From kata ('down') and temno ('to cut'). Katatome is Paul's deliberately sharp wordplay in Philippians 3:2 โ a pejorative contrast to true peritome (circumcision). It means 'the mutilation' โ mere fleshly cutting without spiritual reality.
Philippians 3:2โ3 contains one of Paul's most polemical wordplays: 'Beware of dogs, beware of evil workers, beware of the katatome. For we are the circumcision (peritome).' The Judaizers who demanded physical circumcision for Gentile converts were, in Paul's view, not teaching true circumcision at all โ they were merely mutilating flesh. True circumcision is of the heart by the Spirit (Romans 2:28โ29, Col. 2:11). What saves is not flesh-cutting but Christ-trusting. This passage teaches that any system that adds human works to grace ultimately produces only 'cutting' โ not transformation. The 'confidence in the flesh' Paul then lists (his own impressive religious credentials) he counts as dung (skubala) compared to knowing Christ.