Shattering Myths Archives
July, 2015

JB's EMail to Yada on Circumcision
 
Was listening to today's show and heard you and Kirk talking about Paul's view on circumcision. I thought it was interesting the way Paul uses the term, "the beneficial message of uncircumcision". I thought I would share with you a few notes from the show I did last year on circumcision.
 
In addition to looking up every instance of mul / circumcised, I looked up every instance of 'aral / uncircumcised (literally, having foreskin). The way 'aral is used is very telling as to how Yahowah sees uncircumcision.
 
In Names / Shemoth / Exodus 6:12 and 6:30, Moshe refers to his having a speech impediment as being of uncircumcised lips.
 
Called Out / Qara / Leviticus 19:23 - "And when you come into and enter the land, and plant all of the food trees, count as unharvestable (aral aralah - unacceptable for harvest, regard it literally as uncircumcised foreskin) its fruit for three years. It exists to you as uncircumcised (aral - forbidden), not to be eaten."
 
Yah Saves / Yahshayah / Isaiah 52:1 - "Awake, awake! Put on your strength, O Zion, put on your garments of splendour, O Yarushalaim, the set-apart city! For no more do the uncircumcised and the unclean come into you!"
 
Yah Lifts Up / Yermiyah / Jeremiah 6:10 - "See, their ear is uncircumcised (aral - the stubborn, unrepentant, unhearing, and unresponsive), and they are unable to listen. See, the word of Yahowah is a reproach to them; they do not delight in it."
 
God Strengthens / Yekhezkel / Ezekiel 28:10 - Yahowah tells the prince of Zor that he will suffer The Deaths (muth - deaths) of the Uncircumcised. There are two thoughts as to what this phrase means. One side has it that it means an ignoble death, while the other is persuaded that it means a physical and eternal death. Use of the plural form of muth would support the latter.
 
God Strengthens / Yekhezkel / Ezekiel 32:18 - "Son of man mourn and lament upon the multitude of Mizraim, and send her down, her and the daughters of the mighty nations, into the region below (tahti eretz - the lowest part, the region below the surface of the earth, the realm of the grave and death), descending (yarad - being lowered and brought down) to the pit (bor - hole or depression in the ground; a prison or dungeon; a pit in the ground for prisoners; death, as the figurative extension of a pit as a place of corruption).
 
"How are you more pleasant than others? Descend (yarad - be lowered and brought down) and lie down with the uncircumcised (aral - the stubborn, unrepentant, unhearing, and unresponsive)."
 
Yahowah uses uncircumcised 9 more times in this chapter, all of them in a derogatory way.
 
According to Yahowah, uncircumcision is far from a beneficial message. It is used almost exclusively as a derogatory term.
 
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Galatians 2:7
 
But these, when they saw that I had been entrusted with the gospel to the uncircumcision, just as Peter to the circumcision…
Galatians 2:7 (Lexham English Bible)
 
“Contrariwise (tounantion – on the contrary), nevertheless (alla – however, notwithstanding the objection, exception, or restriction), having seen and perceived (horao – having looked at, having been aware of, and having looked at) that because (oti – namely for the reason) I have been believed (pisteuo – I have been convinced to faithfully give credence to, thereby I have been entrusted (in the perfect tense this occurred in the past producing the state which exists in the present, in the passive voice, Sha’ul had this done to him, and in the indicative mood, it actually occurred)) with the (to) healing message and beneficial messenger (euangelion) of the uncircumcised (tes akrobystia) inasmuch as (kathos – to the degree that and just as) Petros (Petros – rock or stone; typically transliterated “Peter;” the Greek equivalent of the Aramaic kephas) of the circumcised (tes peritome).”
Galatians 2:7 (Yada's amplified translation)
 
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