Texts in Conversation
Philo reads “circumcise the foreskin of your heart” as cutting away inner pride and folly. Paul uses a similar universalizing interpretation in Romans, declaring that circumcision is “of the heart, not the flesh.”
Share:
2500 BCE
1000+ CE
Philo The Special Laws 1.305
Classical
304 But those men are to be pitied, and are altogether miserable, who have never banquetted on the labours of virtue; and they have remained to the end the most miserable of all men who have been always ignorant of the taste of moral excellence, when it was in their power to have feasted on and luxuriated among justice and equality. But these men are uncircumcised in their hearts, as the law expresses it, and by reason of the hardness of their hearts they are stubborn, resisting and breaking their traces in a restive manner; 305 whom the Lord reproves, saying, "Be ye circumcised as to your hard-Heartedness;" that means, "do ye eradicate the overbearing character of your dominant part, which the immoderate impulses of the passing hour have sown and caused to grow within you, and which the wicked husbandman of the soul, folly, planted. 306 Again, it says, "Let not your necks be Stiff," that is to say, let not your mind be unbending and self-willed, and let it not admit into itself that most blameable ignorance of excessive perverseness. But discarding obstinacy and moroseness of nature as an enemy, let it change so as to become gentle, and inclined to obey the laws of nature.
Date: 20-50 C.E. (based on scholarly estimates)
Romans 2:29
New Testament
27 And the physically uncircumcised man, by keeping the law, will judge you to be the transgressor of the law, even though you have the letter and circumcision! 28 For a person is not a Jew who is one outwardly, nor is circumcision something that is outward in the flesh, 29 but someone is a Jew who is one inwardly, and circumcision is of the heart by the Spirit and not by the letter. This person’s praise is not from people but from God.
Search:
Notes and References
... The climax of Paul's argument for God's just judgment for Jews and Gentiles — both those with the law and those outside of the law — involves the issue of circumcision, the sign of the covenant relationship. Paul rejects the validity of circumcision in the flesh of the foreskin without the requisite obedience in favor of the circumcision of the heart, a legitimate covenant category into which he incorporates Gentiles in Christ who are physically uncircumcised. This internalization of circumcision in itself is not new — it is present elsewhere in the Old Testament and Second Temple Jewish literature (Deuteronomy 10:16, 30:6, 10; Jeremiah 4:4; Pesher Habakkuk 11.13; Philo, Special Laws 1.305). But whereas circumcision previously marked ethnic identity, the innovation in Paul's heart circumcision is that it has become the mark of those made righteous in Christ, both Jew and Gentile. Real circumcision is not external and physical, but inward: ‘circumcision is circumcision of the heart by the Spirit’ (Romans 2:29) ...
* The use of references are not endorsements of their contents. Please read the entirety of the provided reference(s) to understand the author's full intentions regarding the use of these texts.
Your Feedback:
Leave a Comment
Anonymous comments are welcome. All comments are subject to moderation.