Pneumatic Circumcision

Abstract

Abstract This chapter argues that Paul thinks Jews will retain their circumcision in the resurrection on their future pneumatic bodies. Paul understands future resurrection to inform the transformation of the material of human bodies to become pneuma, but that the form of the bodies will stay the same. In ancient Judaism from Jubilees through the later rabbis, there is the idea that circumcision was a part of perfected bodies, whether on angels or the great patriarchs of the past. In wider Jewish traditions about resurrection, the general pattern is that there is continuity of body between the bodies of the dead and the bodies of the risen; there must be continuity for it to be the same person who is raised. Paul argues in 1 Corinthians 15 that the bodies must shed perishability and mortality but must become imperishable and immortal. This does not mean that the contours of the body necessarily change but that they are no longer subject to decay and death. From a Graeco-Roman perspective, then, as Jews in the future retain their circumcision they will remain permanently disabled.