Circumcision

Circumcision is the covenant sign given to Abraham in Genesis 17 as the mark of membership in the covenant community. Every male in Abraham’s household is to be circumcised, and every male descendant in subsequent generations. The sign in the flesh is the outward marker of belonging to the people with whom Yahweh has entered into covenant. Its placement is significant: it marks the organ of procreation, pointing to the promise of descendants through whom the covenant line will continue.

The limitation of circumcision as a covenant sign is exposed throughout the Old Testament. Moses, the mediator of the Sinai covenant, has an uncircumcised son (Exodus 4). Jeremiah announces that Yahweh will judge circumcised and uncircumcised alike (Jeremiah 9:25), because Israel is “uncircumcised of heart.” The sign in the flesh does not guarantee covenant faithfulness. What the sign pointed to, the inward reality, was not automatically present.

Paul’s argument in Galatians and Romans turns on this distinction. Circumcision is not the ground of justification before God; Abraham was justified by faith before he was circumcised (Romans 4:10-11). Physical circumcision was a sign pointing to the reality of a circumcised heart: a new creation, an inward belonging to God. In Christ, the outward sign has been superseded by the work of the Spirit, who performs the true circumcision “made without hands” (Colossians 2:11). The articles below trace this theme through several key passages.