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{{short description|Circumcision for religious purposes}}
{{short description|Circumcision for religious purposes}}
{{About|religious circumcision|the history of circumcision|History of circumcision|the Early Christian controversy|Circumcision controversy in early Christianity|prevalence of male circumcision|Prevalence of circumcision}}
{{About|religious circumcision|the history of circumcision|History of circumcision|the Early Christian controversy|Circumcision controversy in early Christianity|prevalence of male circumcision|Prevalence of circumcision}}
{{redirect-distinguish|Religious views on circumcision|religious views on female circumcision}}
{{redirect-distinguish|Religious views on circumcision|religious views on female circumcision}}{{Religious text primary|date=June 2018}}{{Religious freedom}}
'''Religious circumcision''' is generally performed shortly after birth, during childhood, or around [[puberty]] as part of a [[rite of passage]]. [[Circumcision]] for religious reasons is most frequently practiced in [[Judaism]] and [[Islam]]. {{TOC limit}}
{{Copy edit|date=April 2023}}
{{Religious text primary|date=June 2018}}
{{Religious freedom}}
'''Religious circumcision''' generally occurs shortly after birth, during childhood, or around puberty as part of a rite of passage. [[Circumcision]] is most prevalent in the religions of [[Judaism]] and [[Islam]]. Circumcision for religious reasons is most prominently practiced by members of the Jewish and Islamic faiths. {{TOC limit}}


==Abrahamic religions==
==Abrahamic religions==
===Judaism===
===Judaism===
{{Main|Brit milah}}
{{Excerpt|Brit milah}}
According to the [[Torah]] and ''[[Halakha]]'' (Jewish religious law), ritual circumcision of all male Jews and their [[Jewish views on slavery#Biblical era|slaves]] ([[Book of Genesis|Genesis]] {{Bibleverse-nb||Genesis|17:10-13|HE}}) is a [[Mitzvah|Commandment]] from [[God in Judaism|God]] that Jews are obligated to perform on the eighth day of birth,<ref name="GlassJM">{{cite journal |last=Glass |first=J. M. |date=January 1999 |title=Religious circumcision: a Jewish view |journal=[[BJU International]] |publisher=[[Wiley-Blackwell]] |volume=83 |issue=Supplement 1 |pages=17–21 |doi=10.1046/j.1464-410x.1999.0830s1017.x |pmid=10349410 |s2cid=2888024 }}</ref><ref name="Goodman 1999">{{cite journal |last=Goodman |first=J. |title=Jewish circumcision: an alternative perspective |date=January 1999 |journal=[[BJU International]] |volume=83 |issue=Supplement 1 |publisher=[[Wiley-Blackwell]] |pages=22–27 |doi=10.1046/j.1464-410x.1999.0830s1022.x |pmid=10349411 |s2cid=29022100 |doi-access=free }}</ref> and is only postponed or abrogated in the case of threat to the life or health of the child.<ref name="GlassJM"/> Jews believe that Gentiles (i. e. non-Jews) are neither required nor obligated to follow this commandment, since it is considered binding exclusively for the Jewish people;<ref name="Maimonides">{{cite book |author=Moses Maimonides |author-link=Maimonides |year=2012 |chapter-url=https://www.sefaria.org/Mishneh_Torah%2C_Kings_and_Wars.10?lang=bi |chapter=Hilkhot M'lakhim (Laws of Kings and Wars) |title=[[Mishneh Torah]] |page=10:7–9 |translator-last=Brauner |translator-first=Reuven |publisher=[[Sefaria]] |access-date=20 August 2020}}</ref> according to the Jewish law, only the [[Seven Laws of Noah]] apply to non-Jews.<ref name="Maimonides"/><ref>{{cite encyclopedia |url=http://jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/9679-laws-noachian |title=Noachian Laws |last1=Singer |first1=Isidore |last2=Greenstone |first2=Julius H. |author-link1=Isidore Singer |encyclopedia=[[Jewish Encyclopedia]] |publisher=[[Kopelman Foundation]] |year=1906 |access-date=13 July 2020 |quote='''The Seven Laws.''' Laws which were supposed by the Rabbis to have been binding upon mankind at large even before the [[Mount Sinai (bible)|revelation at Sinai]], and which are still binding upon non-Jews. The term Noachian indicates the universality of these ordinances, since the whole human race was supposed to be descended from the three [[sons of Noah]], who alone survived [[Genesis flood narrative|the Flood]]. ... Thus, the [[Talmud]] frequently speaks of "the seven laws of the sons of Noah," which were regarded as obligatory upon all mankind, in contradistinction to those that were binding upon Israelites only (Tosef., 'Ab. Zarah, ix. 4; Sanh. 56a et seq.).}}</ref>

====In the Hebrew Bible====
{{original research|section|date=November 2018}}
[[File:Circumcision of Abraham (Bible of Jean de Sy).jpg|thumb|Abraham circumcises his own penis - Circumcision of Abraham, from the Bible of Jean de Sy, ca. 1355-1357]]
{{see also|Covenant (biblical)#Abrahamic covenant}}
There are numerous references to circumcision in the [[Hebrew Bible]]. Circumcision was enjoined upon the biblical patriarch [[Abraham]], his descendants and their slaves as "a token of the Covenant" concluded with him by God for all generations, an "everlasting covenant" ({{Bibleverse||Genesis|17:13|HE}}), thus it is commonly observed by two (Judaism and Islam) of the [[Abrahamic religions]].

The penalty of non-observance was ''[[kareth]]'' (Hebrew: "cutting off") from the people ({{Bibleverse||Genesis|17:10-14|HE}}, {{Bibleverse-nb||Genesis|21:4|HE}}; [[Book of Leviticus|Leviticus]] {{Bibleverse-nb||Leviticus|12:3|HE}}). Non-Israelites had to undergo circumcision before they could be allowed to take part in the feast of [[Passover]] ([[Book of Exodus|Exodus]] {{Bibleverse-nb||Exodus|12:48|HE}}). (See also [[Proselyte#Rules for proselytes in the Torah|Mosaic Law directed at non-Jews]] and [[Conversion to Judaism]]).

It was "a reproach" for an [[Israelite]] to be uncircumcised ([[Book of Joshua|Joshua]] {{Bibleverse-nb||Joshua|5:9|HE}}). The name ''arelim'' ("uncircumcised") became an opprobrious term, especially a pejorative name for the [[Philistines]], who might have been of [[Ancient Greeks|Greek]] origin, in the context of the fierce wars recounted in the [[First Book of Samuel]] ({{Bibleverse-nb|1|Samuel|14:6|HE}}, {{Bibleverse-nb|1|Samuel|31:4|HE}}). When the general (and future king) [[David]] wanted to marry [[King Saul]]'s daughter, the King required a grisly "dowry" of a hundred Philistine foreskins. David went further: "and David arose and went, he and his men, and slew of the Philistines two hundred men; and David brought their foreskins, and they gave them in full number to the king, that he might be the king's son-in-law. And Saul gave him Michal his daughter to wife" ({{Bibleverse|1|Samuel|18:25|HE}}).

"Uncircumcised" is used in conjunction with ''tame'' ("impure") for heathen ([[Book of Isaiah|Isaiah]] {{Bibleverse-nb||Isaiah|52:1|HE}}). The word ''arel'' ("uncircumcised") is also employed for "impermeable" ({{Bibleverse||Leviticus|26:41|HE}}, "their uncircumcised hearts"; compare [[Book of Jeremiah|Jeremiah]] {{Bibleverse-nb||Jeremiah|9:25|HE}}; [[Book of Ezekiel|Ezekiel]] {{Bibleverse-nb||Ezekiel|44:7-9|HE}}); it is also applied to the first three years' fruit of a tree, which is forbidden ({{Bibleverse||Leviticus|19:23|HE}}). "The Philistines, more than any other nation, are regularly<ref>Judges 14:3, 15:8, Samuel I 14:6, 17:26,36, 31:14, Samuel II 1:20</ref> called uncircumised"<ref>Samuel I 13:6 commentary, The Rubin Edition, {{ISBN|1-57819-333-8}}, p. 83</ref> in the Hebrew Bible.

However, the Israelites born in the wilderness after [[the Exodus]] from [[Ancient Egypt|Egypt]] apparently did not carry out the practice of circumcision. According to {{Bibleverse||Joshua|5:2-9|HE}}, "all the people that came out" of Egypt were circumcised, but those "born in the wilderness" were not. In any case, we are told that [[Joshua]], before the celebration of the Passover, had them circumcised at [[Gilgal]].

The Hebrew Bible contains several narratives in which circumcision is mentioned. There is the circumcision and massacre of the [[Shechem]]ites ({{Bibleverse||Genesis|34:1-35:5|HE}}), the hundred foreskin dowry ({{Bibleverse|1|Samuel|18:25-27|HE}}) and the story of the Lord threatening to kill Moses, and being placated by Zipporah's circumcision of their son ({{Bibleverse||Exodus|4:24-26|HE}}), and the circumcision at Gilgal of {{Bibleverse||Joshua|5|HE}}.

There is another sense in which the term "circumcise" is used in the Hebrew Bible. In the [[Book of Deuteronomy]] ({{Bibleverse-nb||Deuteronomy|10:16|HE}}) it is written: "''Circumcise the foreskin of your heart,''" (also quoted in {{Bibleverse||Jeremiah|4:4|HE}}, [[New Jewish Publication Society of America Tanakh|New JPS Tanakh]] translates as: "Cut away, therefore, the thickening about your hearts") along with {{Bibleverse||Jeremiah|6:10|HE}}: ''To whom shall I speak, and give warning, that they may hear? behold their ear is uncircumcised, and they cannot hearken: ...'' (the New JPS Tanakh translates: "Their ears are blocked"). {{Bibleverse||Jeremiah|9:25-26|HE}} says that circumcised and uncircumcised will be punished alike by the Lord; for "all the nations are uncircumcised, and all the house of Israel are uncircumcised in heart." The New JPS Tanakh translation adds the note: "''uncircumcised of heart'': I.e., their minds are blocked to God's Commandments." Non-Jewish tribes that practiced circumcision were described as being "circumcised in uncircumcision."({{Bibleverse||Jeremiah|9:24|HE}})

===Intertestamental period===
{{main|Intertestamental period}}
The [[deuterocanonical books]] and [[biblical apocrypha]] reveal the cultural clash between Jews and Greeks, and between [[Judaizers]] and [[Hellenistic Judaism|Hellenizers]].<ref name="JE">{{cite web |url=http://jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/4391-circumcision#anchor4 |title=Circumcision: In Apocryphal and Rabbinical Literature |last1=Kohler |first1=Kaufmann |last2=Hirsch |first2=Emil G. |last3=Jacobs |first3=Joseph |last4=Friedenwald |first4=Aaron |last5=Broydé |first5=Isaac |author1-link=Kaufmann Kohler |author2-link=Emil G. Hirsch |author3-link=Joseph Jacobs |author5-link=Isaac Broydé |publisher=[[Kopelman Foundation]] |website=[[Jewish Encyclopedia]] |access-date=13 February 2020 |quote=Contact with Grecian life, especially at the games of the arena [which involved nudity], made this distinction obnoxious to the Hellenists, or antinationalists; and the consequence was their attempt to appear like the Greeks by [[epispasm]] ("making themselves foreskins"; I Macc. i. 15; Josephus, "Ant." xii. 5, § 1; Assumptio Mosis, viii.; I Cor. vii. 18; Tosef., Shab. xv. 9; Yeb. 72a, b; Yer. Peah i. 16b; Yeb. viii. 9a). All the more did the law-observing Jews defy the edict of [[Antiochus Epiphanes]] prohibiting circumcision (I Macc. i. 48, 60; ii. 46); and the Jewish women showed their loyalty to the Law, even at the risk of their lives, by themselves circumcising their sons.}}</ref><ref name="Fredriksen 2018">{{cite book |last=Fredriksen |first=Paula |author-link=Paula Fredriksen |date=2018 |title=When Christians Were Jews: The First Generation |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NW9yDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA10 |location=[[London]] |publisher=[[Yale University Press]] |pages=10–11 |isbn=978-0-300-19051-9}}</ref> Both Greeks and Romans valued the foreskin positively, and when they took part in athletic sports or trained in the [[Gymnasium (ancient Greece)|gymnasium]], they did it in the nude.<ref name="Hodges2001">{{cite journal |last=Hodges |first=Frederick M. |year=2001 |title=The Ideal Prepuce in Ancient Greece and Rome: Male Genital Aesthetics and Their Relation to Lipodermos, Circumcision, Foreskin Restoration, and the Kynodesme |url=http://www.cirp.org/library/history/hodges2/ |format=PDF |journal=[[Bulletin of the History of Medicine]] |publisher=[[Johns Hopkins University Press]] |volume=75 |issue=Fall 2001 |pages=375–405 |doi=10.1353/bhm.2001.0119 |pmid=11568485 |access-date=13 February 2020 |s2cid=29580193}}</ref><ref name="Rubin 1980">{{cite journal |last1=Rubin |first1=Jody P. |date=July 1980 |title=Celsus' Decircumcision Operation: Medical and Historical Implications |url=http://www.cirp.org/library/restoration/rubin/ |journal=[[Urology (journal)|Urology]] |publisher=[[Elsevier]] |volume=16 |issue=1 |pages=121–124 |doi=10.1016/0090-4295(80)90354-4 |pmid=6994325 |access-date=13 February 2020}}</ref><ref name="JE"/><ref name="Fredriksen 2018"/> They insisted that the glans had to remain covered,<ref name="Hodges2001"/><ref name="Neusner1993">{{cite book |author=Neusner, Jacob |title=Approaches to Ancient Judaism, New Series: Religious and Theological Studies |publisher=[[Scholars Press]] |year=1993 |page=149 |quote=Circumcised barbarians, along with any others who revealed the ''glans penis'', were the butt of ribald humour. For [[Ancient Greek art|Greek art]] portrays the foreskin, often drawn in meticulous detail, as an emblem of male beauty; and children with congenitally short foreskins were sometimes subjected to a treatment, known as ''[[epispasm]]'', that was aimed at elongation. |author-link=Jacob Neusner}}</ref><ref name="Rubin 1980"/><ref name="Schultheiss 1998">{{cite journal |last1= Schultheiss |first1= Dirk |last2= Truss |first2= Michael C. |last3= Stief |first3= Christian G. |last4= Jonas |first4= Udo |title=Uncircumcision: A Historical Review of Preputial Restoration |journal=[[Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery]] |publisher=[[Lippincott Williams & Wilkins]] |date=1998 |volume=101 |issue=7 |pages=1990–8 |url=http://www.cirp.org/library/restoration/schultheiss/ |doi= 10.1097/00006534-199806000-00037 |pmid=9623850 |access-date=13 February 2020}}</ref> as they strongly disapproved of the custom of circumcision,<ref name="Hodges2001"/><ref name="Rubin 1980"/><ref name="Fredriksen 2018"/><ref name="Schultheiss 1998"/> which was regarded as a cruel and barbaric [[genital mutilation]].<ref name="Hodges2001"/><ref name="Rubin 1980"/><ref name="Schäfer2003">{{cite book |last=Schäfer |first=Peter |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-0aBAgAAQBAJ |title=The History of the Jews in the Greco-Roman World: The Jews of Palestine from Alexander the Great to the Arab Conquest |publisher=[[Routledge]] |year=2003 |isbn=1-134-40316-X |page=146 |author-link=Peter Schäfer}}</ref><ref name="Schultheiss 1998"/> The [[Books of the Maccabees]] reveal that many Jewish men chose to undergo [[epispasm]],<ref name="Rubin 1980"/><ref name="Fredriksen 2018"/> the ancient practice of [[foreskin restoration]] by stretching the residual skin,<ref name="Hodges2001"/><ref name="Rubin 1980"/><ref name="JE"/><ref name="Schultheiss 1998"/> so that they could conform to Greek culture and take part in these sports ({{Bibleverse|1|Macc|1:11-15|NRSV}}); some also left their sons uncircumcised ({{Bibleverse|1|Macc|2:46|NRSV}}). This relatively peaceful period came to an end when [[Antiochus IV Epiphanes]] attacked first Egypt and then sacked and looted Jerusalem ({{Bibleverse|1|Macc|1:16-64|NRSV}}). Epiphanes determined to force everyone to [[Hellenization|live the Greek way]] and abandon the [[Judaizing|Jewish way]]. Among other things, he banned circumcision.<ref name="JE"/><ref name="Fredriksen 2018"/>

Although many Hellenized Jews were prepared to conform to Greek culture,<ref name="Rubin 1980"/><ref name="Fredriksen 2018"/> observant Jews saw circumcision as a mark of Jewish loyalty and many who kept to the [[Law of Moses|Mosaic Law]] defied the edict of Antiochus Epiphanes prohibiting circumcision ({{Bibleverse|1|Macc|1:48|NRSV}}, {{Bibleverse-nb|1|Macc|1:60|NRSV}}, and {{Bibleverse-nb|1|Macc|2:46|NRSV}}). Jewish women showed their loyalty to the Law, even at the risk of their lives, by themselves circumcising their sons. "For example, two women were brought in for having circumcised their children. They publicly paraded them around the city, with their babies hanging at their breasts, and then hurled them down headlong from the wall ({{Bibleverse|2|Macc|6:10|NRSV}})." At the same time, the Zealots [[Forced circumcision|forcibly circumcised]] the uncircumcised boys within the borders of Israel ({{Bibleverse|1|Macc|2:46|NRSV}}).

