The Circumcision requirement, an important element in God’s covenant with Abraham, is given in Genesis 17:11-14. God says to Abraham. “And ye shall circumcise the flesh of your foreskin; and it shall be a token of the covenant betwixt me and thee. 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. 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. 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.” Here the question naturally comes to mind, Why this sudden out-of-the-blue imposition? What significance could the removal of the foreskin have for a God who put it there in the first place? Was God circumcised? We don't know. But, let us continue.

It is estimated that in the first century about 7% of the population of Rome was Jewish. Jews comprised a very substantial and growing minority, relatively well treated by the Romans. Although they had a lot going for them there was one big stumbling block to conversion - circumcision, the removal of the foreskin thereby exposing the head of the penis.  Circumcision, a requirement for Judaism, was a painful and humiliating surgical procedure performed without the benefit of anesthetic or antibiotics. To make things worse, in the Mediterranean world of that time there was a strong social taboo against exposing the head of the penis in public. If covered by a foreskin it was acceptable. For that reason circumcised men could never go to the public baths where important business and social contacts were made for fear of being ridiculed and laughed at. For circumcised men wishing to reverse the procedure the only option was Epispasm, a primitive surgical technique which was often  unsuccessful.

In those days there was a large religious community in Rome known as the "God Fearers." These were primarily gentiles attracted to Jewish theology. They attended the Synagogues, listened to the reading of scripture and tried to live according to Jewish law. However, the circumcision requirement kept many of them from converting to Judaism. Along comes Paul and the Christians in the late first century. It was among the God Fearers, that Paul saw a great opportunity to gain converts. He told them that Christianity offered all the benefits of Judaism plus the recognition that the true Messiah had already come and gone but will return again soon with the gift of eternal bliss for all true believers. But without a doubt the most appealing element of Paul's pitch was his claim that he had received a revelation directly from God telling him that the circumcision requirement had been waived. Acts 15 describes a conference in Jerusalem at which Paul gets Peter and James, leaders of the Jerusalem Christians, to agree that circumcision is no longer required. However, this is contradicted in Galatians 2. The Jerusalem church apparently disavowed Paul's claim and insisted on circumcision. The Galatian Christians complied, apparently in Paul's absence.

In Galatians Paul rebukes his followers for listening to the edicts of the Jerusalem church. "After all," he argued in Galatians 1:11-12, "those men in Jerusalem are mere mortals where as my teachings derive directly from Jesus Christ by way of divine revelation." In spite of his best efforts, however, his influence continued to decline. Paul and his version of Christianity seemed destined for oblivion. But then fate took a hand as it often does. The Judao/Roman war (66 to 70), perhaps the most brutal war ever to occur in the ancient middle east, wiped out most of the inhabitants of Jerusalem including the Jerusalem Christians. Therefore, Paul won by default and his teachings prevailed. The Resurrection with its promise of life after death became the undisputed center piece of Christianity. The ancient law of Moses was replaced with a new covenant in which the dreaded act of circumcision was no longer required. Paul's theology became the bases of a new and growing religion - Christianity.