Jewish Christians don’t need to become gentile. And vice versa.

1 Corinthians 7.18-20.

Just after Paul and Sosthenes instruct the Corinthians to not separate from their pagan spouses—unless, obviously, they demand it—they add a few more things which new Christians shouldn’t change about ourselves now that we’re Christian. Namely if they’re circumcised, and if they’re slaves. I’ll discuss the slaves another time. Circumcision first—and if you have any hangups about penises, you probably won’t wanna read any further.

1 Corinthians 7.18-20 KWL

18Were you circumcised when God called?

Don’t get a “pullover.”

Were you one of the “foreskins” when God called?

Don’t get circumcised.

19The circumcision doesn’t matter.

The foreskin doesn’t matter.

But keeping God’s commands does matter.

20In whatever calling you’re called,

remain in this.

I should remind you: Jews had an unfortunate habit of calling gentiles “foreskins,” as we see in verse 18. It was originally meant to be a slur; it still kinda is. But, same as when nonwhites call me a cracker, I’m quite sure the “foreskins” usually laughed it off. When you’re not an oppressed minority, slurs simply aren’t the same implied threat as they are when you are a minority.

Okay. I translated the word ἐπισπάσθω/epispástho in verse 18 as “pullover,” because that’s what ἐπισπάω/epispáo literally means: ἐπι/epi, “over,” and σπάω/spáo, “pull, draw, drag.” If “pullover” makes you think of what Americans call a “sweater,” that’s exactly the idea I was going for.

Nowadays if you go to the gym, people are only gonna see you nude in the locker room. But for ancient Greeks, you were nude the whole time. They exercised nude. Couldn’t get away from the nudity. Guaranteed men were gonna see your penis. And if you were circumcised, in a room full of uncircumcised Greeks, your penis was gonna look weird and wrong to everyone else. It’s not like the United States, where more than two-thirds of us are circumcised, and foreskins stand out: You were gonna stand out.

So someone came up with a procedure to “restore” one’s foreskin: Basically you pull the remaining skin of your penis over the glans as best you can, and get it to stay there. It’ll look enough like a foreskin. And yep, they called it an ἐπίσπασις/epíspasis, a “pullover.” (Although some Greek dictionaries will define epíspasis as “pulling in,” like when you suck into a straw… which is also kind of an apt description of what was going on here.)

Obviously some Pharisees, who already had a problem with Jews going to the gym and hanging out with buck naked gentiles, thought this was awful. Ritual circumcision signifies a formal relationship with God… and you’re hiding your circumcision? Hiding your relationship with God? You may as well be pagan!

I’m actually with the Pharisees on this one. As are, you notice, the apostles: Don’t get a “pullover.” Don’t try to undo the parts of your past which might embarrass you, but don’t actually matter in the long run. Just follow Jesus.

And if you’re gentile, don’t get circumcised.

As I said earlier, more than two-thirds of American men are circumcised. I found some old stats that say it’s more like four-fifths, but I suspect it’s now lower than that. In the 2010s, Medicaid and some HMOs stopped paying for circumcisions, and people aren’t gonna spend $400 or more for the procedure unless it’s vitally necessary. So a lot of people stopped circumcising their newborns.

Still, non-Americans occasionally ask me why on earth circumcision is so very widespread here; we’re predominantly Christian, not Jewish or Muslim! Well, it became a fad in the early 20th century. Quack doctors like John Henry Kellogg told their followers circumcision cured all sorts of maladies, and prevented all sorts of diseases. Studies have since shown there’s a little bit of truth to that, but nowhere near as many health benefits as the quacks claimed. Keep your penis clean, and you’ll be fine. But even so, plenty of Americans underwent the procedure—and once they had babies, men tend to want their boys to be circumcised same as they are.

If you wanna be circumcised for health reasons, I don’t take issue with that; I don’t think the apostles would either. But if you wanna be circumcised for ritual reasons, here’s what the apostles were actually talking about. You don’t need to be circumcised to be part of Jesus’s new covenant. You need to be baptized. Whole other ritual. Only hurts when you don’t hold your nose.

The whole reason certain legalists were demanding new Christians be circumcised, was because they mistakenly thought you can’t be Christian unless you first become a Jew. They really didn’t understand God’s kingdom now extends to gentiles—and gentiles don’t have to be ritually circumcised, because they’re not descendants of Abraham and Israel; they don’t have a national covenant with God; the command to be circumcised actually doesn’t apply to them.

But like a lot of Old Testament commands, you’re gonna find Christians who don’t understand the historical context, read ’em, and think, “Wait, we’re meant to be obeying this stuff! Why aren’t we doing this?”—and next thing you know, they’re forming communes and trying to follow Old Testament commands as if they’re ancient Hebrews. They’re not the first Christians to get all cult-y, and unfortunately they won’t be the last. But the old heresy that we can’t be Christian unless we first become Jews? Still around. Always has been.

More recently I’ve seen this phenomenon among gentile Christians who join Messianic Jewish congregations. The Messianic Jewish movement started in the 1960s among Jewish Christians who wanted to “stay Jewish,” and incorporate synagogue practices and customs into their church services. Thing is, if you ever attend a Messianic Jewish service, you’re gonna find it full of gentiles. Some of ’em—like me, when I started visiting Messianic Jewish churches—just wanna know more about the Jewish traditions behind Jesus and the apostles’ culture. (And aren’t gonna realize most of their traditions come from medieval rabbinic Judaism, not first-century Pharisees.) But others are looking for ancient Christianity, as was practiced by the very first Christians… and while some join ancient churches like the Orthodox and Catholic churches, some figure that stuff is only to be found among Jewish Christians. So they wanna become Jewish Christians—even though they’re gentile.

Do they go too far? Some of ’em definitely do. Which is kinda what Paul and Sosthenes are warning about in today’s passage: Were you gentile when God called you? Then stay gentile. You don’t need to first become a Jew; God wouldn’t have called you otherwise!

And in some cases, being gentile is an advantage. You know there are, unfortunately, lots of antisemites out there; people who will harass and murder Jews simply for being Jews. As a gentile, there are places I can go where Jews might find their lives in danger. We need to eliminate such places, and make every place safe for Jews—and that’s not gonna happen unless gentiles like me get to work. Surrendering those advantages usually isn’t wise, and I don’t recommend it unless the Holy Spirit orders you to do it. ’Cause I can use my advantages as a gentile to help Jews. Any of us who have such advantages, absolutely should.

And that, I figure, is the main reason the apostles tell us to remain in whatever status God initially called us. If you’re gentile, use that to spread the gospel. If you’re Jewish, use that to spread the gospel. And in the next verses, use your status as slaves or freemen to share the gospel. Use what you got!