What does περιτομή (peritomḗ) mean in the Bible?
The Greek noun peritome means circumcision — the cutting of the foreskin as the physical rite that marked covenant membership for Israelite males from Abraham onward (Gen. 17:10).
Greek · G4061
περιτομή
Circumcision (the rite, the condition or the people, literally or figuratively)
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περιτομή G4061
Pronunciation peritomḗ
What does περιτομή (peritomḗ) mean in the Bible?
The Greek noun peritome means circumcision — the cutting of the foreskin as the physical rite that marked covenant membership for Israelite males from Abraham onward (Gen. 17:10).
Reader summary
Full entry for περιτομή (G4061) · Open the biblical lexicon
Questions this entry answers
How does the BSB render G4061?
The BSB source-word alignment has 36 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include circumcision (13), circumcised (7), of circumcision (3), [after] (1), [and] (1).
Where does περιτομή (peritomḗ) appear in Scripture?
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at John 7:22. Its strongest book concentrations include Romans (15), Galatians (7), Colossians (4), Acts (3).
Are there verse guides for περιτομή (peritomḗ)?
This entry includes 3 verse guides that explain exact original-language forms in context.
What This Word Actually Means
The Greek noun peritome means circumcision — the cutting of the foreskin as the physical rite that marked covenant membership for Israelite males from Abraham onward (Gen. 17:10). In the New Testament, peritome is never merely a medical or cultural datum; it is a theological sign whose meaning is constantly under discussion. The Galatian crisis forces the question with maximum pressure: the Judaizing teachers were insisting that Gentile believers must receive peritome as a condition of full standing before God (Acts 15:1).
Paul's response in Galatians is definitive and uncompromising — if circumcision is made a condition of justification, then Christ's work is rendered unnecessary (Gal. 5:2). The sign that was instituted as a marker of belonging to the covenant people has, in the Galatians controversy, been distorted into a work by which one earns or completes salvation. Paul's counter-argument is that peritome was designed as a sign pointing beyond itself: Abraham received the sign of circumcision as a seal of the righteousness he had by faith while still uncircumcised (Rom.
4:11), Which means the sign was secondary to the faith-righteousness it signified. The prophets had pressed this distinction long before Paul: 'circumcise your hearts' (Deut. 10:16; Jer. 4:4) — the inner reality the rite pointed toward was the point in the prophetic critique. In Christ, that inner reality has arrived: the 'circumcision of Christ' is the putting off of the sinful nature, performed not by human hands but by God (Col.
2:11). Those who are in Christ are 'the circumcision' — they who worship by the Spirit and put no confidence in the flesh (Phil. 3:3).
Canonical parallel
How the Bible Uses It
The local NT index currently counts about 36 occurrences of peritome, making it one of the most discussed theological terms in the corpus. It carries its heaviest concentration in Galatians, Romans (especially ch. 2-4), and Philippians 3. Paul consistently distinguishes between outward physical circumcision and the true inward circumcision of the heart, reading the OT prophetic tradition (Deut. 10:16; Jer. 4:4; 9:25) as establishing that the physical rite was designed as a sign pointing to something deeper.
- Gal.5.6
For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision has any value. What matters is faith expressing itself through love.
Paul's summary verdict on peritome in Galatians: in Christ, the sign is neutralized as a category of standing. Neither having it nor not having it makes any difference to one's position before God. What operates in Christ's domain is faith working through love — an entirely different principle. This verse makes clear that Paul is not arguing against circumcision as a cultural practice for Jewish believers but against its use as a condition of justification.
- Gal.5.2
Take notice: I, Paul, tell you that if you let yourselves be circumcised, Christ will be of no value to you at all.
One of Paul's sharpest statements in the NT. The logic is not that circumcision is inherently evil but that seeking circumcision as a condition of salvation places the seeker outside the grace-system entirely. If the rite is required for standing, then the cross is insufficient — and an insufficient Christ is no Christ at all. Paul is protecting the exclusivity of grace against the intrusion of any human act as a co-condition.
