CIRCUMCISION
By David Ola
Image from The Outlaw Bible Student
Circumcision was something I came across when I was younger and it baffled me because the scripture did give a gross representation of the process and I couldn’t but ask my mother if I had been circumcised and was relieved when she said “Yes”.
Definition
According to WebMD editorial team, Circumcision is defined as the surgical removal of the foreskin, the tissue covering the head (called the glans) of the penis. It’s an ancient practice that has its origin in religious rites. An uncircumcised penis has a foreskin covering its head, while on a circumcised penis, the head is exposed.
Today, many parents have their babies circumcised for religious or other reasons and by this circumcision is one of the most common surgeries done worldwide. In the United States, the rate of circumcision is up to 80%, while globally, it’s about 38%.
A Historical Perspective on Circumcision.
Discussions about its origin, history, purpose, and religious and social meanings have been ongoing since the first human civilizations, occurring within primitive tribes, slave-based societies, fortified cities, slave kingdoms, and empires (e.g., the Roman Empire). The topic has been taken up across feudal and modern kingdoms, and within modern capitalist and socialist societies. Regarding the origins of circumcision, anthropologists disagree. Sir Crafton Elliot Smith, an English Egyptologist, argued that it is one of the traits of a society known as the “heliolithic,” which originated in Egypt and expanded throughout most of the world around 15,000 years ago (Dunsmuir &Gordon, 1999).
The proof that favors the idea that circumcision started inside the Heliolithic tradition in Ancient Egypt is documented in a papyrus so-known as Ebers Papyrus, discovered in Luxor in 1862 by the German archeologist Georg Moritz Ebers (1837 — 1898), among the legs of a mummy in Thebes and dated to 3000 B.C; the text included step-by-step directions for executing the procedure. The topic of whether Egyptians circumcised their males as a religious ritual or as a surgical procedure for hygiene purposes is intriguing. It appears that Egyptian circumcision was performed as a preventative hygienic measure to ensure excellent sanitation of the balano-preputial groove; this makes sense because the Ebers Papyrus is one of the oldest known medical and pharmacopeia treatises. However, it does not appear that the practice was wholly devoid of ritual implications, as it was once restricted to priests, aristocrats, and members of the royal family.
Several authors described another relic that shows that Egyptians practiced circumcision and was discovered in Saqqarah, Egypt, in the entryway of the tomb of the sixth dynasty Pharaoh Ankhmahor, which represented a circumcision scene. This relic dates back to King Teti’s reign (2355 — 2343 BC). It is the oldest extant depiction of the act of circumcision from Ancient Egypt. Totaro et al., (2011) reported that the Chaldeans, a polytheistic Semitic tribe who settled in southern Mesopotamia in the early part of the 1st millennium B.C, also knew of circumcision in the mountains of Armenia and Kurdistan, as documented in clay tablets found in 1849 in the ruins of the Royal Palace of Nineveh. These tablets were believed to have been produced in 1600 B.C.
The Israelites were another Middle Eastern society that used circumcision. Regarding circumcision, some authors indicated that it dates back to Abraham, while others, such as Herodotus (a Greek historian and geographer), have stated that it was brought to Egypt by the Israelites during their captivity (circa 1200 BC). It is interesting to comment that the circumcision agreed upon by the Jews could have been interrupted in the year 169 BC. Doyle (2005) wrote out that Antiochus IV Epiphanes (king of Syria of the Seleucid dynasty from around 175 BC — 164 BC), besieged Jerusalem in 169 BC, quartered his troops inside the temple, and declared the circumcision to be unlawful and temporarily abolished the practice.
Circumcision was also practiced in ancient Rome. This is justified by what was published in the medical treatise written by Aulus Cornelius Celsus (25 BC-50 AD) where it was explained that given the impossibility of exposing the glans, the skin that covers it should be surgically opened. In 660 AD, Muslims practiced circumcision. Even though the Quran does not mention circumcision by name, it has come to be seen as an essential component of that faith.
In Australia, the Aboriginal people’s resources were so severely limited that without restricting the number of people in their population, sustaining life would have been impossible. Aborigines solved this problem by penile manipulation, in which the phallus’ urethra was sliced through from the testes to its opening. This procedure did not reduce either the man’s ability to have intercourse or his sexual pleasure, but it did largely reduce the number of sperm introduced to his partner’s vagina and thus significantly reduced the likelihood of pregnancy. However, notably, this manipulation does not resemble circumcision but rather is an example of the many forms of sex organ manipulation that humans have used throughout our history.
