Note 13 at Acts 22:22: The Jews had put up with Paul recounting his experience where he came to recognize Jesus as the Christ, but they exploded again when he mentioned Jesus sending him to the gentiles. This was the real issue. The Jews had become more devoted to the rituals of their religion than they were to the God whom their religion was suppose to point them toward. They might possibly have accepted Jesus as the Christ if He would have left their religion alone, but he was constantly breaking their traditions (see notes 8 & 9 at Mk. 7:13, 15, p. 250).

One of the most dramatic and noticeable traditions of the Jews was the covenant of circumcision (see note 2 at Acts 15:1, p. 659) and the concept that any uncircumcised person (gentile) was totally separated from God (see note 3 at Lk. 7:9, p. 174; note 3 at Acts 10:45, p. 636). It infuriated the Jews to think that the Christians were presenting the Jewish Messiah to the Gentiles and telling them that they could become joint heirs with the Jews without becoming proselytes to Judaism through circumcision.