For circumcision verily profiteth, if thou keep the law: but if thou be a breaker of the law, thy circumcision is made uncircumcision.
Parallel translations
- WEB 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.
- BSB Circumcision has value if you observe the law, but if you break the law, your circumcision has become uncircumcision.
- NKJV For circumcision is indeed profitable if you keep the law; but if you are a breaker of the law, your circumcision has become uncircumcision.
- NASB For indeed circumcision is of value if you practice the Law; but if you are a violator of the Law, your circumcision has turned into uncircumcision.
- NLT The Jewish ceremony of circumcision has value only if you obey God’s law. But if you don’t obey God’s law, you are no better off than an uncircumcised Gentile.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Circumcision benefits only if you keep the law; if you break it, your circumcision becomes uncircumcision. The covenant sign means nothing without covenant obedience.
Overview
Paul addresses circumcision, the chief sign of Jewish covenant identity. He argues that its value depends on keeping the law; a lawbreaker's circumcision counts for nothing. The outward sign cannot substitute for the inward reality of obedience and faith. This relativizes ethnic and ritual privilege and points toward the true circumcision of the heart in v.29.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 10
- Gal 5:3–6For I testify again to every man that is circumcised, that he is a debtor to do the whole law.
- Jer 4:4Circumcise yourselves to the LORD, and take away the foreskins of your heart, ye men of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem: lest my fury come forth like fire, and burn that none can quench it, because of the evil of your doings.
- Acts 7:51Ye stiffnecked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, ye do always resist the Holy Ghost: as your fathers did, so do ye.
- Gal 6:15For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth any thing, nor uncircumcision, but a new creature.
- Jer 9:25–26Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will punish all them which are circumcised with the uncircumcised;
- Deut 30:6And the LORD thy God will circumcise thine heart, and the heart of thy seed, to love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, that thou mayest live.
- Rom 2:23Thou that makest thy boast of the law, through breaking the law dishonourest thou God?
- Rom 2:28For he is not a Jew, which is one outwardly; neither is that circumcision, which is outward in the flesh:
- Eph 2:11–12Wherefore remember, that ye being in time past Gentiles in the flesh, who are called Uncircumcision by that which is called the Circumcision in the flesh made by hands;
- Rom 4:11–12And he received the sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness of the faith which he had yet being uncircumcised: that he might be the father of all them that believe, though they be not circumcised; that righteousness might be imputed unto them also:
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Christ at the center
Paul unfolds the gospel in full: Christ our righteousness received by faith, the second Adam in whom many are made righteous, in whose death and resurrection we are buried and raised.
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Original language
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