The [[Book of Jubilees]], part of the [[Ethiopian Orthodox]] biblical canon, written in the time of [[John Hyrcanus]], reveals the hostility directed against those who abandoned circumcision (xv. 26–27): "Whosoever is uncircumcised belongs to 'the sons of [[Belial]],' to 'the children of doom and eternal perdition'; for all the [[Angels of the Presence]] and of the Glorification have been so from the day of their creation, and God's Anger will be kindled against the children of the covenant if they make the members of their body appear like those of the Gentiles, and they will be expelled and exterminated from the earth".

According to the [[Gospel of Thomas]] saying 53, Jesus says:
{{quote|His disciples said to him, "is circumcision useful or not?" He said to them, "If it were useful, their father would produce children already circumcised from their mother. Rather, the true circumcision in spirit has become profitable in every respect." SV [https://web.archive.org/web/20070813204310/http://www.misericordia.edu/users/davies/thomas/Trans.htm]}} Parallels to Thomas 53 are found in Paul's {{Bibleverse||Romans|2:29}}, {{Bibleverse||Philippians|3:3}}, {{Bibleverse|1|Cor|7:19}}, {{Bibleverse||Gal|6:15}}, and {{Bibleverse||Col|2:11-12}}.

Paul's many references in his letters are to make this argument to Jewish and Gentile followers alike: {{Bibleverse||Romans|2:29}}, {{Bibleverse||Philippians|3:3}}, {{Bibleverse|1|Cor|7:19}}, {{Bibleverse||Gal|6:15}}, and {{Bibleverse||Col|2:11-12}}. Paul's point was to overturn many Jewish laws, not just circumcision, because what you ate, who you ate with and other technical observations of the law were no longer required in Christ's new kingdom on earth.

The ''[[Jewish Encyclopedia]]'' in the article "Gentiles", section "Gentiles May Not Be Taught the Torah", states:
{{quote|[[Rabbi Emden|R. Emden]], in his appendix to 'Seder 'Olam' (pp. 32b–34b, Hamburg, 1752), gives it as his opinion that the original intention of Jesus, and especially of Paul, was to convert only the Gentiles to the seven moral laws of Noah and to let the Jews follow the Mosaic law—which explains the apparent contradictions in the New Testament regarding the laws of Moses and the Sabbath.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/6585-gentile|title=GENTILE - JewishEncyclopedia.com|website=jewishencyclopedia.com}}</ref>}}

====In rabbinic literature====
Some [[Rabbinic literature|rabbinical sources]] indicate that even before the covenant of Abraham, the [[aposthia]] of [[Shem]] may have been an inspiration for circumcision, although the aposthia of Shem is not specifically mentioned in the text of Genesis.<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |url=http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/13541-shem |title=Shem |last1=Hirsch |first1=Emil G. |author1-link=Emil G. Hirsch |last2=Price |first2=Ira Maurice |last3=Bacher |first3=Wilhelm |author3-link=Wilhelm Bacher |last4=Seligsohn |first4=Max |author4-link=Max Seligsohn |encyclopedia=[[Jewish Encyclopedia]] |publisher=[[Kopelman Foundation]] |access-date=30 May 2020}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal | pmc=3494220 | pmid=23193511 | volume=41 | issue=9 | title=Aposthia-a motive of circumcision origin | year=2012 | journal=Iran. J. Public Health | page=84 | last = Amin Ud | first = Din M.}}</ref> During the [[Babylonian exile]], [[Biblical Sabbath|Sabbath]] and circumcision became the characteristic symbols of the Jewish people. However, the [[Talmud]] orders that a boy must not be circumcised if he had two brothers, from the same mother as him, who have died as a result of their circumcisions;<ref name="JewEncMor">{{Jewish Encyclopedia|article=Morbidity|url=http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/view.jsp?artid=763&letter=M}}</ref> this may be due to a concern about [[haemophilia]].<ref name="JewEncMor" />

Contact with [[Hellenistic civilisation|Hellenistic culture]], especially at the games of the arena, made this distinction obnoxious to [[Hellenistic Judaism|Jewish Hellenists]] seeking to [[Hellenization|assimilate into Greek culture]].<ref name="Hodges2001"/><ref name="Rubin 1980"/><ref name="JE"/> The consequence was their attempt to appear like the Greeks by [[epispasm]]<ref name="Hodges2001"/><ref name="Rubin 1980"/><ref name="JE"/><ref name="Fredriksen 2018"/> ("making themselves foreskins"; {{Bibleverse|1|Macc|1:15|NRSV}}; Josephus, [http://earlyjewishwritings.com/text/josephus/ant12.html Ant. xii] 5, § 1; [[Assumption of Moses]], viii.; {{Bibleverse|1|Cor|7:18}};, Tosef.; Talmud tractes Shabbat xv. 9; Yevamot 72a, b; Yerushalmi Peah i. 16b; Yevamot viii. 9a). {{Bibleverse|1|Macc|2:46|NRSV}} records that after [[Antiochus IV Epiphanes]] effectively banned traditional Jewish religious practice, including circumcision, the [[Maccabean#The revolt|Maccabean rebels]] "forcibly circumcised all the uncircumcised boys they found within the borders of Israel." Circumcision was again banned by Emperor [[Hadrian]] (117-138 CE). His anti-circumcision law is considered by many to be one of the main causes of the Jewish [[Bar Kokhba revolt]] (132-135 CE).{{citation needed|date=September 2018}}

Around 140 CE [[Rabbinic Judaism]] made its circumcision requirements stricter.<ref name=gollaher_2001_ch1>{{cite book |last=Gollaher |first=David |author-link=David Gollaher |title=Circumcision: A History Of The World's Most Controversial Surgery |chapter=1, ''The Jewish Tradition'' |pages=1–30 |date=February 2001 |publisher=Basic Books |isbn=978-0-465-02653-1 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=usEzSffvPBMC }}{{Dead link|date=February 2023 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref><ref>{{cite EJ |url = http://go.galegroup.com/ps/retrieve.do?sgHitCountType=None&sort=RELEVANCE&inPS=true&prodId=GVRL&userGroupName=imcpl1111&tabID=T003&searchId=R3&resultListType=RESULT_LIST&contentSegment=&searchType=AdvancedSearchForm&currentPosition=1&contentSet=GALE%7CCX2587504318&&docId=GALE | title=Circumcision |volume=4 | page= 732 | access-date= 14 January 2014}}</ref> Jewish circumcision includes the removal of the inner [[preputial mucosa|preputial epithelium]], in a procedure that is called ''priah''(Hebrew: פריעה), which means: 'uncovering'. This epithelium is also removed on modern medical circumcisions,<ref>[http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/cgi/reprint/pediatrics;103/3/686.pdf Circumcision Policy Statement] of The [[American Academy of Pediatrics]] notes that "There are three methods of circumcision that are commonly used in the newborn male", and that all three include "bluntly freeing the inner preputial epithelium from the epithelium of the glans", to be later amputated with the foreskin.</ref> to prevent post operative penile adhesion and its complications.{{citation needed|date=July 2019}} According to rabbinic interpretation of the traditional Jewish sources, the ''periah'' has been performed, as part of Jewish circumcision, since the [[Israelites]] first inhabited the [[Land of Israel]],<ref>[[Talmud Bavli]], Tractate ''Yebamoth'', 71b: Rabbah b. Isaac stated in the name of Rab: The commandment of uncovering the corona at circumcision was not given to Abraham; for it is said, At that time the Lord said unto Joshua: 'Make thee knives of flint etc.' But is it not possible [that this applied to] those who were not previously circumcised; for it is written, For all the people that came out were circumcised, but all the people that were born etc.? — If so, why the expression. 'Again!' Consequently it must apply to the uncovering of the corona.</ref> and without it the [[mitzvah]] is not performed at all.<ref>[[Mishnah]], Tractate ''Shabbos'', 19:6, and The [[Jerusalem Talmud]] there.</ref>
However, the editors of the ''Oxford Dictionary of the Jewish Religion'', note that ''periah'' was probably added by the rabbis, in order to "prevent the possibility of obliterating the traces of circumcision".<ref>Werblowsky, R.J. Zwi & Wigoder, Geoffrey (1997) ''The Oxford Dictionary of the Jewish Religion''. Oxford: Oxford University Press.</ref> Jewish law states that circumcision is a ''[[613 commandments|mitzva aseh]]'' ("positive commandment" to perform an act) and is obligatory for Jewish-born males and for non-circumcised Jewish male converts. It is only postponed or abrogated in the case of threat to the life or health of the child.<ref name=GlassJM /> It is usually performed by a ''[[mohel]]'' on the eighth day of life in a ceremony called a ''brit milah'' (or ''bris milah'', colloquially simply ''bris''), which means "Covenant of circumcision" in [[Hebrew language|Hebrew]]. According to Jewish law, the foreskin should be buried after a ''brit milah''.<ref>''[[Shulchan Aruch]]'', ''[[Yoreh Deah]]'', 265:10.</ref> The rite is considered of such importance that in Orthodox communities, the body of an uncircumcised Jewish male will sometimes be circumcised before burial.<ref name = "MLamm">{{cite book |last1=Lamm |first1=Maurice|title=The Jewish way in death and mourning |year=2000 |orig-year= 1969|publisher= Jonathan David Publishers, Inc.|location=[[Middle Village, Queens|Middle Village]], New York |isbn=978-0-8246-0423-3 |lccn=99088942 |pages=215–216 |chapter=6: Special Situations |quote=The custom is to circumcise male infants who have not undergone circumcision until then, usually during ''taharah''.}}</ref> Although 19th century [[Reform Judaism|Reform]] leaders described it as "barbaric", the practice of circumcision "remained a central rite"<ref name="origin-reform">{{cite encyclopedia| url = http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Judaism/The_Origins_of_Reform_Judaism.html| title = The Origins of Reform Judaism| access-date = 2007-11-03| author = adapted from Shamash| year = 2007| encyclopedia = Jewish Virtual Library}}</ref> and the [[Union for Reform Judaism]] has, since 1984, trained and certified over 300 practicing ''mohalim'' under its "Berit Mila Program".<ref>[http://www.beritmila.org/index.htm Berit Mila Program of Reform Judaism] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120520160329/http://www.beritmila.org/index.htm |date=2012-05-20 }}, Union for Reform Judaism website. Retrieved January 23, 2010.</ref> [[Humanistic Judaism]] argues that "circumcision is not required for Jewish identity."<ref>{{Cite news |url=http://jewishcircumcision.org/israel_news.htm |author=Hilary Leila Kreiger |title=A cut above the rest |work=The Jerusalem Post |date=21 November 2002 |access-date=5 September 2012 |archive-date=23 September 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100923052000/http://jewishcircumcision.org/israel_news.htm |url-status=dead }}</ref> The Jewish circumcision consists of three procedures, the first being the amputation of the foreskin. The second is the ''priah'', or peeling back of the epithelium after the foreskin has been amputated. According to Shaye J. D. Cohen, in ''Why Aren't Jewish Women Circumcised?: Gender and Covenant in Judaism'', pg 25, the Torah only commands circumcision (milah).<ref name="Cohen2005">{{cite book|author=Shaye J. D. Cohen|title=Why Aren't Jewish Women Circumcised? Gender and Covenant In Judaism|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PmL-LogqJ-YC&pg=PA283|year=2005|publisher=University of California Press|isbn=978-0-520-92049-1|pages=283–}}</ref> [[David Gollaher]] has written that the rabbis added the procedure of ''periah'' to discourage men from trying to restore their foreskins: "Once established, periah was deemed essential to circumcision; if the mohel failed to cut away enough tissue, the operation was deemed insufficient to comply with God's Covenant" and "Depending on the strictness of individual rabbis, boys (or men thought to have been inadequately cut) were subjected to additional operations."<ref>Circumcision | title=A History Of The World’s Most Controversial Surgery | author= David Gollaher | publisher =Basic Books 2000 | pg =pg 17</ref> In addition to ''milah'' (the actual circumcision) and ''priah'', mentioned above, the Talmud mentions a third step, ''metzitzah'', or squeezing some blood from the wound and oral suction by mouths of mohalim.

The book ''Abot De-Rabbi Natan'' (''The Fathers According to Rabbi Nathan'') contains a list of persons from the Israelite Scriptures that were born circumcised:<br>
Adam, Seth, Noah, Shem, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, the wicked Balaam, Samuel, David, Jeremiah and Zerubbabel.<ref>The Fathers According to Rabbi Nathan, Translated from the Hebrew by Judah Goldin, Yale Judaica Series 10, Chapter 2, p 23.</ref> To be [[Aposthia|born without a foreskin]] was regarded as the privilege of the most saintly of people, from [[Adam (Bible)|Adam]], "who was made in the Image of God," and [[Moses]] to [[Zerubbabel]] (see Midrash Ab. R. N., ed. Schechter, p.&nbsp;153; and Talmud, Sotah 12a). Uncircumcision being considered a blemish, circumcision was to remove it, and to render Abraham and his descendants "perfect" (Talmud Ned. 31b; Midrash Genesis Rabbah xlvi.)

Rabbinic literature holds that one who removes his circumcision has no portion in [[Jewish eschatology|the world to come]] (Mishnah Ab. iii. 17; Midrash Sifre, Num. xv. 31; Talmud Sanhedrin 99).

According to the Midrash Pirke R. El. xxix., it was [[Shem]] who circumcised [[Abraham]] and [[Ishmael]] on the [[Day of Atonement]]; and the blood of the covenant then shed is ever before God on that day to serve as an atoning power. According to the same midrash, [[Pharaoh]] prevented the Hebrew slaves from performing the rite, but when the [[Passover]] time came and brought them deliverance, they underwent circumcision, and mingled the blood of the paschal lamb with that of the Abrahamic Covenant, wherefore (Ezek. xvi. 6) God repeats the words: "In thy blood live!"

During the nineteenth and twentieth centuries many [[Haskalah|Jewish reformers]], doctors in [[Central Europe|Central]] and [[Eastern Europe]] proposed to replace circumcision with a symbolic ceremony, while others sought to ban or abolish circumcision entirely,<ref name="Yivo">{{cquote|In the first half of the nineteenth century, various European governments considered regulating, if not banning, ''berit milah'' on the grounds that it posed potential medical dangers. In the 1840s, radical Jewish reformers in [[Frankfurt]] asserted that circumcision should no longer be compulsory. This controversy reached [[Russian Empire|Russia]] in the 1880s. Russian Jewish physicians expressed concern over two central issues: the competence of those carrying out the procedure and the method used for ''metsitsah''. Many Jewish physicians supported the idea of procedural and hygienic reforms in the practice, and they debated the question of physician supervision during the ceremony. Most significantly, many advocated carrying out ''metsitsah'' by pipette, not by mouth. In 1889, a committee on circumcision convened by the Russian Society for the Protection of Health, which included leading Jewish figures, recommended educating the Jewish public about the concerns connected with circumcision, in particular, the possible transmission of diseases such as [[tuberculosis]] and [[syphilis]] through the custom of ''metsitsah'' by mouth.

Veniamin Portugalov, who—alone among Russian Jewish physicians—called for the abolition of circumcision, set off these discussions. Portugalov not only denied all medical claims regarding the sanitary advantages of circumcision but disparaged the practice as barbaric, likening it to pagan ritual mutilation. Ritual circumcision, he claimed, stood as a self-imposed obstacle to the Jews’ [[Jewish emancipation|attainment of true equality with the other peoples of Europe]].
| author = Epstein, Lisa
| source = [http://www.yivoencyclopedia.org/article.aspx/Circumcision "Circumcision"], ''[[The YIVO Encyclopedia of Jews in Eastern Europe]]'', [[Yale University Press]].
}}</ref> as it was perceived as a dangerous, barbaric and pagan ritual of [[genital mutilation]]<ref name="Yivo" /> that could transmit infectious diseases to newborns.<ref name="Yivo" /> The first formal objection to circumcision within Judaism occurred in 1843 in [[Frankfurt]].<ref name="Yivo" /><ref name="Gollaher2001">{{cite book |last=Gollaher |first=David |title=Circumcision: A History Of The World's Most Controversial Surgery |date=February 2001 |publisher=Basic Books |isbn=978-0-465-02653-1 |location=New York City |pages=1–30 |chapter=1, ''The Jewish Tradition'' |author-link=David Gollaher |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=usEzSffvPBMC }}{{Dead link|date=February 2023 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref> The Society for the Friends of Reform, a group that criticised traditional Jewish practices, said that [[brit milah]] was not a [[mitzvah]] but an outworn legacy from [[Israelites|Israel]]'s earlier phases, an obsolete throwback to primitive religion.<ref name="Gollaher2001" /> With the expanding role of medicine came further opposition; certain aspects of Jewish circumcision such as ''periah'' and ''metzitzah'' (drawing the blood from the circumcision wound through sucking or a cloth) were deemed unhygienic and dangerous for the newborns.<ref name="Yivo" /><ref name="Gollaher2001" /> Later evidence that [[syphilis]] and [[tuberculosis]]&nbsp;&ndash; two of the most feared infectious diseases in the 19th century&nbsp;&ndash; were spread by mohalim,<ref name="Yivo" /> caused various [[rabbis]] to advocate ''metzitzah'' to be done using a sponge or a tube.<ref name="Gollaher2001" />

====Converts to Judaism====
According to the Hebrew Bible, [[conversion to Judaism]] for non-Israelites necessitated circumcision ({{bibleverse||Exodus|12:48|HE}}). In the 1st century CE, there was a controversy between the [[Shammai]]tes and the [[Hillel the Elder|Hillelites]] regarding a convert born without a foreskin: the former demanding the spilling of a drop of blood of the covenant; the latter declaring it to be unnecessary.

