after the conversion, Paul was being persecuted by those zealot Jews following strict Judaism. Paul’s opponents, as Jewish Christians, encouraged the Gentiles of the Galatian Church to be circumcised in order to win favor over Jews who persecuted them. And their persecutors were those in the diaspora Jews of Galatia who were affected by Jerusalem’s nomistic campaign and the persecution of Jews communicating with the Gentiles. Based on this analysis, this study argues that: Paul insists, to the Jewish Christians forcing circumcision of the Gentiles in order to avoid persecution of the Diaspora Jews in Galatia on the lines of the strict Jewishness, that even if the opponents make the Gentiles full of Jews, they cannot prove their full Jewish identity.