Discovery BoxGenesis 17:10-12
Context17:10 This is my requirement that you and your descendants after you must keep: 1 Every male among you must be circumcised. 2 17:11 You must circumcise the flesh of your foreskins. This will be a reminder 3 of the covenant between me and you. 17:12 Throughout your generations every male among you who is eight days old 4 must be circumcised, whether born in your house or bought with money from any foreigner who is not one of your descendants.
Exodus 12:48
Context12:48 “When a foreigner lives 5 with you and wants to observe the Passover to the Lord, all his males must be circumcised, 6 and then he may approach and observe it, and he will be like one who is born in the land 7 – but no uncircumcised person may eat of it.
Leviticus 12:3
Context12:3 On 8 the eighth day the flesh of his foreskin 9 must be circumcised.
Deuteronomy 12:32
Context12:32 (13:1) 10 You 11 must be careful to do everything I am commanding you. Do not add to it or subtract from it! 12
Luke 1:6
Context1:6 They 13 were both righteous in the sight of God, following 14 all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blamelessly. 15
Luke 1:59
Context1:59 On 16 the eighth day 17 they came to circumcise the child, and they wanted to name 18 him Zechariah after his father.
Luke 2:21
Context2:21 At 19 the end of eight days, when he was circumcised, he was named Jesus, the name given by the angel 20 before he was conceived in the womb.
John 7:22-23
Context7:22 However, because Moses gave you the practice of circumcision 21 (not that it came from Moses, but from the forefathers), you circumcise a male child 22 on the Sabbath. 7:23 But if a male child 23 is circumcised 24 on the Sabbath so that the law of Moses is not broken, 25 why are you angry with me because I made a man completely well 26 on the Sabbath?
Acts 7:8
Context7:8 Then God 27 gave Abraham 28 the covenant 29 of circumcision, and so he became the father of Isaac and circumcised him when he was eight days old, 30 and Isaac became the father of 31 Jacob, and Jacob of the twelve patriarchs. 32
[17:10] 1 tn Heb “This is my covenant that you must keep between me and you and your descendants after you.”
[17:10] 2 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.
[17:12] 4 tn Heb “the son of eight days.”
[12:48] 5 tn Both the participle “foreigner” and the verb “lives” are from the verb גּוּר (gur), which means “to sojourn, to dwell as an alien.” This reference is to a foreigner who settles in the land. He is the protected foreigner; when he comes to another area where he does not have his clan to protect him, he must come under the protection of the Law, or the people. If the “resident alien” is circumcised, he may participate in the Passover (S. R. Driver, Exodus, 104).
[12:48] 6 tn The infinitive absolute functions as the finite verb here, and “every male” could be either the object or the subject (see GKC 347 §113.gg and 387 §121.a).
[12:48] 7 tn אֶזְרָח (’ezrakh) refers to the native-born individual, the native Israelite as opposed to the “stranger, alien” (S. R. Driver, Exodus, 104); see also W. F. Albright, Archaeology and the Religion of Israel, 127, 210.
[12:3] 9 tn This rendering, “the flesh of his foreskin,” is literal. Based on Lev 15:2-3, one could argue that the Hebrew word for “flesh” here (בָּשָׂר, basar) is euphemistic for the male genitals and therefore translate “the foreskin of his member” (see, e.g., J. Milgrom, Leviticus [AB], 1:748). A number of English versions omit this reference to the foreskin and mention only circumcision, presumably for euphemistic reasons (cf. NIV, NCV, TEV, CEV, NLT).
[12:32] 10 sn Beginning with 12:32, the verse numbers through 13:18 in the English Bible differ from the verse numbers in the Hebrew text (BHS), with 12:32 ET = 13:1 HT, 13:1 ET = 13:2 HT, 13:2 ET = 13:3 HT, etc., through 13:18 ET = 13:19 HT. With 14:1 the verse numbers in the ET and HT are again the same.
[12:32] 11 tn This verse highlights a phenomenon found throughout Deuteronomy, but most especially in chap. 12, namely, the alternation of grammatical singular and plural forms of the pronoun (known as Numeruswechsel in German scholarship). Critical scholarship in general resolves the “problem” by suggesting varying literary traditions – one favorable to the singular pronoun and the other to the plural – which appear in the (obviously rough) redacted text at hand. Even the ancient versions were troubled by the lack of harmony of grammatical number and in this verse, for example, offered a number of alternate readings. The MT reads “Everything I am commanding you (plural) you (plural) must be careful to do; you (singular) must not add to it nor should you (singular) subtract form it.” Smr, LXX, Syriac, and Vulgate suggest singular for the first two pronouns but a few Smr
[12:32] 12 sn Do not add to it or subtract from it. This prohibition makes at least two profound theological points: (1) This work by Moses is of divine origination (i.e., it is inspired) and therefore can tolerate no human alteration; and (2) the work is complete as it stands (i.e., it is canonical).
[1:6] 13 tn Grk “And they.” Because of the difference between Greek style, which often begins sentences or clauses with “and,” and English style, which generally does not, καί (kai) has not been translated here.
[1:6] 14 tn Grk “walking in” (an idiom for one’s lifestyle).
[1:6] 15 tn The predicate adjective has the effect of an adverb here (BDF §243).
[1:59] 16 tn Grk “And it happened that.” The introductory phrase ἐγένετο (egeneto, “it happened that”), common in Luke (69 times) and Acts (54 times), is redundant in contemporary English and has not been translated. Here καί (kai) has not been translated because of differences between Greek and English style.
[1:59] 17 sn They were following OT law (Lev 12:3) which prescribed that a male child was to be circumcised on the eighth day.
[1:59] 18 tn This could be understood as a conative imperfect, expressing an unrealized desire (“they were trying to name him”). It has been given more of a voluntative nuance in the translation.
[2:21] 19 tn Grk “And when eight days were completed.” Here καί (kai) has not been translated because of differences between Greek and English style.
[2:21] 20 sn Jesus’ parents obeyed the angel as Zechariah and Elizabeth had (1:57-66). These events are taking place very much under God’s direction.
[7:22] 21 tn Grk “gave you circumcision.”
[7:22] 22 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.
[7:23] 23 tn Grk “a man.” See the note on “male child” in the previous verse.
[7:23] 24 tn Grk “receives circumcision.”
[7:23] 25 sn If a male child is circumcised on the Sabbath so that the law of Moses is not broken. The Rabbis counted 248 parts to a man’s body. In the Talmud (b. Yoma 85b) R. Eleazar ben Azariah (ca.
[7:23] 26 tn Or “made an entire man well.”
[7:8] 27 tn Grk “he”; the referent (God) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
[7:8] 28 tn Grk “him”; the referent (Abraham) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
[7:8] 29 sn God gave…the covenant. Note how the covenant of promise came before Abraham’s entry into the land and before the building of the temple.
[7:8] 30 tn Grk “circumcised him on the eighth day,” but many modern readers will not understand that this procedure was done on the eighth day after birth. The temporal clause “when he was eight days old” conveys this idea more clearly. See Gen 17:11-12.
[7:8] 31 tn The words “became the father of” are not in the Greek text due to an ellipsis, but must be supplied for the English translation. The ellipsis picks up the verb from the previous clause describing how Abraham fathered Isaac.
[7:8] 32 sn The twelve patriarchs refers to the twelve sons of Jacob, the famous ancestors of the Jewish race (see Gen 35:23-26).
