In an ironic inversion, the gentile Christians, who had been persecuted by Jewish racists and threatened with cultural imperialism by Judaizers in the church, became racist persecutors of the Jews, insisting that conversion must mean abandonment of the Jewish culture and adoption of the culture of Christian Gentiles. This kept many potential converts from coming in. Of course, it also kept many rather nominal Christians in “Christendom” from dropping out, a rather questionable advantage.
