E2. Performing & Receiving B'rit Milah. [Make a Comment]
All male Jewish children eight days old must be circumcised.This precept is derived from His Word (blessed be He):
Key Scriptures
COVENANT MADE WITH ABRAM WHOSE NAME WAS CHANGED TO ABRAHAM
Genesis 12:1-3
Now ADONAI said to Avram, "Get yourself out of your country, away from your
kinsmen and away from your father's house, and go to the land that I
will show you. I will make of you a great nation, I will bless you, and I
will make your name great; and you are to be a blessing. I will bless those
who bless you, but I will curse anyone who curses you; and by you all the
families of the earth will be blessed."
Genesis 15:18-21
That day ADONAI made a covenant with Avram: "I have given this land to your
descendants - from the Vadi of Egypt to the great river, the Euphrates River
- the territory of the Keni, the K'nizi, the Kadmoni, the Hitti, the
P'rizi, the Refa'im, the Emori, the Kena'ani, the Girgashi
and the Y'vusi."
Genesis 17:1-8
(Maimonides RP215; Meir MP47; Chinuch C2)
When Avram was 99 years old ADONAI appeared to Avram and said to him, "I am
El Shaddai [God Almighty]. Walk in my presence and be pure-hearted. I will
make my covenant between me and you, and I will increase your numbers
greatly." Avram fell on his face, and God continued speaking with him: "As
for me, this is my covenant with you: you will be the father of many
nations. Your name will no longer be Avram [exalted father], but your name
will be Avraham [father of many], because I have made you the father of many
nations. I will cause you to be very fruitful. I will make nations of you,
kings will descend from you. I am establishing my covenant between me and
you, along with your descendants after you, generation after generation, as
an everlasting covenant, to be God for you and for your descendants after
you. I will give you and your descendants after you the land in which you
are now foreigners, all the land of Kena'an, as a permanent possession;
and I will be their God."
Leviticus 12:3
(Meir MP47)
On the eighth day, the [male] baby's foreskin is to be circumcised.
VALUE AND SPIRITUAL NATURE OF CIRCUMCISION
Romans 2:25-3:2
For circumcision is indeed of value if you do what Torah says. But if you
are a transgressor of Torah, your circumcision has become uncircumcision!
Therefore, if an uncircumcised man keeps the righteous requirements of the
Torah, won't his uncircumcision be counted as circumcision? Indeed,
the man who is physically uncircumcised but obeys the Torah will stand as a
judgment on you who have had a b'rit-milah and have Torah written out
but violate it! For the real Jew is not merely Jewish outwardly: true
circumcision is not only external and physical. On the contrary, the real
Jew is one inwardly; and true circumcision is of the heart, spiritual not
literal; so that his praise comes not from other people but from God. Then
what advantage has the Jew? What is the value of being circumcised? Much in
every way! In the first place, the Jews were entrusted with the very words
of God.
Colossians 2:8-12
Watch out, so that no one will take you captive by means of philosophy and
empty deceit, following human tradition which accords with the elemental
spirits of the world but does not accord with the Messiah. For in him,
bodily, lives the fullness of all that God is. And it is in union with him
that you have been made full - he is the head of every rule and authority.
Also it was in union with him that you were circumcised with a circumcision
not done by human hands, but accomplished by stripping away the old
nature's control over the body. In this circumcision done by the
Messiah, you were buried along with him by being immersed; and in union with
him, you were also raised up along with him by God's faithfulness that
worked when he raised Yeshua from the dead.
CIRCUMCISION REQUIRED IN ORDER FOR GENTILES TO EAT THE SACRIFICED PASSOVER LAMB
Exodus 12:41-49
(Maimonides RN126-RN128; Chinuch C13, C14, C17)
At the end of 430 years to the day, all the divisions of ADONAI left the
land of Egypt. This was a night when ADONAI kept vigil to bring them out of
the land of Egypt, and this same night continues to be a night when ADONAI
keeps vigil for all the people of Isra'el through all their
generations. ADONAI said to Moshe and Aharon, "This is the regulation for
the Pesach lamb: no foreigner is to eat it. But if anyone has a slave he
bought for money, when you have circumcised him, he may eat it. Neither a
traveler nor a hired servant may eat it. It is to be eaten in one house.
You are not to take any of the meat outside the house, and you are not to
break any of its bones. The whole community of Isra'el is to keep it.
If a foreigner staying with you wants to observe ADONAI's Pesach, all
his males must be circumcised. Then he may take part and observe it; he will
be like a citizen of the land. But no uncircumcised person is to eat it.
The same teaching is to apply equally to the citizen and to the foreigner
living among you."
