circumcise, circumcision

Click here to view graphically

The Hebrew and Greek terms that are translated as “circumcise” or “circumcision” in English (originally meaning of English term: “to cut around”) are (back-) translated in various ways:

  • Chimborazo Highland Quichua: “cut the flesh”
  • San Miguel El Grande Mixtec, Navajo (Dinė): “cut around”
  • Javanese: “clip-away”
  • Uab Meto: “pinch and cut” (usually shortened to “cut”)
  • North Alaskan Inupiatun, Western Highland Purepecha: “put the mark”
  • Tetelcingo Nahuatl: “put the mark in the body showing that they belong to God” (or: “that they have a covenant with God”)
  • Indonesian: disunat — “undergo sunat” (sunat is derived from Arabic “sunnah (سنة)” — “(religious) way (of life)”)
  • Ekari: “cut the end of the member for which one fears shame” (in Gen. 17:10) (but typically: “the cutting custom”) (source for this and above: Reiling / Swellengrebel)
  • Cheke Holo: “peel for the purpose of making a sign” (source: Freddy Boswell in The Bible Translator 2009, p. 132ff. )
  • Hiri Motu: “cut the skin” (source: Deibler / Taylor 1977, p. 1079)
  • Garifuna: “cut off part of that which covers where one urinates”
  • Bribri: “cut the soft” (source for this and the one above: Ronald Ross)
  • Amele: deweg cagu qoc — “cut the body” (source: John Roberts)
  • Eastern Highland Otomi: “cut the flesh of the sons like Moses taught” (source: Ronald D. Olson in Notes on Translation January, 1968, p. 15ff.)
  • Newari: “put the sign in one’s body” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
  • Central Mazahua: “sign in his flesh”
  • Hopi: “being cut in a circle in his body” (source for this and above: Waterhouse / Parrott in Notes on Translation October 1967, p. 1ff.)
  • Mandarin Chinese: gēlǐ (割礼 / 割禮) or “rite of cutting” (Protestant); gēsǔn (割损 / 割損) or “cut + loss” (Catholic) (Source: Zetzsche)
  • Tibetan: mdun lpags gcod (མདུན་​ལྤགས་​གཅོད།), lit. “fore + skin + cut” (source: gSungrab website )
  • Kutu: “enter the cloth (=undergarments)” (source: Pioneer Bible Translators, project-specific translation notes in Paratext)
  • Cherokee: “de-head” (source: Bender / Belt 2025, p. 33)

Learn more on Bible Odyssey: Circumcision .

complete verse (1 Corinthians 7:18)

Following are a number of back-translations of 1 Corinthians 7:18:

  • Uma: “For instance a Yahudi person, he comes to believe in the Lord Yesus, he doesn’t have to give-up his being a Yahudi person. So also if a person who is not a Yahudi person believes in the Lord, he doesn’t have to request-to-be-circumcised to become a Yahudi person.” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
  • Yakan: “If for example a person was circumcised before he trusted in Isa Almasi, na, he should not remove the sign of circumcision. And if a person was not circumcised and he trusts now in Isa Almasi, na, he does not have to be circumcised.” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
  • Western Bukidnon Manobo: “For example, if there is a believer who is circumcised in order that it might be known that he is a Jew, then my advice to him is that he not remove the sign of his circumcision. And in the same way also, the person who isn’t a Jew when he believed, he must not have himself circumcised.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
  • Kankanaey: “For-example, if a person is already circumcised before God calls him, he shouldn’t try to change it, and so also for the one who is not circumcised, he shouldn’t have-himself circumcised.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
  • Tagbanwa: “For if a person was already circumcized in accordance with the law of Moises before it was put in his mind to believe/obey Cristo, he should not remove the evidence that he has been circumcized. Or in the case of a person who has not been circumcized because he was not subject to that law, (it’s okay) even if he does not get circumcized.” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
  • Tenango Otomi: “The person who already has been marked with circumcision when God called him to believe, must not be sad that he is marked. The person who had not been marked when God called him to believe must not endeavor to be marked.” (Source: Tenango Otomi Back Translation)

Translation commentary on 1 Corinthians 7:18

This verse contains two rhetorical questions that in some languages will need to be rendered as statements; for example, “Some of you were already circumcised at the time God called you” and “but some of you were already uncircumcised when God called you.” Good News Bible, however, turns these rhetorical questions into conditional sentences: “If a circumcised man has…” and “If an uncircumcised man….” This is a natural way of expressing these rhetorical questions in English and some other languages.

His call is literally “was called.” Verse 17 states that this call comes from God. So languages that do not use the passive may render this phrase as “when you received God’s call” or “at the time when God called you.”

Circumcised will need a glossary note in translations that are intended for readers for whom the rite of circumcision has no religious meaning. See, for example, the Good News Bible Word List. For such modern readers it is almost impossible to convey the full meaning in translations except by adding a lot of information. Paul means two things in this verse: (1) “if you were a Jew when God called you, do not renounce your heritage” (see Rom 9.4-5); and (2) “if you were circumcised when God called you, do not try to conceal (or, remove) the marks of circumcision” (see 1 Maccabees 1.15). Thus a glossary note will be necessary to bring out these meanings that the Jews, of course, would have understood naturally.

The phrase marks of circumcision may be rendered as “the scars caused by circumcision” or “the scars caused by the circumcision ceremony.”

The second half of the verse, beginning with Was any one …, complements the first. In the first half, call is the aorist tense; in the second, it is the perfect tense. Paul must have used this variation for reasons of style, so on both occasions this verb may be translated the same way in most languages.

Quoted with permission from Ellingworth, Paul and Hatton, Howard A. A Handbook on Paul’s First Letter to the Corinthians, 2nd edition. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1985/1994. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .

SIL Translator’s Notes on 1 Corinthians 7:18

7:18a Was a man already circumcised when he was called?

⌊For example,⌋ if God calls a man ⌊to become one of his people⌋, and this man ⌊is a Jew and so he⌋ has already been circumcised,
-or-

⌊What I mean is this:⌋ If you are a man who was already circumcised ⌊according to the Jewish custom,⌋ and later God called/chose you ⌊to become a Christian/believer⌋,

7:18b He should not become uncircumcised.

this man does not need to change his body so he no longer is circumcised.
-or-
you should not try to remove the mark/sign of circumcision from your body.
-or-
then I do not want you/him to do anything to change that.

7:18c Was a man still uncircumcised when called?

⌊Another example:⌋ if God calls a man ⌊to become one of his people⌋, and this man ⌊is not a Jew and so he⌋ has not been circumcised,
-or-
Likewise, if you (sing.) are a man who was not circumcised when God called/chose you ⌊to become a Christian/believer⌋,
-or-
Or if you (sing.) had not been circumcised before God called/chose you ⌊to belong to Christ⌋,

7:18d He should not be circumcised.

this man does not need to get circumcised.
-or-
then I do not want you (sing.) to allow people to circumcise you.
-or-
you do not have to ⌊follow the Jewish customs⌋ by getting circumcised ⌊in order to please God⌋.

© 1998, 2019, 2020, 2022, 2023 by SIL International®
Made available under the terms of a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License (CC BY-SA) creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0.
All Scripture quotations in this publication, unless otherwise indicated, are from The Holy Bible, Berean Standard Bible.
BSB is produced in cooperation with Bible Hub, Discovery Bible, OpenBible.com, and the Berean Bible Translation Committee.