Circumcision Party

Biblical Texts

The Korean Revised Version (Revised Edition) renders the same Greek expression in several ways: "circumcision party," "the circumcised," and "circumcised believers." The King James Version generally translates it "they of the circumcision." The expression appears in the following passages:

• Acts 10:45: When the Holy Spirit fell on the Gentiles in the house of Cornelius, "they of the circumcision which believed" who had come with Peter were astonished.
• Acts 11:2: When Peter went up to Jerusalem, "they that were of the circumcision contended with him" because he had eaten with Gentiles.
• Galatians 2:12: In Antioch, when certain men came from James, Cephas (Peter) withdrew from table fellowship with the Gentiles, "fearing them which were of the circumcision." Paul rebuked him for this.
• Colossians 4:11: Paul described Aristarchus, Mark, and Jesus who is called Justus as men "who are of the circumcision" who were nevertheless his fellow workers "unto the kingdom of God."
• Titus 1:10: In Crete there were many "vain talkers and deceivers, specially they of the circumcision."
• Philippians 3:3: Paul reversed the meaning of the term, declaring, "For we are the circumcision, which worship God in the spirit, and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh."

Background

The Greek phrase translated "circumcision party" in several passages is hoi ek peritomēs, meaning "those of the circumcision." Peritomē means circumcision. Circumcision was the sign of the covenant God made with Abraham (Genesis 17) and served as a marker of Jewish identity.

As Gentiles entered the church, the question arose whether they too should be required to be circumcised. Acts 15:1, 5 records that certain men who came from Judea, along with believers from the party of the Pharisees, demanded that Gentiles be circumcised and keep the Law. The Council of Jerusalem decided not to impose circumcision on Gentile believers (Acts 15:19–20, 28–29).

Significance in Scripture as a Whole

The Old Testament already speaks of a "circumcision of the heart" alongside physical circumcision (Deuteronomy 10:16; 30:6). Building on this, Paul taught that true circumcision is that of the heart (Romans 2:28–29). He also wrote, "For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth any thing, nor uncircumcision, but a new creature" (Galatians 6:15).

Paul did not compel the Greek Titus to be circumcised (Galatians 2:3), yet he circumcised Timothy out of consideration for the Jews (Acts 16:3). For this reason, Paul is understood to have opposed not circumcision itself but the claim that circumcision was a condition of salvation for Gentiles.

Interpretation and Points of Debate

• The term does not always refer to Paul's opponents. In Acts 10:45 and Colossians 4:11 it simply means believers of Jewish origin.
• Scholars differ on whether "them which were of the circumcision" in Galatians 2:12 were Jewish Christians or Jews outside the church.
• These people are often called "Judaizers," but this is not a biblical designation. It is a later term derived from Galatians 2:14: "Why compellest thou the Gentiles to live as do the Jews?"
• The traditional interpretation since the Reformation reads the problem of the circumcision party as legalism, the attempt to gain salvation by works. Scholars associated with the "New Perspective on Paul" in the late twentieth century (such as E. P. Sanders and James Dunn) see it differently: the central issue, they argue, was the demand that Gentiles adopt the markers that set Jews apart, such as circumcision and the food laws. Critics, chiefly within the Reformed tradition, contend that this perspective obscures the doctrine of justification.

In the Korean Church

In Korean church preaching, the circumcision party is frequently cited as a cautionary example against attempts to add conditions other than faith to salvation. It appears mainly in sermons dealing with Galatians and with law and gospel.