Did God give Moses the commandment to circumcise?
Question:
In John 7:21 when Jesus says, circumcision is not of Moses but of "the Fathers," is he implying that God never gave Moses the commandment of circumcision? I know that this command is written in Genesis 17:10. However, Jesus seems to be implying that this law never came from Moses.
Answer:
"Did not Moses give you the Law, and yet none of you carries out the Law? Why do you seek to kill Me?" The crowd answered, "You have a demon! Who seeks to kill You?" Jesus answered them, "I did one deed, and you all marvel. For this reason Moses has given you circumcision (not because it is from Moses, but from the fathers), and on the Sabbath you circumcise a man. If a man receives circumcision on the Sabbath so that the Law of Moses will not be broken, are you angry with Me because I made an entire man well on the Sabbath? Do not judge according to appearance, but judge with righteous judgment"" (John 7:21-24).
Jesus is stating that Moses gave the Israelites the commandment to circumcise their sons on the eighth day (Leviticus 12:3), but he is clarifying that this command did not originate with Moses, but was passed down because God told Abraham: "This is My covenant, which you shall keep, between Me and you and your descendants after you: every male among you shall be circumcised" (Genesis 17:10). The law, given to both Abraham and Moses, came from God.
Jesus proves his contention that they were trying to kill him by reminding them of an event that happened about a year and a half prior. He did a miraculous healing on a Sabbath day (John 5:8-9). Everyone knew that no work was done on the Sabbath, but even so, commands of God were still kept, whether it was the Sabbath or not. When a child is eight days old, he is circumcised, whether the eighth day happened to fall on a Sabbath or not. And that command to circumcise did not even originate with Moses like the command to keep the Sabbath did. The command to circumcise was an older command, coming from the days of Abraham. Still, people were angry that Jesus had healed a man on the Sabbath, even though the power to heal is obviously from God. Their ability to judge was flawed, Jesus said, because they were only looking at the surface of the matter.
