It is hard to believe and yet surprisingly true that several major turning points in Israelite history had circumcision at the center of it all.
When Abraham was 99 years old, God made a covenant with him that he was to be a father of a great nation (Genesis 17:10); and circumcision was to be the sign of that great covenant. Years later, when Moses was preparing to lead the children of Israel from Egypt to Canaan. Circumcision was once more at the center of a fascinating story that has puzzled many Bible students (Exodus 4:24-26). Moses’s successor, Joshua, would later circumcise all males born during the exodus before inheriting the promised land (Joshua 5:5). Later on in New Testament times as the good news of Jesus, the Messiah was spreading to the Gentiles, circumcision was at the center of it all (see Acts 15).
As exciting as these historical events were, a look at the societal history of circumcision magnifies the religious turning points and clarifies to the modern-day reader why this was a big deal to the ancients.
Here is a brief societal history of circumcision in point form:
- It appears that circumcision originated among the people who fall under the Nilo-Saharian group of languages. These are languages that originated in the Nile region of Africa.
- The Semitic people who are also known as the Syro-Arabian language cluster. Most likely copied and practiced circumcision for religious reasons such as Hygiene, preparation for sexual life, and prevention of sexually related illnesses.
- By the time of Abraham, it appears that Egyptians were practicing circumcision already.
- While the circumcision practiced in the times of Abraham removed only the very tip that extended beyond the glans penis. Later in the Hellenistic period, a radical new procedure called peri’ah was introduced by the priests and rabbis. In this procedure, the foreskin was stripped away from the glans, on which it is fused.
- In Hellenistic times many Jews who wanted to participate in the Greek games underwent painful operations to obliterate the signs of circumcision (epispasm). In line with Greek culture, the games were done naked.
- Many Hellenistic Jews, particularly those who participated in athletics at the gymnasium, had an operation performed to conceal the fact of their circumcision (1 Maccabees 1.15). It was probably to prevent the possibility of obliterating the traces of circumcision that the rabbis added to the requirement of cutting the foreskin that of peri’ah (laying bare the glans). (The Oxford Dictionary of the Jewish Religion, ed. R.J. Zwi Werblowsky and G. Wigoder. Oxford University Press, 1997, page 161.)
This brief history helps magnify texts like 1 Corinthians 7:18 and Romans 2:29, were we see Paul making a strong argument about the circumcision of the heart. It also shades some cultural light to the spiritual issues that were happening around circumcision.
When I take into consideration the history of circumcision, a beautiful picture of God begins to emerge. I see a God who took what the people of the time of Abraham knew and practiced, and He repurposes it for His glory. The act of circumcision was to be remembered by the children of Israel as a physical mark signifying God’s faithfulness.
What emerges when one considers all this is a picture of a God who loves people and works with them where they are. A God who remains culturally relevant in His mission to win people.
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