What is circumcision in the Bible?
Circumcision first appears not as a health custom but as a mark God gave Abraham, cut into the body of every male in his household as the token of a covenant. The Bible then traces that mark through Israel's history and into the New Testament, where it is emptied of value as a ritual and given its full meaning in the death of Christ.
The Rite God Appointed
The sign began with Abraham and became the badge of a whole nation. One summary gathers its scope:
Morrish Bible DictionaryThe rite appointed by God to be a token of the covenant that He made with Abraham and his seed, and also the seal of the righteousness of his faith. Every male in Abraham's house was to be circumcised, and afterwards every male of his seed on the eighth day after birth. It signified the separation of a people from the world to God... Circumcision became a synonym for Israel, so that they could be spoken of as "the circumcised," and the heathen as "the uncircumcised."
What the Mark Said
The cut in the flesh carried a message about where a person stands with God, and the timing of it in Abraham's life settles the argument:
C CrainGod says, in giving Abraham circumcision, "You must carry in your body the sign that your flesh is worthless. You must have in yourself the sign that the sentence of judgment is on the flesh. You must accept a mark which means that faith is the principle on which you are in relationship with Me." But if circumcision is the sign of a covenant of grace, of relationship with God on the principle of faith, it is a seal on the righteousness of faith — a righteousness Abraham already had before he was circumcised.
The Heart, Not the Ceremony
Israel kept the operation and lost the point, and God went on asking for something the knife could not reach:
F. B. HoleFirst, they were, as verse 16 says, to "circumcise" their hearts, as the answer to the love shown to them. We again find the Apostle Paul referring to this in Romans 2:28-29. The rite of circumcision was set up in connection with the patriarchal covenant, as we read in Genesis 17, though confirmed later in connection with the law. The persistent tendency was to keep the outward ceremony and overlook its meaning. Israel was to be a people completely cut off for and to God. Had there been circumcision of "heart," there would have been the cutting off of self-love, in the knowledge of the love of God.
Gilgal
Israel went uncircumcised through the desert years, and the rite was restored only after they crossed the Jordan into the land — at a place named for what happened there:
Hamilton SmithAt Gilgal Israel were separated to God by circumcision, and there, when circumcised, God could say to the people, "Today I have rolled away the reproach of Egypt from you" (Joshua 5:9). There the flesh was cut off, and there the reproach of Egypt was rolled away. At the Red Sea they were delivered from Egypt, but not until they were circumcised on the banks of Jordan was the reproach of Egypt rolled away.
The Circumcision of Christ
Colossians 2:11 speaks of a circumcision "made without hands," and writers point to the cross as the thing the old rite pictured:
William KellyIt does not refer to the literal act of circumcising, but to Christ's death. When we believe in Christ, we have all the value of His death made true of us. This is here called circumcision not made by hands, in contrast with the ancient ordinance. The meaning and spiritual thought of circumcision is the putting to death of human nature, man as he is being treated as a dead thing... This circumcision supersedes all others, which in no way stripped off our evil state as man in the flesh.
Commentators differ on the wording of that verse: several note that the better reading is "putting off the body of the flesh" rather than "the body of the sins of the flesh," which makes it a matter of the whole nature and not of particular sins.
Nothing, and Everything
For the Christian, the surgical mark settles nothing either way:
G C Willis"For neither circumcision is anything, nor uncircumcision, but new creation." In the cross these old outward forms and ceremonies all passed away. They were nothing. In themselves they were absolutely useless. As a sign of trusting to the law, they could only bring the law's curse... But what does matter is new creation. This word "new" means something fresh, that we have not had before.
Where It Lands in Daily Life
What replaces the ritual is not a lighter demand but a deeper one:
Hamilton SmithThe refusal of the flesh is not to be merely an outward neglecting of the body which the world can take account of, but the refusal of the flesh in all its inward workings in the heart — its self-confidence, self-righteousness, vanity and lusts — as that which has been condemned in the cross (Col. 2:11).
Summary
- Sign — God appointed it as the token of His covenant with Abraham, marking out a people separated from the world to Himself.
- Seal — Abraham was counted righteous by faith before he was circumcised, so the mark sealed a righteousness he already had; it never produced it.
- Heart — Kept as ceremony without inward reality, it gave God no pleasure; He asked Israel to circumcise their hearts, cutting off self-love.
- Cross — The circumcision "made without hands" is Christ's death, in which the believer has put off the body of the flesh — not one bad trait, but the whole nature.
- New creation — Since the cross, neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything; what counts is new creation, worked out as refusal of the flesh in its inward workings.