What does the Bible say about circumcision?

Top passages, ranked by readers

Rankings: OpenBible.info Topical Bible (CC BY) · Scripture: World English Bible

• 1 Corinthians 7:19

  Circumcision is nothing, and uncircumcision is nothing, but the keeping of the commandments of God.

• Jeremiah 4:4

  Circumcise yourselves to Yahweh, and take away the foreskins of your heart, you men of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem; lest my wrath go forth like fire, and burn so that none can quench it, because of the evil of your doings.

• Galatians 5:2-11

  [2] Behold, I, Paul, tell you that if you receive circumcision, Christ will profit you nothing. [3] Yes, I testify again to every man who receives circumcision, that he is a debtor to do the whole law. [4] You are alienated from Christ, you who desire to be justified by the law. You have fallen away from grace. [5] For we, through the Spirit, by faith wait for the hope of righteousness. [6] For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision amounts to anything, nor uncircumcision, but faith working through love. [7] You were running well! Who interfered with you that you should not obey the truth? [8] This persuasion is not from him who calls you. [9] A little yeast grows through the whole lump. [10] I have confidence toward you in the Lord that you will think no other way. But he who troubles you will bear his judgment, whoever he is. [11] But I, brothers, if I still preach circumcision, why am I still persecuted? Then the stumbling-block of the cross has been removed.

• Genesis 21:4

  Abraham circumcised his son, Isaac, when he was eight days old, as God had commanded him.

• Romans 2:25-29

  [25] For circumcision indeed profits, if you are a doer of the law, but if you are a transgressor of the law, your circumcision has become uncircumcision. [26] If therefore the uncircumcised keep the ordinances of the law, won't his uncircumcision be accounted as circumcision? [27] Won't the uncircumcision which is by nature, if it fulfills the law, judge you, who with the letter and circumcision are a transgressor of the law? [28] For he is not a Jew who is one outwardly, neither is that circumcision which is outward in the flesh; [29] but he is a Jew who is one inwardly, and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit not in the letter; whose praise is not from men, but from God.

• Galatians 6:15

  For in Christ Jesus neither is circumcision anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creation.

• Genesis 17:10-14

  [10] This is my covenant, which you shall keep, between me and you and your seed after you. Every male among you shall be circumcised. [11] You shall be circumcised in the flesh of your foreskin. It will be a token of a covenant between me and you. [12] He who is eight days old will be circumcised among you, every male throughout your generations, he who is born in the house, or bought with money of any foreigner who is not of your seed. [13] He who is born in your house, and he who is bought with your money, must be circumcised. My covenant will be in your flesh for an everlasting covenant. [14] The uncircumcised male who is not circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin, that soul shall be cut off from his people. He has broken my covenant."

• Romans 4:11

  He received the sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness of the faith which he had while he was in uncircumcision, that he might be the father of all those who believe, though they be in uncircumcision, that righteousness might also be accounted to them.

• Galatians 5:6

  For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision amounts to anything, nor uncircumcision, but faith working through love.

• Philippians 3:3

  For we are the circumcision, who worship God in the Spirit, and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh;

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