[[Flavius Josephus]] in ''[[Jewish Antiquities]]'' [https://web.archive.org/web/20080907214906/http://www.earlychristianwritings.com/text/josephus/ant-20.htm book 20], chapter 2 recorded the story of [[Izates bar Monobaz|King Izates]] of [[Adiabene]] who decided to follow the [[Law of Moses]] at the advice of a Jewish merchant named Ananias. He was going to get circumcised, but his mother, Helen, who herself embraced the Jewish customs, advised against it on the grounds that the subjects would not stand to be ruled by someone who followed such "strange and foreign rites". Ananias likewise advised against it, on the grounds that Worship of God was superior to circumcision ([[Robert Eisenman]] in ''James the Brother of Jesus'' claims that Ananias is [[Paul the Apostle]] who held similar views) and that God would forgive him for fear of his subjects. So Izates decided against it. However, later, "a certain other Jew that came out of Galilee, whose name was Eleazar", who was well versed in the Law, convinced him that he should, on the grounds that it was one thing to read the Law and another thing to practice it, and so he did. Once Helen and Ananias found out, they were struck by great fear of the possible consequences, but as Josephus put it, God looked upon Izates. As his reign was peaceful and blessed, Helen visited the Jerusalem Temple to thank God, and since there was a terrible famine at the time, she brought much food and aid to the people of Jerusalem.

On the other hand, the emperor [[Hadrian]] (117-138 CE) forbade circumcision. His successor [[Antoninus Pius]] (138-161 CE) upheld the decree, but around 140 included an exemption for Jews who circumcised their sons, although not their servants, slaves, or converts.<ref name="Hodges2001"/><ref name="Schäfer2003"/> Even before that, in 95 CE, [[Titus Flavius Clemens (consul)|Flavius Clemens]], a nephew of the emperors [[Titus]] and [[Domitian]], suffered the penalty of death for undergoing circumcision, and embracing the Jewish faith with his wife Domitilla (see Grätz, "Gesch." iv. 403 et seq., 702).

It can be thus understood why during [[Early Christian]] times there existed groups of [[God-fearers]], who were Gentiles who shared religious ideas and practices with Jews, to one degree or another, but refused to circumcise, and were not recognized as Jews.<ref>{{Cquote|''Proselytes ad God-fearers.''-Many scholars see a parallel between the "God-fearers" in [[rabbinic literature]] and the "God-fearers" in the [[New Testament|NT]]. In rabbinic literature the ''[[Ger toshav|ger toshab]]'' was a Gentile who observed the [[Noahide laws|Noachian commandments]] but was not considered a convert to Judaism because he did not agree to circumcision. ... some scholars have made the mistake of calling the ''ger toshab'' a "proselyte" or "semiproselyte." But the ''ger toshab'' was really a resident alien in Israel. Some scholars have claimed that the term "those who fear God" (''yir᾿ei Elohim''/''Shamayim'') was used in rabbinic literature to denote Gentiles who were on the fringe of the synagogue. They were not converts to Judaism, although they were attracted to the Jewish religion and [[Law of Moses|observed part of the law]].|author=[[Geoffrey W. Bromiley]]|source=''The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia'' (1986, Fully Revised Edition), p. 1010, Vol. 3, [[William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company|Eerdmans]], Grand Rapids: Michigan, {{ISBN|0-8028-3783-2}}.}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |editor1-last=Attridge |editor1-first=Harold W. |editor2-last=Hata |editor2-first=Gohei |author=Louis H. Feldman |author-link=Louis Feldman |date=1992 |title=Eusebius, Christianity, and Judaism |chapter="Sympathizers" with Judaism |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jVyzbHAJ_hAC&pg=PA389 |location=[[Detroit]] |publisher=[[Wayne State University Press]] |pages=389–395 |isbn=0-8143-2361-8}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Sim |first1=David C. |last2=MacLaren |first2=James S. |title=Attitudes to Gentiles in Ancient Judaism and Early Christianity |publisher=[[Bloomsbury Publishing]] |date=2013 |pages=15–23 |chapter=Chapter 1, Paragraph 3: God-Fearers |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qNBBAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA15 |isbn=978-0-56763-766-6 |name-list-style=amp}}</ref> It is possible that the view of them is echoed in the [[Midrash]]: "If thy sons accept My Godhead [by undergoing circumcision] I shall be their God and bring them into the land; but if they do not observe My covenant in regard either to circumcision or to the [[Shabbat|Sabbath]], they shall not enter the [[Promised Land|land of promise]]" (Midrash Genesis Rabbah xlvi.). "The Sabbath-keepers who are not circumcised are intruders, and deserve punishment," (Midrash Deut. Rabbah i.)

The uncompromising Jewish stance that the seal of circumcision might not find its substitute in "the seal of [[baptism]]" &mdash; led the [[Paul the Apostle|Apostle Paul]] to urge the latter in opposition to the former ({{Bibleverse||Romans|2:25-29}}, {{Bibleverse-nb||Romans|4:11-12}}, and elsewhere), just as he was led to adopt the [[antinomianism|antinomistic]] or [[Anti-Zionism|antinational]] view, which had its exponents in [[Alexandria]].

Currently, the issue of circumcising converts remains controversial in Reform and Reconstructionist Judaism<ref name="Glickman">{{cite web
| url = http://urj.org/Articles/index.cfm?id=8320&pge_prg_id=29839&pge_id=3450
| title = B'rit Milah: A Jewish Answer to Modernity
| access-date = 2007-11-03
| last = Glickman
| first = Mark
| date = November 12, 2005
| publisher = [[Union for Reform Judaism]]
| url-status = dead
| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20071015161234/http://urj.org/Articles/index.cfm?id=8320&pge_prg_id=29839&pge_id=3450
| archive-date = October 15, 2007
}}</ref><ref name="Cohen">{{cite web|url=http://www4.jrf.org/showdt&rid=322&pid=15 |title=Bo: Defining Boundaries |access-date=2007-11-03 |last=Cohen |first=Rabbi Howard |date=May 20, 2002 |publisher=Jewish Reconstructionist Federation |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071113210451/http://www4.jrf.org/showdt%26rid%3D322%26pid%3D15 |archive-date=November 13, 2007 }}</ref> and it is not mandatory in either movement.<ref name="Epstein 2007">{{cite web|url=http://www.jewishcalgary.org/page.html?ArticleID=63645 |title=The Conversion Process |access-date=2007-11-03 |last=Epstein |first=Lawrence |year=2007 |publisher=Calgary Jewish Community Council |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081227065531/http://www.jewishcalgary.org/page.aspx?id=63645 |archive-date=December 27, 2008 }}</ref>

====Normative position====
Subject to overriding medical considerations, the circumcision must take place eight days after the birth of the child, even when this falls on ''Shabbat''.<ref>Tractate Shabbat. xix. 1.</ref> The child must be medically fit for a circumcision to be performed, and Jewish law prohibits parents having their son circumcised if medical doctors hold that the procedure may unduly threaten the child's health (e.g. because of [[hemophilia]]). If by reason of the child's debility or sickness the ceremony is postponed, it cannot take place on ''Shabbat''.<ref>Talmud Shabbat 137a.</ref>

It is the duty of the father to have his child circumcised; and if he fails in this, the [[beth din]] of the city must see that the rite is performed.<ref>Talmud Kid. 29a.</ref> According to traditional Jewish law, in the absence of a grown free Jewish male expert, a woman, a slave, or a child, that has the required skills, is also authorized to perform the circumcision, provided that she or he is Jewish.<ref>Talmud Avodah Zarah 27a; Menachot 42a; Maimonides' Mishneh Torah, Milah, ii. 1; [[Shulkhan Arukh]], Yoreh De'ah, 264:1</ref> However, most streams of non-Orthodox Judaism allow women to be ''mohalot'' ({{lang-he|מוֹהֲלוֹת}}, plural of {{lang|he|מוֹהֶלֶת}} ''mohelet'', feminine of ''mohel''), without restriction. In 1984, Deborah Cohen became the first certified Reform mohelet; she was certified by the Berit Mila program of Reform Judaism.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20131007073323/http://beritmila.org/ Berit Mila Program of Reform Judaism] Retrieved 2 February 2015</ref>

However important it may be in Judaism, circumcision is not a [[sacrament]], unlike a Christian [[baptism]].<ref name="Einhorn">{{cite web |url=http://jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/4391-circumcision |title=Circumcision |last1=Kohler |first1=Kaufmann |last2=Hirsch |first2=Emil G. |last3=Jacobs |first3=Joseph |last4=Friedenwald |first4=Aaron |last5=Broydé |first5=Isaac |publisher=[[Kopelman Foundation]] |website=[[Jewish Encyclopedia]] |date=1906 |access-date=4 January 2020 |quote=Unlike Christian [[baptism]], circumcision, however important it may be, is not a sacrament which gives the Jew his religious character as a Jew. An uncircumcised Jew is a full Jew by birth (Ḥul. 4b; 'Ab. Zarah 27a; Shulḥan 'Aruk, Yoreh De'ah, 264, 1). ... In 1847 [[David Einhorn (rabbi)|Einhorn]], as chief rabbi of Mecklenburg, became involved in a controversy with Franz Delitzsch of Rostock, who denounced him for acting contrary to Jewish law in naming and consecrating an uncircumcised child in the synagogue. Einhorn, in an "opinion" published a second time in his "Sinai", 1857, pp. 736 et seq., declared, with references to [[Rabbinic literature|ancient and modern rabbinical authorities]], that a child of Jewish parents was a Jew even if uncircumcised, and retained all the privileges, as well as all the obligations, of a Jew. This view he also expressed in his catechism, his prayer-book, and his sermons, emphasizing the spiritual character of the [[Abrahamic covenant]]—"the seal of Abraham placed upon the spirit of Israel as God's covenant people."}}</ref> Circumcision does not affect a Jew's Jewish status; a Jew by birth is a full Jew, even if not circumcised.<ref name="Einhorn"/><ref>Talmud Hul. 4b; Avodah Zarah 27a; [[Shulkhan Arukh]], Yoreh De'ah, 264, 1.</ref> Even so, the punishment for not being circumcised in rabbinic Judaism is believed to be ''kareth'', "being cut off"; meaning premature death at the hand of G-d (Mo'ed Katan 28a) and a severe spiritual punishment, the "soul's being cut off," and not being granted a share in the world to come (Hilchot Teshuvah 8:1,5).


===Christianity===
===Christianity===
{{Main|Circumcision controversy in early Christianity}}
{{See|Paul the Apostle and Jewish Christianity|Christian views on the Old Covenant}}
{{See|Paul the Apostle and Jewish Christianity|Christian views on the Old Covenant}}
[[File:20050921circoncisionB.jpg|thumb|"Scène de la circoncision de Jésus", a sculpture in the [[Cathedral of Chartres]].]]


==== Ancient church ====
While the [[circumcision of Jesus]] was recorded as having been performed in accordance with [[Torah]] requirements in {{Bibleverse||Luke|2:21|NRSV}}, circumcision was controversial during the period of [[early Christianity]] (before 325). The [[Council of Jerusalem|first Council of Jerusalem]] (c. 50) declared that circumcision was not necessary for new [[Gentile]] [[Conversion to Christianity|converts]]<ref name="Bokenkotter">{{cite book |last=Bokenkotter |first=Thomas |year=2004 |title=A Concise History of the Catholic Church |edition=Revised and expanded |publisher=Doubleday |pages=19–21 |isbn=0-385-50584-1 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DISK1e7JXA8C&pg=PA19}}</ref><ref name="Paul">{{Bibleverse|Acts|15:1-2|NRSV}}, {{Bibleverse-nb|Acts|15:6-10|NRSV}}; {{Bibleverse|Galatians|5:2-3|NRSV}}, {{Bibleverse-nb|Galatians|5:6-12|NRSV}}, {{Bibleverse-nb|Galatians|6:12-15|NRSV}}; {{Bibleverse|Philippians|3:2-3|NRSV}}; {{Bibleverse|1 Corinthians|7:17-21|NRSV}}; {{Bibleverse|Romans|2:17-29|NRSV}}, {{Bibleverse-nb|Romans|3:9-28|NRSV}}, {{Bibleverse-nb|Romans|5:1-11|NRSV}}; {{Bibleverse|Titus|1:10-16|NRSV}}.</ref> (a record of the council is found in {{bibleverse||Acts|15|NRSV}}); [[covenant theology]] largely views the Christian [[sacrament]] of [[baptism]] as fulfilling the Israelite practice of circumcision, both being signs and seals of the covenant of grace.<ref name="Clark2012">{{cite web |last1=Clark |first1=R. Scott |title=Baptism and Circumcision According to Colossians 2:11–12 |url=https://heidelblog.net/2012/09/baptism-and-circumcision-according-to-colossians-211-12/ |publisher=The Heidelblog |access-date=24 December 2020 |language=en |date=17 September 2012}}</ref><ref name="Crowther1815">{{cite book|last=Crowther|first=Jonathan |title=A Portraiture of Methodism|year=1815|language=en|page=224}}</ref>
{{Excerpt|Circumcision controversy in early Christianity|only=paragraphs}}


==== Modern Christianity ====
In [[Western Christianity]], the [[Catholic Church]] at the [[Council of Florence]] condemned the practice of circumcision for Christians, with Catholic Christian moralists preaching against the practice;<ref name="Marie2016"/> the [[Lutheranism|Lutheran]] churches have historically taught that Christians should not be circumcised.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Sicard |first1=Sigvard von |title=The Lutheran Church on the Coast of Tanzania 1887-1914: With Special Reference to the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Tanzania, Synod of Uzaramo-Uluguru |date=1970 |publisher=Gleerup |page=157 |language=en}}</ref> The [[Catholic Church]] currently maintains a neutral position on the practice of cultural circumcision, as the church has a policy of [[inculturation]].<ref name="Slosar">{{cite journal |last=Slosar |first=J. P. |author2=D. O'Brien |year=2003 |title=The Ethics of Neonatal Male Circumcision: A Catholic Perspective |journal=American Journal of Bioethics |volume=3 |issue=2 |pages=62–64 |doi=10.1162/152651603766436306 |pmid=12859824 |s2cid=38064474}}</ref>
[[File:20050921circoncisionB.jpg|thumb|"Scène de la circoncision de Jésus", a sculpture in the [[Cathedral of Chartres]].]]

Circumcision is considered a customary practice among Oriental Christian denominations such as the [[Coptic Christian|Coptic]], [[Ethiopian Orthodox|Ethiopian]], and [[Eritrean Orthodox]] churches, as well as some other African churches.<ref name=Christian>Customary in some Coptic and other churches:
* "The Coptic Christians in Egypt and the Ethiopian Orthodox Christians—two of the oldest surviving forms of Christianity—retain many of the features of early Christianity, including circumcision. Circumcision is not prescribed in other forms of Christianity... Some Christian churches in South Africa oppose the practice, viewing it as a pagan ritual, while others, including the Nomiya church in Kenya, require circumcision for membership and participants in focus group discussions in Zambia and Malawi mentioned similar beliefs that Christians should practice circumcision since [[Circumcision of Jesus|Jesus was circumcised]] and the Bible teaches the practice."
* "The decision that Christians need not practice circumcision is recorded in {{Bibleverse|Acts|15}}; there was never, however, a prohibition of circumcision, and it is still practiced by Coptic Christians." [http://www.bartleby.com/65/ci/circumci.html "circumcision"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070808051655/http://www.bartleby.com/65/ci/circumci.html |date=2007-08-08 }}, The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition, 2001-05.</ref> The [[Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church|Ethiopian Orthodox Church]] calls for circumcision, with near-universal prevalence among Orthodox men in Ethiopia.<ref name=WHO_2007_GTDPSA/> Some Christian churches in South Africa oppose circumcision, viewing it as a pagan ritual, while others, including the Nomiya church in Kenya,<ref name=Christian/><ref>{{cite journal | last1 = Mattson | first1 = CL | last2 = Bailey | first2 = RC | last3 = Muga | first3 = R | last4 = Poulussen | first4 = R | last5 = Onyango | first5 = T | year = 2005 | title = Acceptability of male circumcision and predictors of circumcision preference among men and women in Nyanza province Kenya | journal = AIDS Care | volume = 17 | issue = 2| pages = 182–194 | doi=10.1080/09540120512331325671| pmid = 15763713 | s2cid = 22917530 }}</ref> require circumcision for membership.


