Galatians 5:12

Galatians 5:12. I wish that they who are unsettling you would even go on to abscission; that the circumcisers would not stop with the half measure of circumcision, but go beyond it even to abscission or mutilation (make themselves eunuchs), like the priests of Cybele. A severe irony similar to the one in Philippians 3:2-3, where Paul calls the boasters of ‘ circumcision' the ‘ concision.' Self-mutilation was a recognized form of heathen worship, especially in Pessinus in Galatia, and therefore quite familiar to the readers. Thus by glorying in the flesh the Galatians relapsed into their former heathenism. The words may be explained: ‘cut themselves off' from your communion, but the interpretation above given agrees best with the meaning of the verb, and the ‘even' (which points to something more than circumcision), and is maintained by the Greek fathers and the best modern commentators. The translation of the E. V. ‘were even cut off,' i.e., excommunicated, is ungrammatical (the Greek verb is in the middle, not the passive mood), and due to false delicacy. Christianity has abolished the revolting practice of self-mutilation, so that even the word is offensive; but in the days of Paul it was still in full force in Galatia, and is continued among Mohammedans who employ many eunuchs (especially in harems). Paul had evidently the dangerous power of sarcasm, but he used it very sparingly, and only in a worthy cause.