Romans 2:25

2:25 For circumcision ¹  has its value if you practice the law, but ²  if you break the law, ³  your circumcision has become uncircumcision.

Romans 8:13

8:13 (for if you live according to the flesh, you will ⁴  die), ⁵  but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body you will live.

Romans 11:16

11:16 If the first portion ⁶  of the dough offered is holy, then the whole batch is holy, and if the root is holy, so too are the branches. ⁷ 

Romans 14:8

14:8 If we live, we live for the Lord; if we die, we die for the Lord. Therefore, whether we live or die, we are the Lord’s.

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¹ sn Circumcision refers to male circumcision as prescribed in the OT, which was given as a covenant to Abraham in Gen 17:10-14. Its importance for Judaism can hardly be overstated: According to J. D. G. Dunn (Romans [WBC], 1:120) it was the “single clearest distinguishing feature of the covenant people.” J. Marcus has suggested that the terms used for circumcision (περιτομή, peritomh) and uncircumcision (ἀκροβυστία, akrobustia) were probably derogatory slogans used by Jews and Gentiles to describe their opponents (“The Circumcision and the Uncircumcision in Rome,” NTS 35 [1989]: 77-80).

² tn This contrast is clearer and stronger in Greek than can be easily expressed in English.

³ tn Grk “if you should be a transgressor of the law.”

⁴ tn Grk “are about to, are certainly going to.”

⁵ sn This remark is parenthetical to Paul’s argument.

⁶ tn Grk “firstfruits,” a term for the first part of something that has been set aside and offered to God before the remainder can be used.

⁷ sn Most interpreters see Paul as making use of a long-standing metaphor of the olive tree (the root…the branches) as a symbol for Israel. See, in this regard, Jer 11:16, 19. A. T. Hanson, Studies in Paul’s Technique and Theology, 121-24, cites rabbinic use of the figure of the olive tree, and goes so far as to argue that Rom 11:17-24 is a midrash on Jer 11:16-19.