Genesis 17:5-11

17:5 No longer will your name be ¹  Abram. Instead, your name will be Abraham ²  because I will make you ³  the father of a multitude of nations. 17:6 I will make you ⁴  extremely ⁵  fruitful. I will make nations of you, and kings will descend from you. ⁶  17:7 I will confirm ⁷  my covenant as a perpetual ⁸  covenant between me and you. It will extend to your descendants after you throughout their generations. I will be your God and the God of your descendants after you. ⁹  17:8 I will give the whole land of Canaan – the land where you are now residing ¹⁰  – to you and your descendants after you as a permanent ¹¹  possession. I will be their God.”

17:9 Then God said to Abraham, “As for you, you must keep ¹²  the covenantal requirement ¹³  I am imposing on you and your descendants after you throughout their generations. 17:10 This is my requirement that you and your descendants after you must keep: ¹⁴  Every male among you must be circumcised. ¹⁵  17:11 You must circumcise the flesh of your foreskins. This will be a reminder ¹⁶  of the covenant between me and you.

Deuteronomy 10:16

10:16 Therefore, cleanse ¹⁷  your heart and stop being so stubborn! ¹⁸ 

Deuteronomy 30:6

30:6 The Lord your God will also cleanse ¹⁹  your heart and the hearts of your descendants ²⁰  so that you may love him ²¹  with all your mind and being and so that you may live.

Jeremiah 4:4

4:4 Just as ritual circumcision cuts away the foreskin

as an external symbol of dedicated covenant commitment,

you must genuinely dedicate yourselves to the Lord

and get rid of everything that hinders your commitment to me, ²² 

people of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem.

If you do not, ²³  my anger will blaze up like a flaming fire against you

that no one will be able to extinguish.

That will happen because of the evil you have done.”

Jeremiah 9:26

9:26 That is, I will punish the Egyptians, the Judeans, the Edomites, the Ammonites, the Moabites, and all the desert people who cut their hair short at the temples. ²⁴  I will do so because none of the people of those nations are really circumcised in the Lord’s sight. ²⁵  Moreover, none of the people of Israel ²⁶  are circumcised when it comes to their hearts.” ²⁷ 

Romans 2:25-29

2:25 For circumcision ²⁸  has its value if you practice the law, but ²⁹  if you break the law, ³⁰  your circumcision has become uncircumcision. 2:26 Therefore if the uncircumcised man obeys ³¹  the righteous requirements of the law, will not his uncircumcision be regarded as circumcision? 2:27 And will not the physically uncircumcised man ³²  who keeps the law judge you who, despite ³³  the written code ³⁴  and circumcision, transgress the law? 2:28 For a person is not a Jew who is one outwardly, nor is circumcision something that is outward in the flesh, 2:29 but someone is a Jew who is one inwardly, and circumcision is of the heart ³⁵  by the Spirit ³⁶  and not by the written code. ³⁷  This person’s ³⁸  praise is not from people but from God.

Romans 4:11-12

4:11 And he received the sign of circumcision as a seal of the righteousness that he had by faith while he was still uncircumcised, ³⁹  so that he would become ⁴⁰  the father of all those who believe but have never been circumcised, ⁴¹  that they too could have righteousness credited to them. 4:12 And he is also the father of the circumcised, ⁴²  who are not only circumcised, but who also walk in the footsteps of the faith that our father Abraham possessed when he was still uncircumcised. ⁴³ 

Colossians 2:11

2:11 In him you also were circumcised – not, however, ⁴⁴  with a circumcision performed by human hands, but by the removal ⁴⁵  of the fleshly body, ⁴⁶  that is, ⁴⁷  through the circumcision done by Christ.

[17:5]  ¹ tn Heb “will your name be called.”

