The Eighth Day

"He who is eight days old among you shall be circumcised."
GENESIS 17:12
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The Eighth Day
Let the first answer to this question why God wanted the infants to be circumcised on the eighth day be: Because God wanted it this way. In the second place, one can give reasons that are probable and are not fraught with danger, namely, that God had consideration for the weakness of the infant, lest it die. . .. In an allegorical sense the eighth day signifies the future life; for Christ rested in the sepulcher on the Sabbath, that is, during the entire seventh day, but rose again on the day which follows the Sabbath, which is the eighth day and the beginning of a new week, and after it no other day is counted. For through His death Christ brought to a close the weeks of time and on the eighth day entered into a different kind of life, in which days are no longer counted but there is one eternal day without the alternations of night. This has been thought out wisely, learnedly, and piously, namely, that the eighth day is the eternal day. For the rising Christ is no longer subject to days, months, weeks, or any number of days; He is in a new and eternal life. The beginning of this life is perceived and reckoned, but there is no end. In that life the true circumcision will be carried out. At that time not only the foreskin of the heart will be circumcised—which happens in this life through faith—but the entire flesh and all its essence will be cleansed of all depravity, ignorance, lust, sin, and filth. Consequently, the flesh is then immortal.
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