Genesis Vol 3.pdf - College Press

i7:l-27
1 ‘The follawing ) is worthy of
careful study here: “Eternal durat promised ‘.only
to the covenant established by God’with the s
ham, which was to grow into a multitude of
not to the covenant institution which4od established ‘in
connection with the lineal posterity of Abrahani, the twelve
tribes of Israel, Everything in this tution which was of
a local and limited character, and o ted the physical
Israel and the earthly Canaan, ex sa long as was
necessary for the seed of Abraha and into a multi-
tude of nations.
So again it
circumcision could be a sign of the et
Circumcision, whether it passed from Abraham to other
nations, or sprang up among other nations independently
of Abraham and his descendants, was based upon the re-
ligious view that the sin and moral impurity which the fall
of Adam had introduced into the nature of man had con-
centrated itself in the sexual organs, because it is in sexual
life that it generally manifests itself with peculiar force;
and, consequently, that for the sanctification of life, a
purification or sanctification of the organ of generation,
by which life is propagated, is especially required. In this
way circumcision in the flesh became a symbol of the
circumcision, ie., the purification of the heart (Deut.
10:16, 30:6; Lev. 26:41; Jer. 4:4, 9:25, Ezek. 44:7), and a
covenant sign to those who received it, inasmuch as they
were received into the fellowship of the holy nation (Exo.
19 : 6 ), and required to sanctify their lives, in other words,
to fulfill all that the covenant demanded. It was to be
performed on every boy on the eighth day after birth, not
because the child, like its mother, remains so long in a state
of impurity, but because, as the analogous rule with regard
to ehe fitness of young animals for sacrifice would lead us
to conclude, this was regarded as the first day of inde-
pendent existence (Lev. 22:27, Exo. 22:29) .”
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