[17:5]  ² sn Your name will be Abraham. The renaming of Abram was a sign of confirmation to the patriarch. Every time the name was used it would be a reminder of God’s promise. “Abram” means “exalted father,” probably referring to Abram’s father Terah. The name looks to the past; Abram came from noble lineage. The name “Abraham” is a dialectical variant of the name Abram. But its significance is in the wordplay with אַב־הֲמוֹן (’av-hamon, “the father of a multitude,” which sounds like אַבְרָהָם, ’avraham, “Abraham”). The new name would be a reminder of God’s intention to make Abraham the father of a multitude. For a general discussion of renaming, see O. Eissfeldt, “Renaming in the Old Testament,” Words and Meanings, 70-83.

[17:5]  ³ tn The perfect verbal form is used here in a rhetorical manner to emphasize God’s intention.

[17:6]  ⁴ tn This verb starts a series of perfect verbal forms with vav (ו) consecutive to express God’s intentions.

[17:6]  ⁵ tn Heb “exceedingly, exceedingly.” The repetition is emphatic.

[17:6]  ⁶ tn Heb “and I will make you into nations, and kings will come out from you.”

[17:7]  ⁷ tn The verb קוּם (qum, “to arise, to stand up”) in the Hiphil verbal stem means “to confirm, to give effect to, to carry out” (i.e., a covenant or oath; see BDB 878-79 s.v. קוּם).

[17:7]  ⁸ tn Or “as an eternal.”

[17:7]  ⁹ tn Heb “to be to you for God and to your descendants after you.”

[17:8]  ¹⁰ tn The verbal root is גּוּר (gur, “to sojourn, to reside temporarily,” i.e., as a resident alien). It is the land in which Abram resides, but does not yet possess as his very own.

[17:8]  ¹¹ tn Or “as an eternal.”

[17:9]  ¹² tn The imperfect tense could be translated “you shall keep” as a binding command; but the obligatory nuance (“must”) captures the binding sense better.

[17:9]  ¹³ tn Heb “my covenant.” The Hebrew word בְּרִית (bÿrit) can refer to (1) the agreement itself between two parties (see v. 7), (2) the promise made by one party to another (see vv. 2-3, 7), (3) an obligation placed by one party on another, or (4) a reminder of the agreement. In vv. 9-10 the word refers to a covenantal obligation which God gives to Abraham and his descendants.

[17:10]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “This is my covenant that you must keep between me and you and your descendants after you.”

[17:10]  ¹⁵ sn For a discussion of male circumcision as the sign of the covenant in this passage see M. V. Fox, “The Sign of the Covenant: Circumcision in the Light of the Priestly ‘ot Etiologies,” RB 81 (1974): 557-96.

[17:11]  ¹⁶ tn Or “sign.”

[10:16]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “circumcise the foreskin of” (cf. KJV, ASV, NRSV). Reference to the Abrahamic covenant prompts Moses to recall the sign of that covenant, namely, physical circumcision (Gen 17:9-14). Just as that act signified total covenant obedience, so spiritual circumcision (cleansing of the heart) signifies more internally a commitment to be pliable and obedient to the will of God (cf. Deut 30:6; Jer 4:4; 9:26).

[10:16]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “your neck do not harden again.” See note on the word “stubborn” in Deut 9:6.

[30:6]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “circumcise” (so KJV, NAB, NIV, NRSV); TEV “will give you and your descendents obedient hearts.” See note on the word “cleanse” in Deut 10:16.

[30:6]  ²⁰ tn Heb “seed” (so KJV, ASV).

[30:6]  ²¹ tn Heb “the Lord your God.” See note on the second occurrence of the word “he” in v. 3.

[4:4]  ²² tn Heb “Circumcise yourselves to the Lord and remove the foreskin of your heart.” The translation is again an attempt to bring out the meaning of a metaphor. The mention of the “foreskin of the heart” shows that the passage is obviously metaphorical and involves heart attitude, not an external rite.

[4:4]  ²³ tn Heb “lest.”

[9:26]  ²⁴ tn Heb “all those who are cut off on the side of the head who live in the desert.” KJV and some other English versions (e.g., NIV “who live in the desert in distant places”; NLT “who live in distant places”) have followed the interpretation that this is a biform of an expression meaning “end or remote parts of the [far] corners [of the earth].” This interpretation is generally abandoned by the more recent commentaries and lexicons (see, e.g. BDB 802 s.v. פֵּאָה 1 and HALOT 858 s.v. פֵּאָה 1.β). It occurs also in 25:33; 49:32.

