** Is Circumcision required for all male believers?

Is Circumcision required for all believers?

Correct translation and teaching of Acts 15v21, etc.

First, some context:

Act 15:5 But there rose up certain of the sect of the Pharisees which believed, saying, That it was needful to circumcise them, and to command them to keep the law of Moses. Act 15:6 And the apostles and elders came together for to consider of this matter.

So the entire problem is one involving the sect of the Pharisees – they were the only believers who were having a problem with the method being used by Sha’ul and others to convert gentiles to Messianic Judaism. They complained to the Jerusalem council.

For background, we need to remember two important things. One, Yeshua, as YHWH Elohim incarnate, told us that in order to be grafted into the House of Israel, and be heirs of Abraham (as Sha’ul discusses several times), a man MUST be circumcised:

Gen 17:9 And Elohim said unto Abraham, Thou shalt keep my covenant therefore, thou, and thy seed after thee in their generations. Gen 17:10 This is my covenant, which ye shall keep, between me and you and thy seed after thee; Every man child among you shall be circumcised. Gen 17:11 And ye shall circumcise the flesh of your foreskin; and it shall be a token of the covenant betwixt me and you. Gen 17:12 And he that is eight days old shall be circumcised among you, every man child in your generations, he that is born in the house, or bought with money of any stranger, which is not of thy seed. Gen 17:13 He that is born in thy house, and he that is bought with thy money, must needs be circumcised: and my covenant shall be in your flesh for an everlasting covenant. Gen 17:14 And the uncircumcised man child whose flesh of his foreskin is not circumcised, that soul shall be cut off from his people; he hath broken my covenant.

Yeshua, who is YHWH Elohim incarnate, gave us this commandment. It’s not negotiable.

We also know that this commandment is eternal. Yeshua, who is YHWH Elohim incarnate, tells us later that:

Deu 13:1 If there arise among you a prophet, or a dreamer of dreams, and giveth thee a sign or a wonder, Deu 13:2 And the sign or the wonder come to pass, whereof he spake unto thee, saying, Let us go after other gods, which thou hast not known, and let us serve them [obey them]; Deu 13:3 Thou shalt not hearken unto the words of that prophet, or that dreamer of dreams: for YHWH your Elohim proveth you, to know whether ye love YHWH your Elohim with all your heart and with all your soul. Deu 13:4 Ye shall walk after YHWH your Elohim, and fear him, and keep his commandments, and obey his voice, and ye shall serve him, and cleave unto him. Deu 13:5 And that prophet, or that dreamer of dreams, shall be put to death; because he hath spoken to turn you away from YHWH your Elohim, which brought you out of the land of Egypt, and redeemed you out of the house of bondage, to thrust thee out of the way which YHWH your Elohim God commanded thee to walk in. So shalt thou put the evil away from the midst of thee.

If Sha’ul or any of the other apostles had been teaching that people no longer had to obey the Torah, they would, by definition, be false prophets and according to Yeshua, YHWH Elohim incarnate, they should be stoned to death and their teachings ignored. These are Yeshua’s words.

So, back to Acts, verse 21 literally says:

(21)Moshe, “for this reason” from generations ancient in every city those proclaiming him he has in the synagogues on every sabbath having been read.

So when you put it in context you get, literally translated in exact order of the greek text with no shenanigans:

Acts 15:15-21 [direct from the greek] And to this agree together the words of the prophets, as it has been written, “After these things I will return, and I will rebuild the tent of David, having fallen, and that being demolished of it I will rebuild, and I will set up it so as may seek the rest of men the Lord, even all the nations, on whom has been invoked the name of ME upon them,” says Lord who is doing these things all, known from eternity are to God all the works of Him.  Because of this, I judge not to trouble those from the nations turning to God, but to write to them to hold back from pollutions of the idols and fornication and the strangled and blood.  Moshe, for this reason, from generations ancient in every city those proclaiming him has he in the synagogues on every sabbath having been read.
(22)Then it seemed to the apostles…

So it’s clear when you translate the words in order, in context, that it is for the purpose of the nations turning back to Elohim that they are to hear Moshe every week in the synagogue!