Circumcision is considered a customary practice among Oriental Christian denominations such as the [[Coptic Christian|Coptic]], [[Ethiopian Orthodox|Ethiopian]], and [[Eritrean Orthodox]] churches,.<ref name="Christian">Customary in some Coptic and other churches:
While circumcision is not observed by the majority of Christians in most parts of the [[Christendom|Christian world]] and mainstream [[Christian denominations]] don't require circumcision,<ref name="Pitts-Taylor 2008">{{cite book|title=Cultural Encyclopedia of the Body [2 volumes]|first=Victoria |last=Pitts-Taylor|year= 2008| isbn= 9781567206913| page =394|publisher=ABC-CLIO|quote=For most part, Christianity does not require circumcision of its followers. Yet, some Orthodox and African Christian groups do require circumcision. These circumcisions take place at any point between birth and puberty.}}</ref><ref name="Meyer2020">{{cite book |last1=Meyer |first1=Barbara U. |title=Jesus the Jew in Christian Memory: Theological and Philosophical Explorations |date=12 March 2020 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-1-108-49889-0 |page=117 |language=English|quote=In his cultural accounts of circumcision, Boyarin clearly presupposes an alienated attitude to circumcision in Western countries. They show that the Christian memory of Jesus' circumcision is significantly weaker than the growing awareness of his Jewishness. In contemporary political debates – as in Canada or in North-European countries and especially in Germany – circumcision is typically described as an “archaic” rite, with those practicing it presented as forced to do so by some "ancient" law or custom.}}</ref> it is still practiced among some Christian communities.<ref>{{cite book|title=The Female Circumcision Controversy: An Anthropological Perspective|first=Ellen|last= Gruenbaum|year= 2015| isbn= 9780812292510| page =61 |publisher=University of Pennsylvania Press|quote= Christian theology generally interprets male circumcision to be an Old Testament rule that is no longer an obligation ... though in many countries (especially the United States and Sub-Saharan Africa, but not so much in Europe) it is widely practiced among Christians}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|title=Essential Case Studies in Public Health: Putting Public Health Into Practice|first=Katherine|last= Hunting|year= 2012| isbn=9781449648756| page =23-24 |publisher=Jones & Bartlett Publishers|quote= Neonatal circumcision is the general practice among Jews, Christians, and many, but not all Muslims.}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|title=ABC of Sexual Health|first=Kevan|last= R. Wylie|year= 2015| isbn=9781118665695| page =101 |publisher=John Wiley & Sons|quote= Although it is mostly common and required in male newborns with Moslem or Jewish backgrounds, certain Christian-dominant countries such as the United States also practice it commonly.}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|title=Spirituality and Religion Within the Culture of Medicine: From Evidence to Practice|first=John|last=R. Peteet|year= 2017| isbn=9780190272432| page =97-101 |publisher=Oxford University Press|quote=male circumcision is still observed among Ethiopian and Coptic Christians, and circumcision rates are also high today in the Philippines and the US.}}</ref> [[File:Ethiopian Orthodox male circumcision ceremony.jpg|thumb|left|[[Ethiopian Orthodox]] children wearing traditional circumcision costumes]] Circumcision is also widely practiced among Christian communities in the [[Anglosphere|Anglosphere countries]], Oceania, South Korea, the Philippines, the Middle East, and Africa.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://apnews.com/article/19456997e17c4a12a24abb9d11c01dba|title=Circumcision protest brought to Florence|publisher=[[Associated Press]]|date=March 30, 2008|quote=However, the practice is still common among Christians in the United States, Oceania, South Korea, the Philippines, the Middle East and Africa. Some Middle Eastern Christians actually view the procedure as a rite of passage.}}</ref> Circumcision is rare for Christians in the countries of Europe, East Asia, parts of Africa, as well as in India and until recently in Southern Africa. Christians in the [[East Indies|East]] and [[West Indies]] (excluding the Philippines) do not practice it either. Circumcision is near universal among Christian countries of [[Oceania]],<ref name="Circumcision amongst the Dogon">{{cite web
*"The Coptic Christians in Egypt and the Ethiopian Orthodox Christians—two of the oldest surviving forms of Christianity—retain many of the features of early Christianity, including circumcision. Circumcision is not prescribed in other forms of Christianity... Some Christian churches in South Africa oppose the practice, viewing it as a pagan ritual, while others, including the Nomiya church in Kenya, require circumcision for membership and participants in focus group discussions in Zambia and Malawi mentioned similar beliefs that Christians should practice circumcision since [[Circumcision of Jesus|Jesus was circumcised]] and the Bible teaches the practice."
*"The decision that Christians need not practice circumcision is recorded in {{Bibleverse|Acts|15}}; there was never, however, a prohibition of circumcision, and it is still practiced by Coptic Christians." [http://www.bartleby.com/65/ci/circumci.html "circumcision"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070808051655/http://www.bartleby.com/65/ci/circumci.html |date=2007-08-08 }}, The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition, 2001-05.</ref> The practice is near-universal in the [[Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church|Ethiopian Orthodox Church]].<ref name="WHO_2007_GTDPSA">{{cite web |year=2007 |title=Male circumcision: Global trends and determinants of prevalence, safety and acceptability |url=http://www.unaids.org/sites/default/files/media_asset/jc1360_male_circumcision_en_0.pdf |publisher=World Health Organization}}</ref> Some Christian churches in South Africa oppose circumcision, viewing it as a pagan ritual, while others, including the Nomiya church in Kenya,<ref name="Christian" /><ref>{{cite journal | last1 = Mattson | first1 = CL | last2 = Bailey | first2 = RC | last3 = Muga | first3 = R | last4 = Poulussen | first4 = R | last5 = Onyango | first5 = T | year = 2005 | title = Acceptability of male circumcision and predictors of circumcision preference among men and women in Nyanza province Kenya | journal = AIDS Care | volume = 17 | issue = 2| pages = 182–194 | doi=10.1080/09540120512331325671| pmid = 15763713 | s2cid = 22917530 }}</ref> require circumcision. It is common in [[Cameroon]], [[Democratic Republic of the Congo]], [[Eritrea]], [[Ghana]], [[Liberia]], and [[Nigeria]].<ref name="WHO_2007_GTDPSA" />[[File:Ethiopian Orthodox male circumcision ceremony.jpg|thumb|left|[[Ethiopian Orthodox]] children wearing traditional circumcision costumes]] Circumcision is widely practiced in the [[Anglosphere]], Oceania,<ref name="Circumcision amongst the Dogon">{{cite web
| url = http://www.necep.net/articles.php?id_soc=12&id_article=84
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}}</ref> <!-- does Oceania include Australia? --> and in North, East and West Africa. And it is common among Christians in countries such as [[Cameroon]],<ref name=WHO_2007_GTDPSA>{{cite web |title=Male circumcision: Global trends and determinants of prevalence, safety and acceptability |year=2007 |publisher=World Health Organization |url=http://www.unaids.org/sites/default/files/media_asset/jc1360_male_circumcision_en_0.pdf }}</ref> [[Democratic Republic of the Congo]],<ref name=WHO_2007_GTDPSA/> [[Ethiopia]],<ref name=WHO_2007_GTDPSA/> [[Eritrea]],<ref name=WHO_2007_GTDPSA/> [[Ghana]],<ref name=WHO_2007_GTDPSA/> [[Liberia]],<ref name=WHO_2007_GTDPSA/> [[Nigeria]]<ref name=WHO_2007_GTDPSA/> and [[Kenya]],<ref name=WHO_2007_GTDPSA/> and is also widely practiced among Christians from [[Philippines]], [[South Korea]], Egypt,<ref name=riggs_2006>{{cite book |author=Thomas Riggs |title=Worldmark Encyclopedia of Religious Practices: Religions and denominations |chapter=Christianity: Coptic Christianity |year=2006 |publisher=Thomson Gale |isbn=978-0-7876-6612-5 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uTMOAQAAMAAJ}}</ref> Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Palestine, Israel, and North Africa.
}}</ref> South Korea, the Philippines, and the Middle East.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://apnews.com/article/19456997e17c4a12a24abb9d11c01dba|title=Circumcision protest brought to Florence|publisher=[[Associated Press]]|date=March 30, 2008|quote=However, the practice is still common among Christians in the United States, Oceania, South Korea, the Philippines, the Middle East and Africa. Some Middle Eastern Christians actually view the procedure as a rite of passage.}}</ref> Circumcision is rare in Europe, East Asia, as well as in India. Christians in the [[East Indies|East]] and [[West Indies]] (excluding the Philippines) do not practice it. <!-- does Oceania include Australia? --> and is also widely practiced among Christians from [[Philippines]], [[South Korea]],<ref name=riggs_2006>{{cite book |author=Thomas Riggs |title=Worldmark Encyclopedia of Religious Practices: Religions and denominations |chapter=Christianity: Coptic Christianity |year=2006 |publisher=Thomson Gale |isbn=978-0-7876-6612-5 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uTMOAQAAMAAJ}}</ref> Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Palestine, Israel, and North Africa.


The [[Lutheran Church]] and the Greek Orthodox Church celebrate the [[Circumcision of Christ]] on 1 January,<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.goarch.org/chapel/calendar?Y=2007&M=1|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080213044716/http://www.goarch.org/en/chapel/calendar.asp?Y=2007&M=1|url-status=dead|title=April 2020|archive-date=February 13, 2008|website=www.goarch.org}}</ref> while Orthodox churches following the [[Julian calendar]] celebrate it on 14 January. All Orthodox churches consider it a "Great Feast".<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.holytrinityorthodox.com/calendar/los/January/01-01.htm|title=The Circumcision (Obrezanie) of the Lord|website=www.holytrinityorthodox.com}}</ref> In much of [[Western Christianity]], the [[Feast of the Circumcision of Christ]] has been replaced by other commemorations,<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.bcponline.org/|title=The Online Book of Common Prayer|website=www.bcponline.org}}</ref> such as the [[Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God|Solemnity of Mary]] in the [[Roman Catholic Church]] or the [[Feast of the Holy Name of Jesus]] in the [[Lutheran Church]]es.<ref>{{cite web |title=Year A 2019/2020 |url=https://download.elca.org/ELCA%20Resource%20Repository/YearA_Christmas19-20.pdf?_ga=2.125316554.1582681901.1608768517-1527553699.1608768517 |publisher=[[Evangelical Lutheran Church in America]] |access-date=24 December 2020 |page=5 |language=en}}</ref> Exceptions, such as among most [[Traditionalist Catholicism|Traditionalist Catholics]], who reject [[Novus Ordo]] and other changes following [[Second Vatican Council|Vatican II]] to varying degrees, maintained the feast as a [[Holy day of obligation]].{{Citation needed|reason=This claim needs a reliable source.|date=October 2020}}
According to the [[Acts of the Apostles]], chapter 15, the [[Jewish Christian]] leaders of the early Church at the [[Council of Jerusalem]] rejected circumcision as a requirement for Gentile converts,<ref name="Bokenkotter"/><ref name="Paul"/> possibly the first act of [[Split of early Christianity and Judaism|differentiation of Early Christianity from its Jewish roots]]<ref>[http://jewishencyclopedia.com/view.jsp?artid=222&letter=B&search=Baptism Jewish Encyclopedia: Baptism]: "According to rabbinical teachings, which dominated even during the existence of the Temple (Pes. viii. 8), Baptism, next to circumcision and sacrifice, was an absolutely necessary condition to be fulfilled by a proselyte to Judaism (Yeb. 46b, 47b; Ker. 9a; 'Ab. Zarah 57a; Shab. 135a; Yer. Kid. iii. 14, 64d). Circumcision, however, was much more important, and, like baptism, was called a 'seal' (Schlatter, "Die Kirche Jerusalems," 1898, p. 70). But as circumcision was discarded by Christianity, and the sacrifices had ceased, Baptism remained the sole condition for initiation into religious life. The next ceremony, adopted shortly after the others, was the imposition of hands, which, it is known, was the usage of the Jews at the ordination of a rabbi. Anointing with oil, which at first also accompanied the act of Baptism, and was analogous to the anointment of priests among the Jews, was not a necessary condition."</ref> (''See also'': [[List of events in early Christianity]]). The rite of circumcision was especially execrable in [[Classical civilization]]<ref name="Bolnick_2012_ch26">{{cite book |author1-last=Adams |author1-first=Gregory |title=Surgical Guide to Circumcision |author2-last=Adams |author2-first=Kristina |publisher=[[Springer-Verlag]] |year=2012 |isbn=978-1-4471-2857-1 |editor1-last=Bolnick |editor1-first=David A. |location=[[London]] |pages=291–298 |chapter=Circumcision in the Early Christian Church: The Controversy That Shaped a Continent |doi=10.1007/978-1-4471-2858-8_26 |editor2-last=Koyle |editor2-first=Martin |editor3-last=Yosha |editor3-first=Assaf |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=w7zyKB9mdMwC&pg=PA290}}</ref><ref name="Hodges2001"/><ref name="Neusner1993"/><ref name="Rubin 1980"/><ref name="Fredriksen 2018"/><ref name="JE"/><ref name="Schultheiss 1998"/> because it was the custom to spend an hour a day or so exercising [[Sexuality in ancient Rome#Male nudity|nude]] in the ''[[Gymnasium (ancient Greece)|gymnasium]]'' and in [[Thermae|Roman baths]], therefore Jewish men did not want to be seen in public deprived of their foreskins.<ref name="Hodges2001"/><ref name="Rubin 1980"/><ref name="Fredriksen 2018"/><ref name="Schultheiss 1998"/> [[Hellenistic culture|Hellenistic]] and [[Roman culture]] both found circumcision to be cruel and repulsive.<ref name=Bolnick_2012_ch26/><ref name="Hodges2001"/><ref name="Rubin 1980"/><ref name="Fredriksen 2018"/>

