Deuteronomy 23:1

Purity in Public Worship

23:1 A man with crushed ¹  or severed genitals ²  may not enter the assembly of the Lord. ³ 

Romans 3:29-30

3:29 Or is God the God of the Jews only? Is he not the God of the Gentiles too? Yes, of the Gentiles too! 3:30 Since God is one, ⁴  he will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through faith.

Ephesians 2:12-13

2:12 that you were at that time without the Messiah, ⁵  alienated from the citizenship of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, ⁶  having no hope and without God in the world. 2:13 But now in Christ Jesus you who used to be far away have been brought near by the blood of Christ. ⁷ 

¹ tn Heb “bruised by crushing,” which many English versions take to refer to crushed testicles (NAB, NRSV, NLT); TEV “who has been castrated.”

² tn Heb “cut off with respect to the penis”; KJV, ASV “hath his privy member cut off”; English versions vary in their degree of euphemism here; cf. NAB, NRSV, TEV, NLT “penis”; NASB “male organ”; NCV “sex organ”; CEV “private parts”; NIV “emasculated by crushing or cutting.”

³ sn The Hebrew term translated “assembly” (קָהָל, qahal) does not refer here to the nation as such but to the formal services of the tabernacle or temple. Since emasculated or other sexually abnormal persons were commonly associated with pagan temple personnel, the thrust here may be primarily polemical in intent. One should not read into this anything having to do with the mentally and physically handicapped as fit to participate in the life and ministry of the church.

⁴ tn Grk “but if indeed God is one.”

⁵ tn Or “without Christ.” Both “Christ” (Greek) and “Messiah” (Hebrew and Aramaic) mean “one who has been anointed.” Because the context refers to ancient Israel’s messianic expectation, “Messiah” was employed in the translation at this point rather than “Christ.”

⁶ tn Or “covenants of the promise.”

⁷ tn Or “have come near in the blood of Christ.”