That is very, very clear to anyone who isn’t biased with an anomial pagan roman replacement theology teaching and can read the text objectively. As for social context, the real dispute, as recorded in then-contemporary rabbinic writings, was a controversy between the Pharisees and the Sadducees. Remember, only the pharisees were the ones complaining to Ya’akov and the Jerusalem council. They were the ones who had a problem, not believers who had come from any other sect.

The Pharisees method of “conversion” was that the convert had to agree to obey all their Torah teachings (takanot and ma’asim, ie their traditions and precedents), and be circumcised according to certain traditions of theirs, BEFORE they could be considered proper converts. We know from Yeshua that their “traditions” were in fact unlawful additions to and subtractions from the written Torah. Yeshua makes this clear in several places.

However, in spite of their annoying takanot and ma’asim, Yeshua tells His followers:

Mat 23:1 Then spoke Yeshua to the multitude, and to his talmidim, Mat 23:2 Saying, The scribes and the Pharisees sit in Moses’ seat: Mat 23:3 All therefore whatsoever they bid you observe [from the books of Moses], that observe and do; but do not ye after their works [traditions and precedents]: for they say, and do not. Mat 23:4 For they bind heavy burdens and grievous to be borne, and lay them on men’s shoulders; but they themselves will not move them with one of their fingers. Mat 23:5 But all their works they do for to be seen of men…

The Pharisees were, at that time, a large and fast-growing sect of Judaism that later became what we know as Ultra-Orthodox Rabbinic Judaism. They were teaching their takanot and ma’asim along with the written Torah everywhere they went, and were anxious to make converts. Even so, Yeshua told his followers the exact same thing that Ya’akov and the Jerusalem council later told them: Go to synagogue and learn Torah every week, so that you can be reconciled to Elohim. Ignore the takanot and ma’asim, but learn the written law that was handed down to them from Moses. It is only by learning what is sin and what is not sin that we can repent and be saved.

The Sadducees method was to have the convert go through a complete Torah cycle and hear the whole Torah, participate in all the festivals (except Passover, of course, for which circumcision is a biblical written requirement), and only at the end decide whether or not to be circumcised and be officially part of the House of Israel. The prosthelyte could, therefore, back out instead of accepting the covenant.

It is clear that the Talmidim ruled in favor of the Sadducees method. They ruled that the converts did not have to be circumcised or be perfect at first. They just needed to do a few things in order to be able to socialize with the other believers, and to hear the Torah every week until they heard a complete Torah cycle. Depending upon when they joined the community and which cycle their shul used – annual or triennial – that process could take anywhere from a single year to almost four years.

The problem is that the Pharisees didn’t accept the ruling – they went around behind Sha’ul and the other apostles (and around to the other sects of Judaism as well!) and told people circumcision had to be done first and that they had to follow all their traditions and precedents (takanot and ma’asim) or it wasn’t valid. To the Pharisees, the converts weren’t “clean” until they were “properly” circumcised. The Pharisee believers wouldn’t eat with them or socialize with them or let them participate in sevices or festivals. They caused a lot of trouble, and Sha’ul lost his temper with them more than once. But the issue was never IF gentiles would be circumcised, it was whether or not they had to do it a certain way (the pharisee way), and WHEN they needed to do it. But the Pharisees would never agree to abide by ruling of the Talmidim and use the Sadducean method.