[[Paul the Apostle]], who called himself "Apostle to the Gentiles",<ref>{{cite book |editor1-last=Black |editor1-first=C. Clifton |editor2-last=Smith |editor2-first=D. Moody |editor3-last=Spivey |editor3-first=Robert A. |year=2019 |origyear=1969 |title=Anatomy of the New Testament |chapter=Paul: Apostle to the Gentiles |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3MSHDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA187 |location=[[Minneapolis]] |publisher=[[Fortress Press]] |edition=8th |pages=187–226 |doi=10.2307/j.ctvcb5b9q.17 |isbn=978-1-5064-5711-6 |s2cid=242771713 |oclc=1082543536}}</ref><ref>{{Bibleverse|Galatians|1:15-16|NRSV}}, {{Bibleverse-nb|Galatians|2:7-9|NRSV}}; {{Bibleverse|Romans|11:13|NRSV}}; {{Bibleverse|1 Timothy|2:7|NRSV}}; {{Bibleverse|2 Timothy|1:11|NRSV}}.</ref> attacked the practice but not consistently; for example, in one case he personally circumcised [[Saint Timothy|Timothy]] "because of the Jews" that were in town (Timothy had a Jewish Christian mother but a Greek father {{Bibleverse||Acts|16:1–3}}).<ref>[http://www.ccel.org/ccel/mcgarvey/acts.ch16.html McGarvey on Acts 16]: "Yet we see him in the case before us, circumcising Timothy with his own hand, and this 'on account of certain Jews who were in those quarters.'"</ref> The 19th-century American Catholic priest and biblical scholar [[Florentine Bechtel]] {{Post-nominals|list=[[Society of Jesus|SJ]]}} noted in the ''[[Catholic Encyclopedia]]'' entry on Judaizers (1910): {{Blockquote|text=Paul, on the other hand, not only did not object to the observance of the Mosaic Law, as long as it did not interfere with the [[Christian liberty|liberty of the Gentiles]], but he conformed to its prescriptions when occasion required ({{bibleverse|1|Corinthians|9:20}}). Thus he shortly after circumcised Timothy ({{bibleverse||Acts|16:1-16:3|KJV}}), and he was in the very act of observing the Mosaic ritual when he was arrested at Jerusalem ({{bibleverse||Acts|21:26}}).<ref>Bechtel, Florentine. {{CathEncy|wstitle=Judaizers}}</ref>}} He also appeared to praise its value in {{Bibleverse||Romans|3:1–2}}, hence the topic of [[Paul the Apostle and Judaism]] is still debated.
[[File:Saint Paul, Rembrandt van Rijn (and Workshop?), c. 1657.jpg|thumb|right|[[Rembrandt]]: ''The Apostle Paul'', circa 1657 ([[National Gallery of Art]], [[Washington, D.C.]])]]
Paul argued that circumcision no longer meant the physical, but a spiritual practice<ref name=Bolnick_2012_ch26/><ref name="Paul"/><ref name="Dunn 2007">{{cite book |editor-last1=Dunn |editor-first1=James D. G. |editor1-link=James Dunn (theologian) |date=2007 |chapter='Neither circumcision nor uncircumcision, but...' |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hD8r9kotxQgC&pg=PA314 |title=The New Perspective on Paul: Collected Essays |series=Wissenschaftliche Untersuchungen zum Neuen Testament |volume=185 |location=[[Tübingen]] |publisher=[[Mohr Siebeck]] |pages=314–330 |isbn=978-3-16-149518-2}}</ref><ref name="Thiessen 2016">{{cite book |last1=Thiessen |first1=Matthew |date=2016 |chapter=Gentile Sons and Seed of Abraham |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=e3dYCwAAQBAJ&pg=PA105 |title=Paul and the Gentile Problem |location=[[New York City|New York]] |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |pages=105–115 |isbn=978-0-19-027175-6}}</ref><ref name="Bisschops 2017">{{cite book |last1=Bisschops |first1=Ralph |date=January 2017 |chapter=Metaphor in Religious Transformation: 'Circumcision of the Heart' in Paul of Tarsus |chapter-url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/312589528 |chapter-format=PDF |editor1-last=Chilton |editor1-first=Paul |editor2-last=Kopytowska |editor2-first=Monika |title=Language, Religion and the Human Mind |location=[[New York City|New York]] |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |pages=1–30 |doi=10.1093/oso/9780190636647.003.0012 |isbn=978-0-19-063664-7 |access-date=13 February 2020}}</ref><ref name="Fredriksen2">Fredriksen 2018, pp. 157-160.</ref> ({{Bibleverse||Rom|2:25–29}}). And in that sense, he wrote {{Bibleverse|1|Cor|7:18}}: "Is any man called being circumcised? let him not become uncircumcised"—probably a reference to the practice of [[epispasm]].<ref name="Rubin 1980"/><ref name="Schultheiss 1998"/><ref name="Dunn 2007"/><ref name="Bisschops 2017"/><ref>[http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/03777a.htm Catholic Encyclopedia: Circumcision]: "To this epispastic operation performed on the athletes to conceal the marks of circumcision St. Paul alludes, me epispastho ({{Bibleverse|1|Cor|7:18}})."</ref> Paul was already circumcised ("on the eighth day", {{Bibleverse||Phil|3:4–5}}) when he was [[Conversion of Paul|"called"]]. He added: "Is any called in uncircumcision? let him not be circumcised", and went on to argue that circumcision did not matter:<ref name="Paul"/><ref name="Dunn 2007"/><ref name="Thiessen 2016"/><ref name="Bisschops 2017"/><ref name="Fredriksen2"/> "Circumcision is nothing and uncircumcision is nothing. Keeping God's Commands is what counts" ({{Bibleverse|1|Cor|7:19}}).

Later he more explicitly denounced the practice,<ref name="Dunn 1993">{{cite journal |last=Dunn |first=James D. G. |date=Autumn 1993 |title=Echoes of Intra-Jewish Polemic in Paul's Letter to the Galatians |editor-last=Reinhartz |editor-first=Adele |editor-link=Adele Reinhartz |journal=[[Journal of Biblical Literature]] |publisher=[[Society of Biblical Literature]] |volume=112 |issue=3 |pages=459–477 |doi=10.2307/3267745 |issn=0021-9231 |jstor=3267745}}</ref><ref name="Thiessen 2014">{{cite journal |last=Thiessen |first=Matthew |editor1-last=Breytenbach |editor1-first=Cilliers |editor2-last=Thom |editor2-first=Johan |date=September 2014 |title=Paul's Argument against Gentile Circumcision in Romans 2:17-29 |journal=[[Novum Testamentum]] |location=[[Leiden]] |publisher=[[Brill Publishers]] |volume=56 |issue=4 |pages=373–391 |doi=10.1163/15685365-12341488 |eissn=1568-5365 |issn=0048-1009 |jstor=24735868}}</ref> rejecting and condemning [[Judaizers|those who promoted circumcision to Gentile Christians]].<ref name="Paul"/><ref name="Dunn 2007"/><ref name="Thiessen 2016"/><ref name="Bisschops 2017"/><ref name="Fredriksen2"/> He accused those Judaizers who [[Circumcision advocacy|advocated circumcision]] of turning from the Spirit to the flesh.<ref name="Paul"/><ref name="Dunn 2007"/><ref name="Thiessen 2016"/><ref name="Bisschops 2017"/><ref name="Fredriksen2"/> In the [[Epistle to the Galatians]], Paul warned Gentile Christians that the advocates of circumcision were "false brothers" ({{Bibleverse||Gal|2:4}}),<ref name="Dunn 1993"/> and wrote: "Are you so foolish, that, whereas you began in the Spirit, you would now be made perfect by the flesh?" ({{Bibleverse||Gal|3:3}}); he also wrote: "Listen! I, Paul, am telling you that if you let yourselves be circumcised, Christ will be of no benefit to you" ({{Bibleverse||Gal|5:2}}). He accused circumcision advocates of wanting to make a good showing in the flesh ({{Bibleverse||Gal|6:12-13}}), and of glorying or boasting of the flesh ({{Bibleverse||Gal|6:12-14}}).<ref name="Paul"/><ref name="Dunn 2007"/><ref name="Fredriksen2"/> Paul in his [[Pauline epistles|letters]] fiercely criticized the Judaizers that demanded circumcision for Gentile converts, and opposed them;<ref name="Paul"/><ref name="Dunn 2007"/><ref name="Thiessen 2016"/><ref name="Bisschops 2017"/><ref name="Fredriksen2"/> he stressed instead that [[Faith in Christianity|faith]] in [[Christ]] constituted a [[New Covenant]] with God,<ref name="Paul"/><ref name="Dunn 2007"/><ref name="Thiessen 2016"/><ref name="Bisschops 2017"/> a [[Covenant (biblical)|Covenant]] which essentially provides the [[Justification (theology)#Paul|justification]] and [[Salvation in Christianity|salvation]] for Gentiles from the harsh edicts of the [[Mosaic Law]], a New Covenant that did not require circumcision<ref name=Bolnick_2012_ch26/><ref name="Paul"/><ref name="Dunn 2007"/><ref name="Thiessen 2016"/><ref name="Bisschops 2017"/><ref name="Fredriksen2"/> (see also [[Justification by faith]], [[Antinomianism#Supporting Pauline passages|Pauline passages supporting antinomianism]], [[Abrogation of Old Covenant laws]]).

[[Simon Peter]], who for Catholic Christians is the first [[Pope]], condemned circumcision for converts according to {{Bibleverse||Acts|15}}. Paul, the Apostle to the Gentiles, charged that the advocates of circumcision were "false brothers" ({{Bibleverse||Gal|2:4}}). Some Biblical scholars think that the [[Epistle to Titus]], generally attributed to Paul, may state that circumcision should be discouraged among Christians ({{Bibleverse||Titus|1:10–16}}), although others believe this is merely a reference to Jews. Circumcision was so closely associated with Jewish men that Jewish Christians were referred to as "those of the circumcision" ({{Bibleverse||Titus|1:10}}){{citation needed|date=July 2019}} or conversely Christians who were circumcised were referred to as Jewish Christians or Judaizers. These terms (circumcised/uncircumcised) are generally interpreted to mean Jews and Greeks, who were predominate, however it is an oversimplification as 1st century [[Iudaea Province]] also had some Jews who no longer circumcised (see [[Hellenistic Judaism]]), and some Greeks (see [[proselytes]] or Judaizers) and others such as Egyptians, Ethiopians, and Arabs who did.

The [[Lutheran Church]] and the Greek Orthodox Church celebrate the [[Circumcision of Christ]] on 1 January,<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.goarch.org/chapel/calendar?Y=2007&M=1|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080213044716/http://www.goarch.org/en/chapel/calendar.asp?Y=2007&M=1|url-status=dead|title=April 2020|archive-date=February 13, 2008|website=www.goarch.org}}</ref> while Orthodox churches following the [[Julian calendar]] celebrate it on 14 January. All Orthodox churches consider it a "Great Feast".<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.holytrinityorthodox.com/calendar/los/January/01-01.htm|title=The Circumcision (Obrezanie) of the Lord|website=www.holytrinityorthodox.com}}</ref> In much of [[Western Christianity]], the [[Feast of the Circumcision of Christ]] has been replaced by other commemorations,<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.bcponline.org/|title=The Online Book of Common Prayer|website=www.bcponline.org}}</ref> such as the [[Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God|Solemnity of Mary]] in the [[Roman Catholic Church]] or the [[Feast of the Holy Name of Jesus]] in the [[Lutheran Church]]es.<ref>{{cite web |title=Year A 2019/2020 |url=https://download.elca.org/ELCA%20Resource%20Repository/YearA_Christmas19-20.pdf?_ga=2.125316554.1582681901.1608768517-1527553699.1608768517 |publisher=[[Evangelical Lutheran Church in America]] |access-date=24 December 2020 |page=5 |language=en}}</ref> There are, however, notable exceptions, such as among most [[Traditionalist Catholicism|Traditionalist Catholics]], who reject [[Novus Ordo]] and other changes following [[Second Vatican Council|Vatican II]] to varying degrees, thereby maintaining the feast as a [[Holy day of obligation]].{{Citation needed|reason=This claim needs a reliable source.|date=October 2020}}


==== Roman Catholic Church ====
==== Roman Catholic Church ====
Historically, the [[Roman Catholic Church]] denounced religious circumcision for its members in the ''Cantate Domino'', written during the 11th [[Council of Florence]] in 1442, warning of loss of salvation for converts who observe it.<ref name="Marie2016"/><ref name = "CoF">{{cite book| last = Eugenius IV| first = Pope| author-link = Pope Eugene IV| editor = Norman P. Tanner| title = Decrees of the ecumenical councils| orig-year = 1442| access-date = 2007-04-25| series = 2 volumes| year = 1990| publisher = [[Georgetown University Press]]| location = [[Washington, D.C.]]| isbn = 978-0-87840-490-2| language = el, la| chapter = Ecumenical Council of Florence (1438–1445): Session 11—4 February 1442; Bull of union with the Copts| chapter-url = http://www.ewtn.com/library/COUNCILS/FLORENCE.HTM#5| quote = [The Holy Roman Church] firmly believes, professes and teaches that the legal prescriptions of the Old Testament or the Mosaic law, which are divided into ceremonies, holy sacrifices and sacraments, because they were instituted to signify something in the future, although they were adequate for the divine cult of that age, once our Lord Jesus Christ who was signified by them had come, came to an end and the sacraments of the new Testament had their beginning. Whoever, after the Passion, places his hope in the legal prescriptions and submits himself to them as necessary for salvation and as if faith in Christ without them could not save, sins mortally. It does not deny that from Christ's passion until the promulgation of the Gospel they could have been retained, provided they were in no way believed to be necessary for salvation. But it asserts that after the promulgation of the gospel they cannot be observed without loss of eternal salvation. Therefore it denounces all who after that time observe circumcision, the [Jewish] sabbath and other legal prescriptions as strangers to the faith of Christ and unable to share in eternal salvation, unless they recoil at some time from these errors. Therefore it strictly orders all who glory in the name of Christian, not to practise circumcision either before or after baptism, since whether or not they place their hope in it, it cannot possibly be observed without loss of eternal salvation.| lccn = 90003209| archive-date = 2009-04-25| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20090425150516/http://www.ewtn.com/library/COUNCILS/FLORENCE.HTM#5| url-status = dead}}</ref> This decision was based on the belief that [[baptism]] had [[Supersessionism|superseded]] circumcision ({{Bibleverse||Col|2:11-12}}),<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.newadvent.org/cathen/03777a.htm|title=CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA: Circumcision|website=www.newadvent.org}}</ref> and may also have been a response to [[Coptic Christians]], who continued to practice circumcision.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Jones |first1=David Albert |title=Infant Male Circumcision |journal=The Linacre Quarterly |volume=85 |issue=1 |pages=49–62 |publisher=National Institutes of Health Search database Search term Clear input |pmc=6027118 |year=2018 |pmid=29970937 |doi=10.1177/0024363918761714 }}</ref>
The [[Roman Catholic Church]] denounced religious circumcision for its members in the ''Cantate Domino'', written during the 11th [[Council of Florence]] in 1442, warning of loss of salvation for converts who observe it.<ref name="Marie2016"/><ref name = "CoF">{{cite book| last = Eugenius IV| first = Pope| author-link = Pope Eugene IV| editor = Norman P. Tanner| title = Decrees of the ecumenical councils| orig-year = 1442| access-date = 2007-04-25| series = 2 volumes| year = 1990| publisher = [[Georgetown University Press]]| location = [[Washington, D.C.]]| isbn = 978-0-87840-490-2| language = el, la| chapter = Ecumenical Council of Florence (1438–1445): Session 11—4 February 1442; Bull of union with the Copts| chapter-url = http://www.ewtn.com/library/COUNCILS/FLORENCE.HTM#5| quote = [The Holy Roman Church] firmly believes, professes and teaches that the legal prescriptions of the Old Testament or the Mosaic law, which are divided into ceremonies, holy sacrifices and sacraments, because they were instituted to signify something in the future, although they were adequate for the divine cult of that age, once our Lord Jesus Christ who was signified by them had come, came to an end and the sacraments of the new Testament had their beginning. Whoever, after the Passion, places his hope in the legal prescriptions and submits himself to them as necessary for salvation and as if faith in Christ without them could not save, sins mortally. It does not deny that from Christ's passion until the promulgation of the Gospel they could have been retained, provided they were in no way believed to be necessary for salvation. But it asserts that after the promulgation of the gospel they cannot be observed without loss of eternal salvation. Therefore it denounces all who after that time observe circumcision, the [Jewish] sabbath and other legal prescriptions as strangers to the faith of Christ and unable to share in eternal salvation, unless they recoil at some time from these errors. Therefore it strictly orders all who glory in the name of Christian, not to practise circumcision either before or after baptism, since whether or not they place their hope in it, it cannot possibly be observed without loss of eternal salvation.| lccn = 90003209| archive-date = 2009-04-25| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20090425150516/http://www.ewtn.com/library/COUNCILS/FLORENCE.HTM#5| url-status = dead}}</ref> This decision was based on the belief that [[baptism]] had [[Supersessionism|superseded]] circumcision ({{Bibleverse||Col|2:11-12}}),<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.newadvent.org/cathen/03777a.htm|title=CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA: Circumcision|website=www.newadvent.org}}</ref> and may also have been a response to [[Coptic Christians]], who continued to practice circumcision.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Jones |first1=David Albert |title=Infant Male Circumcision |journal=The Linacre Quarterly |volume=85 |issue=1 |pages=49–62 |publisher=National Institutes of Health Search database Search term Clear input |pmc=6027118 |year=2018 |pmid=29970937 |doi=10.1177/0024363918761714 }}</ref>


[[Origen]] stated in his work ''Contra Celsum'' that circumcision "was discontinued by Jesus, who desired that His disciples should not practise it."<ref>{{cite book|author=Origen|title=Contra Celsum (Against Celus)|chapter=XXII}}</ref>
[[Origen]] stated in his work ''Contra Celsum'' that circumcision "was discontinued by Jesus, who desired that His disciples should not practise it."<ref>{{cite book|author=Origen|title=Contra Celsum (Against Celus)|chapter=XXII}}</ref>


[[Pope Pius XII]] taught that circumcision is only "[morally] permissible if, in accordance with therapeutic principles, it prevents a disease that cannot be countered in any other way."<ref>Pope Pius XII, Discorsi e messaggi radiodiffusi, t. XIV, Rome 1952, s. 328-329</ref>
[[Pope Pius XII]] taught that circumcision is only §"[morally] permissible if, in accordance with therapeutic principles, it prevents a disease that cannot be countered in any other way."<ref>Pope Pius XII, Discorsi e messaggi radiodiffusi, t. XIV, Rome 1952, s. 328-329</ref>


On another instance, he stated:
On another occasion, he stated:
{{quote|Furthermore, Christian doctrine establishes, and the light of human reason makes it most clear, that private individuals have no other power over the members of their own bodies than that which pertains to their natural ends: and they are not free to destroy or mutilate their members, or in any other way render themselves unfit for their natural functions, except when no other provision can be made for the good of the whole body.<ref>Pope Pius XII, "The Intangibility of the Human Person," September 14, 1952, in The Human Body: Papal Teachings, pp. 199-207.</ref>}}
{{quote|Furthermore, Christian doctrine establishes, and the light of human reason makes it most clear, that private individuals have no other power over the members of their own bodies than that which pertains to their natural ends: and they are not free to destroy or mutilate their members, or in any other way render themselves unfit for their natural functions, except when no other provision can be made for the good of the whole body.<ref>Pope Pius XII, "The Intangibility of the Human Person," September 14, 1952, in The Human Body: Papal Teachings, pp. 199-207.</ref>}}


