Circumcision – Genesis 17:9-14

Circumcision is one of the world’s most widely performed medical procedures. Approximately 38% of males worldwide are circumcised, about half for religious or cultural reasons.  It is most often practiced between infancy and the early twenties. The WHO estimated in 2007 that 664,500,000 males aged 15 and over were circumcised (30–33% global prevalence), almost 70% of whom were Muslim.  Circumcision is most common in the Muslim world, Australia, Canada, Israel, New Zealand, South Korea, the United States, and parts of Southeast Asia and Africa. It is relatively rare for non-religious reasons in Europe, Latin America, parts of Southern Africa and Oceania and most of non-Muslim Asia. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Circumcision]

[9] And God said to Abraham, “As for you, you shall keep my covenant, you and your offspring after you throughout their generations. [10] This is my covenant, which you shall keep, between me and you and your offspring after you: Every male among you shall be circumcised. [11] You shall be circumcised in the flesh of your foreskins, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and you. [12] He who is eight days old among you shall be circumcised. Every male throughout your generations, whether born in your house or bought with your money from any foreigner who is not of your offspring, [13] both he who is born in your house and he who is bought with your money, shall surely be circumcised. So shall my covenant be in your flesh an everlasting covenant. [14] Any uncircumcised male who is not circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin shall be cut off from his people; he has broken my covenant.” (Genesis 17:9–14, ESV)

Circumcision as a sign and requirement of the covenant is a truly unique usage of circumcision.  It was used by some cultures as a rite of passage to manhood or for ritual purity.  But Yahweh commands Abraham to circumcise every male member of his family as well as any servants, and to circumcise every male born throughout the generations at eight days old.  If you were part of the people of God, Israel, as they would come to be known, you were circumcised, but only, of course, the males.  There was no rite for women.  Why not?

The Zondervan Illustrated Bible Background Commentary on the Old Testament suggests two possible reasons:  “Two cultural issues may offer an explanation: patrilineal descent and identity in the community. (1) The concept of patrilineal descent resulted in males being considered the representatives of the clan and the ones through whom clan identity was preserved (as, e.g., the wife took on the tribal and clan identity of her husband).  (2) Individuals found their identity more in the clan and the community than in a concept of self. Decisions and commitments were made at the level of the family and clan more than at the individual level. The rite of passage represented in circumcision marked each male as entering a clan committed to the covenant, a commitment that he would then have the responsibility to maintain. If this logic holds, circumcision would not focus on individual participation in the covenant as much as on continuing communal participation. The community is structured around patrilineal descent, so the sign on the males marks the corporate commitment of the clan generation to generation.”

Circumcision was for Israel, as a sign of the covenant God made with her.  It was not and is not a sign for non-Israelites, Gentiles.  Paul speaks to this in several places in his letters because he was confronted with pseudo-Christian teachers saying circumcision was necessary for Gentile converts to Christianity.  In Romans 2:25-29 he teaches that the one who is uncircumcised but who keeps the Law can be regarded as circumcised, that circumcision is a matter of the heart more than the flesh.  In 1 Corinthians 7:18,19 he urges those who are not circumcised not to seek it.  He warns in Galatians 5:3-6 that those who submit to circumcision are, in effect, putting themselves under the Law of Moses and thus must keep all the Law, and he says that to seek justification by the Law is to sever oneself from grace.

There have been those who have argued that circumcision was instituted by God for health reasons, and there have been studies that showed those circumcised were less susceptible to sexually transmitted diseases.  But it is not a fool-proof means of such protection and there are possible problems with circumcising.  The American Academy of Pediatrics does not recommend circumcision, while in Europe the trend now is to recommend against routine circumcision.