59 Cf. Rom. 2:28-29; Phil. 3:3.
58Gk. ἐϰ νεϰϱѽν (B D F G and many cursives read ἐϰ τѽν νεϰϱѽν).
59Cf. Rom. 2:28-29; Phil. 3:3.
60Cf. Philo, Migration of Abraham 92; Josephus, Ant. 20.34-48. Some members of the school of Hillel maintained, in debate with the school of Shammai, that proselyte baptism was sufficient for Gentile converts apart from circumcision (TB Yeḇāmôṯ 46a); but this was more a debating point than a matter of practical policy.
61Justin Martyr allegorizes the narrative of the Israelites’ circumcision at Joshua’s hands with knives of flint (Josh. 5:2-3) as denoting the spiritual circumcision which Christians receive at the hands of the true Joshua (Jesus), “from idolatry and all manner of wickedness, by sharp stones, that is, by the words of the apostles of him who is the corner-stone cut out without hands” (Dial. 114). Early Christian anti-Judaic apologetic grouped together circumcision, sacrifice, and sabbath as having been abolished by Christ (cf. V. Burch, “Circumcision of the Heart,” ExT 29 [1917-18], 330-31; J. R. Harris, Testimonies II [Cambridge, 1920], 105-06). O. Cullmann holds that the understanding of Christian baptism as a repeal of Jewish circumcision “is not just a theological foundling, appearing only at a late date after the Apologist Justin”; it is explicit in our present text and implicit elsewhere in the NT (Baptism in the New Testament, E.T. [London, 1950], pp. 56-57).
62Cf. Eph. 2:11, πεϱɩτομῆς; ἐν σαϱϰì ϰεɩϱοποήτου. The negative ἀϰεɩϱοποίητος; was almost a technical term of primitive Christianity to denote the realities of the new order, used not only of the new circumcision (as here) but of the new temple (Mark 14:58) and the resurrection body (2 Cor. 5:1).