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concision

Greek: κατατομή —transliteration: katatome —archaic meaning: mutilation, a cutting up or off, spoiling

This is a term used contemptuously by the Apostle Paul of those who were zealots for circumcision (Philippians 3:2 KJV).

Instead of the warning, “Beware of the circumcision” (peritome) i.e., of the party who pressed on Gentile converts the necessity of still observing that ordinance, he says, “Beware of the concision;” as much as to say, “This circumcision which they vaunt of is in Christ only as the gashings and mutilations of idolatrous heathen.”

The translation of κατατομή as “concision” appears in the King James Version and is only used a single time. More recent translations render it as “mutilators of the flesh” (Phil. 3:2 NIV), “mutilate the flesh” (Phil. 3:2 ESV), “mutilation,” “false circumcision” (Phil. 3:2 NASB).

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