Paul’s Definition of “Circumcision of the Heart”: A Transcultural Reading of Romans 2:28–29 Federico Dal Bo It is plausible that Paul could not really have imagined the impact his use of the notion of “circumcision of the heart” would have on the history of early Chris- tianity. It is hard to believe that Paul would have intended to use this notion as a main exegetical tool for disqualifying Judaism in favor of Christianity, provided that this later established contraposition might have had any sense at the time. In the end, the assumption that a religious behavior should refect both exterior and interior attitudes—so to say both heart and fesh—was not alien to many coeval streams of Judaism during the Second Temple period. Most of them shared a common interest in disciplining the believer’s life in every aspect and encouraging a way of life that would associate ritual observance with a clear intention of the mind—heart—as well as remove any mechanical adhesion to religious practices. Besides, this common interest has been well proven by recent scholarship in Jewish studies and religious studies. For instance, E. P. Sanders’s seminal work Paul and Pal- estinian Judaism evinced many similarities between Pauline and Pharisaic theology, especially when trying to determine what the proper religious behavior of a pious individual at the time should be. 1 Te greatest accomplishment of Sanders’s work has been to draw atten- tion to the fact that Paul never conceived of himself as a sort of convert 1. Sanders contextualized Paul within the social, religious, and intellectual life of Second Temple Judaism, rejecting Billerbeck’s unscientifc selections from rabbinic liter- ature but also concluding that Paul shared signifcant similarities both with the Qumran community and the Pharisaic movement. See E. P. Sanders, Paul and Palestinian Judaism: A Comparison of Patterns of Religion (Philadelphia: Fortress, 1977); and Jörg Frey, “Paul’s Jewish Identity,” in Jewish Identity in the Graeco-Roman World, ed. Jörg Frey, Stephanie Gripentrog, and Daniel R. Schwarz, AGJU 71 (Leiden: Brill, 2016), 285–321. -397- 20.Torah.indd 397 20.Torah.indd 397 9/19/21 2:40 PM 9/19/21 2:40 PM