Bible Lexicons

ἀκροβυστία, (ας, ἡ (a word unknown to the Greeks, who used ἡ ἀκροποσθία and τό ἀκροπόσθιον, from πόσθη i. e.membrum virile. Accordingly it is likely that τήν ποσθην of the Greeks was pronounced τήν βύστην by the Alexandrians, and ἀκροβυστία said instead of ἀκροπόσθια — i. e. τό ἄκρον τῆς πόσθης; cf. the acute remarks of Fritzsche, Commentary on Romans, vol. i., 136, together with the opinion which Winer prefers 99 (94) (and Cremer, 3te Anti. under the word)), in the Sept. the equivalent of עָרְלָה the prepuce, the skin covering the glans penis;

a. properly: Acts 11:3; Romans 2:25, 26{b}; 1 Corinthians 7:19; Galatians 5:6; Galatians 6:15; Colossians 3:11; (Judith 14:10; 1 Macc. 1:15); ἐν ἀκροβυστία ὤν having the foreskin (Tertullian praeputiatus), uncircumcised i. e. Gentile, Romans 4:10; ἐν ἀκροβυστία, namely, ὤν, 1 Corinthians 7:18; equivalent, to the same is δἰ ἀκροβυστίας, Romans 4:11; ἡ ἐν τῇ ἀκροβυστία πίστις the faith which one has while he is uncircumcised, Romans 4:11f,

b. by metonyny, of the abstract for the concrete, having the foreskin is equiv. to a Gentile: Romans 2:26{a}; ; Ephesians 2:11; ἡ ἐκ φύσεως ἀκροβυστία, one uncircumcised by birth or a Gentile, opposed to a Jew who shows himself a Gentile in character, Romans 2:27; εὐαγγέλιον τῆς ἀκροβυστίας gospel to be preached to the Gentiles, Galatians 2:7.

c. in a transferred sense: ἡ ἀκροβυστία τῆς σαρκός (opposed to the περιτομή ἀχειροποίητος or regeneration, Colossians 2:11), "the condition in which the corrupt desires rooted in the σάρξ were not yet extinct," Colossians 2:13 (the expression is derived from the circumstance that the foreskin was the sign of impurity and alienation from God (cf. B. D. under the word )).