Meaning
Uncircumcised; Uncircumcision un-sur'-kum-sizd, un-sur-kum-sizh'-un: The adjective in the Old Testament is `arel (Ge 17:14, etc.), from a root of uncertain meaning, with the noun `orlah, "uncircumcised (person)" (Lev 19:23, Jer 9:25), and the verb `aral, "count as uncircumcised" (Le 19:23; the Revised Version (British and American) Hab 2:16). In the Apocrypha and the New Testament the noun is akrobustia (a physiological term, Macc 1:15, Ac 11:3, etc.), and the adjective aperitmetos (Additions to Esther 14:15, Macc 1:48, 2:46, Ac 7:51), with the verb epispaomai, "become uncircumcised" (1Co 7:18). The language of Macc 1:15 suggests the performance of some surgical operation, but no such operation appears to be possible, and "behaved like uncircumcised persons" (as in 1Co 7:18) is the probable meaning.
See CIRCUMCISION.
Burton Scott Easton
