cutting is a covenantal term, which comes to expression especially in the rite of circumcision, a partial cutting-off that points to the seed who will be wholly “cut off” for sinners (Isa 53:8). In contrast to pagan cosmologies, the strange new world of the Bible “cuts” between the holy and the common, not between spirit and matter or higher and lower worlds. To be “cut off” is to be excommunicated. In the prophets, the full realization of circumcision is the gift of the Spirit, a circumcision of the heart, which the law could not accomplish (Dt 10:16; 30:6; Jer 4:4; Ro 2:29; 3:30; Gal 6:13 –
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