Genesis 17:9-14

17:9 Then God said to Abraham, “As for you, you must keep ¹  the covenantal requirement ²  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: ³  Every male among you must be circumcised. ⁴  17:11 You must circumcise the flesh of your foreskins. This will be a reminder ⁵  of the covenant between me and you. 17:12 Throughout your generations every male among you who is eight days old ⁶  must be circumcised, whether born in your house or bought with money from any foreigner who is not one of your descendants. 17:13 They must indeed be circumcised, ⁷  whether born in your house or bought with money. The sign of my covenant ⁸  will be visible in your flesh as a permanent ⁹  reminder. 17:14 Any uncircumcised male ¹⁰  who has not been circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin will be cut off ¹¹  from his people – he has failed to carry out my requirement.” ¹² 

John 7:22

7:22 However, because Moses gave you the practice of circumcision ¹³  (not that it came from Moses, but from the forefathers), you circumcise a male child ¹⁴  on the Sabbath.

Romans 4:10

4:10 How then was it credited to him? Was he circumcised at the time, or not? No, he was not circumcised but uncircumcised!

Galatians 3:15

Inheritance Comes from Promises and not Law

3:15 Brothers and sisters, ¹⁵  I offer an example from everyday life: ¹⁶  When a covenant ¹⁷  has been ratified, ¹⁸  even though it is only a human contract, no one can set it aside or add anything to it.

Galatians 3:17

3:17 What I am saying is this: The law that came four hundred thirty years later does not cancel a covenant previously ratified by God, ¹⁹  so as to invalidate the promise.

[17:9]  ¹ 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]  ² 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]  ³ tn Heb “This is my covenant that you must keep between me and you and your descendants after you.”

[17:10]  ⁴ 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]  ⁵ tn Or “sign.”

[17:12]  ⁶ tn Heb “the son of eight days.”

[17:13]  ⁷ tn The emphatic construction employs the Niphal imperfect tense (collective singular) and the Niphal infinitive.

[17:13]  ⁸ tn Heb “my covenant.” Here in v. 13 the Hebrew word בְּרִית (bÿrit) refers to the outward, visible sign, or reminder, of the covenant. For the range of meaning of the term, see the note on the word “requirement” in v. 9.

[17:13]  ⁹ tn Or “an eternal.”

[17:14]  ¹⁰ tn The disjunctive clause calls attention to the “uncircumcised male” and what will happen to him.

[17:14]  ¹¹ tn Heb “that person will be cut off.” The words “that person” have not been included in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[17:14]  ¹² tn Heb “he has broken my covenant.” The noun בְּרִית (bÿrit) here refers to the obligation required by God in conjunction with the covenantal agreement. For the range of meaning of the term, see the note on the word “requirement” in v. 9.

[7:22]  ¹³ tn Grk “gave you circumcision.”

[7:22]  ¹⁴ tn Grk “a man.” While the text literally reads “circumcise a man” in actual fact the practice of circumcising male infants on the eighth day after birth (see Phil 3:5) is primarily what is in view here.

[3:15]  ¹⁵ tn Grk “brothers.” See note on the phrase “brothers and sisters” in 1:11.

[3:15]  ¹⁶ tn Grk “I speak according to man,” referring to the illustration that follows.

[3:15]  ¹⁷ tn The same Greek word, διαθήκη (diaqhkh), can mean either “covenant” or “will,” but in this context the former is preferred here because Paul is discussing in vv. 16-18 the Abrahamic covenant.

[3:15]  ¹⁸ tn Or “has been put into effect.”

[3:17]  ¹⁹ tc Most mss (D F G I 0176 0278 Ï it sy) read “ratified by God in Christ” whereas the omission of “in Christ” is the reading in Ì⁴⁶ א A B C P Ψ 6 33 81 1175 1739 1881 2464 pc co. The shorter reading is strongly supported by the ms evidence, and it is probable that a copyist inserted the words as an interpretive gloss. However, this form of the “in Christ” expression is somewhat atypical in the corpus Paulinum (εἰς Χριστόν [ei" Criston] rather than ἐν Χριστῷ [en Cristw]), a fact which tempers one’s certainty about the shorter reading. Nevertheless, the expression is used more in Galatians than in any other of Paul’s letters (Gal 2:16; 3:24, 27), and may have been suggested by such texts to early copyists.