Circumcision of Jewish Christians?
I’m reading Doug Wilson’s To a Thousand Generations for the first time and I’ve come across something that puzzles me. As part of his argument for infant baptism, Wilson points to the ongoing practice of circumcision among Jewish Christians after the death and resurrection of Jesus. In fact, says Wilson, Jewish Christians were required — obligated by God — to circumcise their children. “Baptism was required to display the unity of believing Jews with believing Gentiles (Eph. 4:5), and circumcision was required to show the unity of believing Jews with Abraham (Rom. 4:11-12)” (p. 78).
I have no trouble imagining that a Jewish Christian might have had his newborn son circumcised. But was he obligated to do so? Timothy wasn’t circumcised by his Greek father and so Paul has him circumcised, but it does not seem as if he was obligated to be circumcised; it seems like a concession, because the Jews knew that Timothy’s father was a Greek (Acts 16:1-3).
What about other things that were once required in the Old Covenant? Would a Jewish Christian have been obligated to keep the dietary laws? Would it have been sinful for him to eat some crawfish or a link of boudin before AD 70? I can’t see that it would have been. It might not have been wise to flout his liberty in front of unbelieving Jews. But would it have been sinful?
Would a Jewish Christian have been required by God to continue to bring offerings to the temple? It’s true that Paul takes a Nazirite vow, and so we can conclude that a Christian might bring an offering in Paul’s day. But were Jewish Christians obligated to do so?
Would a Jewish Christian be required by God to keep the laws of clean and unclean? To redeem their firstborn? To present firstfruits at the temple? To keep the laws relating to the land and inheritance?
Well, as a matter of fact, we know that the Jewish Christians didn’t keep the laws relating to the land. They sold their property (Acts 4:34). They didn’t maintain their inheritance, as faithful Jews once strove to do. There’s no hint that the nearest kinsman redeemed their land or anything like that. They sold it — and when persecution heated up, they moved away.
So, again, I can certainly imagine that many Jewish Christians did have their sons circumcised and that it took some time for that practice to fade away. But it’s not clear to me that Jewish Christians were required by God to keep doing until AD 70.