📖 Biblical Definition
Circumcision of the heart is the interior, spiritual counterpart to the physical sign of the Abrahamic covenant — the cutting away of the heart’s callused, rebellious "foreskin" so that the believer may love and obey God. The Old Testament prophets called for it: "Circumcise therefore the foreskin of your heart, and be no more stiffnecked" (Deuteronomy 10:16); "And the LORD thy God will circumcise thine heart" (30:6); "Circumcise yourselves to the LORD, and take away the foreskins of your heart" (Jeremiah 4:4). Paul makes it the substance the New Covenant fulfills: "he is a Jew, which is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter" (Romans 2:29; cf. Colossians 2:11). Inward sign of true covenant membership.
📜 Webster 1828 Definition
(Composite.) The interior counterpart to physical circumcision; the Spirit's removal of the heart's sin-coat.
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Deuteronomy 10:16 commands Israel to circumcise the foreskin of your heart; Deuteronomy 30:6 promises that the LORD Himself will do it: the LORD thy God will circumcise thine heart.
Paul develops the doctrine in Romans 2:28-29 and Colossians 2:11: physical circumcision was the sign; heart circumcision is the substance, performed by the Spirit in conversion.
📖 Key Scripture
Deuteronomy 10:16 — "Circumcise therefore the foreskin of your heart, and be no more stiffnecked."
Deuteronomy 30:6 — "And the LORD thy God will circumcise thine heart, and the heart of thy seed, to love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, that thou mayest live."
Romans 2:29 — "But he is a Jew, which is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter."
Colossians 2:11 — "In whom also ye are circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, in putting off the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ."
⚠️ Modern Corruption
The temptation in every age is to take the sign as enough; Scripture insists the substance must follow.
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Romans 2:28-29 reframes Jewish identity in terms of heart circumcision. The physical sign without inner reality is empty; the inner reality is what actually marks one as belonging to the people of God.
The same warning attaches to baptism in the New Covenant. The water without the Spirit's heart-circumcision is form without substance. The recovery is not abolition of the sign but recovery of the substance: hearts truly cut by the Spirit, sin-coat truly removed.
🔗 Greek & Hebrew Roots
Hebrew mul lev — circumcise the heart.
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Hebrew mul — to circumcise; literal physical circumcision and figurative heart-circumcision share the verb.
Greek peritomē — circumcision; in Romans and Colossians of the spiritual reality.
Usage
"Sign without substance is empty; substance without sign is biblical (in the New Covenant's case, the substance receives baptism)."
"The LORD Himself will circumcise the heart — that is the new covenant promise."
"He is a Jew which is one inwardly."