When is Circumcision Done?
Circumcision is usually done on the first or second day after birth. (In Jewish tradition, circumcision is done on the eighth day.) The procedure becomes more complicated and riskier in older babies, children, and adults. Parents who circumcise their children often do so for religious or cultural reasons. The religions of Christianity, Islam, and Judaism require or recommend circumcision. Circumcision is also common in some parts of Africa, Australia, and the Middle East.
A Biblical Perspective on Circumcision
Genesis 17:7–14;
And I will establish my covenant between me and thee and thy seed after thee in their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be a God unto thee, and to thy seed after thee. And I will give unto thee, and to thy seed after thee, the land wherein thou art a stranger, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession; and I will be their God. And God said unto Abraham, Thou shalt keep my covenant, therefore, thou, and thy seed after thee in their generations. This is my covenant, which ye shall keep, between me and you and thy seed after thee; Every man child among you shall be circumcised. And ye shall circumcise the flesh of your foreskin, and it shall be a token of the covenant betwixt me and you. And he that is eight days old shall be circumcised among you, every man child in your generations, he that is born in the house, or bought with money of any stranger, which is not of thy seed. He that is born in thy house, and he that is bought with thy money, must needs be circumcised: and my covenant shall be in your flesh for an everlasting covenant. And the uncircumcised man child whose flesh of his foreskin is not circumcised, that soul shall be cut off from his people; he hath broken my covenant.
We see in the above scripture the first mention of circumcision in the bible and it was God who initiated it based on His covenant with Abraham and his descendants.
Genesis 17:23–27;
And Abraham took Ishmael his son, and all that were born in his house, and all that were bought with his money, every male among the men of Abraham’s house; and circumcised the flesh of their foreskin in the selfsame day, as God had said unto him. And Abraham was ninety years old and nine when he was circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin. And Ishmael his son was thirteen years old when he was circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin. On the same day was Abraham circumcised, and Ishmael his son. And all the men of his house, born in the house, and bought with money of the stranger, were circumcised with him.
This Jewish circumcision involved everyone, slave and free-born. Abraham circumcised his Isaac as a sign of obedience to the covenant (Genesis 21:4). The rite of circumcision was then passed across lineages from Abraham down to the children of Israel that made a distinction between the Israelites and other nations, circumcised and the uncircumcised. The God of Abraham, Israel, and Jacob was different from the other gods. Genesis ends with Joseph as the prime minister of Egypt who, by God’s providence, saved Egypt from famine and welcomed all his father’s household to live in the land of Goshen.
Exodus begins, centuries later, with the Israelites having become a great nation. They were persecuted by a Pharaoh who did not care what Joseph may have done and was afraid that so many foreigners in the land presented a security risk (Exodus 1:8 — 11). Moses was a handsome baby born to a family of Levites in Egypt both parents were Levites but he was born at a time when a proclamation was made for infanticide by Pharaoh specifically for the children of Israel. Moses was raised by the Pharaoh’s daughter and gained mastery of the Egyptian craft and wisdom but at the age of forty, God in his way organized something dramatic where Moses killed a man to protect a Jew, Pharaoh heard and wanted to kill him. The point here is that he got into exile and God found him and commissioned him to lead the Israelites. Moses had not yet circumcised his children maybe because of his wife, Zipporah (a Midianite). In Exodus 4:24–25, Moses’ wife, Zipporah, “took a flint knife, cut off her son’s foreskin and touched Moses’ feet with it”. At that time, she said, “Surely you are a bridegroom of blood to me”. ‘Bridegroom of blood’ refers to circumcision. In this way, Zipporah saved her husband’s life. Why would God send Moses on a mission and then try to kill him? Why did circumcising the son seem to satisfy God?
According to “Got Questions”, they posit that Moses was probably afflicted with a sickness which rehearsed the act of God killing Moses as “trying”, he could have done it anytime you understand? They go on to say that God isn’t a respecter of persons and since it was a covenant rite it was taken of importance by God and he commissioned it between himself and the descendants of Abraham (Genesis 17:9 — 14). Normally any uncircumcised male must be “cut off from his people” (verse 14). This could mean banishment or even death. But it was said that Moses probably had forgotten the covenant rite since he gave birth to his children in Midian. This whole scenario painted God as trying to restore Moses as a reference to Israel to a proper view of his covenant. This was made so potent that an uncircumcised can’t participate in the Passover exercise because he wasn’t part of the covenant. Exodus 12:48 says;
A foreigner residing among you who wants to celebrate the LORD’s Passover must have all the males in his household circumcised; then he may take part like one born in the land. No uncircumcised male may eat it.”
