Circumcision and The Eighth Day

Εἴ τις μὴ περιτμηθῇ, φησὶ, τῇ ὀγδόῃ ἡμέρᾳ, ἐξολοθρευθήσεται. Οὐχι τὸ ἄκακον καὶ ἀνόητον νήπιον κολάζεται, μὴ περιτμηθέν· μᾶλλον γὰρ ἐχρῆν τοὺς γονεῖς τιμωρεῖσθαι. Ἀλλ' αὐτὸς κολάζει, ὦ ἄνθρωπε, ἐὰν μὴ διὰ πίστεως καὶ εὐχῆς περιτμηθῇς τὴν κακίαν· νηπιάζειν γὰρ τῇ κακίᾳ κελεύει ὁ Ἀπόστολος. Ἑαυτοὺς τοίνυν περιτέμνωμεν τῇ μαχαίρᾳ τοῦ Πνεύματος, ἀποβλέποντες εἰς τὴν ὀγδόην ἡμέραν, τουτέστιν εἰς τὸν μέλλοντα αἰῶνα. Περιτεμνώμεθα δὲ πᾶν σαρκικὸν φρόνημα, καὶ λόγον καὶ ἔργον παράνομον, ἵνα μὴ ἐξολοθρευθῶμεν, καὶ ἀλλοτριωθῶμεν ἐκ μέσου τοῦ λαοῦ τῶν σωζομένων διὰ Χριστοῦ. Ἅγιος Νειλος, Βιβλιον Πρῶτον, Ἐπιστολὴ ΙΓ', Πτολεμαιῳ

'If someone is not circumcised,' He says, 'on the eighth day, he shall be exterminated.' 1 An innocent and unthinking child is not to be chastised if uncircumcised, but rather let the parents be punished. And He chastises, O man, if by faith and prayer you are not circumcised from vice; for infants in evil we should be, the Apostle exhorts. 2 Let us, then, be circumcised with the sword of the Holy Spirit, considering this the eighth day, that is, the future age. And let us circumcise every sort of thought and word of flesh and iniquitous work, lest we be destroyed, even cast out from the midst of the people of God who are saved through Christ. Saint Nilus of Sinai, Book 1, Letter 13, To Ptolemaius 1 Gen 17. 14 2 1 Cor 14. 20