Supportive Scriptures - Purpose of the Covenant
Genesis 22:14-18
Avraham called the place ADONAI Yir'eh [[ADONAI will see (to it),
ADONAI provides] - as it is said to this day, "On the mountain ADONAI is
seen." The angel of ADONAI called to Avraham a second time out of heaven.
He said, "I have sworn by myself - says ADONAI - that because you have done
this, because you haven't withheld your son, your only son, I will most
certainly bless you; and I will most certainly increase your descendants to
as many as there are stars in the sky or grains of sand on the seashore.
Your descendants will possess the cities of their enemies, and by your
descendants all the nations of the earth will be blessed - because you
obeyed my order."
Exodus 19:5-6
'Now if you will pay careful attention to what I say and keep my
covenant, then you will be my own treasure from among all the peoples, for
all the earth is mine; and you will be a kingdom of cohanim for me, a nation
set apart.' These are the words you are to speak to the people of
Isra'el.
Supportive Scripture - Circumcision on the Eighth Day Required in Order to Keep the Covenant
Genesis 17:9-14
God said to Avraham, "As for you, you are to keep my covenant, you and your
descendants after you, generation after generation. Here is my covenant,
which you are to keep, between me and you, along with your descendants after
you: every male among you is to be circumcised. You are to be circumcised
in the flesh of your foreskin; this will be the sign of the covenant between
me and you. Generation after generation, every male among you who is eight
days old is to be circumcised, including slaves born within your household
and those bought from a foreigner not descended from you. The slave born in
your house and the person bought with your money must be circumcised; thus
my covenant will be in your flesh as an everlasting covenant. Any
uncircumcised male who will not let himself be circumcised in the flesh of
his foreskin - that person will be cut off from his people, because he has
broken my covenant.
Supportive Scripture - Abraham Circumcised Along with All in His Household
Genesis 17:22-27
With that, God finished speaking with Avraham and went up from him. Avraham
took Yishma'el his son, all the slaves born in his house and all who
had been bought with his money, every male among the people in
Avraham's household, and circumcised the flesh of their foreskin that
very day, just as God had said to him. Avraham was ninety-nine years old
when he was circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin, and Yishma'el his
son was thirteen years old when he was circumcised in the flesh of his
foreskin. Avraham and Yishma'el his son were circumcised on the same
day; and all the men in his household, both slaves born in his house and
those bought with money from a foreigner, were circumcised with him.
Supportive Scripture - The Abrahamic Covenant is Continued through Isaac
Genesis 17:18-21
Avraham said to God, "If only Yishma'el could live in your presence!"
God answered, "No, but Sarah your wife will bear you a son, and you are to
call him Yitz'chak [laughter]. I will establish my covenant with him as
an everlasting covenant for his descendants after him. But as for
Yishma'el, I have heard you. I have blessed him. I will make him
fruitful and give him many descendants. He will father twelve princes, and I
will make him a great nation. But I will establish my covenant with
Yitz'chak, whom Sarah will bear to you at this time next year."
Supportive Scripture - The Abrahamic Covenant is Continued through Jacob
Genesis 28:10-15
Ya'akov went out from Be'er-Sheva and traveled toward Haran. He
came to a certain place and stayed the night there, because the sun had set.
He took a stone from the place, put it under his head and lay down there to
sleep. He dreamt that there before him was a ladder resting on the ground
with its top reaching to heaven, and the angels of ADONAI were going up and
down on it. Then suddenly ADONAI was standing there next to him; and he
said, "I am ADONAI, the God of Avraham your [grand]father and the God of
Yitz'chak. The land on which you are lying I will give to you and to
your descendants. Your descendants will be as numerous as the grains of
dust on the earth. You will expand to the west and to the east, to the north
and to the south. By you and your descendants all the families of the earth
will be blessed. Look, I am with you. I will guard you wherever you go, and
I will bring you back into this land, because I won't leave you until I
have done what I have promised you."
Supportive Scriptures - Circumcision of Gentiles is Not Required for Salvation in the New Covenant
Acts 15:1-20
But some men came down from Y'hudah to Antioch and began teaching the
brothers, "You can't be saved unless you undergo b'rit-milah in
the manner prescribed by Moshe." This brought them into no small measure of
discord and dispute with Sha'ul and Bar-Nabba. So the congregation
assigned Sha'ul, Bar-Nabba and some of themselves to go and put this
sh'eilah before the emissaries and the elders up in Yerushalayim.
After being sent off by the congregation, they made their way through
Phoenicia and Shomron, recounting in detail how the Gentiles had turned to
God; and this news brought great joy to all the brothers. On arrival in
Yerushalayim, they were welcomed by the Messianic community, including the
emissaries and the elders; and they reported what God had done through them.
