gospel of Thomas 53

His disciples said to him, "Is circumcision beneficial or not?"

He said to them, "If it were beneficial, their father would beget them already circumcised from their mother. Rather, the true circumcision in spirit has become completely profitable."

In the Judaic tradition, boys are circumcised. Their foreskin is cut off. And nowadays, of course, people debate whether this is healthy or not, ethical or not. And it seems that similar questions were being raised in the time of Jesus. Here the disciples are asking a very simple practical question: is circumcision beneficial or not? Jesus replies simply, no, it's not beneficial – if it were beneficial to have no foreskin, then that's the way God would have created us.

It's a simple reply from Jesus. And even if you don't believe in creation at all, and think that Darwinian evolution explains everything, the answer is still the same. We have come into being in the form that's perfect. It doesn't need to be modified with a sharp knife. No.

But of course, groups of people, when they club together, like to have some distinguishing traits. And so, the removal of the foreskin helps the Jews to somehow keep a sense of separateness from the rest of humanity. It's one of the marks that sets them apart.

Anyway, Jesus, instead of having a big rant against the mutilation of small children by an organised religion, turns to something more positive. He says rather the true circumcision in spirit has become completely profitable. It's a nice allusion: probably the people carrying out circumcisions were making a lot of money, from a guaranteed market. All the Jewish mothers would have brought their little boys to have them circumcised, and I'm sure they paid for it. So the physical circumcision would have been profitable for someone.

But here Jesus is saying, actually, there's another circumcision, which is profitable in a completely different way, not financially, no. The circumcision in spirit is profitable for the seeker, for the one who wants to return to God. So Jesus uses this discussion of circumcision as an opportunity to refer to something much deeper – the circumcision in spirit. What does he mean by this?

Circumcision – if you believe the foreskin to be superfluous – physical circumcision is the removal of excess flesh, something of no use to us. And Jesus is using that as an analogy. Circumcision in spirit means if, in our spiritual life, we can throw away, discard, that which is not serving us, that which is superfluous; if we can become simple once again, just very simple, in our attitudes to life and in the way we live our life; if we can become simple again, then, there is a great profit in it for us. That is, it is the path back to our true nature, which is an extremely simple thing – so simple that we overlook it, that we get distracted by all sorts of clutter and entertainment that we don't really need.

So Jesus is saying, forget about circumcision in the normal sense of the word. If you're going to cut away something excessive and unnecessary, then do it spiritually, discard those things that are not serving you in your spiritual life, and become simple once again.