----- Original Message -----
Sent: Sunday, December 23, 2001 1:30
AM
Subject: [M-R] circumcision
Elena: here are some texts, and since
translations vary, I'll cite the Latin of the Vulgate
with references to the corresponding passages in the
Bible.
Originally circumcision was the visible sign of
the covenant between God and Abraham, the father of the chosen people (Gen.
17.10-14). Well before Christ, Moses stressed the character of sign of a far
more important spiritual reality (Deut. 10.16), circumcidite igitur
praeputium cordis vestri, "remove the foreskin from your heart". The
concept of "circumcision of the heart" reappears in Jeremiah 4.4,
circumcidimini Domino et auferte praeputia cordium vestrorum, the
prophet said to those who were already circumcised.
The Christians built on a well-established
principle when they abandoned the circumcision of the flesh in favor of the
circumcision of the heart. Stephen, a circumcised Jew addressing
circumcised Jews in Jerusalem, calls them dura cervice et incircumcisis
cordibus et auribus (Acts 7.51) - circumcision had not touched their
hearts or their ears. Acts 15 gives an account of the debate on the necessity
of circumcision for converts from paganism to christianity. Peter, speaking
with authority and seconded by James, concluded that the Holy Spirit had been
given equally to Jews and Gentiles through faith, therefore circumcision was
not necessary.
Thus, Paul was the heir of a long-standing
tradition when he wrote to the Galatians (Gal. 5.6) that in Christ,
circumcision or lack thereof are irrelevant, and what matters is faith working
through charity. In Rom. 2.29 he echoes Moses and Jeremiah, circumcisio
cordis in spiritu, non littera, the circumcision of the heart is in the
spirit, not in the letter, and can say to the Colossians (Col. 2.11) that they
were circumcised in Christ, not by human circumcision and the removal of
bodily flesh, but in the circumcision of Christ (Baptism).
Upon second thought, all this may not be strictly
medieval, but quod scripsi, scripsi, Luciana