[9:26]  ²⁵ tn Heb “For all of these nations are uncircumcised.” The words “I will do so” are supplied in the translation to indicate the connection with the preceding statement.

[9:26]  ²⁶ tn Heb “house of Israel.”

[9:26]  ²⁷ tn Heb “And all the house of Israel is uncircumcised of heart.”

[2:25]  ²⁸ sn Circumcision refers to male circumcision as prescribed in the OT, which was given as a covenant to Abraham in Gen 17:10-14. Its importance for Judaism can hardly be overstated: According to J. D. G. Dunn (Romans [WBC], 1:120) it was the “single clearest distinguishing feature of the covenant people.” J. Marcus has suggested that the terms used for circumcision (περιτομή, peritomh) and uncircumcision (ἀκροβυστία, akrobustia) were probably derogatory slogans used by Jews and Gentiles to describe their opponents (“The Circumcision and the Uncircumcision in Rome,” NTS 35 [1989]: 77-80).

[2:25]  ²⁹ tn This contrast is clearer and stronger in Greek than can be easily expressed in English.

[2:25]  ³⁰ tn Grk “if you should be a transgressor of the law.”

[2:26]  ³¹ tn The Greek word φυλάσσω (fulassw, traditionally translated “keep”) in this context connotes preservation of and devotion to an object as well as obedience.

[2:27]  ³² tn Grk “the uncircumcision by nature.” The word “man” is supplied here to make clear that male circumcision (or uncircumcision) is in view.

[2:27]  ³³ tn Grk “through,” but here the preposition seems to mean “(along) with,” “though provided with,” as BDAG 224 s.v. διά A.3.c indicates.

[2:27]  ³⁴ tn Grk “letter.”

[2:29]  ³⁵ sn On circumcision is of the heart see Lev 26:41; Deut 10:16; Jer 4:4; Ezek 44:9.

[2:29]  ³⁶ tn Some have taken the phrase ἐν πνεύματι (en pneumati, “by/in [the] S/spirit”) not as a reference to the Holy Spirit, but referring to circumcision as “spiritual and not literal” (RSV).

[2:29]  ³⁷ tn Grk “letter.”

[2:29]  ³⁸ tn Grk “whose.” The relative pronoun has been replaced by the phrase “this person’s” and, because of the length and complexity of the Greek sentence, a new sentence was started in the translation.

[4:11]  ³⁹ tn Grk “of the faith, the one [existing] in uncircumcision.”

[4:11]  ⁴⁰ tn Grk “that he might be,” giving the purpose of v. 11a.

[4:11]  ⁴¹ tn Grk “through uncircumcision.”

[4:12]  ⁴² tn Grk “the father of circumcision.”

[4:12]  ⁴³ tn Grk “the ‘in-uncircumcision faith’ of our father Abraham.”

[2:11]  ⁴⁴ tn The terms “however” and “but” in this sentence were supplied in order to emphasize the contrast.

[2:11]  ⁴⁵ tn The articular noun τῇ ἀπεκδύσει (th apekdusei) is a noun which ends in -σις (-sis) and therefore denotes action, i.e., “removal.” Since the head noun is a verbal noun, the following genitive τοῦ σώματος (tou swmatos) is understood as an objective genitive, receiving the action of the head noun.

[2:11]  ⁴⁶ tn Grk “in the removal of the body of flesh.” The genitive τῆς σαρκός (th" sarko") has been translated as an attributive genitive, “fleshly body.”

[2:11]  ⁴⁷ tn The second prepositional phrase beginning with ἐν τῇ περιτομῇ (en th peritomh) is parallel to the prepositional phrase ἐν τῇ ἀπεκδύσει (en th apekdusei) and gives a further explanation of it. The words “that is” were supplied to bring out this force in the translation.