Now for the rest of the passage:

Acts 15:22-24 directly from the greek:

Then it seemed to the apostles and the elders with all the assembly chosen men of them to send to Antioch with Paul and Barnabus, Judas surnamed Barsabas and Silas, men leading among the brothers, wringing through [the] hand of them these things. The apostles and the elders and the brothers to those throughout Antioch and Syria and Cilicia, brothers from gentiles, greetings. Since we heard that SOME OF US having gone out, troubled you with words, unsettling the souls of you, saying be circumcised and obey the law…

Let’s stop right there. “SOME OF US” are Nazarene Pharisees – believers. Sha’ul himself had been a Pharisee, as he details later. But as a Nazarene and a talmidim, he taught against the oral law (the takanot and ma’asim) – earning him the extreme ire of the unsaved Pharisees and a lot of annoyance from the saved ones. They are those who insist on teaching new converts the oral law and who insist that circumcision HAS to be done at the BEGINNING of the conversion process.

THIS IS THE ENTIRE CONTEXT OF THE REST OF THE STATEMENT. “Some of US” who were Pharisees went out teaching the things of THEIR sect INSTEAD of the method of the Sadducees that the Talmidim had decided to use.

Now, the next important phrase in the translation is “law.” Question, class: What Law? There are five types of “law” in Hebraic thought, and only one word for “law” in Greek: nomia. Which of these 5 did the council mean?

1. The law given by Elohim through the hand of Moshe (the written Torah) aka “the Law of Elohim,” “the Law of the Spirit of Life” (“Choose Life!”), “the Law of Righteousness,” “the book of the Law,” “The Law of Messiah,”

(Since Yeshua, the Father, and the Spirit are all THE SAME BEING, there is NO DIFFERENCE in what is being referred to no matter which “name” is used.)

1. The “oral law” – the takanot and ma’asim of the Pharisees (later, the Rabbinate) aka “works/deeds of the law,” “the law of works,” “the law of the fathers” (as opposed to Elohim),
2. The civil laws of state, local, and national governments, and their court system.
3. The “law of sin and death” – ie cause and effect, the wages of sin is death.
4. Laws of nature, ie physical laws.

This is something you need to keep in mind when you read ANY of the pauline epistles, but in this instance the context has ALREADY been told to us: It is the ORAL LAW of the Pharisees.

So the proper way to understand the passage is this:

Since we heard that SOME OF US [of the sect of the Pharisees] having gone out, troubled you with words, unsettling the souls of you, saying be circumcised [according to their tradition] and obey the [oral] law, to whom not we gave command, it seemed to us becoming of one passion chosen men to send to you with the beloved of us Barnabas and Shaul…

We need to look more closely at what Shaul’s teaching was, in order to decide what it is he was sent to teach them.

Act 21:18 And the day following Shul went in with us unto James; and all the elders were present. Act 21:19 And when he had saluted them, he declared particularly what things Elohim had wrought among the Gentiles by his ministry… Act 21:20 And when they heard it, they glorified Adonai, and said unto him, “Thou seest, brother, how many thousands of Jews there are which believe; and they are all zealous of the law: [what law? Elohim’s law – the WRITTEN Torah]. Act 21:21 And they are informed of thee, that thou teachest all the Jews which are among the Gentiles to forsake Moses, saying that they ought not to circumcise their children, neither to walk after the customs. Act 21:22 What is it therefore? the multitude must needs come together: for they will hear that thou art come. Act 21:23 Do therefore this that we say to thee: We have four men which have a [nazarite] vow on them; Act 21:24 Them take, and purify thyself with them, and be at charges with them, that they may shave their heads: and all may know that those things, whereof they were informed concerning thee, are nothing [ie false charges]; but that thou thyself also walkest orderly, and keepest the law.

The next verse may or may not be original to the text, but since Elohim has included it, there must be a proper Hebraic way of interpreting it.

Act 21:25 As touching the Gentiles which believe, we have written and concluded that they observe no such thing [to fellowship with other believers], save only that they keep themselves from things offered to idols, and from blood, and from strangled, and from fornication [at first, until they have learned Torah].