- Rom.4.11
And he received the sign of circumcision as a seal of the righteousness that he had by faith while he was still uncircumcised. So then, he is the father of all who believe but are not circumcised, in order that righteousness might be credited to them.
This is Paul's exegetical master-stroke on circumcision: Abraham received peritome after he was justified by faith (Gen. 15 precedes Gen. 17), which means the sign was always a seal of something already given, not a condition for receiving it. This OT ordering supports the claim that circumcision was not intended to be the basis of righteousness — which dismantles the Galatians' teachers' case from within the very covenant history they were appealing to.
- Php.3.3
For it is we who are the circumcision, we who worship by the Spirit of God, who glory in Christ Jesus, and who put no confidence in the flesh—
Paul's bold redefinition: the true peritome community is not those who have undergone the physical rite but those who worship by the Spirit, glory in Christ, and put no confidence in the flesh. This is the prophetic tradition (circumcision of the heart) reaching its christological fulfillment: the inner reality the OT sign pointed to is now constituted by Spirit, Christ, and the abandonment of flesh-confidence.
- Jer.4.4
Circumcise yourselves to the Lord, and remove the foreskins of your hearts, O men of Judah and people of Jerusalem. Otherwise, My wrath will break out like fire and burn with no one to extinguish it, because of your evil deeds.”
Jeremiah's command for circumcision of the heart shows that the OT itself regarded the physical rite as pointing toward an inward transformation. Paul is not innovating against the OT but reading the OT's own prophetic critique of mere ritual compliance. The prophets consistently held that the sign without the inner reality was either useless or dangerous — a position Paul builds his whole argument on.
Passage contextCanonical parallel
Source Word Evidence
BSB source-word alignment connects this entry to exact verse rows, English rendering, source form, transliteration, and parsing.
How English Renders It circumcision 13× John 7:22, Romans 2:25, Romans 2:26, Romans 2:27
circumcised 7× Acts 10:45, Romans 4:9, Galatians 2:7, Galatians 2:8
of circumcision 3× Acts 7:8, Romans 3:1, Romans 4:11
[after] 1× Romans 4:10
[and] 1× Colossians 2:11
[is] circumcision 1× Romans 2:28
[the] circumcised 1× Romans 3:30
[the] circumcised [believers] 1× Acts 11:2
[the] circumcision [ group ] 1× Galatians 2:12
are circumcised 1× Romans 4:12
can be circumcised 1× John 7:23
circumcision [is a matter] 1× Romans 2:29
his circumcision 1× Romans 4:10
Jews 1× Colossians 4:11
of [the] circumcised 1× Romans 15:8
of the circumcised 1× Romans 4:12
Show sample aligned rows
John 7:22 περιτομήν to circumcision Noun - Accusative Feminine Singular John 7:23 περιτομὴν to can be circumcised Noun - Accusative Feminine Singular Acts 7:8 περιτομῆς to of circumcision Noun - Genitive Feminine Singular Acts 10:45 περιτομῆς to circumcised Noun - Genitive Feminine Singular Acts 11:2 περιτομῆς to [the] circumcised [believers] Noun - Genitive Feminine Singular Romans 2:25 Περιτομὴ to Circumcision Noun - Nominative Feminine Singular Romans 2:25 περιτομή to circumcision Noun - Nominative Feminine Singular Romans 2:26 περιτομὴν to circumcision Noun - Accusative Feminine Singular Romans 2:27 περιτομῆς to circumcision Noun - Genitive Feminine Singular Romans 2:28 περιτομή to [is] circumcision Noun - Nominative Feminine Singular
Usage map
A compact distribution from source-word alignment before the full evidence tables.
