un-sur'-kum-sizd, un-sur-kum-sizh'-un: The adjective in the Old Testament is `arel (Genesis 17:14, etc.), from a root of uncertain meaning, with the noun `orlah, "uncircumcised (person)" (Leviticus 19:23; Jeremiah 9:25), and the verb `aral, "count as uncircumcised" (Leviticus 19:23; the Revised Version (British and American) Habakkuk 2:16). In the Apocrypha and the New Testament the noun is akrobustia (a physiological term, 1 Macc 1:15; Acts 11:3, etc.), and the adjective aperitmetos (Additions to Esther 14:15; 1 Macc 1:48; 2:46; Acts 7:51), with the verb epispaomai, "become uncircumcised" (1 Corinthians 7:18). The language of 1 Macc 1:15 suggests the performance of some surgical operation, but no such operation appears to be possible, and "behaved like uncircumcised persons" (as in 1 Corinthians 7:18) is the probable meaning.

See CIRCUMCISION .

Burton Scott Easton

From the International Standard Bible Encyclopedia
Edited by James Orr, published in 1939 by Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.

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