So having emphasized the importance to the Lord and the children of Israel, I’d love to explain how it relates to us the Gentiles and I’ll make the presentation by using the analogy of the body, soul, and spirit of the circumcision.
The BODY:
This will refer to the actual ordinary act of circumcision. Circumcision of the Israelites was enough to be followed just because of the Lord’s commandment, he said this and made sure everyone in Israel or even a proselyte obeys this covenant but it would be so harmful to know and do this without understanding the reason why God used this as a symbol for them and not anything else. The body of circumcision the act will only cover so little while it is great and an act of obedience.
THE SOUL:
Here, we begin to uncover some lessons from the act of circumcision. And when we peruse the holy scripture, we’ll see that aside from the covenant he enacted, circumcision can also be viewed as God’s way of separating his people from the people of the world. A sign to show his holiness amongst his people, a sign to distinguish them from other nations whose God isn’t the Lord.
And the Lord went further to enact a discipline for them to harken to his words and he tagged it “circumcision of the heart” — in other words, the physical act wasn’t enough, there was an underlying spiritual reality that it symbolized. This is repeated several times, for example, in Deuteronomy 10:16, “So circumcise your heart, and stiffen your neck no longer.” The mere physical mark had to be combined with the right attitude.
THE SPIRIT:
However, in Deuteronomy, not only were the Israelites commanded to circumcise the foreskin of their hearts, but the prophecy of spiritual circumcision in the future referenced God working through families.
“Moreover, the LORD your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your descendants, to love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul, so that you may live.” (Deuteronomy 30:6)
So, it seems that the act of circumcision was a foreshadowing of what the Lord will do himself later on which is by the spirit of God. The Lord speaking to the prophet Ezekiel said in Ezekiel 36:25–26;
“Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean: from all your filthiness, and all your idols, will I cleanse you. A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you a heart of flesh.”
Furthermore, he enacted a new covenant by the mouth of Prophet Jeremiah in Jeremiah 31:31–33:
“Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah: Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; which my covenant they brake, although I was a husband unto them, saith the LORD: But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the LORD, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people.”
The book of Hebrews 8 gives perspective on how the former covenant wasn’t faultless but God came to enact a better covenant with us as prophesied earlier by the prophet Jeremiah. Hebrews 8:13:
“In that he saith, A new covenant, he hath made the first old. Now that which decay and wax old is ready to vanish away.”
All these just give perspective to the act of circumcision, where does Jesus come in here?
The word was manifested in flesh among humans and I’m so sure he was a Jew so he’d be circumcised according to the Jewish custom, but one of the reasons he came in human form both God and man were to do the work we couldn’t do that is to save us from our sins and reconcile us to the father, He died was buried and resurrected on the third day to fulfill and pray the price for our debt which we owed. Leaving us to the only work of faith to be done regarding salvation which is to believe in Jesus and receive the forgiveness of our sins thereby God declaring us justified and righteous. But the Jews had an act of believing once they’ve fulfilled the writings of the law, they might be proclaimed righteous in the sight of God but even from the start, faith in God was the criteria for righteousness. Jesus in his ministry emphasized faith only in him but they struggled to understand him.
The first few converts to Christianity were Jews, the Lord’s instructions being that the gospel will be from Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and other parts of the earth. The implication of this was that the traditions of the Jews will always interfere with the new freedom we received in Jesus, but I believe for most they were honestly wrong aside from those that just want to keep people in bondage.
Because of this mandate, Gentiles were also going to be partakers of this grace but they were unrefined people who went about preaching if you don’t get circumcised you aren’t saved and this led to the ministry of Apostle Paul specially commissioned to the Gentiles who are known for being uncircumcised by the Jews, the Jews don’t eat with them they are tagged unclean to them and they’ll wash up if contacts were made.
Apostle Peter though having doubts of whom to preach to had an encounter with the Lord in Acts 10 to preach to the Gentiles, the household of Cornelius, you know the trance story of how surprised and how not forthcoming he was but he was implored to go by the spirit to go to a Gentile house and when they believed the Gospel, the Holy Spirit came upon them, they spoke in tongues and prophesied and got baptized also. He said now he knows that God isn’t a respecter of persons and anyone who put their faith in him is he able to save.
