Ante-Nicene Fathers/Volume V/Cyprian/The Treatises of Cyprian/Three Books of Testimonies Against the Jews/Book I/Part 8

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Ante-Nicene Fathers/Volume V Vol. V, Cyprian, The Treatises of Cyprian, Three Books of Testimonies Against the Jews, Book I
by Cyprian, translated by Robert Ernest Wallis
Part 8
157844Ante-Nicene Fathers/Volume V Vol. V, Cyprian, The Treatises of Cyprian, Three Books of Testimonies Against the Jews, Book I — Part 8Robert Ernest WallisCyprian

8. That the first circumcision of the flesh is made void, and the second circumcision of the spirit is promised instead.

In Jeremiah: “Thus saith the Lord to the men of Judah, and to them who inhabit Jerusalem, Renew newness among you, and do not sow among thorns: circumcise yourselves to your God, and circumcise the foreskin of your heart; lest my anger go forth like fire, and burn you up, and there be none to extinguish it.”[1] Also Moses says: “In the last days God will circumcise thy heart, and the heart of thy seed, to love the Lord thy God.”[2] Also in Jesus the son of Nave: “And the Lord said unto Jesus, Make thee small knives of stone, very sharp, and set about to circumcise the children of Israel for the second time.”[3] Paul also, to the Colossians: “Ye are circumcised with the circumcision not made with hands in the putting off of the flesh, but with the circumcision of Christ.”[4] Also, because Adam was first made by God uncircumcised, and righteous Abel, and Enoch, who pleased God and was translated; and Noah, who, when the world and men were perishing on account of transgressions, was chosen alone, that in him the human race might be preserved; and Melchizedek, the priest according to whose order Christ was promised. Then, because that sign did not avail women,[5] but all are sealed by the sign of the Lord.


Footnotes[edit]

  1. Jer. iv. 3, 4.
  2. Deut. xxx. 6.
  3. Josh. v. 2.
  4. Col. ii. 11.
  5. This appears to be the natural reading, but it rests on slight authority; the better accredited reading being “seminis” for “feminis.”