He who is eight days old will be circumcised among you, every male throughout your generations, he who is born in the house, or bought with money from any foreigner who is not of your offspring.
To circumcise every male child on the eighth day
The cited verse
The Hebrew (Masoretic Text)
וּבֶן־שְׁמֹנַת יָמִים יִמּוֹל לָכֶם כָּל־זָכָר לְדֹרֹתֵיכֶם
In Maimonides’ words
How Maimonides defines this commandment in his Sefer HaMitzvot — his own words, shown as a primary source.
היא שצונו למול את הבן. והוא אמרו יתעלה לאברהם המול לכם כל זכר וכתיב בתורה שהוא בכרת מי שמבטל מצוה זו. וכבר התבארו משפטי מצוה זו בפרק י"ח משבת וד' מיבמות, ואין האשה מצווה למול את בנה כמו שהאב מצווה בזה כמו שהתבאר בקדושין. (לך לך, אהבה הלכות מילה):
That is that He commanded us to circumcise a boy. And that is His, may He be exalted, saying to Avraham, "every male among you shall be circumcised" (Genesis 17:10) - and, after it, that whoever negates this commandment is liable for excision. And the regulations of this commandment have already been explained in Chapter 18 of Shabbat and 4 of Yevamot. But a woman is not commanded to circumcise her son, like the father is commanded about this - as is explained in Kiddushin (Kiddushin 29a). (See Parashat Lech Lecha; Mishneh Torah, Circumcision.)
Hebrew: Sefer HaMitzvot, Warsaw 1883 (public domain). English: Sefaria Edition, trans. Rabbi Francis Nataf, 2021 (CC0). Via Sefaria; translator’s footnotes omitted.
Literary form: a flat, unconditional command
Applicability
How the catalog describes where and when this commandment applies. These are independent descriptions, not a verdict on which laws still count.
- Recorded as practiced today
Classical halakhic consequences
The consequences the classical halakhah attaches to this commandment, grouped by who imposes them. Where a category has none recorded, that absence is itself meaningful.
Imposed by a court
No court-imposed penalty is recorded.
At the hands of Heaven
- Karet — being 'cut off'
Ritual remedy
No ritual remedy is recorded.
How the streams of Judaism treat this commandment
The streams of Judaism read the same commandment differently — an ongoing plurality, not a ranking. Each position below is reported as the catalog records it; none is presented as the correct one.
- Orthodox Binding
- Conservative Binding
- Reform As the catalog records it: recommended not obligatory
- Reconstructionist Binding, with modification
- Karaite Binding
24 of 613 commandments have been examined in depth so far — this one is queued.
How later traditions received this commandment
How later traditions read or reworked this commandment, each attributed to its own voice. The catalog’s own classification of each reception is shown as it records it, never adopted as GEBible’s.
Qumran (the Dead Sea Scrolls)
- CD 16:4-6 (Damascus Document; 'circumcision of the heart' motif), with possible parallel material in 4Q266 reinterpreted it
Rabbinic aggadah
- Genesis Rabbah 46:1-5 expanded it homiletically
- Pirqei deRabbi Eliezer 29 expanded it homiletically
- Tanhuma Tazria 5 expanded it homiletically
Philo of Alexandria
- De Specialibus Legibus 1.1-11 rationalized it
- Quaestiones in Genesim 3.46-48 read it allegorically
Josephus
- Antiquities 1.192 affirmed it
- Antiquities 1.214 affirmed it
- Contra Apionem 2.137-143 affirmed it
The New Testament
- Luke 1:59; 2:21 affirmed it eighth-day circumcision of John and Jesus narrated as normative Jewish practice
- Galatians 5:2-6 treated it as abrogated Paul declares circumcision soteriologically void for Gentile believers
- Romans 2:25-29 read it spiritually circumcision of the heart by the Spirit
- Acts 15:1-29 The catalog describes this reception as: exempted Apostolic Council exempts Gentile converts from circumcision; does not address practice among Jewish believers
- Philippians 3:5 affirmed it Paul cites his own eighth-day circumcision as Israelite credential
The Church Fathers
- Justin Martyr, Dialogue with Trypho 16, 19, 23 rejected it polemically
- Epistle of Barnabas, Barnabas 9 read it allegorically
- Origen, Contra Celsum 5.47-48 read it spiritually
The Qur'an and hadith
- Sahih al-Bukhari 6298 (fitra traditions; circumcision among the practices of natural disposition) carried a parallel
Where this commandment meets modern human-rights frameworks
One modern normative lens, attributed to it — not GEBible’s assessment. Each row names the framework it measures against and the catalog’s own classification of the relation.
This framework catalogues tensions; it records agreement in only one of its entries. The near-total tension rate is the shape of the instrument, not a finding.
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general principle
This framework classifies the relation as a substantive tension.
The commandment requires permanent surgical modification of a male infant eight days old, an individual who cannot consent; post-Enlightenment norms of bodily autonomy hold that non-therapeutic irreversible bodily interventions on persons incapable of consent require medical necessity, not religious obligation, as justification.
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Article 24
This framework classifies the relation as a substantive tension.
CRC Article 24(3) requires states to take measures to abolish traditional practices prejudicial to the health of children; some child-rights bodies have classified routine infant male circumcision as a practice whose compatibility with Article 24 requires justification, creating a substantive tension with a commandment that mandates the practice universally without medical indication.