The DOI matches its Crossref record; 21 of the 21 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.
Circumcision Gone Wrong: Paul’s Message as a Case of Ritual Disruption
Abstract
This article considers Paul’s message about male circumcision as a case of ritual disruption, which functions as an informant on the notions of inclusion and exclusion of its cultural context. Paul’s challenge to existing social norms with regard to proselyte circumcision allows us to better see the ways in which circumcision is thought to construct and deconstruct relationships. This approach shows that the disruptiveness of Paul’s message does not stem from a distinctive understanding of circumcision or from a unique openness to gentiles, as is often assumed. Paul shares the widely held understanding of proselyte circumcision as a rite that marks the transformation of male gentile “outsiders” into Jewish “insiders,” yet he strongly denies that it is appropriate for gentiles “in Christ” to undergo this rite, since they already are “insiders.” This makes the ritual of proselyte circumcision not merely unnecessary, but even harmful, since it negates gentile incorporation through Christ.
Overview
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Verification
Claims the paper makes
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
In the citing paper
“Paul condemns Gentile circumcision as a form of bodily mutilation (Phil 3:2; Collman 2023; cf.Neutel 2016).”
From Paul Within Ioudaismos: The Shifting Focus of Paul’s Zeal in Galatians (2025) · cites this paper as Neutel 2016
Citations
Cites
Jews, Judaeans, Judaizing, Judaism: Problems of Categorization in Ancient History
Mason, S. (2007) · Journal for the Study of Judaism · doi:10.1163/156851507x193108 · Cited by 359
Imagine No Religion: How Modern Abstractions Hide Ancient Realities
Barton, C. A., & Boyarín, D. (2016) · Project Muse (Johns Hopkins University) · Cited by 271
The Beginnings of Jewishness: Boundaries, Varieties, Uncertainties
Wilson, D. F., & Cohen, S. J. D. (2001) · The Classical World · doi:10.2307/4352577 · Cited by 201
Ritual Criticism: Case Studies in Its Practice, Essays on Its Theory
Bourguignon, E. E., & Grimes, R. L. (1991) · Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion · doi:10.2307/1386999 · Cited by 155
When Rituals go Wrong: Mistakes, Failure, and the Dynamics of Ritual
Hüsken, U. (2007) · BRILL eBooks · doi:10.1163/ej.9789004158115.i-377 · Cited by 152
Dunn, J. D. G. (1983) · Mohr Siebeck eBooks · doi:10.1628/978-3-16-151488-3 · Cited by 121
Paul Was Not a Christian: The Original Message of a Misunderstood Apostle
Eisenbaum, P. (2009) · Cited by 98
Thiessen, M. (2016) · doi:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780190271756.001.0001 · Cited by 94
(2004) · Choice Reviews Online · doi:10.5860/choice.41-3363 · Cited by 66
Contesting Conversion: Genealogy, Circumcision, and Identity in Ancient Judaism and Christianity
Thiessen, M. (2017) · doi:10.17613/mzt6g-a4n26 · Cited by 60
Cited by
(2022) · doi:10.1628/978-3-16-161996-0 · Cited by 7
Thiessen, M., & Fredriksen, P. (2021) · Oxford University Press eBooks · doi:10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199600489.013.34 · Cited by 4
Paul Within Ioudaismos: The Shifting Focus of Paul’s Zeal in Galatians
Lavender, J. (2025) · Religions · doi:10.3390/rel16091161 · Cited by 1
Metadata
- Authors
- Neutel, K. B.
- Corresponding author
- Neutel, Karin B.
- Venue
- Neotestamentica
- Publisher
- Project MUSE
- Published
- 2016
- Volume
- 50
- Issue
- 2
- Pages
- 373-396
- ISSN
- 0254-8356 (ISSN-L)
- 2518-4628
- OpenAlex
- W2768381639
- Cited by
- 3
- References
- 21
- Citations by year
- 2025: 1 · 2022: 1 · 2021: 1
- FWCI
- 0.00
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Neotestamentica (publishedVersion)
- Project Muse (Johns Hopkins University) (submittedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Arts and Humanities › Religious studies › Biblical Studies and Interpretation
- Social Sciences › Arts and Humanities › Religious studies › Religion, Theology, History, Judaism, Christianity
- Social Sciences › Arts and Humanities › Philosophy › Karl Barth and Christian Theology
- Keywords
- Paul the Apostle, male circumcision, inclusion and exclusion, Gentiles, Pauline theology, social norms, rites of passage
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
How to cite
Cite CoChat for the checks on this page, and the paper for its own findings.
- This page
- CoChat. (2026). Citation check: Circumcision Gone Wrong: Paul’s Message as a Case of Ritual Disruption. https://app.cochat.ai/papers/10.1353/neo.2016.0051
- The paper
- Neutel, K. B. (2016). Circumcision Gone Wrong: Paul’s Message as a Case of Ritual Disruption. Neotestamentica. https://doi.org/10.1353/neo.2016.0051
