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10 This is the covenant between me and you and your descendants after you that you must keep: every male among you shall be circumcised.[a](A) 11 Circumcise the flesh of your foreskin. That will be the sign of the covenant between me and you.(B)

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Footnotes

  1. 17:10 Circumcised: circumcision was widely practiced in the ancient world, usually as an initiation rite for males at puberty. By shifting the time of circumcision to the eighth day after birth, biblical religion made it no longer a “rite of passage” but the sign of the eternal covenant between God and the community descending from Abraham.

Thus Abraham “believed God,(A) and it was credited to him as righteousness.”[a]

[b]Realize then that it is those who have faith who are children of Abraham.(B) Scripture, which saw in advance that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, foretold the good news to Abraham, saying, “Through you shall all the nations be blessed.”(C)

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Footnotes

  1. 3:6 Abraham…righteousness: see Gn 15:6; Rom 4:3. The Galatians like Abraham heard with faith and experienced justification. This first argument forms the basis for the further scriptural evidence that follows.
  2. 3:7–9 Faith is what matters, for Abraham and the children of Abraham, in contrast to the claims of the opponents that circumcision and observance of the law are needed to bring the promised blessing of Gn 12:3; cf. Gn 18:18; Sir 44:21; Acts 3:25.