Apostle Paul then seeing all these had to do a good defense to establish faith as the only key to righteousness and not the work of the law or even getting circumcised.
For everyone that believes as scripture says will be saved, not by the law not by circumcision because the old man recognised no circumcision, it didn’t get anyone saved, no one got regenerated by circumcision, the Gentiles and Jews were alike that they were under the power of darkness and now they are in the kingdom of God through faith in Jesus Christ (Romans 10:11–13, Colossians 3:6–11).
In Acts 15, some people went down from Judea to Antioch and started teaching again that circumcision was the key to salvation and this brought Paul and Barnabas to debate with them and go up to Jerusalem to sort it with the Apostles and Elders. Peter stood and spoke of his encounter as something God proposed for the gospel to go to the Gentiles in its plain form and they should not be made to obey the law even they couldn’t.
Paul to the Corinthians in 1 Corinthians 7:18–19;
“Is any man called being circumcised? let him not become uncircumcised. Is any called in uncircumcision? let him not be circumcised. Circumcision is nothing, and uncircumcision is nothing, but the keeping of the commandments of God.”
In conclusion, circumcision now refers to a spiritual cutting away of our sinful nature when we are born again and enter a covenant with God. We have been separated from sin to live a holy, righteous, and godly life which glorifies God.
“And you, being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath he quickened together with him, having forgiven you all trespasses” (Colossians 2:13 (KJV)
When we were not born again, we were dead in our sins and not in covenant with God (we were spiritually uncircumcised). Now, we are circumcised in Christ. The old man has been cut away and now our new man, a spirit man, can rule and dominate our flesh. God intends for our spirit to dominate and control our flesh and not the other way around. True circumcision is the cutting away of sin and the cutting away of the desire to sin. Because our hearts have been born of God, we now have the nature of God, not the sinful nature that we used to have.
Circumcision, like the Passover, also served as a blood sign of the gospel. Blood had to be shed if God was going to justly cut away the corruption of fallen human nature. This points to the blood of Christ as the fulfillment of that which circumcision typified in the old covenant. Circumcision pointed to the need for the bloodshed of Jesus. Significantly, Jesus first shed blood when He was circumcised on the eighth day (see Luke 2:21). This was part of the redemptive-historical nature of the covenant sign of circumcision. It signified that for which Christ had come into the world. As John Owen explained, “Every act almost of Christ’s obedience, from the blood of his circumcision to the blood of his cross, was attended with suffering, —so that his whole life might, in that regard, be called a death.”
Jonathan Edwards also suggested that “in his circumcision, what [Christ] suffered . . . had the nature of satisfaction, the blood that was shed in his circumcision was propitiatory blood, but as it was a conformity to the law of Moses it was part of his meritorious righteousness.”
On the cross, Jesus fulfilled the promise of God to die for the sins of His people (see Col. 2:11 — 14). The sins of the elect were imputed to Him, and the floodwaters of God’s wrath were poured out on Him as the object of God’s covenant curses. Jesus was “cut off from the land of the living” (Isa. 53:8). The promise of covenant curse, typified in the “cutting off” element of circumcision, was enacted against Jesus at Calvary. By His sacrifice, Jesus “cuts off” the filth of our sin. Christ became a curse for us so that we might become the recipients of the covenant blessings by faith in Him (see Gal. 3:10 — 14).
REFERENCES
Brondz, I. and Aslanova, T. (2019) Circumcision: History, Scope, and Aim: Part I. Voice of the Publisher, 5, 77–87. doi: 10.4236/vp.2019.54006.
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https://www.ligonier.org/learn/articles/how-was-circumcision-a-sign-of-the-covenant#fn1
John Calvin, Commentary on the First Book of Moses Called Genesis, trans. John King, vol. 1 (Bellingham, WA: Logos Bible Software, 2010), 455.
John Owen, The Works of John Owen, ed. William H. Goold, vol. 2 (Edinburgh: T&T Clark, n.d.), 161 — 162.
Jonathan Edwards, “Sermon Fifteen,” in A History of the Work of Redemption, ed. John F. Wilson and John E. Smith, vol. 9, The Works of Jonathan Edwards (New Haven; London: Yale University Press, 1989), 307 — 308.
