They wished to insist that no one should become a Christian unless he became a Jew at the same time.

If they had succeeded in this, they would have effectually kept the Gospel of Christ from becoming a catholic religion.

But the Apostle Paul was raised up for the emergency, and he prevented this suicidal course.

Consequently Christianity passed at once into Europe, and became the religion of Greeks and Romans as well as Jews.

Paul struck off from it its Jewish shell, told them that as Christians they had nothing to do with the Jewish law, or with Jewish Passovers, Sabbaths, or ceremonies.
As Christians they were only to know Christ, and they were not to know him according to the flesh, that is, not as a Jew.