First aligned row John 7:22
Aligned rows 36
Books represented 9
John 2 Acts 3 Romans 15 1 Corinthians 1 Galatians 7 Ephesians 1 Philippians 2 Colossians 4 Titus 1
Source forms
περιτομῆς 15x peritomēs Acts 7:8, Acts 10:45, Acts 11:2, Romans 2:27
περιτομή 5x peritomē Romans 2:25, Romans 2:28, Galatians 5:6, Galatians 6:15
περιτομῇ 5x peritomē Romans 4:10, Philippians 3:5, Colossians 2:11
περιτομὴν 5x peritomēn John 7:23, Romans 2:26, Romans 3:30, Romans 4:9
περιτομὴ 3x peritomē Romans 2:29, 1 Corinthians 7:19, Colossians 3:11
περιτομήν 2x peritomēn John 7:22, Galatians 2:9
Περιτομὴ 1x Peritomē Romans 2:25
Parsing patterns
Noun - Genitive Feminine Singular 15x Acts 7:8, Acts 10:45, Acts 11:2, Romans 2:27
Noun - Nominative Feminine Singular 9x Romans 2:25, Romans 2:28, Romans 2:29, 1 Corinthians 7:19
Noun - Accusative Feminine Singular 7x John 7:22, John 7:23, Romans 2:26, Romans 3:30
Noun - Dative Feminine Singular 5x Romans 4:10, Philippians 3:5, Colossians 2:11
Using This Word Well
Be careful not to...
- Paul's argument that 'neither circumcision nor uncircumcision matters' (Gal. 5:6; 6:15) does not mean that all religious practices are spiritually irrelevant or that embodied forms of worship are indifferent. The point is specifically about conditions of justification: no physical act can earn or complete salvation. The NT retains meaningful embodied practices (baptism, the Lord's Supper) as covenant signs, not as conditions of salvation. The distinction Paul is drawing is between sign and condition, not between embodied and spiritual.
Avoid claiming...
- Do not claim that Acts 16:3 (Paul circumcising Timothy) contradicts Galatians — the contexts are entirely different: Paul circumcised Timothy for missiological access among Jewish communities, not as a condition of salvation; the Galatian controversy was about requiring circumcision for justification, which is a different claim altogether.
- Do not claim that Galatians 6:15's 'neither circumcision nor uncircumcision means anything; what counts is a new creation' abolishes all distinctions between Jewish and Gentile believers — it abolishes the soteriological significance of the distinction (neither is a condition of standing before God), not the historical or cultural reality of the distinction.
Key Verse and Form Guides
Verse-level guides showing how this original-language form works in its specific context, including grammar, verse function, and guarded interpretation.
Colossians 2:11 Noun Dative Singular Feminine
περιτομῇ peritome circumcision (the rite, the condition or the people, literally or figuratively) The form nudges interpretation toward circumcision as a descriptive covenantal image joined to Christ's work, not merely a surgical or ethnic label. Read verse guide Romans 3:1 Noun Genitive Singular Feminine
περιτομῆς; peritomes circumcision (the rite, the condition or the people, literally or figuratively) The form directs attention to circumcision as the focus of the advantage being questioned, so the verse asks about its value in context rather than asserting a new doctrine from grammar alone. Read verse guide Romans 3:30 Noun Accusative Singular Feminine
περιτομὴν peritomen circumcision (the rite, the condition or the people, literally or figuratively) The form helps readers hear circumcision as the object or group included in God's justifying action, which sharpens the verse's parallel with uncircumcision. Read verse guide Greek word. Metonymy shifts from the physical rite to the Jewish people themselves; spiritualized in Paul as heart transformation.
Source Gloss
circumcision (the rite, the condition or the people, literally or figuratively)
Greek Text Appearances
Textus Receptus witness, full corpus Greek token appearances from Scrivener 1894 Textus Receptus in the full New Testament corpus.
16 of 36 Greek text appearances shown. Linked morphology labels have verse guides.
