The Jews were everywhere the jealous, malignant and energetic enemies of the Gospel. At Antioch, Thessalonica, Corinth, and in every principal city, they kindled opposition and persecution. In one of the latest of his epistles Paul writes: "Beware of the dogs, beware of the evil workers, beware of the [circumcision]" (Phil. 3:2). At first it was not the emoire, nor paganism that made deliberate, organized opposition to Christianity. As Pilate would have released the Savior but for the Jewish hierarchy, so the imperial authorities regarded the church with indifference and contempt, except when its industrious Jewish enemies succeeded in exciting their suspicion or their fear...During our Lord's ministry it was the Jews who were primarily "His adversaries" (Luke 13:17); it was the same during the ministry of the apostles.

The opposition came from three groups: (1) those Jews who denied that Jesus was the Messiah; (2) those Jews who were "zealous for the law", that is, the Mosaic ceremonial ordinances (Acts 21:20), insisting that these Old Covenant customs should be retained as a condition for salvation; and (3) thos Jews who neglected "the commandment of God" while keeping their man-made "tradition" (Mark 7:8-9). Jews who had rejected their Messiah outright had apostatized from the one true faith (Eph. 4:5). They had rejected the faith of believing Israelites such as Mary, Joseph, Elizabeth, Zacharias, Simeon (Luke 2:34-35), Anna (2:36-38), Nicodemus (John 3; 19:39), Joseph of Arimathea (John 19:38), the apostles, the disciples, the "three thousand" (Acts 2:41), the "five thousand" (Acts 4:4), and Paul himself (Acts 9). They were vocal antagonists of the gospel. The man of lawlessness is akin to a traitor, a Judas. A synonym for the "man of lawlessness" is the "son of destruction" (1Thess. 2:3), the title given to describe Judas (John 17:12).

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