“Circumcise your heart…”
While paging through my Bible before noon Mass, I came across this passage from Deuteronomy 10: 12-22 (NJB) entitled, “Circumcision of the Heart.” With a heading like that, I just had to read this little gem and it moved me greatly.
I was struck by how richly it overlaps the “love command” of Jesus in the New Testament. Too many times, I hear God’s love and justice pitted against one another. Here, we see the love and justice of God put in proper relation to each other in the preferential option for the orphan, the widow, and the stranger—yet free from favouritism.
Most of all, I find that the command to “Circumcise your heart…” is a powerful—and graphic—way to reflect on this season of Lent for me and, perhaps, for you too.
Circumcision of the Heart
Deuteronomy 10: 12- 22 (NJB)
And Now Israel, what does Yahweh your God ask of you? Only this: to fear Yahweh your God, to follow all his ways, to love him, to serve Yahweh your God with all your heart and all your soul, to keep the commandments and laws of Yahweh, which I am laying down for you today for you own good.
‘Look, to Yahweh your God belong heaven and the heaven of the heavens, the earth and everything on it; yet it was on your ancestors, for love of them, that Yahweh set his heart to love them, and he chose their descendents after them, you yourselves, out of all nations, up to the present day. Circumcise your heart then and be obstinate no longer; for Yahweh your God is God of Gods and Lord of Lords, the great God triumphant and terrible, free of favouritism, never to be bribed. He it is who see justice done for the orphan and the widow, who loves the stranger and gives him food and clothing. (Love the stranger then, for you were once strangers in Egypt.) Yahweh your God is the one whom you must fear and serve; to him you must hold firm; in his name take your oaths. Him you must praise, he is your God: for you have seen yourselves; and, although your ancestors numbered only seventy persons when they went down to Egypt, Yahweh your God has now made you as many as the stars in the heavens.’
Comments are closed.
Sam
Yes, it is an important point. It’s easier said than done — I know I fail all the time.
As a side note, you might want to look into what “foot” can mean in Bible — for then it might reveal a few more symbols connected to this very point, too. What was it that Moses had to do before going to holy ground?
Another NJB adherent. I think that is at least 3 of us now.
Henry: Thanks, symbols are so very fascinating and illuminating…
M.Z.: Well, that my pocket Bible, my reading one at home is an old school Jerusalem. Either-one is better than many of the English-language alternatives, I think.
Sam
Yes, they are, and the one with the foot is very interesting — it explains a few things which happens in Exodus…
If the Hebrew word for foot is a euphemism for penis, shouldn’t a good translation either translate it as penis or use a contemporary euphemism (for example, manhood)? Presumably those who read scripture in Hebrew in times past knew very well that foot was a euphemism, so a translation that doesn’t clue in the modern reader to what the passage actually means is doing a disservice.
The “circumcise your heart” metaphor doesn’t work for me, since we have a much different attitude toward circumcision today (and a different understanding of the function of foreskin, apparently) than they did in Biblical times.
The RSV has, “Circumcise, therefore, the foreskin of your heart, and be no longer stubborn.” I take it from checking various other sources that the RSV is being more literal by saying “circumcise the foreskin of your heart” rather than the the less graphic “circumcise your heart.”
David,
There are different kinds of translations. How does one translate poetry, for example? But most think that it is best to keep to the words used and do as little interpretation in translation as possible, and let the interpretation become the second level of the discussion.
Nonetheless here is a text which discusses this euphemism:
http://othersheep.org/Miller_5_Circumcision_Sex_And_Bible.pdf
Henry,
Exactly what a translation should do could be debated endlessly without agreement. Let me just say that the Jewish Publication Society translates Deuteronomy 10:16 as follows:
There is a gloss that reads as follows:
I would not fault the approach of giving the literal translation in the gloss rather than in the translation itself. I wouldn’t want to attempt to count the number of times any translation of the Bible uses a gloss to a translated passage that begins, “literally . . . ,” but surely it is done hundreds if not thousands of times.
Are you familiar with The Unvarnished New Testament, a translation by Andy Gaus? The introduction by George Witterschein points out that Gaus translates baptizein as “to bathe in water.” Here is an example:
Witterschein says:
It does seem to me that most contemporary translations of the Bible read back into the text of the New Testament later developments in Christian thought and practice and also (based on what I have read of the Gaus translation) make abstractions out of things that were concrete in the Greek. To the best of my knowledge, no one has ever gone this far, but one might imagine a particularly zealous translator, instead of saying, “baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit,” instead saying, “baptizing them in the name of the Triune God.” That would be egregious, but it seems to me things of the same nature, though less extreme, occur throughout our New Testament translations. For us, baptism is a sacrament, and spirit means a spiritual being. Translating “baptism” as “bathe” or “bathe in water,” and translating “spirit” as “breath” strikes me as valuable in the same way I take it translating “circumcise the heart” strikes Sam as valuable.
Well, David, thanks to your pressing, I now find the whole thing even more valuable. Thanks!
I hear “Circumcise Your Heart” in my head as a line from a Country & Western song.