Now Paul, wishing that this man should accompany him on his journey, took him and circumcised him because of the local Jews, who all knew that his father was a Greek.

Why

but just as in old times the son born by the flesh used to persecute the son born by the power of the Spirit, so also it is now.

Those who are trying to compel you to be circumcised are such as wish to make a fair show in the flesh, only that they may not suffer persecution for the cross of Christ.

"Now what they have been told about you, again and again, is that you teach all the Jews who are among the Gentiles, to forsake Moses, and not to circumcise their children, nor to follow the old customs.

"'Depart,' he said to me, 'for I will send you forth, far hence, to the Gentiles.'"

And there were more than forty who had sworn this oath.

Yes, and why am I myself exposed to danger every hour?

Are they ministers of Christ? (I speak as though I were beside myself), such, far, more, am I; in labors more abundant, in imprisonments also more abundant, in floggings beyond measure, in deaths often.

The offence

And why? Because they sought it not by faith, but thought to gain it by works. They stumbled at the stone of stumbling;

For the message of the Cross is indeed for those on their way to destruction, foolishness; but for us who are on our way to salvation it is the power of God.

and, A stone of stumbling, and a rock of offense. They stumble over it because they are disobeying God's word, and to this they were also appointed.

General references

Yes, and why am I myself exposed to danger every hour?

For if I am rebuilding the very things which I destroyed, I am proving myself a transgressor.