Brother,<\/p>\n
This question came up in a recent Bible study. We were covering the book of Romans, the last few verses of chapter 2. Circumcision came up. After a little discussion, a sister in Christ asked how women made a covenant with God under Mosaic Law, since circumcision was the sign of the covenant. How were women “circumcised” before Christ?<\/p>\n\t
The circumcision did not\u00a0make\u00a0<\/em>the covenant. The covenant was made between Abraham and God with the sacrifice of animals (Genesis 15) and it applied to all of Abraham’s descendants. Circumcision was the\u00a0sign<\/em>\u00a0of the covenant or the witness or reminder that the covenant existed. “And you shall be circumcised in the flesh of your foreskins, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between Me and you<\/em>” (Genesis 17:11). While a refusal to have the witness marked in his flesh would exclude an Israelite male (Genesis 17:14), it does not mean every Israelite had to carry the witness — in this case, it was only required of the males.<\/p>\n For example, the sign of the covenant with Noah is the rainbow (Genesis 9:12-17). I don’t have to see a rainbow for that covenant to be in place. In fact, God worded it that the rainbow was a reminder for Him and not us.<\/p>\n Under the new law, baptism becomes the sign of the covenant (Colossians 2:11-12). Baptism does not create the covenant, that was created when Jesus died on the cross (Hebrews 9:15). Baptism is our witness or reminder that we are under Christ’s covenant. One of the differences between the Old Covenant and the New Covenant is that everyone who becomes a Christian is required to take on this sign, whether male or female.<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Question: Brother, This question came up in a recent Bible study. We were covering the book of Romans, the last few verses of chapter 2. Circumcision came up. After a little discussion, a sister in Christ asked how women made a covenant with God under Mosaic Law, since circumcision was the sign of the covenant.…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_seo_schema_type":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[20],"tags":[52,480,489,115],"class_list":["post-49451","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-answer","tag-baptism","tag-circumcision","tag-covenants","tag-old-law"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":2952,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/why-did-god-command-circumcision\/","url_meta":{"origin":49451,"position":0},"title":"Why did God command circumcision?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"July 16, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Why did God command Abraham to cut off the foreskin? Answer: Many of the commands that God gave man early on appeared to be meaningless at the time it was given. Only later did God reveal the meaning of the practice. As an example, God commanded that the Israelites\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2465,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/since-christians-are-spiritual-israel-shouldnt-they-be-following-the-ten-commandments\/","url_meta":{"origin":49451,"position":1},"title":"Since Christians are spiritual Israel, shouldn’t they be following the Ten Commandments?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"February 5, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: In the current age, Christians are spiritual Israel. Hence, the Ten Commandments would still apply to us just as they did to physical Israel. Answer: This point alludes to\u00a0Romans 2:23-29: \"You who make your boast in the law, do you dishonor God through breaking the law? For \"the name\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":22133,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/how-did-david-get-forgiveness-and-why-is-it-different-after-christs-death\/","url_meta":{"origin":49451,"position":2},"title":"How did David get forgiveness and why is it different after Christ’s death?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"March 10, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: How did King David get forgiveness and why is it different after Christ's death? Answer: First, let's make it clear that David lived under a different covenant with God than we do today. See \"Why We Don't Follow the Old Testament\" for details. Still, there are similarities, which should\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2082,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/how-important-is-the-sabbath-day\/","url_meta":{"origin":49451,"position":3},"title":"How important is the Sabbath day?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 18, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: How important is the Sabbath day (Saturday)? Is it something that we have to do? Thanks for the help. Answer: Ever since the covenant changed with the death of Jesus, the observance of the Sabbath has ceased to be a requirement. The law brought down from Mt. Sinai by\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":18075,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/are-baptists-christians-and-where-does-the-bible-speak-against-creeds\/","url_meta":{"origin":49451,"position":4},"title":"Are Baptists Christians and where does the Bible speak against creeds?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"March 4, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I have discussed with a lady the fact that one has not put on Christ until she has been baptized into Him. She is a Baptist but has been discussing the Bible with an open mind. She said her preacher told the congregation this weekend that they are \"bought\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":62316,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/on-infant-baptism\/","url_meta":{"origin":49451,"position":5},"title":"On Infant Baptism","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"August 24, 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"by Terry Wane Benton An Orthodox Church member writes: \"Infant baptism is the new circumcision. We find its parallel to circumcision in the Old Covenant. Infants were circumcised as a sign of being part of the Old Covenant so infants should be baptized as a sign of being part of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49451","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=49451"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49451\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=49451"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=49451"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=49451"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}