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Spiritual Circumcision in Early Christianity

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 February 2009

Everett Ferguson
Affiliation:
ACU Station, Box 8227, Abilene, Texas 79699U.S.A.

Extract

Modern ecumenical discussions and liturgical reform have given new interest to the ceremonies of Christian initiation. The Reformed churches have traditionally held the view that baptism takes the place of circumcision in the economy of salvation. The interpretations of circumcision in early Christian and patristic literature would suggest a modification, or at least a nuance, to that view.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Scottish Journal of Theology Ltd 1988

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References

page 485 note 1 Compare Rabbi Akiba's words about circumcision in Mekhiha to Exodus 19.5; see Mekilta de Rabbi Ishmael, trans. Lauterbach, J. Z. (Philadelphia: JPS, 1949), Vol. II, p. 204.Google Scholar

page 486 note 2 In addition to passages cited in this paper note for example Tertullian, Marc. 5.13.7; Origen, Horn. Num. 6.4; Gregory of Elvira, Tract. 4.20. ‘Spiritual circumcision’ is found in Tertullian, Ad ux. 1.2.3.

page 487 note 3 Savon, Hervé, ‘Le prê;tre Eutrope et la “vraie circoncision”’, Revue de I'Histoire des Religions 199 (1982), 294.Google Scholar

page 487 note 4 Ambrose, as other writers cited below, gives separate interpretations of the baptisms (washings) in the old covenant and of circumcision: ‘Just as many kinds of baptisms first took place, because the true sacrament of baptism in spirit and water which would redeem the whole man was to follow, so circumcision of many first had to take place because the circumcision of the Lord's passion was to follow.’ The epistle is translated as no. 16 in Fathers of the Church 26 (Washington: Catholic Univ. of America, 1954), pp. 90100.Google Scholar

page 487 note 5 Barnabas quotes Jeremiah 4.4; 9.26; Deuteronomy 10.16.

page 487 note 6 Vermes, G., ‘Baptism and Jewish Exegesis: A New Light from Ancient Sources’, New Testament Studies 4 (1957–1958), 310f., 318fGoogle Scholar.; McEleney, N. J., ‘Conversion, Circumcision, and the Law’, New Testament Studies 20 (1974), 333f.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

page 488 note 7 The passage continues, ‘Anyone with even the slightest knowledge of sacred scripture knows that the sacrament of circumcision was a figure of baptism [Col. 2.10–13 quoted]. The circumcision wrought by hand, given to Abraham, is a likeness of the circumcision not wrought by hand, which is now made in Christ.’ The association of the resurrection with circumcision by way of the ‘eighth day’ is also found in a recently discovered sermon of Augustine: see Étaix, Raymond, ‘Sermon inedit de saint Augustin sur la Circoncision dans un ancien manuscrit de Saragosse’, Revue des etudes augustiniennes 26 (1980), p. 69 with other references where the same connection is made in Augustine.Google Scholar

page 488 note 8 Savon, op. cit., pp. 296–301. He notes especially Gregory of Elvira, Tract. 4 and Zeno of Verona, Tract. 1.

page 489 note 9 Savon, op. at., part 2, pp. 391–395 and especially pp. 400–403.

page 489 note 10 Hom. Josh. 5.5 The circumcision performed by Joshua as a type of the spiritual circumcision by Jesus/Joshua was a common Christian interpretation — see note 25 on Justin Martyr.

page 489 note 11 Inst. 4.15. Gistelinck, Fr., ‘Lactance et sa théologie baptismale propre à son temps’, Questions liturgiques 55 (1974), p. 189.Google Scholar

page 490 note 12 Op. cit. p. 294.

page 490 note 13 The argument of Gardner, Paul D., ‘“Circumcised in Baptism — Raised Through Faith”; A note on Col. 2.11–12’, Westminster Theological Journal 45 (1983), pp. 172177Google Scholar that en ho in 2.12 refers to ‘in Christ’, not ‘in baptism’ does not affect our concerns.

page 490 note 14 Lightfoot, J. B., Saint Paul's Epistles to the Colossians and to Philemon (London: MacMillan, 1879), pp. 183185Google Scholar. For a sample patristic text see Basil, Bapt. II. Q.I, ‘the circumcision of Christ, whereby the entire body is despoiled of the sins of the flesh’ (PG 31.1580D).

page 491 note 15 Vermes, op. cit., pp. 318–319 argues that the sacrificial significance of the blood shed in circumcision (above at note 6) accounts for Paul's conjunction of baptism and the sacrificial death of Christ in Col. 2.11f.

page 491 note 16 II Clement 6.9; 7.6; 8.6; 14.3–5; Hermas, Sim. 9.16.3–4; 9.17.4; Irenaeus, Proof 3.

page 491 note 17 Lampe, G. W. H., The Seal of the Spirit (London: SPCK, 1967), pp. x, 3O6ff.Google Scholar

page 491 note 18 Ibid., p. 84. Similar statements on pp. 169, 245.

page 492 note 19 On the correct interpretation of these passages about sealing, see Lampe, op. cit., pp. 5–6 and Beasley-Murray, G. R., Baptism in the New Testament (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1973), p. 174.Google Scholar

page 492 note 20 Lampe. p. 85, strangely cites 11.10, ‘I stripped [folly] off, for circumcision equalling baptism, perhaps because of (symbolic) water in 11.6f.

page 492 note 21 Horn. Gen. 3.6.

page 492 note 22 Horn. Pasch. 6; PG 77.520C–521C. He continues, ‘The power of circumcision is not in the flesh but in will to do what God enjoins.’

page 493 note 23 Lampe, pp. 84, 104. Cf. Wilken, Robert, Judaism and the Early Christian Mind (New Haven: Yale, 1971), p. 12Google Scholar: Barnabas argued ‘circumcision was only a temporary institution and is replaced by baptism’ (9.4; 11.1).

page 493 note 24 The same is done in Ambrose, Ep. 72, cited in n. 4.

page 493 note 25 Surveyed in Otranto, Georgia, ‘La tipologia di Giosue nel “Dialogo con Trifone ebreo” di Giustino’, Augustinianum 15 (1975), 2948.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

page 494 note 26 Lampe, pp. 84f.

page 494 note 27 Cf. Gregory of Elvira, Tract. 4.28, ‘In baptism every man is circumcised as well as reborn’.

page 495 note 28 Van Damme, Dirk, Pseudo-Cyprian Adversus Iudaeos, Paradosis XXII (Freiburg, 1969).Google Scholar

page 495 note 29 The rewriting in Apostolic Constitutions 6.14.5 and 6.15 misses the original Jewish context, for after urging that the circumcision of the heart by the Spirit suffices, the compiler applies the injunction to one baptism as a counsel against rebaptism instead of a contrast with the repeated purifications of the Jews.

page 495 note 30 Neusner, Jacob, Aphrahat and Judaism: The Christian-Jewish Argument in Fourth-Century Iran (Leiden: Brill, 1971)Google Scholar and idem, ‘The Jewish-Christian Argument in Fourth Century Iran: Aphrahat on Circumcision, the Sabbath, and the Dietary Laws’, Journal of Ecumenical Studies 7 (1970), pp. 282–290.