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| Chapter XLVIII
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Chapter
XLVIII.
Although the Jews, then, pride themselves on
circumcision, they will separate it not only from that of the Colchians
and Egyptians, but also from that of the Arabian Ishmaelites; and yet
the latter was derived from their ancestor Abraham, the father of
Ishmael, who underwent the rite of circumcision along with his
father. The Jews say that the circumcision performed on the
eighth day is the principal circumcision, and that which is performed
according to circumstances is different; and probably it was performed
on account of the hostility of some angel towards the Jewish nation,
who had the power to injure such of them as were not circumcised, but
was powerless against those who had undergone the rite. This may
be said to appear from what is written in the book of Exodus, where the
angel before the circumcision of Eliezer4234
was able to work against4235
| 4235 ἐνεργεῖν
κατὰ
Μωϋσέως. | Moses, but could do
nothing after his son was circumcised. And when Zipporah had
learned this, she took a pebble and circumcised her child, and is
recorded, according to the reading of the common copies, to have said,
“The blood of my child’s circumcision is stayed,” but
according to the Hebrew text, “A bloody husband art thou to
me.”4236
For she had
known the story about a certain angel having power before the shedding
of the blood, but who became powerless through the blood of
circumcision. For which reason the words were addressed to Moses,
“A bloody husband art thou to me.” But these things,
which appear rather of
a curious nature, and not level to the comprehension of the multitude,
I have ventured to treat at such length; and now I shall only add, as
becomes a Christian, one thing more, and shall then pass on to what
follows. For this angel might have had power, I think, over those
of the people who were not circumcised, and generally over all who
worshipped only the Creator; and this power lasted so long as Jesus had
not assumed a human body. But when He had done this, and had
undergone the rite of circumcision in His own person, all the power of
the angel over those who practise the same worship, but are not
circumcised,4237
| 4237 κατὰ τῶν ἐν
τῇ θεοσεβείᾳ
ταύτῃ
περιτεμνομένων
δύναμις. Boherellus
inserts μὴ before
περιτεμνομένων,, which has been adopted in the text. | was abolished; for
Jesus reduced it to nought by (the power of) His unspeakable
divinity. And therefore His disciples are forbidden to circumcise
themselves, and are reminded (by the apostle): “If ye be
circumcised, Christ shall profit you nothing.”4238
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