As we look at the first of these two verses we see something interesting. Paul is telling circumcised converts - that is, Judahites - not to bother getting uncircumcised. And then he goes and tells uncircumcised converts not to bother about getting circumcised either. He uses two extreme behaviours to point out that circumcision in the New Covenant "is not anything" - it's now meaningless either way, and is no longer a commandment of Elohim.

Remember, that this passage of scripture was written in the first century AD, no more than 100-150 years after the period of Seleucid Greek rule in which Hellenised Judahites were going through a surgical operation to get themselves 'uncircumcised' in order to appear like the uncircumcised Greeks, presumably largely because of the very popular and frequent sporting events: the Greeks always performed nude in athletic events.

As recently as 1936 when the nazis hosted the Olympic Games in Berlin and made a film about it called Olympia, they daringly portrayed nude athletes in the opening historical section of the movie as they tried to recreate the 'spirit' of the original Olympics. Had they won the war that came three years later it would not have surprised me to find athletes performing nude as a matter of course too - as the nazis idolised the classical Greek ideal in architecture, sport and attitudes. And in the 2004 Olympics in Athens, the Olympic choreographer, Dimitris Papaioannou, introduced a bare-breasted actress playing the part of a pagan priestess based on a Minoan statue holding snakes in both hands, with clear satanic overtones, in the opening ceremony. Not only that, but they had male nude actors, though the lower half of their bodies was censored in a special film version for countries which might object to this. Expect a lot more nudity to come.

King Herod, when he was in power in Judea, and in imitation of the ways of the Hellenists in the time of Antiochus IV, built all the customary cultural institutions of a Hellenist city including a hippodrome, amphitheatre and a theatre. If you have ever seen a model of Jerusalem from the time Yah'shua lived, you may have noticed that right next to the Antonia Fortress that overlooked the Temple was an amphitheatre, and in that amphitheatre, Herod patronised olympic-style sports which attracted the most renowned athletes from all over the Roma Empire. And whilst the Romans did not race naked, there is absolutely no doubt that a century and a half before the Hellenised Judahites did.

Anyway, the thing is, there must have been some Greek converts to Judaism who then became converts to Yah'shua who, learning that circumcision was not important, thought to themselves: "Well, why not get uncircumcised as they did a century-and-a-half ago! Let's go back to the way we were". These people are not mentioned anywhere else in the Scriptures but their extremist rivals were, whom we have come to call the 'Judaizers', who were insisting that all gentile converts get circumcised to become a true part of Messianic Israel.

Most contemporary Messianics explain this using Avi ben Mordechai's theory that the controversy was only about two kinds of circumcision - circumcision according to Talmudic and Rabbinical tradition, and circumcision according to Mosaic Torah alone (a Karaite position). However, this scripture shows that actually there were two extremes - a 'circumcise the Gentiles' party and an 'uncircumcise the Judahites' party, neither of which were correct! The debate as to what men should do with their male organ to be acceptable New Covenant Israelites was irrelevent because in Messiah it is irrelevent. "But", Paul adds, "keeping Elohim's commands is what counts" (v.19, NIV). You would be amazed how modern Messianics twist that phrase too to mean that circumcision as an Old Covenant commandment - as one of the commandments given at Sinai - must be obeyed even though that contradicts the first part of the sentence and the verse before it. What Paul is saying is that in the New Covenant being circumcised physically "isn't one of Elohim's commands" anymore than animal sacrifices are.

Baptism vs. Circumcision

The outer sign of the entering the New Covenant today is baptism by immersion which follows a change of heart - an inner circumcision of the heart (Dt.30:6; Rom.2:29) - mediated by the Ruach haRishon. It leaves no physical marks on the body because it is based on the testimony of eye-witnesses rather than the cutting away of any flesh.

During the Soviet era, the performing of baptisms was done by unregistered Baptists in secret - I suspect that baptism by immersion will be one of the ordinances forbidden by the end-time 'Antiochus Epiphanes' too just as it was in communist Russia. I believe the 7th day Sabbath will be made illegal as well making it impossible for Messianic employees to ask for Saturday off. The Catholic Church has been putting a lot of pressure on the European Union to make Sunday the official 'day of rest' but has so far only succeeded in getting the seventh day 'changed' into the 'sixth' day of the week. So now in Europe Sunday is, by human decree, the 'seventh' day and Monday the 'first' day of the week. Not so to Yahweh and Messianic Israelites - the Seventh Day remains Saturday, except between easterb Turkey and the manmade International date Line.

Circumcision was a 'huge' thing in the New Testament Messianic community and we see history repeating itself with the resurrection of this controversy today. We need to remind ourselves of what gives life and what doesn't. Yah'shua said:

Or as the Aramaic-based HRV puts it:

What Yah'shua nowhere says is that 'whoever believes and is circumcised will be saved or live'. That baptism is given the prominence that it is in the New Covenant scriptures, and in this case associated with life and condemnation, indictates to me - in conjunction with what Paul has saud - the passing of the highly visible sign of physical circumcision and its replacement by an ordinance, though present as the mikvah in the Old Covenant, which has to do with purification by fire - for you will remember the ritual immerison by the priests in the bronze laver in the Outer Court of the Tabernacle before they could enter the Holy place.

The Judahites of first century Judea were very hung up on circumcision much as Seventh Day Adventists today are over the Sabbath (which forms part of their name), Baptists over baptism, and charismatics over tongues, and so forth. The 'cutting away of sin' has now been done by Yah'shua and replaces all the temple sacrifices and circumcision, both of which involved blood-letting. The pain of sin and blood-letting for the redemption of that sin has all been done by Yah'shua the Messiah - there is no further need for this kind of activity. When the various judgments of Yahweh come to us, the 'evidence' for judgment will be the state of our hearts and whether they are circumcised or not, not whether a foreskin on males is present or absent.

Copyright (c) 2006 MLT - All Rights Reserved
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Does circumcision have any medical or health benefits? See http://www.circumcisionexposed.com/