The Church has been viewed as maintaining a neutral position on the practice of cultural circumcision, due to its policy of [[inculturation]],<ref name=Slosar/><ref>{{Cite web | url=http://www.catholicdoors.com/faq/qu340.htm | title=Frequently Asked Questions: The Catholic Church and Circumcision}}</ref> though Catholic scholars, including John J. Dietzen, David Lang, and Edwin F. Healy, argue that the church condemns it as "elective male infant circumcision not only violates the proper application of the time-honored principle of totality, but even fits the ethical definition of mutilation, which is gravely sinful."<ref name="Marie2016">{{cite web |last1=Marie |first1=André |title=Circumcision: An Acceptable Practice? |url=https://catholicism.org/ad-rem-no-283.html |publisher=[[The Catholic Thing]] |access-date=23 December 2020 |language=en |date=26 December 2016}}</ref>
The Church has been viewed as maintaining a neutral position on the practice of cultural circumcision, due to its policy of [[inculturation]],<ref name="Slosar">{{cite journal |last=Slosar |first=J. P. |author2=D. O'Brien |year=2003 |title=The Ethics of Neonatal Male Circumcision: A Catholic Perspective |journal=American Journal of Bioethics |volume=3 |issue=2 |pages=62–64 |doi=10.1162/152651603766436306 |pmid=12859824 |s2cid=38064474}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web | url=http://www.catholicdoors.com/faq/qu340.htm | title=Frequently Asked Questions: The Catholic Church and Circumcision}}</ref> although some Catholic scholars argue that the church condemns it as "elective male infant circumcision not only violates the proper application of the time-honored principle of totality, but even fits the ethical definition of mutilation, which is gravely sinful."<ref name="Marie2016">{{cite web |last1=Marie |first1=André |title=Circumcision: An Acceptable Practice? |url=https://catholicism.org/ad-rem-no-283.html |publisher=[[The Catholic Thing]] |access-date=23 December 2020 |language=en |date=26 December 2016}}</ref>


Catholic moralists such as Fr. John J. Dietzen, a priest and columnist, have argued that [https://web.archive.org/web/20070629225324/http://www.christusrex.org/www1/CDHN/fifth.html#PERSONS paragraph number 2297 from the Catholic Catechism (Respect for bodily integrity)] makes the practice of elective and neonatal circumcision immoral.<ref>Father John J. Dietzen. The Morality of Circumcision. ''The Tablet'', Brooklyn, N.Y., 30 October 2004, p. 33.</ref> John Paul Slosar and Daniel O'Brien, however, argue that the therapeutic benefits of neonatal circumcision are inconclusive, but that recent findings that circumcision may prevent disease puts the practice outside the realm of paragraph 2297.<ref name="Slosar"/> They also argue that statements regarding mutilation and amputation in the "Respect for bodily integrity" paragraph are made within the context of kidnapping, hostage taking or torture, and that if circumcision is defined as an amputation, any removal of tissue or follicle, regardless of its effect on functional integrity, could be considered a violation of [[Moral absolutism|moral law]].<ref name=Slosar/> The proportionality of harm versus benefit of medical procedures, as defined by Directives 29 and 33 of the Ethical and Religious Directives for Catholic Health Care Services ([[National Conference of Catholic Bishops]]),<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.usccb.org/bishops/directives.shtml |title=Ethical and Religious Directives for Catholic Health Care Services |edition=Fourth |access-date=2008-04-11 |year=2001 |publisher=U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops |quote= '''Directive 29''' All persons served by Catholic health care have the right and duty to protect and preserve their bodily and functional integrity. The functional integrity of the person may be sacrificed to maintain the health or life of the person when no other morally permissible means is available. '''Directive 33''' The well-being of the whole person must be taken into account in deciding about any therapeutic intervention or use of technology. Therapeutic procedures that are likely to cause harm or undesirable side-effects can be justified only by a proportionate benefit to the patient.}}</ref> have also been interpreted to support<ref name=Slosar/> and reject<ref name=Fadel>{{cite journal |last=Fadel |first=P. |year=2003 |title=Respect for bodily integrity: a Catholic perspective on circumcision in Catholic hospitals |journal=American Journal of Bioethics |volume=3 |issue=2 |pages=23–25 |pmid=12859800 |doi=10.1162/152651603766436379 |s2cid=41776096 }}</ref> the practice of circumcision. These arguments represent the conscience of the individual writers, and not the official stance of the Church. The most recent statement from the Church was that of Pope Emeritus [[Benedict XVI]]:
Fr. John J. Dietzen, a priest and columnist, argued that [https://web.archive.org/web/20070629225324/http://www.christusrex.org/www1/CDHN/fifth.html#PERSONS paragraph number 2297 from the Catholic Catechism (Respect for bodily integrity)] makes the practice of elective and neonatal circumcision immoral.<ref>Father John J. Dietzen. The Morality of Circumcision. ''The Tablet'', Brooklyn, N.Y., 30 October 2004, p. 33.</ref> John Paul Slosar and Daniel O'Brien, counter that the therapeutic benefits of neonatal circumcision are inconclusive, but that recent findings that circumcision may prevent disease puts the practice outside the realm of paragraph 2297.<ref name="Slosar" /> They claim that the "Respect for bodily integrity" paragraph apply in the context of kidnapping, hostage-taking or torture, and that if circumcision is included, any removal of tissue or follicle could be considered a violation of [[Moral absolutism|moral law]].<ref name="Slosar" /> The proportionality of harm versus benefit of medical procedures, as defined by Directives 29 and 33 of the Ethical and Religious Directives for Catholic Health Care Services ([[National Conference of Catholic Bishops]]),<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.usccb.org/bishops/directives.shtml |title=Ethical and Religious Directives for Catholic Health Care Services |edition=Fourth |access-date=2008-04-11 |year=2001 |publisher=U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops |quote= '''Directive 29''' All persons served by Catholic health care have the right and duty to protect and preserve their bodily and functional integrity. The functional integrity of the person may be sacrificed to maintain the health or life of the person when no other morally permissible means is available. '''Directive 33''' The well-being of the whole person must be taken into account in deciding about any therapeutic intervention or use of technology. Therapeutic procedures that are likely to cause harm or undesirable side-effects can be justified only by a proportionate benefit to the patient.}}</ref> have been interpreted to support<ref name="Slosar" /> and reject<ref name="Fadel">{{cite journal |last=Fadel |first=P. |year=2003 |title=Respect for bodily integrity: a Catholic perspective on circumcision in Catholic hospitals |journal=American Journal of Bioethics |volume=3 |issue=2 |pages=23–25 |pmid=12859800 |doi=10.1162/152651603766436379 |s2cid=41776096 }}</ref> circumcision. These arguments represent the conscience of the individual writers, and not official doctrine. The most recent statement from the Church was that of Pope Emeritus [[Benedict XVI]]:
<blockquote>
<blockquote>
The Church of Antioch sent Barnabas on a mission with Paul, which became known as the Apostle's first missionary journey . . . Together with Paul, he then went to the so-called Council of Jerusalem where after a profound examination of the question, the Apostles with the Elders decided to discontinue the practice of circumcision so that it was no longer a feature of the Christian identity (cf. Acts 15: 1-35). It was only in this way that, in the end, they officially made possible the Church of the Gentiles, a Church without circumcision; we are children of Abraham simply through faith in Christ.<ref>Benedict XVI, [https://www.vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/audiences/2007/documents/hf_ben-xvi_aud_20070131_en.html General Audience], Wednesday, 31, January 2007.</ref>
The Church of Antioch sent Barnabas on a mission with Paul, which became known as the Apostle's first missionary journey . . . Together with Paul, he then went to the so-called Council of Jerusalem where after a profound examination of the question, the Apostles with the Elders decided to discontinue the practice of circumcision so that it was no longer a feature of the Christian identity (cf. Acts 15: 1-35). It was only in this way that, in the end, they officially made possible the Church of the Gentiles, a Church without circumcision; we are children of Abraham simply through faith in Christ.<ref>Benedict XVI, [https://www.vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/audiences/2007/documents/hf_ben-xvi_aud_20070131_en.html General Audience], Wednesday, 31, January 2007.</ref>
</blockquote>
</blockquote>


====Latter Day Saints====
With the exception of the commemoration of the circumcision of Jesus in accordance with ''Jewish'' practice, circumcision has not been part of Catholic practice. According to an epistle of [[Cyprian of Carthage]], circumcision of the flesh was replaced by circumcision of the spirit.{{clarify|post-text=(what is "circumcision of the spirit?")|date=September 2011}}<ref>Translated by Robert Ernest Wallis. From Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol. 5. Edited by Alexander Roberts, James Donaldson, and A. Cleveland Coxe. ''[http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/050658.htm Epistle 58]''. Buffalo, NY: Christian Literature Publishing Co., 1886. Revised and edited for New Advent by Kevin Knight.</ref>
Passages from scriptures connected with the [[Latter Day Saint movement]] ([[Mormons]]) explain that the "law of circumcision is done away" by Christ and thus unnecessary.<ref>Book of Moroni 8:8 and Doctrine and Covenants Section 74</ref><ref>Book of Mormon Student Manual, (2009), 395–400 ''[https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/manual/book-of-mormon-student-manual/chapter-55-moroni-8-9?lang=eng]''</ref>

====The Latter Day Saint movement====
Passages from scriptures connected with the [[Latter Day Saint movement]] ([[Mormons]]) explain that the "law of circumcision is done away" by Christ and thus unnecessary from a religious standpoint.<ref>Book of Moroni 8:8 and Doctrine and Covenants Section 74</ref><ref>Book of Mormon Student Manual, (2009), 395–400 ''[https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/manual/book-of-mormon-student-manual/chapter-55-moroni-8-9?lang=eng]''</ref>


===Druze faith===
===Druze ===
Circumcision is widely practiced by the [[Druze]],<ref>{{cite book|title=The Druze and Their Faith in Tawhid| first=Anis|last=Ubayd|year= 2006| isbn=9780815630975| page =150|publisher=Syracuse University Press|quote=Male circumcision is standard practice, by tradition, among the Druze}}</ref> the procedure is practiced as a cultural tradition, and has no religious significance in the Druze faith.<ref>{{cite book|title=Israel and the Palestinian Territories: The Rough Guide| first=Daniel|last=Jacobs|year= 1998| isbn=9781858282480| page =147|publisher=Rough Guides|quote=Circumcision is not compulsory and has no religious significance.}}</ref> There is no special date for this act in the [[Druze faith]]: male Druze infants are usually circumcised shortly after birth,<ref>{{cite book|title=The Druze in the Middle East: Their Faith, Leadership, Identity and Status| first=Nissim|last=Dana|year= 2003| isbn=9781903900369| page =56|publisher=University of Michigan Press|quote=}}</ref> however some remain uncircumcised until the age of ten or older.<ref>{{cite book|title=The Druze in the Middle East: Their Faith, Leadership, Identity and Status| first=Nissim|last=Dana|year= 2003| isbn=9781903900369| page =56|publisher=University of Michigan Press|quote=}}</ref> Some Druses do not circumcise their male children, and refuse to observe this "common Muslim practice".<ref>{{cite book|title=The Sunni-Shi'a Divide: Islam's Internal Divisions and Their Global Consequences| first=Robert|last=Brenton Betts|year= 2013| isbn=9781612345239| page =56|publisher=Potomac Books, Inc.|quote=There are many references to the Druze refusal to observe this common Muslim practice, one of the earliest being the rediscoverer of the ruins of Petra, John Burckhardt. “The Druses do not circumcise their children}}</ref>
Circumcision is widely practiced by the [[Druze]]:<ref>{{cite book|title=The Druze and Their Faith in Tawhid| first=Anis|last=Ubayd|year= 2006| isbn=9780815630975| page =150|publisher=Syracuse University Press|quote=Male circumcision is standard practice, by tradition, among the Druze}}</ref> practiced as a cultural tradition, and has no religious significance.<ref>{{cite book|title=Israel and the Palestinian Territories: The Rough Guide| first=Daniel|last=Jacobs|year= 1998| isbn=9781858282480| page =147|publisher=Rough Guides|quote=Circumcision is not compulsory and has no religious significance.}}</ref> No special interval is specified: Druze infants are usually circumcised shortly after birth,<ref name="auto">{{cite book|title=The Druze in the Middle East: Their Faith, Leadership, Identity and Status| first=Nissim|last=Dana|year= 2003| isbn=9781903900369| page =56|publisher=University of Michigan Press|quote=}}</ref> however some remain uncircumcised until age ten or older.<ref name="auto"/> Some Druses do not circumcise their male children, and refuse to observe this "common Muslim practice".<ref>{{cite book|title=The Sunni-Shi'a Divide: Islam's Internal Divisions and Their Global Consequences| first=Robert|last=Brenton Betts|year= 2013| isbn=9781612345239| page =56|publisher=Potomac Books, Inc.|quote=There are many references to the Druze refusal to observe this common Muslim practice, one of the earliest being the rediscoverer of the ruins of Petra, John Burckhardt. “The Druses do not circumcise their children}}</ref>


===Islam===
===Islam===
{{Main|Khitan (circumcision)}}
{{Main|Khitan (circumcision)}}
The origin of circumcision in [[Islam]] is a matter of religious and scholarly debate.<ref name="Aldeeb 1995">{{cite journal |author-link=Sami Aldeeb |date=1994 |title=To Mutilate in the Name of Jehovah or Allah: Legitimization of Male and Female Circumcision |journal=Medicine and Law |publisher=[[World Association for Medical Law]] |volume=13 |issue=7–8 |pages=575–622 |pmid=7731348 |author-last=Aldeeb Abu-Sahlieh |author-first=Sami A.}}; {{cite journal |date=1995 |title=Islamic Law and the Issue of Male and Female Circumcision |url=https://scholar.valpo.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1036&context=twls |journal=Third World Legal Studies |publisher=[[Valparaiso University School of Law]] |volume=13 |pages=73–101 |access-date=13 February 2020 |author-last=Aldeeb Abu-Sahlieh |author-first=Sami A.}}</ref><ref name="Reeves 2004">{{cite book |author-last=Kueny |author-first=Kathryn |editor-last=Reeves |editor-first=John C. |date=2004 |chapter=Abraham's Test: Islamic Male Circumcision as Anti/Ante-Covenantal Practice |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WNId86Eu4TEC&pg=PA161 |title=Bible and Qurʼān: Essays in Scriptural Intertextuality |location=[[Leiden]] |publisher=[[Brill Publishers]] |pages=161–2, 169–173 |series=[[Society of Biblical Literature|Symposium Series (Society of Biblical Literature)]] |volume=24 |isbn=90-04-12726-7}}</ref> It is mentioned in some ''[[hadith]]'' and the ''[[sunnah]]'', but it is not found anywhere in the [[Quran]].<ref name="Aldeeb 1995"/><ref name="Reeves 2004"/><ref name="EncyclopediaofIslam">{{cite encyclopedia |editor1-last=Bosworth |editor1-first=C. E. |editor1-link=Clifford Edmund Bosworth |editor2-last=van Donzel |editor2-first=E. J. |editor2-link=Emeri Johannes van Donzel |editor3-last=Lewis |editor3-first=B. |editor4-last=Pellat |editor4-first=Ch. |title=Khitan |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cJQ3AAAAIAAJ&pg=PA20 |encyclopedia=[[Encyclopaedia of Islam]] |location=[[Leiden]] |publisher=[[Brill Publishers]] |volume=5 |pages=20–22 |date=1986 |isbn=90-04-07819-3}}</ref><ref name="Iranica">{{cite encyclopedia |author1-last=Šakūrzāda |author1-first=Ebrāhīm |author2-last=Omidsalar |author2-first=Mahmoud |title=Circumcision |url=http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/circumcision |volume=V/6 |pages=596–600 |encyclopedia=[[Encyclopædia Iranica]] |publisher=[[Columbia University]] |location=[[New York City|New York]] |date=October 2011 |access-date=13 February 2020}}</ref> In the time of the Islamic prophet [[Muhammad]], [[female circumcision|circumcision]] was carried out by [[Religion in pre-Islamic Arabia|Pagan]] [[Pre-Islamic Arabia|Arabian tribes]],<ref name="Reeves 2004"/><ref name="EncyclopediaofIslam"/><ref name="Iranica"/> and circumcision by the [[Jewish tribes of Arabia]] for religious reasons.<ref name="Reeves 2004"/> This has also been attested by the Muslim scholar [[al-Jahiz]],<ref name="Iranica"/> as well as by the Roman Jewish historian [[Josephus|Flavius Josephus]].<ref name="Reeves 2004"/><ref name="Iranica"/>
The origin of circumcision in [[Islam]] is a matter of religious and scholarly debate.<ref name="Aldeeb 1995">{{cite journal |author-link=Sami Aldeeb |date=1994 |title=To Mutilate in the Name of Jehovah or Allah: Legitimization of Male and Female Circumcision |journal=Medicine and Law |publisher=[[World Association for Medical Law]] |volume=13 |issue=7–8 |pages=575–622 |pmid=7731348 |author-last=Aldeeb Abu-Sahlieh |author-first=Sami A.}}; {{cite journal |date=1995 |title=Islamic Law and the Issue of Male and Female Circumcision |url=https://scholar.valpo.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1036&context=twls |journal=Third World Legal Studies |publisher=[[Valparaiso University School of Law]] |volume=13 |pages=73–101 |access-date=13 February 2020 |author-last=Aldeeb Abu-Sahlieh |author-first=Sami A.}}</ref><ref name="Reeves 2004">{{cite book |author-last=Kueny |author-first=Kathryn |editor-last=Reeves |editor-first=John C. |date=2004 |chapter=Abraham's Test: Islamic Male Circumcision as Anti/Ante-Covenantal Practice |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WNId86Eu4TEC&pg=PA161 |title=Bible and Qurʼān: Essays in Scriptural Intertextuality |location=[[Leiden]] |publisher=[[Brill Publishers]] |pages=161–2, 169–173 |series=[[Society of Biblical Literature|Symposium Series (Society of Biblical Literature)]] |volume=24 |isbn=90-04-12726-7}}</ref> It is mentioned in some ''[[hadith]]'' and the ''[[sunnah]]'', but it not in the [[Quran]],<ref name="Aldeeb 1995" /><ref name="Reeves 2004" /><ref name="EncyclopediaofIslam">{{cite encyclopedia |editor1-last=Bosworth |editor1-first=C. E. |editor1-link=Clifford Edmund Bosworth |editor2-last=van Donzel |editor2-first=E. J. |editor2-link=Emeri Johannes van Donzel |editor3-last=Lewis |editor3-first=B. |editor4-last=Pellat |editor4-first=Ch. |title=Khitan |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cJQ3AAAAIAAJ&pg=PA20 |encyclopedia=[[Encyclopaedia of Islam]] |location=[[Leiden]] |publisher=[[Brill Publishers]] |volume=5 |pages=20–22 |date=1986 |isbn=90-04-07819-3}}</ref><ref name="Iranica">{{cite encyclopedia |author1-last=Šakūrzāda |author1-first=Ebrāhīm |author2-last=Omidsalar |author2-first=Mahmoud |title=Circumcision |url=http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/circumcision |volume=V/6 |pages=596–600 |encyclopedia=[[Encyclopædia Iranica]] |publisher=[[Columbia University]] |location=[[New York City|New York]] |date=October 2011 |access-date=13 February 2020}}</ref> though perhaps it is implied by the command to "follow the way of Ibrahim, the true in Faith".<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Alahmad |first1=Ghiath |last2=Dekkers |first2=Wim |date=2012-03-20 |title=Bodily Integrity and Male Circumcision: An Islamic Perspective |journal=Journal of the Islamic Medical Association of North America |volume=44 |issue=1 |pages=44–1–7903 |doi=10.5915/44-1-7903 |issn=0899-8299 |pmc=3516177 |pmid=23610746}}</ref> In the time of [[Muhammad]], [[female circumcision|circumcision]] was carried out by [[Religion in pre-Islamic Arabia|Pagan]] [[Pre-Islamic Arabia|Arabian tribes]],<ref name="Reeves 2004" /><ref name="EncyclopediaofIslam" /><ref name="Iranica" /> and by the [[Jewish tribes of Arabia]] for religious reasons.<ref name="Reeves 2004" /> This was attested by [[al-Jahiz]]<ref name="Iranica" /> and by Jewish historian [[Josephus|Flavius Josephus]].<ref name="Reeves 2004"/><ref name="Iranica"/>


