Although there were some Jews in the community, very little in the letter suggests a Jewish background.12 At least three texts that speak of their former way of life explicitly indicate that they were former idolaters and therefore chiefly Gentiles (6:10–11; 8:7; 12:2). Other items imply the same: e.g., the whole matter of going to the temple feasts in 8:1–10:22 is a strictly Gentile phenomenon; the attitude toward marriage, thinking it to be a sin, in chap. 7 scarcely fits Judaism, even Hellenistic