– In Latin circumcisio means decrease, suppression. In the Bible, it designates the rite of removal of the foreskin, to remember the covenant between Abraham and Yahweh, thus indicating inclusion in the Jewish community:
Gen 17:12-13 : Every male, on the eighth day of his birth, shall be circumcised among you in future generations.
Gen 21:4 : And eight days after his birth, he circumcised him, as God had commanded him.
Gen 34:14-15 : “Giving our sister to an uncircumcised man”, they said, “is something we cannot do”.
Ex 12:44 : Every slave bought at the price of money, and who has been circumcised, shall eat of it.
Leviticus 12 :3: On the eighth day, the boy will be circumcised.
Acts 7 :8 : And he gave him the covenant of circumcision. So Abraham had a son, Isaac, and eight days later he circumcised him.
Ex 4:25 : Sefra then took a sharp stone, cut off her son’s foreskin and threw it at Moses’ feet.
Jos 5,2-3 : Joshua made knives out of stone and circumcised the Israelites.
– Still in the AT there is talk of the circumcision of the heart to indicate fidelity to the commandments of the Lord:
Deuteronomy 30:6: The Lord your God will circumcise your heart and that of your offspring.
Jer 4,4 : Circumcise yourselves in honor of the Lord, remove the foreskins from your hearts.
Jr 6,10 : Their ears are uncircumcised, and they are incapable of attention.
Jer 9:25 : All nations are uncircumcised, just as all the house of Israel are uncircumcised in heart.
Ez 44,7.9 : To profane it foreigners whose heart is no less uncircumcised than the flesh.
– In Jerusalem, Peter justifies the brothers of Judea why he did not subject the pagans to circumcision. At the Apostolic Council of Jerusalem the decision is confirmed:
Acts 11 :2: And when Peter went up to Jerusalem, the believers who were of the circumcision rebuked him.
Acts 15:1.19-20 : If you are not circumcised, according to the rite of Moses, you cannot be saved.
Acts 21,20-21 : Who live among the Gentiles, to leave Moses, saying that they must not circumcise their children.
Gal 2,2-3 : However, not even my companion Titus, even though he was a gentile, was obliged to be circumcised.
Gal 5:11 : If it is true, brothers, that I still preach circumcision, why then am I persecuted?
– The “circumcision of the heart” is instilled in the baptized.
Romans 2:25-26 : Circumcision is indeed beneficial if you keep the law.
Rom 4:9-10 : Is this beatitude only for the circumcised, or also for the uncircumcised?
1Cor 7,19 : Circumcision is worthless […] what matters is the observance of God’s commandments.
Gal 5:1.6 : Behold, I, Paul, say this to you: if you are circumcised, Christ will be of no use to you.
Gal 6:15 : Because circumcision and uncircumcision are worthless, but the new creation.
Phil 3 :3 : For we are the truly circumcised, who worship God by the Spirit of God.
Col 2,11-12 : In him you were also circumcised with a circumcision not made by the hand of man.
