Against this idea [circumcising Gentile believers], however, stood centuries of prophetic traditions. In the End, as Isaiah had foreseen, the gentiles were to join with Israel, but they would not join Israel. Their place in the Kingdom was to be as gentiles, now free from their enchainment to idol worship. “The root of Jesse shall come,” prophesied Isaiah, “he who rises to rule the gentiles. In him shall the gentiles hope.” Paul repeated this verse from Isaiah when summarizing his own view of final redemption in his letter to the Romans. Gentile Endtime inclusion did not mean an Endtime “conversion.” A policy of circumcision, of turning these gentiles “into” Jews, would undermine the very same positive sign of the times that they themselves embodied. -Paula Fredricksen, When Christians Were Jews, p.134-135