----- 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