It may have actually been Egyptian (perhaps much older), but the Jews borrowed the tradition from the Egyptians. It was a way for a small priest and ruler minority to alter their physical appearance in line with the "Gods". It was a mark that made this small ruling class "godlike" and different than the rest of the populace... hmmm, interesting. Looks like the Jews borrowed everything taking credit as the "founder"...
I was reading an interesting book talking about circumcision and how it was NOT Jewish in origin
by sinis 22 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
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AnneB
I don't think the Jews have taken credit for it. Wasn't it a non-Israelite woman who performed the first "Jewish" circumcision, then told her husband "You are a bridegroom of blood to me"? Maybe she was sick of the whole God trip and chose circumcision as a means of showing her husband how his "calling" was affecting her. In such a case it makes sense that she would use a method that would be recognized as related to persons who thought they were chosen by or dedicated to the service of a God.
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sinis
Sure they did. Abraham talks about how god wanted him to place a special sign on the male members.
Genesis 17:10 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. 11 And ye shall circumcise the flesh of your foreskin; and it shall be a token of the covenant betwixt me and you. 12 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 eight.: Heb. a son of eight days} 13 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. 14 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.
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WTWizard
I think people will be shocked when they do in-depth research on what they stolen and incorporated into their own works. Jesus? Try Odin and Horus. (And that's their masterpiece--STOLEN). Just be warned: If you have the prejudice that anti-Semitism is always and automatically immoral, you will be offended by doing this independent research. Also be advised that, if many of you had the same idea that the washtowel put into your brain and held onto it, you would still be knocking on doors to this very day.
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Low-Key Lysmith
I'm just amazed that there is an entire book written on the subject.
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mP
the jewish people and the religion of judaism were very much impressed by egypt. today they are still known for their pyramids and monuments. in the past in their glory, these structures completely dumbfounded everybody else. the jews built next to nothing, the temple of solomon mentioned in the bible is modest compared to cheopos and the giza complex. the ancient egyptians were also amazing ohysicians, agriculturalists and more. one can easily understand why the jews were admireres of their culture. cicvumcision is just another attempt to say the hebrews wrer all special, because in egypt only the elite preists and phaoroah were snipped. with the law in the torah all jewish men symbolically became importamt even if they remained in reality subjugated to some foreign power. if we read the bible, no where does it speak bad of egypt. the egyptians are never fools or evil or even said to be pagans. there are numerous scriptures were special peoole like jesus visit egypt. these visits never mention much of what happened there, as it is implied that everyone knows how special tge place is. its a bit like a modern thought sayi g so and sin went to princeton or cambridge, we just know they came back enlightened. there are also exceptions for egytptinas in regards to marriage. all other neighbours were never worthy of recognition but after three generations a jew could marry an egyptian. we alos have stories where abraham lets sarah get screwed by the phaoroah. there is no shame in letting this happen, one could ocnsider it a grand honour.
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mP
... even the grand solomon is said to marry the daughter of pharoah. im not going to suggest that this happened, but the symbology is there. apparently no pharaoh ever in all history let his daughters ever marry a foriegner under any circumstances. it just never happneed, however for solomon to say that he did, is very powerful if one reliases what this marriage means. by the time of alexander and the romans this chnaged but before that when egypt was at its piwer this never happened. part of the reason for this is the tghrone was i herited thru the woman. the man she married normally her brother got the right to rule. solomon statement is almost equivalent to saying he inherited the tghrine of the biggest super power at the time of the earliest bible. we of course know that solomon never existed but the boasting is there.
in the end, its obvious the jews were very much impressed and copied many items from egyptian cukture. this is just one of the many. have a look at other holy words, which also happen to be the names of the grandest egyotian god, amen.'others will tell you it means something else, but honestly its not hard to accept the simple meaning its a chant to the egyotian god. look at the other egytpianism and its easy too see the connextion.
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still thinking
There is a really interesting site here...
http://www.historyofcircumcision.net/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=54
It shows a chronology of foreskin and circumcision....I'm no expert on the subject. But it's interesting.
According to this site Aboriginals were the first to circumcise as a ritual around 10,000BCE
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cedars
"I'm just amazed that there is an entire book written on the subject."
I don't think I could bring myself to read an entire book on this subject. Just reading this far down the thread is painful enough!
Cedars
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still thinking
I know how you feel cedars...I feel like that reading about Rutherford.....LOL
I find cirucumcision more interesting now.