Other thoughts on circumcision. (5.11-12)

by Kent Leslie ✉️

If I still preach circumcision. [Ga 5.11] The way the CSB words this verse is a little confusing: They make it sound like Paul is still preaching circumcision. And we’re quite aware he’s not. Very loudly not! Went on for whole chapters about how he’s not.

Most likely Paul’s saying these words because people were claiming he did preach circumcision: “You gotta be circumcised! Paul’s circumcised. And he’s a Pharisee; Pharisees tell converts they gotta be circumcised; he would say so too.”

So maybe this’d be more accurately translated, “Now brothers and sisters, if I still preach circumcision like they say, why am I still persecuted?”

Might also let themselves be mutilated. [Ga 5.12] This is the CSB’s way of translating ἀποκόψονται/apokópsonte, “they will cut it off.” Other bibles translate it “emasculate” or “castrate.” But you notice Paul doesn’t actually say what they might cut off. I mean, we can obviously guess what he’s thinking of, but he never bluntly says it.

And maybe we shouldn’t either. I would probably translate it, “I wish they’d just cut it out—if you know what I mean.”

You might remember the Ethiopian eunuch in Acts 8. There were people who’d either had this done to them, or did it to themselves. Thing is, Moses declared,

Dt 23.1: “No man whose testicles have been crushed or whose penis has been cut off may enter the LORD’s assembly.”

This is because people who did this to themselves back then, usually did so for idolatrous reasons. So there’s some extra social stigma among Jews about eunuchs. But as we know from the Ethiopian, Jesus accepts everybody.