What'sThe Big Deal With Circumcision Anyway?

     Well, to start I have to tell you that I had originally determined to find out why the protagonist in the story seemingly sought Moses out on the way to Egypt to kill him (Exodus 4:24). Most, like Carey Scott, believe it had to do with the fact that Moses had not circumcised his son, removing him from a covenant between God and Abraham in Genesis; therefore, making him “unfit for the task that God had appointed for him” (Scott). I checked out the blogs that were already posted and saw someone else in the class had already touched on that subject. Unfortunate for me, but my thirst for that answer was quenched. So then I wondered what the big deal was with circumcision anyway. What had to have been going through the Abraham, or any other man's, mind when he found out that was the way you showed your allegiance to God? Why this way? Couldn't there have been something that didn't involve such a sensitive area., or subject, rather?

     So I wanted to know why a protagonist would request this of his people? Looking through the eyes of a physician one can see the health benefits of such a procedure. “Squamous-cell carcinoma (cancer of the penis) is almost unknown among males who have been circumcised,” and females who have sex with uncircumcised men are more prone to uterine and cervical cancer (Truth About Circumcision). Having to deal with these things, especially in a time without the advancements of medical technology we have today, usually makes it more difficult to procreate as God wanted them to. One could see this as a wisdom beyond the technology of the time, which you would expect from an all-knowing, all-powerful being such as God.

     Also of note was the fact that they were not the only ones to have performed this procedure or ritual, however one chooses to view it. Ancient Egyptians used it as a rite of passage from boyhood to manhood. Dating back to the 23rd Century B.C.E. the sun god Ra performs his own circumcision in the Egyptian Book of the Dead, and “a relief from the Sixth Dynasty tomb on Ankh-ma-Hor at Saqquara portrays the circumcision of two puberty-aged youths” (Larue).

 

     The link is not surprising considering how close they were to each other geographically and the apparent history of interaction according to stories like that of Joseph and his brothers in Genesis.