The [[Fiqh|four schools of Islamic jurisprudence]] have different opinions and attitudes towards circumcision.<ref name="EncyclopediaofIslam"/>Some state that it is recommendable, others that it is permissible but not binding, while others regard it as a legal obligation.<ref name="Reeves 2004"/> According to [[Shafi‘i]] and [[Hanbali]] [[Faqīh|jurists]] male circumcision is obligatory for Muslims,<ref name="Reeves 2004"/><ref name="EncyclopediaofIslam"/> while [[Hanafi|Hanafi jurists]] consider circumcision to be recommendable exclusively for Muslim males on the seventh day after birth.<ref name="Reeves 2004"/> Some [[Salafi movement|Salafis]] have argued that circumcision is required in Islam to provide ritual cleanliness based on the [[Covenant (Biblical)#Abrahamic covenant|covenant with Abraham]].<ref>{{cite book |last=Gauvain |first=Richard |year=2013 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=AJ6gL2iwhy8C&pg=PA335 |title=Salafi Ritual Purity: In the Presence of God |location=[[Abingdon-on-Thames|Abingdon, Oxfordshire]] |publisher=[[Routledge]] |series=Routledge Islamic studies series |page=335 |isbn=978-0-7103-1356-0}}</ref>
The [[Fiqh|four schools of Islamic jurisprudence]] have different views towards circumcision.<ref name="EncyclopediaofIslam"/>Some state that it is recommendable, others that it is permissible but not binding, while others regard it as a legal obligation.<ref name="Reeves 2004"/> According to [[Shafi‘i]] and [[Hanbali]] [[Faqīh|jurists]] male circumcision is obligatory for Muslims,<ref name="Reeves 2004"/><ref name="EncyclopediaofIslam"/> while [[Hanafi|Hanafi jurists]] consider circumcision to be recommendable.<ref name="Reeves 2004"/> Some [[Salafi movement|Salafis]] have argued that circumcision is required in Islam to provide ritual cleanliness based on the [[Covenant (Biblical)#Abrahamic covenant|covenant with Abraham]].<ref>{{cite book |last=Gauvain |first=Richard |year=2013 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=AJ6gL2iwhy8C&pg=PA335 |title=Salafi Ritual Purity: In the Presence of God |location=[[Abingdon-on-Thames|Abingdon, Oxfordshire]] |publisher=[[Routledge]] |series=Routledge Islamic studies series |page=335 |isbn=978-0-7103-1356-0}}</ref>


Whereas Jewish circumcision is closely bound by ritual timing and tradition, in Islam there is no fixed age for circumcision.<ref name="Aldeeb 1995"/><ref name="Iranica"/><ref name="Anwer 2017">{{cite journal |author1-last=Anwer |author1-first=Abdul Wahid |author2-last=Samad |author2-first=Lubna |author3-last=Baig-Ansari |author3-first=Naila |author4-last=Iftikhar |author4-first=Sundus |date=January 2017 |title=Reported Male Circumcision Practices in a Muslim-Majority Setting |journal=[[BioMed Research International]] |volume=2017 |pages=4957348 |publisher=[[Hindawi Publishing Corporation]] |doi=10.1155/2017/4957348 |pmc=5282422 |pmid=28194416|doi-access=free }}</ref> Therefore, there is a wide variation in practice among Muslim communities, with children often being circumcised in late childhood or [[Preadolescence|early adolescence]].<ref name="Anwer 2017"/> It depends on family, region, and country.<ref name="Anwer 2017"/> The age when boys get circumcised, and the procedures used, tend to change across cultures, families, and time.<ref name="Anwer 2017"/> In some [[Muslim world|Muslim-majority countries]], circumcision is performed on Muslim boys after they have learned to recite the whole Quran from start to finish.<ref name="bbc.co.uk">{{cite web |url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/islam/islamethics/malecircumcision.shtml |title=Islam: Circumcision of boys |date=13 August 2009 |work=Religion & ethics&mdash;Islam |publisher=[[Bbc.co.uk]] |access-date=13 February 2020}}</ref> In [[Malaysia]] and other regions, the boy usually undergoes the operation between the ages of ten and twelve, and is thus a [[Rite of passage|puberty rite]], serving to introduce him into the new status of an adult.{{Citation needed|reason=This claim needs a reliable source.|date=July 2020}} The procedure is sometimes semi-public, accompanied with music, special foods, and much festivity.{{Citation needed|reason=This claim needs a reliable source.|date=July 2020}}
Whereas Jewish circumcision is closely bound by ritual timing and tradition, Islam states no fixed age for circumcision.<ref name="Aldeeb 1995"/><ref name="Iranica"/><ref name="Anwer 2017">{{cite journal |author1-last=Anwer |author1-first=Abdul Wahid |author2-last=Samad |author2-first=Lubna |author3-last=Baig-Ansari |author3-first=Naila |author4-last=Iftikhar |author4-first=Sundus |date=January 2017 |title=Reported Male Circumcision Practices in a Muslim-Majority Setting |journal=[[BioMed Research International]] |volume=2017 |pages=4957348 |publisher=[[Hindawi Publishing Corporation]] |doi=10.1155/2017/4957348 |pmc=5282422 |pmid=28194416|doi-access=free }}</ref> In Muslim communities, children are often circumcised in late childhood or [[Preadolescence|early adolescence]].<ref name="Anwer 2017"/> It varies by family, region, and country.<ref name="Anwer 2017"/> The age when boys get circumcised, and the procedures used, tend to change across cultures, families, and time.<ref name="Anwer 2017"/> In some [[Muslim world|Muslim-majority countries]], circumcision is performed after boys have learned to recite the Quran from start to finish.<ref name="bbc.co.uk">{{cite web |url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/islam/islamethics/malecircumcision.shtml |title=Islam: Circumcision of boys |date=13 August 2009 |work=Religion & ethics&mdash;Islam |publisher=[[Bbc.co.uk]] |access-date=13 February 2020}}</ref> In [[Malaysia]] and other regions, the boy usually undergoes the operation between the ages of ten and twelve, and is thus a [[Rite of passage|puberty rite]], serving to introduce him in the adult world.{{Citation needed|reason=This claim needs a reliable source.|date=July 2020}} The procedure is sometimes semi-public, accompanied with music, special foods, and much festivity.{{Citation needed|reason=This claim needs a reliable source.|date=July 2020}}


There is no equivalent of a Jewish [[mohel]] in Islam. Circumcisions are usually carried out in [[Health facility|health facilities]] or [[hospital]]s, and performed by trained medical practitioners.<ref name="Anwer 2017"/> The circumciser can be either male or female,<ref name="Anwer 2017"/> and is not required to be a Muslim,<ref name="bbc.co.uk"/> and is not required of, converts to Islam.<ref name="clark_2011">{{cite book|author=Clark M|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zPXu561ZpvgC&pg=PA178|title=Islam For Dummies|date=10 March 2011|publisher=John Wiley & Sons|isbn=978-1-118-05396-6|page=170|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160118224324/https://books.google.com/books?id=zPXu561ZpvgC&pg=PA178|archive-date=18 January 2016|url-status=live}}</ref>
Islam has no equivalent of a Jewish [[mohel]]. Circumcisions are usually carried out in [[Health facility|health facilities]] or [[hospital]]s, and performed by trained medical practitioners.<ref name="Anwer 2017"/> The circumciser can be either male or female,<ref name="Anwer 2017"/> and is not required to be a Muslim,<ref name="bbc.co.uk"/> and circumcision is not required of converts to Islam.<ref name="clark_2011">{{cite book|author=Clark M|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zPXu561ZpvgC&pg=PA178|title=Islam For Dummies|date=10 March 2011|publisher=John Wiley & Sons|isbn=978-1-118-05396-6|page=170|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160118224324/https://books.google.com/books?id=zPXu561ZpvgC&pg=PA178|archive-date=18 January 2016|url-status=live}}</ref>


==Indian religions==
==Indian religions==
{{See also|Indian religions}}
{{See also|Indian religions}}
There is no reference to circumcision in the Hindu canons,<ref>{{cite news
Hindu canons make no reference to circumcision.<ref>{{cite news
|first = Doctor
|first = Doctor
|last = Tandavan
|last = Tandavan
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|access-date = 2010-08-02
|access-date = 2010-08-02
|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20030707213308/http://www.hinduismtoday.com/archives/1989/02/1989-02-09.shtml |archive-date = 2003-07-07}}
|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20030707213308/http://www.hinduismtoday.com/archives/1989/02/1989-02-09.shtml |archive-date = 2003-07-07}}
</ref> and both [[Hinduism]] and [[Buddhism]] appear to have a neutral view on circumcision.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://whqlibdoc.who.int/publications/2007/9789241596169_eng.pdf|title=Male circumcision: Global trends and determinants of prevalence, safety and acceptability|author1=[[London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine]]|author2=[[World Health Organization|WHO]]|author3=[[Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS|UNAIDS]]|date=2007|page=4}}</ref> However, Hinduism discourages non-medical circumcision, as according to them, the body is made by the [[Parabrahma|almighty God]], and nobody has right to alter it without the concern of the person who is going for it.{{sfn|Clarence-Smith|2008|pp=14–22}} Certain Hindu [[gurus]] consider it to be directly against nature and God's Design.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Routine Circumcision is Unnecessary|url=http://www.hinduismtoday.com/archives/1989/02/1989-02-09.shtml|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20030707213308/http://www.hinduismtoday.com/archives/1989/02/1989-02-09.shtml|access-date=2021-08-24|website=Hinduism Today|language=en-US|archive-date=2003-07-07|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|title=Is self harming/suicide a sin in Hinduism?|url=https://www.worldhindunews.com/is-self-harmingsuicide-a-sin-in-hinduism/|access-date=2021-08-24|website=worldhindunews|date=19 August 2014|language=en-US}}</ref>
</ref> Both [[Hinduism]] and [[Buddhism]] appear to have a neutral view on circumcision.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://whqlibdoc.who.int/publications/2007/9789241596169_eng.pdf|title=Male circumcision: Global trends and determinants of prevalence, safety and acceptability|author1=[[London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine]]|author2=[[World Health Organization|WHO]]|author3=[[Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS|UNAIDS]]|date=2007|page=4}}</ref> However, Hinduism discourages non-medical circumcision, as according to them, the body is made by [[Parabrahma|almighty God]], and nobody has right to alter it without the concern of the person who is going for it.{{sfn|Clarence-Smith|2008|pp=14–22}} Certain Hindu [[gurus]] consider it to be directly against nature and God's Design.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Routine Circumcision is Unnecessary|url=http://www.hinduismtoday.com/archives/1989/02/1989-02-09.shtml|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20030707213308/http://www.hinduismtoday.com/archives/1989/02/1989-02-09.shtml|access-date=2021-08-24|website=Hinduism Today|language=en-US|archive-date=2003-07-07|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|title=Is self harming/suicide a sin in Hinduism?|url=https://www.worldhindunews.com/is-self-harmingsuicide-a-sin-in-hinduism/|access-date=2021-08-24|website=worldhindunews|date=19 August 2014|language=en-US}}</ref>
[[Sikh]] infants are not circumcised.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.kyha.com/documents/CG-Sikh.pdf |title=Guidelines for health Care Providers Interacting with Patients of the Sikh Religion and their Families |access-date=2007-05-01 |publisher=Metropolitan Chicago Healthcare Council |date=November 2000 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070616011136/http://www.kyha.com/documents/CG-Sikh.pdf |archive-date=June 16, 2007 }}</ref> [[Sikhism]] does not require circumcision of either males or females, and criticizes the practice.<ref>{{cite book|author=Devinder Chahal|editor=John Peppin|display-editors=etal|title=Religious Perspectives on Bioethics|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lFdEAgAAQBAJ |year=2013|publisher=Taylor & Francis|isbn=978-9026519673|page=213}}</ref> For example, [[Kabir|Bhagat Kabir]] criticizes the practise of circumcision in the following hymn of [[Guru Granth Sahib]].
[[Sikh]] infants are not circumcised.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.kyha.com/documents/CG-Sikh.pdf |title=Guidelines for health Care Providers Interacting with Patients of the Sikh Religion and their Families |access-date=2007-05-01 |publisher=Metropolitan Chicago Healthcare Council |date=November 2000 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070616011136/http://www.kyha.com/documents/CG-Sikh.pdf |archive-date=June 16, 2007 }}</ref> [[Sikhism]] criticizes the practice.<ref>{{cite book|author=Devinder Chahal|editor=John Peppin|display-editors=etal|title=Religious Perspectives on Bioethics|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lFdEAgAAQBAJ |year=2013|publisher=Taylor & Francis|isbn=978-9026519673|page=213}}</ref> For example, [[Kabir|Bhagat Kabir]] criticizes the practise of circumcision in the following hymn of [[Guru Granth Sahib]].