John 7:22 Noun Accusative Singular Feminine
περιτομήν peritomhn
circumcision
Read verse John 7:23 Noun Accusative Singular Feminine
περιτομὴν peritomhn
circumcision
Read verse Acts 7:8 Noun Genitive Singular Feminine
περιτομῆς· peritomhv
circumcision
Read verse Acts 10:45 Noun Genitive Singular Feminine
περιτομῆς peritomhv
circumcision
Read verse Acts 11:2 Noun Genitive Singular Feminine
περιτομῆς, peritomhv
circumcision
Read verse Romans 2:25 Noun Nominative Singular Feminine
περιτομὴ peritomh
circumcision
Read verse Romans 2:25 Noun Nominative Singular Feminine
περιτομή peritomh
circumcision
Read verse Romans 2:26 Noun Accusative Singular Feminine
περιτομὴν peritomhn
circumcision
Read verse Romans 2:27 Noun Genitive Singular Feminine
περιτομῆς peritomhv
circumcision
Read verse Romans 2:28 Noun Nominative Singular Feminine
περιτομή· peritomh
circumcision
Read verse Romans 2:29 Noun Nominative Singular Feminine
περιτομὴ peritomh
circumcision
Read verse peritomhv
circumcision
Read verse peritomhn
circumcision
Read verse Romans 4:9 Noun Accusative Singular Feminine
περιτομήν, peritomhn
circumcision
Read verse Romans 4:10 Noun Dative Singular Feminine
περιτομῇ peritomh
circumcision
Read verse Romans 4:10 Noun Dative Singular Feminine
περιτομῇ, peritomh
circumcision
Read verseFull New Testament corpus: 260 chapters, 7,957 verses, 140,628 tokens. Data source: honza/textus-receptus (data only), with authority check against byztxt/greektext-textus-receptus.
Grammatical Forms
How this word appears across different grammatical cases and numbers.
This word appears as a noun across 4 case and number patterns. The form changes show how the word functions in a sentence; they do not change the basic lexical meaning by themselves.
Form patterns 4 Aligned forms 36 Case pattern Genitive (15) Number pattern Singular (36)
Nominative · Singular · Feminine Rom 2:25 · Rom 2:28 · Rom 2:29 · 1 Cor 7:19 · Gal 5:6 · Gal 6:15 · Phil 3:3 · Col 3:11 9×
Genitive · Singular · Feminine Acts 7:8 · Acts 10:45 · Acts 11:2 · Rom 2:27 · Rom 3:1 · Rom 4:11 · Rom 4:12 · Rom 15:8 · Gal 2:7 · Gal 2:8 · Gal 2:12 · Eph 2:11 · Col 4:11 · Titus 1:10 15×
Accusative · Singular · Feminine John 7:22 · John 7:23 · Rom 2:26 · Rom 3:30 · Rom 4:9 · Gal 2:9 · Gal 5:11 7×
Selected Scripture Witnesses
Selected passage-level study witnesses for this word. This section is not the full occurrence list.
New Testament Witnesses
circumcision
Circumcision, covenant sign of Israel.
Circumcision, covenant sign.
Showing 3 selected witnesses from 36 lexical occurrence verses.
Word Origins
περιτομή is built from this root:
Why This Word Matters
Its value is conditional upon obedience and ultimately fulfilled in inward transformation. Philippians 3:1–3
It demonstrates that ritual marking follows faith rather than produces righteousness. Romans 2:17-29
Reframed as spiritual identity in Christ. Romans 4:1-12
Part of These Phrases
Compound and idiomatic phrases that include this word. Follow a link to study the phrase and how its parts work together.
For the Preacher and Teacher
Peritome in Galatians is the presenting issue, but the underlying question is universal: what is the condition of standing before God? The Galatians controversy was about circumcision; many generations face equivalents — the specific religious performance, the cultural marker, the doctrinal boundary that gets elevated from sign to condition. Paul's argument is not merely that circumcision has been superseded by Christ; it is that circumcision was not meant to be a condition of justification in the first place.
