So powerful is Paul’s toxic rhetoric in Galatians that it still effects, and even distorts, modern critical reconstructions of the beginning decades of what will eventually be Christianity. Freedom, grace, Spirit, life: these describe Paul’s “law-free” mission and message, and Christianity in general. Slavery, works, flesh, death, the Law: these describe the “Judaizing” message of Paul’s circumcising opponents and, by extension, Judaism in general. But, as we have already seen, the outreach to gentiles had never required circumcision. In this regard, it was “Law-free” from the beginning. And, again as we have already seen, the outreach to gentiles had always required exclusive worship of the god (sic) of Israel, and foregoing sacrifices before images of other divinities. In this regard, it was a “Judaizing” gospel from the beginning, insisting on a public behavior that Paul himself demands of his gentiles as well. No other gods and no images—the first two of Judaism’s Ten Commandments—were always the sine qua non for any and all gentiles joining this movement. In this regard, even Paul’s own gospel was never “Law-free.” -Paula Fredricksen, When Christians Were Jews, p.136-137