Act 21:26 Then Shaul took the men, and the next day purifying himself with them entered into the temple, to signify the accomplishment of the days of purification, until that an offering should be offered for every one of them. Act 21:27 And when the seven days were almost ended, the Jews which were of Asia, when they saw him in the temple, stirred up all the people, and laid hands on him, Act 21:28 Crying out, Men of Israel, help: This is the man, that teacheth all men every where against the people, and the law, and this place: and further brought Greeks also into the temple, and hath polluted this holy place…

Obviously, they intended to obey Yeshua, YHWH Elohim incarnate, and stone Shaul to death because they had heard the rumors that he taught against Torah. If this was so, then he was, by Yeshua’s own words, a false prophet.

First off, we see again that Shaul did not teach that the Torah was “done away with “ and took a vow to that efect – that he never taught anyone to put aside the Torah. Verse 25 is inherently of the same context of the verses in Acts 15 – the Sadducean method of conversion versus the Pharisaic method.

We also know that the injunction against uncircumcised persons entering the Temple Area was very much STILL IN EFFECT and obviously ENFORCED. We know both from Josephus and from the Talmud that everyone entering the Temple complex was supposed to immerse, naked, in a mikveh, to be ritually clean. If someone wasn’t circumcised, it would be immediately obvious. And we also see that:

Act 2:46 And they, continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, did eat their meat with gladness and singleness of heart…

Act 3:1 Now Peter and John went up together into the temple at the hour of prayer, being the ninth hour. Act 3:2 And a certain man lame from his mother’s womb was carried, whom they laid daily at the gate of the temple which is called Beautiful, to ask alms of them that entered into the temple; Act 3:3 Who seeing Peter and John about to go into the temple asked an alms. Act 3:4 And Peter, fastening his eyes upon him with John, said, Look on us. Act 3:5 And he gave heed unto them, expecting to receive something of them.

Act 3:6 Then Peter said, Silver and gold have I none; but such as I have give I thee: In the name of Yeshua HaMashiach of Nazareth rise up and walk. Act 3:7 And he took him by the right hand, and lifted him up: and immediately his feet and ankle bones received strength. Act 3:8 And he leaping up stood, and walked, and entered with them into the temple, walking, and leaping, and praising Elohim.

Clearly, prayer and worship of the ENTIRE believing community was taking place in the Temple, where no uncircumcised person is permitted to go. The entire rest of chapter three takes place IN THE TEMPLE COMPOUND where no uncircumcised person could be, and continues on into chapter 4. Even after they were thrown into prison.

Act 5:19 But the angel of the Lord by night opened the prison doors, and brought them forth, and said, Act 5:20 Go, stand and speak in the temple to the people all the words of this life. Act 5:21 And when they heard that, they entered into the temple early in the morning, and taught….

Act 22:17 And it came to pass, that, when I was come again to Jerusalem, even while I prayed in the temple, I was in a trance…

And entrance to the New Jerusalem and the Temple is EXPECTED of saved believers:

Rev 3:11 Behold, I come quickly: hold that fast which thou hast, that no man take thy crown. Rev 3:12 Him that overcometh will I make a pillar in the Temple of my Elohim, and he shall go no more out: and I will write upon him the name of my Elohim, and the name of the city of my Elohim, which is new Jerusalem, which cometh down out of heaven from my Elohim: and I will write upon him my new name…

Those who are “without” are called “gentiles” as we also see:

Rev 11:1 And there was given me a reed like unto a rod: and the angel stood, saying, Rise, and measure the Temple of Elohim, and the altar, and them that worship therein. Rev 11:2 But the court which is without the temple leave out, and measure it not; for it is given unto the Gentiles: and the holy city shall they tread under foot forty and two months.

If you are grafted into the House of Israel then you are no longer supposed to be a “gentile.” There are no gentiles permitted in Elohim’s Temple. And an uncircumcised believer could not be a king or priest in the Millennial Kingdom, either, because they couldn’t even come into Jerusalem or the Temple without being circumcised.

