"uncircumcised in heart and ears" (Act 7:51)

Last night, we had a bible quiz as usual. One of the questions is what "circumcised" means in Acts 7:51. Two answers to be chosen raised some disagreements: one is "cutting away the pride and sinfulness from the heart", the other is "a symbol of turning towards God". I've explained this in the previous post which is the info for this chapter. Therefore, someone was very nice to answer for me that the answer should be the former, "because it is said so on the blog". I appreciate this help sincerely, but obviously this is not a strong argument, since I am neither a minister nor a knowledgable bible scholar. I totally understand and agree that my personal view of point can hardly establish a convincing argument, unless I present to you my logic thinking. Here you go, I am going to explain why I choose the former one.

Firstly, Circumcision is a tradition of the Jews to proclaim that they are the people of God. If my question was what "circumcised" means to the Jews, then the latter one, "a symbol of turning towards God", has no question asked.

However, when I read the Nelson Study Bible, I noticed a reference to this "uncircumcised" which is Lev. 26:41: "And that I also have walked contrary unto them, and have brought them into the land of their enemies; if then their uncircumcised hearts be humbled, and they then accept of the punishment of their iniquity...". This made me wonder what "uncircumcised" actually means here. So I looked it up in different commentaries.

Then I found out, from I. Marshall's Tyndale New Testament Commentaries, that "circumcision was understood metaphorically as the cutting away of pride and sinfulness from the heart (Deu 10:16; Jer 4:4, 6:10)". Furthermore, John Gill's Exposition of the Bible (Crosswalk.com) explains that Stephen was here rebuking the Jews that "though they had the mark of circumcision in their flesh, of which they boasted; yet they had not the true circumcision of the heart; their hearts were not circumcised to fear and love the Lord, nor their ears to hear the word of the Lord and the Gospel of Christ"; instead their hearts were still full of pride and sinfulness.

Considering the context here, I think that Stephen was not just reproving the Jews that they were not truely belonged to God, instead he was pointing out the root of why they were not. Hence, in conclusion, I think if you ask me to choose a best answer for that question, I maintain that the former one is the best.

Finally, I want to say that I am writing this not to defend myself. I actually welcome this kind of disagreement and argument, as long as we have Bible as our primary backup. As Joe said last night, no one on the earth is perfect, let alone me. Disagreement provides us a chance to examine, correct and improve ourselves. In this case, it's even good to our learning of God's Word. So, why not?!

By Julia