The sign was always secondary to the faith-righteousness it pointed toward (Rom. 4:11). When any sign, ritual, or practice gets elevated to a co-condition of salvation alongside faith in Christ, the same logical catastrophe Paul names in Galatians 5:2 applies: Christ becomes of no value. The preacher who handles peritome well will help the congregation see not just the ancient controversy but the contemporary equivalents — the ways in which churches, traditions, and individuals add conditions to grace that undermine the sufficiency of Christ.
And the positive movement is equally important: what peritome pointed toward has arrived in Christ. The circumcision that matters is the circumcision of the heart (Deut. 10:16; Jer. 4:4; Rom. 2:29) — the putting off of the sinful nature, performed by Christ himself (Col. 2:11) — which is accomplished not by a knife but by the Spirit of the living God.
Anchor passage
Gal.5.6
Doctrinal connections
- G1657 Eleutheria — freedom; the counterpart concept in Galatians; requiring circumcision for salvation is precisely the yoke of slavery that Paul says Christ has freed believers from
- G4102 Pistis — faith; Gal 5:6 — what matters is 'faith expressing itself through love'; peritome is replaced not by uncircumcision but by faith-working-through-love
- G4561 Sarx — flesh; Gal 5:3 — circumcision as a condition of salvation is confidence in the flesh (Phil 3:3), the very thing the gospel dismantles
- H4135 mûl — to circumcise (Hebrew); the OT verb for the rite; its OT usage includes the prophetic demand for heart-circumcision (Deut 30:6)
- Deut.10.16 and Deut.30.6 — the OT's internal critique of peritome: 'circumcise your hearts'; 'the Lord your God will circumcise your hearts'
- Col.2.11-12 — the circumcision of Christ and baptism together define the NT realities that peritome pointed toward
Peritome is from peri (around) + temnō (to cut), with the sense of 'a cutting around.' The related verb peritemnō (to circumcise) appears frequently in Acts and Paul. The abstract noun peritome can refer to the act of circumcision, the state of being circumcised, or the circumcised community (as a collective noun, as in 'the circumcision' meaning Jewish people).
Paul uses these senses across his letters. The opposing term akrobustia (uncircumcision/foreskin — G203) functions as the Gentile counterpart. In Galatians 5:6 Paul explicitly neutralizes both terms: 'neither circumcision nor uncircumcision' — establishing that the new covenant's operative category is entirely different.
From Old to New Testament
Peritome enters salvation history in Genesis 17 as the covenant sign given to Abraham: every male in his household is to be circumcised as the mark of belonging to the covenant people. The sign was physical, visible, and permanent — designed to mark identity across generations. But even in the Pentateuch, the inner dimension is present: Deuteronomy 10:16 commands circumcision of the heart, and Deuteronomy 30:6 promises that God himself will circumcise the hearts of his people — a promise that points forward to the new covenant.
The prophets press this: Jeremiah 4:4 and 9:25-26 make clear that uncircumcised hearts make the physical rite meaningless. Paul stands in this tradition when he insists in Galatians that requiring peritome as a condition of salvation is to miss what the sign was pointing toward. Romans 2:29 states it directly: the true Jew is one inwardly, and circumcision is a matter of the heart, by the Spirit.
Colossians 2:11 names the fulfillment: in Christ believers have received the circumcision of Christ — the putting off of the sinful nature by a divine act, not a human rite. Philippians 3:3 gives the community definition: the true peritome community is those who worship by the Spirit and put no confidence in the flesh. The sign has been internalized and spiritualized in Christ — not abandoned but fulfilled.
Canonical parallel
Sources
MorphGNT Strong's Dictionary XML — CC0 1.0 Public Domain
Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible (morphhb/OSHB) — CC BY 4.0
Open Scriptures Hebrew Lexicon — CC BY 4.0
Berean Standard Bible (BSB) source-word alignment - CC0 Public Domain