In the time of the old covenant, circumcision was the sign of belonging to God’s people (Genesis 17:9–14). Jewish believers did not fully appreciate how the death of Jesus Christ brought an end to the shedding of blood and thus many of them considered circumcision to still be necessary for Gentile converts.1 This may well have been the majority view amongst the Judean Christians at the time that Paul went to Jerusalem.
3 But even Titus, who was with me, was not forced to be circumcised, though he was a Greek.