But some of those who had come to trust were from the party of the
P'rushim; and they stood up and said, "It is necessary to circumcise
them and direct them to observe the Torah of Moshe." The emissaries and the
elders met to look into this matter. After lengthy debate, Kefa got up and
said to them, "Brothers, you yourselves know that a good while back, God
chose me from among you to be the one by whose mouth the Goyim should hear
the message of the Good News and come to trust. And God, who knows the
heart, bore them witness by giving the Ruach HaKodesh to them, just as he
did to us; that is, he made no distinction between us and them, but cleansed
their heart by trust. So why are you putting God to the test now by placing
a yoke on the neck of the talmidim which neither our fathers nor we have had
the strength to bear? No, it is through the love and kindness of the Lord
Yeshua that we trust and are delivered - and it's the same with them."
Then the whole assembly kept still as they listened to Bar-Nabba and
Sha'ul tell what signs and miracles God had done through them among the
Gentiles. Ya'akov broke the silence to reply. "Brothers," he said,
"hear what I have to say. Shim'on has told in detail what God did when
he first began to show his concern for taking from among the Goyim a people
to bear his name. And the words of the Prophets are in complete harmony
with this for it is written, '"After this, I will return; and I will
rebuild the fallen tent of David. I will rebuild its ruins, I will restore
it, so that the rest of mankind may seek the Lord, that is, all the Goyim
who have been called by my name," says ADONAI, who is doing these
things.' All this has been known for ages. Therefore, my opinion is
that we should not put obstacles in the way of the Goyim who are turning to
God. Instead, we should write them a letter telling them to abstain from
things polluted by idols, from fornication, from what is strangled and from
blood."
Galatians 5:11
And as for me, brothers, if I am still preaching that circumcision is
necessary, why am I still being persecuted? If that were the case, my
preaching about the execution-stake would cause no offense whatever.
Supportive Scripture - Paul Circumcised Timothy
Acts 16:1-3
Sha'ul came down to Derbe and went on to Lystra, where there lived a
talmid named Timothy. He was the son of a Jewish woman who had come to
trust, and a Greek father. All the brothers in Lystra and Iconium spoke
well of Timothy. Sha'ul wanted Timothy to accompany him; so he took
him and did a b'rit-milah, because of the Jews living in those areas;
for they all knew that his father had been a Greek.
Supportive Scripture - Each Person Should Remain in the State of Circumcision in which He was Called
1 Corinthians 7:18-20
Was someone already circumcised when he was called? Then he should not try
to remove the marks of his circumcision. Was someone uncircumcised when he
was called? He shouldn't undergo b'rit-milah. Being circumcised
means nothing, and being uncircumcised means nothing; what does mean
something is keeping God's commandments. Each person should remain in
the condition he was in when he was called.
Supportive Scriptures - There is One Body of Law for the Jews and for the Gentile who Joins Himself to the Jewish People through Circumcision
Exodus 12:49
The same teaching is to apply equally to the citizen and to the foreigner
living among you.
Leviticus 24:22
You are to apply the same standard of judgment to the foreigner as to the
citizen, because I am ADONAI your God.
Numbers 15:14-16
If a foreigner stays with you - or whoever may be with you, through all your
generations - and he wants to bring an offering made by fire as a fragrant
aroma for ADONAI, he is to do the same as you. For this community there
will be the same law for you as for the foreigner living with you; this is a
permanent regulation through all your generations; the foreigner is to be
treated the same way before ADONAI as yourselves. The same Torah and
standard of judgment will apply to both you and the foreigner living with
you.
Numbers 15:28-29
The cohen will make atonement before ADONAI for the person who makes a
mistake by sinning inadvertently; he will make atonement for him, and he
will be forgiven - no matter whether he is a citizen of Isra'el or a
foreigner living with them. You are to have one law for whoever it is that
does something wrong by mistake.
Supportive Scriptures - In the New Covenant, Gentiles Connected to the Jewish People through Grafting Instead of through Circumcision
Romans 2:25-29
For circumcision is indeed of value if you do what Torah says. But if you
are a transgressor of Torah, your circumcision has become uncircumcision!
Therefore, if an uncircumcised man keeps the righteous requirements of the
Torah, won't his uncircumcision be counted as circumcision? Indeed,
the man who is physically uncircumcised but obeys the Torah will stand as a
judgment on you who have had a b'rit-milah and have Torah written out
but violate it! For the real Jew is not merely Jewish outwardly: true
circumcision is not only external and physical. On the contrary, the real
Jew is one inwardly; and true circumcision is of the heart, spiritual not
literal; so that his praise comes not from other people but from God.
