Apparently circumcision started with Abraham and is part of Abrahamic religions like Judaism and Islam.
It also can be a part of Christianity such as part of my Australian Lutheran heritage.
I guess it can be an inappropriate topic even though apparently the creator of the universe commanded it.
Then Paul was saying that it is no longer necessary - perhaps so that more gentiles would want to convert to Christianity.
I sometimes get curious and want to ask people I know whether they are circumcised but usually I don't ask them - sometimes I have but then I had forgotten what their answer was and don't end up asking them again.
So anyway it is part of the Bible and I was curious about what Christians think about it.
Also if interested in the role of circumcision in the Scriptures, I have been studying more of it and happy to share my understanding of the role of circumcision in the OT and NT
When Adam and Eve sinned God put enmity between the devil and his seed (his people) and her Seed (God's people)
Gen 3:15 And I will put enmity Between you and the woman, And between your seed and her Seed; He shall bruise your head, And you shall bruise His heel."
God separated His people out of the bondage of the devil and called them the nation of Israel.
Lev 20:24 But I have said to you, "You shall inherit their land, and I will give it to you to possess, a land flowing with milk and honey." I am the LORD your God, who has separated you from the peoples.
1Ki 8:53 For You separated them from among all the peoples of the earth to be Your inheritance, as You spoke by Your servant Moses, when You brought our fathers out of Egypt, O Lord GOD."
Sin is the transgression of God's law 1 John 3:4 James 2:11-12. God's law is the description of sin Rom 7:7
In the OT the prescription for sin when breaking God's law was animal sacrifices
Lev 4:1 Now the LORD spoke to Moses, saying,
Lev 4:2 "Speak to the children of Israel, saying: 'If a person sins unintentionally against any of the commandments of the LORD in anything which ought not to be done, and does any of them,
Lev 4:3 if the anointed priest sins, bringing guilt on the people, then let him offer to the LORD for his sin which he has sinned a young bull without blemish as a sin offering.
The gentiles or foreigners did not have access to the cure for sin unless they were circumcised as an adult- ouch
Exo 12:43 And the LORD said to Moses and Aaron, "This is the ordinance of the Passover:
No foreigner shall eat it.
Exo 12:44 But every man's servant who is bought for money,
when you have circumcised him, then he may eat it.
Exo 12:48 And when a stranger dwells with you and wants to keep the Passover to the LORD,
let all his males be circumcised, and then let him come near and keep it; and he shall be as a native of the land. For no uncircumcised person shall eat it.
So foreigners who sinned could not gain access to the system of the cure for sin unless they were circumcised. They would often have to travel far to get to the temple.
When Jesus died on the Cross He removed that enmity between the devil's seed and His Seed.
The veil of the earthy temple tore in 70AD which signified that this old system of the prescription of sin ended.
Mat 27:51 Then, behold, the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom; and the earth quaked, and the rocks were split,
He took that old system for the prescription of sin and nailed it to the Cross. Jesus in dying for our sins became our circumcision.
Heb 10:19 Therefore, brethren, having boldness to enter the Holiest by the blood of Jesus,
Heb 10:20 by a new and living way which He consecrated for us, through the veil, that is, His flesh,
Col 2:11 In Him you were also circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the sins of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ,
Col 2:12 buried with Him in baptism, in which you also were raised with Him through faith in the working of God, who raised Him from the dead.
Col 2:13 And you, being dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He has made alive together with Him, having forgiven you all trespasses,
Col 2:14 having wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us, which was contrary to us. And He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross.
So we have a new system for sin because the old one never really took away sins, it was always a placeholder for Jesus Christ
Heb 9:10 concerned only with foods and drinks, various washings, and fleshly ordinances imposed until the time of reformation.
Heb 9:11 But Christ came as High Priest of the good things to come, with the greater and more perfect tabernacle not made with hands, that is, not of this creation.
Heb 9:12 Not with the blood of goats and calves, but with His own blood He entered the Most Holy Place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption.
Heb 9:13 For if the blood of bulls and goats and the ashes of a heifer, sprinkling the unclean, sanctifies for the purifying of the flesh,
Heb 9:14 how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?
Heb 10:1 For the law, having a shadow of the good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never with these same sacrifices, which they offer continually year by year, make those who approach perfect.
Heb 10:2 For then would they not have ceased to be offered? For the worshipers, once purified, would have had no more consciousness of sins.
Heb 10:3 But in those sacrifices there is a reminder of sins every year.
Heb 10:4 For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and goats could take away sins.
Heb 10:5 Therefore, when He came into the world, He said: "SACRIFICE AND OFFERING YOU DID NOT DESIRE, BUT A BODY YOU HAVE PREPARED FOR ME.
Heb 10:6 IN BURNT OFFERINGS AND SACRIFICES FOR SIN YOU HAD NO PLEASURE.
Heb 10:7 THEN I SAID, 'BEHOLD, I HAVE COME—IN THE VOLUME OF THE BOOK IT IS WRITTEN OF ME—TO DO YOUR WILL, O GOD.' "
Heb 10:8 Previously saying, "SACRIFICE AND OFFERING, BURNT OFFERINGS, AND OFFERINGS FOR SIN YOU DID NOT DESIRE, NOR HAD PLEASURE IN THEM" (which are offered according to the law),
Heb 10:9 then He said, "BEHOLD, I HAVE COME TO DO YOUR WILL, O GOD." He takes away the first that He may establish the second.
Heb 10:10 By that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.
Circumcision is no longer of the flesh but that of the heart and being a new creation in Christ-
Rom 2:29 but he is a Jew who is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the Spirit, not in the letter; whose praise is not from men but from God.
Gal 6:15 For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision avails anything, but a new creation.
Sin is still the same as it was in the Old Testament. It is still sin to murder, covet, vain God's name, worshipping other gods or break the least of these commandments Mat 5:19-30 1 John 3:4 Rom 7:7 James 2:11-12
Why Paul said
1Co 7:19 Circumcision is nothing and uncircumcision is nothing,
but keeping the commandments of God is what matters.
The difference in the New Covenant is how we go about the prescription for sins. No longer an animal sacrifice Heb 10:1-22 Heb 9:10-15 no longer at the temple of Jerusalem no longer required to get physical circumcised now everyone has access to the cure for sin which is Jesus Christ who became our Passover Lamb 1 Cor 5:7
Jesus made our bodies a temple and dwelling place for the Holy Spirit Eph 2:22 if we have not harden our hearts to sin and rebellion. Heb 3:7-8 and kept that enmity between us and God by rebelling against God's law Rom 8:7-8. When we sin, which God's law is the description of sin Exo 20:1-17 James 2:11-12 James 2:11-12 Rom 7:7 Mat 5:19-30 we can go directly to Jesus in prayer when we are really sorry and repent and through His Spirit He can help us overcome temptation and forsake our sins Pro 28:13 1 John 1:9 and help us keep His commandments 14:15-18 why He preached repent for the Kingdom of God is at hand
