Neither Circumcision nor Uncircumcision Counts for Anything

Galatians 5:1–6

1st Century

1For freedom Christ has set us free. Stand firm, therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery. 2Listen! I, Paul, am telling you that if you let yourselves be circumcised, Christ will be of no benefit to you. 3Once again I testify to every man who lets himself be circumcised that he is obliged to obey the entire law. 4You who want to be justified by the law have cut yourselves off from Christ; you have fallen away from grace. 5For through the Spirit, by faith, we eagerly wait for the hope of righteousness. 6For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything; the only thing that counts is faith working through love.

Translation from the New Revised Standard Version.

Published in: The Posen Library of Jewish Culture and Civilization, vol. 2: Emerging Judaism.

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In the earliest generations of gentile Christ followers, Christian leaders like Paul continued to debate whether gentiles needed to circumcise and so become subject to the law in order to be saved through Christ. Below, Paul, who himself identified as a Pharisee, argues that gentiles ought not become circumcised because “the only thing that counts is faith working through love.” See also Early Christians Debate Jewish Observance.

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