Romans 11:13-18
However, to those of you who are Gentiles I say this: since I myself am an
emissary sent to the Gentiles, I make known the importance of my work in the
hope that somehow I may provoke some of my own people to jealousy and save
some of them! For if their casting Yeshua aside means reconciliation for
the world, what will their accepting him mean? It will be life from the
dead! Now if the hallah offered as firstfruits is holy, so is the whole
loaf. And if the root is holy, so are the branches. But if some of the
branches were broken off, and you - a wild olive - were grafted in among
them and have become equal sharers in the rich root of the olive tree, then
don't boast as if you were better than the branches! However, if you do
boast, remember that you are not supporting the root, the root is supporting
you.
Colossians 2:11-13
Also it was in union with him that you were circumcised with a circumcision
not done by human hands, but accomplished by stripping away the old
nature's control over the body. In this circumcision done by the
Messiah, you were buried along with him by being immersed; and in union with
him, you were also raised up along with him by God's faithfulness that
worked when he raised Yeshua from the dead. You were dead because of your
sins, that is, because of your "foreskin," your old nature. But God made you
alive along with the Messiah by forgiving you all your sins.
Commentary
It is a common misunderstanding to believe that God's covenant with Abraham (repeated through Isaac and Jacob) applies only to Jews. The Abrahamic Covenant defines the Jewish people generationally, but it is also the framework for Gentiles to willfully connect themselves to the Jewish people, thereby enlarging the "people of God" that comprises both Jews and Gentiles. It is why God told Abraham that he would be the "father of many nations." (Genesis 17:4). That notwithstanding, Gentiles (even K'rovei Yisrael - those closely connected to a Jewish community) are not themselves Jews because their priestly identity and covenantal responsibilities are not inherited, but are rather, voluntarily derived from their connection to the Jewish People through their covenant with the Jewish Messiah. In the Mosaic Covenant, Gentiles who wanted a special covenantal relationship with God received it by physically moving into the Jewish camp, becoming circumcised, sacrificing at the Tabernacle or Temple, and becoming part of the Jewish community. In the New Covenant, Gentiles who want a special covenantal relationship with God receive it by becoming grafted into the "Jewish" olive tree through faith in Messiah Yeshua (see Romans the "Jewish" olive tree through faith in Messiah Yeshua (see Romans 11).1
B'rit milah (covenant circumcision) was (and still is) required of all Jewish males who are eight days old lest they be cut off from the covenant they have inherited. In the Mosaic Covenant, circumcision was required of any Gentile male who lived in a Jewish household and wished to covenantally connect to the Jewish people. Such a Gentile became subject to most of the commandments of Torah, but it did not result in his becoming a Jew or a Jewish convert,2 and it is clear from Acts 15:1-20 that circumcision was not required for their salvation.
Circumcising a Jewish child has historically been considered the duty of the child's father, but an experienced circumciser (a mohel) is often employed. The surgery can be performed by a non-Jew, but only a Jew can receive the child into the covenant. The prevailing view is that b'rit milah should be done on the eighth day after birth when possible. So important is this eighth day principle, that halachah requires that circumcision be performed on that day even if it falls on a Sabbath.
1. Jewish individuals who have been broken off of their olive tree through unbelief have to be re-grafted. Jews that remain unconnected to their tree retain their covenantal responsibilities but not their salvific relationship with God.
2. Uncircumcised Gentiles can participate in today's Passover seders because today's seders do not include eating a sacrificed Passover animal (see Exodus 12:43-49). In 1 Corinthians 5:7-8, Paul makes it clear that Yeshua is our sacrificed lamb, and he thereby encourages the Gentiles to whom he is speaking to celebrate the seder. We do not require that K'rov Yisrael Gentiles be circumcised.
Commentary by Daniel C. Juster
We note that participating at Passover seders has special meaning for believers in Yeshua because the fullness of the meaning of Passover is in the death of Yeshua as our Passover Lamb. As such, in the New Covenant order, both Jews and Gentiles commonly participate in the meaning of the Passover sacrifice in its New Covenant fulfilment form. Regarding Gentile participants in particular, since the Passover meal practiced by Jewish people today is a memorial without the sacrificial lamb, it is common for Gentiles to participate, even in traditional Jewish seders, without violating the Scriptures.
Classical Commentators
Maimonides, Meir, and HaChinuch are in agreement concerning the requirement that a Jewish baby be circumcised on the eighth day if possible. HaChinuch and Meir state that if a Jewish baby is not circumcised, then there is a continuing obligation on the part of the uncircumcised individual to become circumcised when he is older. It is interesting that Maimonides and HaChinuch state that mothers have no responsibility to circumcise their sons in view of Moses' wife Zipporah having circumcised her son (Exodus 4:24-26). Meir states that circumcision should be done after sunrise.
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