Eze 44:6 And thou shalt say to the rebellious, even to the house of Israel, Thus saith Adonai YHWH; O ye house of Israel, let it suffice you of all your abominations, Eze 44:7 In that ye have brought into my sanctuary strangers, uncircumcised in heart, and uncircumcised in flesh, to be in my sanctuary, to pollute it, even my house, when ye offer my bread, the fat and the blood, and they have broken my covenant because of all your abominations. Eze 44:8 And ye have not kept the charge of mine holy things: but ye have set keepers of my charge in my sanctuary for yourselves. Eze 44:9 Thus saith Adonai YHWH: No stranger, uncircumcised in heart, nor uncircumcised in flesh, shall enter into my sanctuary, of any stranger that is among the children of Israel.

And again:

Isa 52:1 Awake, awake; put on thy strength, O Zion; put on thy beautiful garments, O Jerusalem, the holy city: for henceforth there shall no more come into thee the uncircumcised and the unclean.

It doesn’t get much plainer than that. Any man who intends to be part of the Millennial Kingdom HAS to be circumcised. It’s not optional.

The last thing one should think about is this: Yeshua, YHWH Elohim incarnate, gave us the “communion” kiddush at a Passover seder with His talmidim. There, the new/renewed covenant was established between Yeshua and His followers.

Now, why did Yeshua choose to do it at the beginning of Nisan 14^th, the passover?

Exo 12:43 And YHWH said unto Moses and Aaron, This is the ordinance of the passover: There shall no stranger eat thereof: Exo 12:44 But every man’s servant that is bought for money, when thou hast circumcised him, then shall he eat thereof. Exo 12:45 A foreigner and an hired servant shall not eat thereof. Exo 12:46 In one house shall it be eaten; thou shalt not carry forth ought of the flesh abroad out of the house; neither shall ye break a bone thereof. Exo 12:47 All the congregation of Israel shall keep it. Exo 12:48 And when a stranger shall sojourn with thee, and will keep the passover to YHWH, let all his males be circumcised, and then let him come near and keep it; and he shall be as one that is born in the land: for no uncircumcised person shall eat thereof. Exo 12:49 One law shall be to him that is homeborn, and unto the stranger that sojourneth among you.

This was not an oversight on Yeshua’s part. Establishing the covenant at a time and place where no uncircumcised person could be was not a mistake or accident – rather it is a deep and inherent issue of theology. We are bought and paid for by the blood of Yeshua, and once accept the fact that we are bought, a man must be circumcised in order to become part of the people of Israel and receive the covenant. There is one law for the native-born and for those who want to be grafted into the House of Israel.

Yeshua, as YHWH Elohim incarnate, tells us:

Isa 56:1 Thus saith YHWH, Keep ye judgment, and do justice: for my salvation is near to come, and my righteousness to be revealed. Isa 56:2 Blessed is the man that doeth this, and the son of man that layeth hold on it; that keepeth the sabbath from polluting it, and keepeth his hand from doing any evil. Isa 56:3 Neither let the son of the stranger, that hath joined himself to YHWH, speak, saying, “YHWH hath utterly separated me from his people: neither let the eunuch say, Behold, I am a dry tree…” Isa 56:6 Also the sons of the foreigner, that join themselves to YHWH, to serve him, and to love the name of YHWH, to be his servants, every one that keepeth the sabbath from polluting it, and taketh hold of my covenant; Isa 56:7 Even them will I bring to my holy mountain, and make them joyful in my house of prayer [where the uncircumcised CANNOT be!]: their burnt offerings and their sacrifices shall be accepted upon mine altar; for mine house shall be called an house of prayer for all peoplen [so ALL men are expected to be circumcised!]. Isa 56:8 Adonai YHWH which gathereth the outcasts of Israel saith, Yet will I gather others to him, beside those that are gathered unto him.

One Law – One Torah – for all. A house divided against itself cannot stand, remember? These are Yeshua’s own words. Now you must choose whom you intend to obey: Yeshua HaMashiach, YHWH Elohim incarnate, or the replacement theology of the roman church? I urge you to “Choose Life!” Choosing sin (transgression of the Torah – I John 3) is death.