Why Did God Require Circumcision in the Old Testament?

You don’t have to read the Bible for very long before you arrive at the figure of Abraham. Most of us know the story: God calls Abraham to become the father of a great nation, and soon after He established circumcision as the sign of His covenant with Abraham and his descendants (see Gen 17). For modern readers, this decision can seem archaic and downright weird. Why did God require circumcision for so many centuries? What did it accomplish, exactly?

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