The Greek word used in Galatians 2:7 for Shaul’s ministry to the uncircumcised is the word akrobustia (Strong’s Greek # 203), which literally means “tossed-away foreskins.” He was contrasting his ministry to the uncircumcised, or the “akrobustia” with James and Peter’s ministry to the circumcised, or the “peritome” (Strong’s Greek # 4061). The same word peritome is used in describing the mission of James, Peter and John. This peritome means those living and abiding in circumcised identity, or in other words, the “House of Judah.” The choice of “akrobustia” is fitting, as it describes just what Shaul was doing in the nations, or among the Galut-Yah. He was first and foremost looking for the lost sheep of the House of Yisrael (Efrayim), as per Yahshua’s instructions.
Akrobustia, does not mean “pagan gentiles” per se, but a select group within the gentiles, or nations. The term akrobustia, as opposed to peritome, means those who were circumcised, but through disobedience and outright rebellion had their foreskins tossed away, thus becoming like one who is born and raised as an uncircumcised (aperitome) pagan gentile. The opposite of a ministry to the peritome (which James and Peter had) would have been one to the aperitome, or “never-circumcised.” Yet Shaul did not claim a ministry to the aperitome, or never-circumcised.
His ministry, according to his own description, was to the akrobustia, or those who had undergone circumcision but had tossed it all away.
This holds true eternally. First, that circumcision is an act of love to seal one’s faith, not to establish it, and neither the Jews, the circumcised, nor the akrobustia the “tossed-away foreskinned ones” have any ranking, or special standing over the other. Neither house of Yisrael should see circumcision, or lack thereof as a means of a spiritual rank over and above the other, but as something that the individual in YHWH’s decent order must do on his own.
Circumcision avails nothing in the sense that if abused, it establishes one part of Yisrael as master and the other as slaves. So it avails nothing in terms of restoring equality in Yisrael, yet it is a mandate to the individual in his personal walk with YHWH. Messiah came to free both houses, and establish equality, not a new system of “works of law,” or ranking, based on an immediate response to mandated corporate physical circumcision, rather than personal physical circumcision.