JOSEPH SMITH TRANSLATION
GENESIS 17: 3-7, 11-12
God established a covenant of circumcision with Abraham. The ordinance of baptism and the age at which children become accountable were revealed to Abraham. (compare Genesis 17: 3-12)
4 And God talked with him, [ Abraham. ] saying, My people have gone astray from my precepts, and have not kept mine ordinances, [ They are living by the precepts of man. Doing things as they wish without understanding of the meaning or significance of the ordinances(what they are to represent). ] which I gave unto their fathers;
6 But have turned from the commandment, and taken unto themselves the washing of children, and the blood of sprinkling; [ The people had left correct principles and forsaken the true ordinances. Baptism was one ordinance being incorrectly observed. ]
7 And have said that the blood of the righteous Able was shed for sins; [ The people were washing their children and sprinkling blood in remembrance of Abel’s blood, which they taught was shed for sins. ] and have not known wherein they are accountable before me.
11 And I will establish a covenant of circumcision with thee, and it shall be my covenant between me and thee, [ Because of this apostasy, circumcision was instituted. It was a covenant token. It was for the seed of Abraham. It signified that children were not accountable until they were eight years old. A covenant "written into the very organ of male regeneration." ] and thy seed after thee, in their generations; that thou mayest know for ever that children are not accountable before me until they are eight years old. [ They misunderstood the relationship between accountability of children and the Atonement of Jesus Christ. So would it be for Abraham's male posterity for many generations on the eighth day of life— a perpetual reminder that "little children are alive in Christ" (The phrase is Mormon's, writing to his son Moroni about another apostate society that similarly denied the innocence of little children. Moroni 8:12) and not accountable until the age of eight years. Beginning with Abraham, infants in Zion would bear the mark in their own bodies of the future shedding of Christ's blood that had already made them "alive in Christ." This law would remain in effect until the advent of Christ, and the shedding of His blood which was foreshadowed by circumcision, only then would the law of circumcision be fulfilled and the requirement cease. (Moroni 8:8) ]