{{Quotation|<poem>Because of the love of woman, circumcision is done; I don't believe in it, O Siblings of Destiny. If God wished me to be a Muslim, it would be cut off by itself. If circumcision makes one a Muslim, then what about a woman? She is the other half of a man's body, and she does not leave him, so he remains a Hindu. Give up your holy Books, and remember the Lord, you fool, and stop oppressing others so badly. Kabeer has grasped hold of the Lord's Support, and the Muslims have utterly failed.</poem>|Bhagat Kabir|Guru Granth Sahib 477<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.srigranth.org/servlet/gurbani.gurbani?Action=Page&Param=477|title=Sri Granth: Sri Guru Granth Sahib|website=www.srigranth.org}}</ref>}}
{{Quotation|<poem>Because of the love of woman, circumcision is done; I don't believe in it, O Siblings of Destiny. If God wished me to be a Muslim, it would be cut off by itself. If circumcision makes one a Muslim, then what about a woman? She is the other half of a man's body, and she does not leave him, so he remains a Hindu. Give up your holy Books, and remember the Lord, you fool, and stop oppressing others so badly. Kabeer has grasped hold of the Lord's Support, and the Muslims have utterly failed.</poem>|Bhagat Kabir|Guru Granth Sahib 477<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.srigranth.org/servlet/gurbani.gurbani?Action=Page&Param=477|title=Sri Granth: Sri Guru Granth Sahib|website=www.srigranth.org}}</ref>}}
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[[File:Circumcision Precinct of Mut.png|thumb|Ancient Egyptian carved scene of circumcision, from the inner northern wall of the Temple of [[Khonspekhrod]] at the [[Precinct of Mut]], [[Luxor]], Egypt. [[Eighteenth dynasty of Egypt|Eighteenth dynasty]], [[Amenhotep III]], c. 1360 BC.]]
[[File:Circumcision Precinct of Mut.png|thumb|Ancient Egyptian carved scene of circumcision, from the inner northern wall of the Temple of [[Khonspekhrod]] at the [[Precinct of Mut]], [[Luxor]], Egypt. [[Eighteenth dynasty of Egypt|Eighteenth dynasty]], [[Amenhotep III]], c. 1360 BC.]]


[[Sixth Dynasty]] (2345 - 2181 BC) tomb artwork in Egypt is thought to be the oldest documentary evidence of circumcision, the most ancient depiction being a [[bas-relief]] from the [[necropolis]] at [[Saqqara]] (ca. 2400 B.C) with the inscription reading "Hold him and do not allow him to faint". In the oldest written account, by an Egyptian named Uha, in the 23rd century B.C, he describes a mass circumcision and boasts of his ability to stoically endure the pain: "When I was circumcised, together with one hundred and twenty men ... there was none thereof who hit out, there was none thereof who was hit, and there was none thereof who scratched and there was none thereof who was scratched."<ref>Gollaher, p.&nbsp;2.</ref>
[[Sixth Dynasty]] (2345 - 2181 BC) tomb artwork in Egypt is thought to be the oldest documentary evidence of circumcision. The most ancient depiction is a [[bas-relief]] from the [[necropolis]] at [[Saqqara]] (ca. 2400 B.C) with the inscription "Hold him and do not allow him to faint". The oldest written account, by an Egyptian named Uha, in the 23rd century B.C, describes a mass circumcision and boasts of his ability to stoically endure the pain: "When I was circumcised, together with one hundred and twenty men ... there was none thereof who hit out, there was none thereof who was hit, and there was none thereof who scratched and there was none thereof who was scratched."<ref>Gollaher, p.&nbsp;2.</ref>


Circumcision in ancient Egypt was thought to be a mark of passage from childhood to adulthood. The alteration of the body and ritual of circumcision was supposed to give access to ancient mysteries reserved solely for the initiated.<ref>Cf. the old Hebrew classic, Midrash Rabba (Exodus Rabba 30:9), where Aquila of Sinope said to Hadrian the king, "I wish to become a proselyte." When the king retorted, "Go and study their Divine Law, but do not be circumcised." Aquila then said to him,"Even the wisest man in your kingdom, and an elder who is aged one-hundred, cannot study their Divine Law if he isn’t circumcised, for thus is it written: 'He makes known his words unto Jacob, even his precepts and judgments unto Israel. He has not done the like of which to any other nation' (Ps. 147:19-20). Unto whom, then, [has he done it]? Unto the sons of Israel!”</ref> The content of those mysteries are unclear but are likely to be myths, prayers, and incantations central to [[Ancient Egyptian religion|Egyptian religion]]. [[The Egyptian Book of the Dead]], for example, tells of the [[Solar deity|sun god]] [[ra]] performing a [[self-circumcision]], whose blood created two minor guardian deities. Circumcisions were performed by priests in a public ceremony, using a stone blade. It is thought to have been more popular among the upper echelons of the society, although it was not universal and those lower down the social order are known to have had the procedure done.<ref>Gollaher, p.&nbsp;3.</ref>
Circumcision in ancient Egypt was thought to be a rite of passage from childhood to adulthood. The alteration of the body and ritual of circumcision was supposed to give access to ancient mysteries reserved for the initiated.<ref>Cf. the old Hebrew classic, Midrash Rabba (Exodus Rabba 30:9), where Aquila of Sinope said to Hadrian the king, "I wish to become a proselyte." When the king retorted, "Go and study their Divine Law, but do not be circumcised." Aquila then said to him,"Even the wisest man in your kingdom, and an elder who is aged one-hundred, cannot study their Divine Law if he isn’t circumcised, for thus is it written: 'He makes known his words unto Jacob, even his precepts and judgments unto Israel. He has not done the like of which to any other nation' (Ps. 147:19-20). Unto whom, then, [has he done it]? Unto the sons of Israel!”</ref> The content of those mysteries are unclear but are likely to be myths, prayers, and incantations central to [[Ancient Egyptian religion|Egyptian religion]]. [[The Egyptian Book of the Dead]], for example, tells of the [[Solar deity|sun god]] [[ra]] performing a self-circumcision, whose blood created two minor guardian deities. Circumcisions were performed by priests in a public ceremony, using a stone blade. It is thought to have been more popular among society's upper echelons, although it was not universal and those lower down the social order also had the procedure.<ref>Gollaher, p.&nbsp;3.</ref>


==Asia==
==Asia==
In early 2007 it was announced that rural aidpost orderlies in the East Sepik Province of Papua New Guinea are to undergo training in the circumcision of men and boys of all ages with a view to introducing the procedure as a means of prophylaxis against HIV/AIDS, which is becoming a significant problem in the country.{{Citation needed|date=August 2010}}
In early 2007 it was announced that rural aidpost orderlies in the East Sepik Province of [[Papua New Guinea]] were to undergo training in circumcision with a view to introducing the procedure as a means of prophylaxis against [[HIV/AIDS]], which was becoming a significant problem in the country.{{Citation needed|date=August 2010}}


Neither the [[Avesta]] nor the [[Zoroastrian]] Pahlavi texts mention circumcision, traditionally, [[Zoroastrians]] do not practice circumcision.<ref>{{cite book|title=The Neo-Mandaic Dialect of Khorramshahr| first=Charles |last=Häberl|year= 2009| isbn=9783447058742| page =4|publisher=Otto Harrassowitz Verlag|quote=}}</ref> Circumcision is not required in [[Yazidism]], but is practised by some [[Yazidis]] due to regional customs.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Parry |first1=O. H. (Oswald Hutton) |title=Six months in a Syrian monastery; being the record of a visit to the head quarters of the Syrian church in Mesopotamia, with some account of the Yazidis or devil worshippers of Mosul and El Jilwah, their sacred book |url=https://archive.org/stream/sixmonthsinasyr00parrgoog/sixmonthsinasyr00parrgoog_djvu.txt |publisher=London : H. Cox |date=1895}}</ref>
Neither the [[Avesta]] nor the [[Zoroastrian]] Pahlavi texts mention circumcision. Traditionally, [[Zoroastrians]] do not practice circumcision.<ref>{{cite book|title=The Neo-Mandaic Dialect of Khorramshahr| first=Charles |last=Häberl|year= 2009| isbn=9783447058742| page =4|publisher=Otto Harrassowitz Verlag|quote=}}</ref> Circumcision is not required in [[Yazidism]], but is practised by some [[Yazidis]] due to regional customs.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Parry |first1=O. H. (Oswald Hutton) |title=Six months in a Syrian monastery; being the record of a visit to the head quarters of the Syrian church in Mesopotamia, with some account of the Yazidis or devil worshippers of Mosul and El Jilwah, their sacred book |url=https://archive.org/stream/sixmonthsinasyr00parrgoog/sixmonthsinasyr00parrgoog_djvu.txt |publisher=London : H. Cox |date=1895}}</ref>


Circumcision is forbidden in [[Mandaeism]],<ref name="Drower">{{cite book|last=Drower|first=Ethel Stefana|title=The Mandaeans of Iraq and Iran|publisher=Oxford At The Clarendon Press|year=1937}}</ref> and the sign of the Jews given to Abraham by God, circumcision, is considered abhorrent by the [[Mandaeans]].<ref>{{cite book|title=Beyond ISIS: History and Future of Religious Minorities in Iraq| first=Thomas |last=Schmidinger|year= 2019| isbn=9781912997152| page =82|publisher=Transnational Press London|quote=}}</ref> According to the [[Mandaeism|Mandaean]] doctrine a circumcised man cannot serve as a [[Mandaean priest]].<ref>{{cite book|title=Guardians of the Gate: Angelic Vice-regency in the Late Antiquity| first=Nathaniel|last= Deutsch|year= 1999| isbn=9789004109094| page =105|publisher=BRILL|quote=}}</ref>
Circumcision is forbidden in [[Mandaeism]],<ref name="Drower">{{cite book|last=Drower|first=Ethel Stefana|title=The Mandaeans of Iraq and Iran|publisher=Oxford At The Clarendon Press|year=1937}}</ref> and the sign of the Jews given to Abraham by God, circumcision, is considered abhorrent.<ref>{{cite book|title=Beyond ISIS: History and Future of Religious Minorities in Iraq| first=Thomas |last=Schmidinger|year= 2019| isbn=9781912997152| page =82|publisher=Transnational Press London|quote=}}</ref> According to the [[Mandaeism|Mandaean]] doctrine a circumcised man cannot serve as a [[Mandaean priest|priest]].<ref>{{cite book|title=Guardians of the Gate: Angelic Vice-regency in the Late Antiquity| first=Nathaniel|last= Deutsch|year= 1999| isbn=9789004109094| page =105|publisher=BRILL|quote=}}</ref>


Circumcision in South Korea is largely the result of [[American culture|American cultural]] and military influence following the [[Korean War]].
Circumcision in South Korea is largely the result of [[American culture|American cultural]] and military influence following the [[Korean War]].{{Cn|date=July 2024}}


The origin of circumcision (''[[tuli (rite)|tuli]]'') in the [[Philippines]] is uncertain. One newspaper article speculates that it is due to the influence of Western colonisation,<ref>{{cite news
The origin of circumcision (''[[tuli (rite)|tuli]]'') in the [[Philippines]] is uncertain. One newspaper article speculates that it is due to the influence of Western colonisation.<ref>{{cite news
|first = Rommel G.
|first = Rommel G.
|last = Rebollido
|last = Rebollido
Line 253: Line 148:
|date = March 21, 2005
|date = March 21, 2005
|access-date = 2006-07-01
|access-date = 2006-07-01
}}</ref> however, [[Antonio de Morga]]'s 17th-century ''History of the Philippine Islands'' documents its existence in [[History of the Philippines (900-1521)|pre-Colonial Philippines]], owing it to [[Islam in the Philippines|Islamic influence]].<ref>{{cite book
}}</ref> However, [[Antonio de Morga]]'s 17th-century ''History of the Philippine Islands'' documents its existence in [[History of the Philippines (900-1521)|pre-Colonial Philippines]], owing it to [[Islam in the Philippines|Islamic influence]].<ref>{{cite book
|last = de Morga
|last = de Morga
|first = Antonio
|first = Antonio
Line 274: Line 169:
}}</ref>
}}</ref>


Circumcision is not a religious practice of the [[Bahá'í Faith]], and leaves that decision up to the parents.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Hassall |first=Graham |date=2022 |chapter=Ch. 48: Oceania |pages=591–602 |title=The World of the Bahá'í Faith |publisher=[[Routledge]] |location=Oxfordshire, UK |isbn=978-1-138-36772-2 |editor-last=Stockman |editor-first=Robert H. |editor-link=Robert Stockman |doi=10.4324/9780429027772-55|s2cid=244697166 }}</ref>
Circumcision is not a religious practice of the [[Bahá'í Faith]], and leaves that decision to the parents.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Hassall |first=Graham |date=2022 |chapter=Ch. 48: Oceania |pages=591–602 |title=The World of the Bahá'í Faith |publisher=[[Routledge]] |location=Oxfordshire, UK |isbn=978-1-138-36772-2 |editor-last=Stockman |editor-first=Robert H. |editor-link=Robert Stockman |doi=10.4324/9780429027772-55|s2cid=244697166 }}</ref>


==Oceania==
==Oceania==
Circumcision is part of [[initiation rite]]s in some Pacific Islander, and Australian aboriginal [[traditions]] in areas such as Arnhem Land,<ref>{{cite web
Circumcision is part of [[initiation rite]]s in some Pacific Island, and Australian aboriginal [[traditions]] in areas such as Arnhem Land,<ref>{{cite web
| author = Aaron David Samuel Corn
| author = Aaron David Samuel Corn
| title = Ngukurr Crying: Male Youth in a Remote Indigenous Community
| title = Ngukurr Crying: Male Youth in a Remote Indigenous Community
Line 286: Line 181:
| access-date = 2006-10-18
| access-date = 2006-10-18
|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20040623130814/http://www.uow.edu.au/arts/sealcp/wkgpapers/wp2.pdf |archive-date = 2004-06-23}}
|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20040623130814/http://www.uow.edu.au/arts/sealcp/wkgpapers/wp2.pdf |archive-date = 2004-06-23}}
</ref> where the practice was introduced by Makassan traders from Sulawesi in the Indonesian Archipelago.<ref>{{cite web
</ref> where the practice was introduced by Makassan traders from [[Sulawesi]].<ref>{{cite web
|url = http://www.mfgsc.vic.edu.au/greenturtledreaming/EKmigrate.htm
|url = http://www.mfgsc.vic.edu.au/greenturtledreaming/EKmigrate.htm
|title = Migration and Trade
|title = Migration and Trade

Revision as of 06:58, 19 July 2024

Religious circumcision is generally performed shortly after birth, during childhood, or around puberty as part of a rite of passage. Circumcision for religious reasons is most frequently practiced in Judaism and Islam.

Abrahamic religions

Judaism

1824 illustration from Lipník nad Bečvou

The brit milah (Hebrew: בְּרִית מִילָה, Modern Israeli: [bʁit miˈla], Ashkenazi: [bʁis ˈmilə]; "covenant of circumcision") or bris (Yiddish: ברית, Yiddish: [bʁɪs]) is the ceremony of circumcision in Judaism and Samaritanism, during which the foreskin is surgically removed.[1] According to the Book of Genesis, God commanded the biblical patriarch Abraham to be circumcised, an act to be followed by his male descendants on the eighth day of life, symbolizing the covenant between God and the Jewish people.[1] Today, it is generally performed by a mohel on the eighth day after the infant's birth and is followed by a celebratory meal known as seudat mitzvah.[2]

Brit Milah is considered among the most important and central commandments in Judaism, and the rite has played a central role in the formation and history of Jewish civilization. The Talmud, when discussing the importance of Brit Milah, considers it equal to all other mitzvot (commandments).[3] Jews who voluntarily fail to undergo Brit Milah, barring extraordinary circumstances, are believed to suffer Kareth in Jewish theology: the extinction of the soul and denial of a share in the world to come.[4][5][6][7] Judaism does not see circumcision as a universal moral law. Rather, the commandment is exclusive to followers of Judaism and the Jewish people; Gentiles who follow the Noahide Laws are believed to have a portion in the World to Come.[8]

Historical conflicts between Jews and European civilizations have occurred several times over Brit Milah, including multiple campaigns of Jewish ethnic, cultural, and religious persecution, with subsequent bans and restrictions on the practice as an attempted means of forceful assimilation, conversion, and ethnocide, most famously in the Maccabean Revolt by the Seleucid Empire.[7][9][10] "In Jewish history, the banning of circumcision (brit mila) has historically been a first step toward more extreme and violent forms of persecution".[10] These periods have generally been linked to suppression of Jewish religious, ethnic, and cultural identity and subsequent "punishment at the hands of government authorities for engaging in circumcision".[9] The Maccabee victory in the Maccabean Revolt — ending the prohibition against circumcision — is celebrated in Hanukkah.[7][11] Circumcision rates are near-universal among Jews.[12]

Brit Milah also has immense importance in other religions. The Gospel of Luke records that Mary and Joseph, the parents of Jesus, had him undergo circumcision.

Christianity

Ancient church

The circumcision controversy in early Christianity played an important role in Christian theology.[13][14][15][16]

The circumcision of Jesus is celebrated as a feast day in the liturgical calendar of many Christian denominations, while the teachings of the Apostle Paul asserted that physical circumcision was unnecessary for the salvation of Gentiles and their membership in the New Covenant.[17][18][19][20][21][22] The first Council of Jerusalem (c. 50) declared that circumcision was not necessary for new Gentile converts[18][23][24] (as recorded in Acts 15); Pauline Christianity was instrumental in the split of early Christianity and Judaism and eventually became Christians predominant position.[25][26] Covenant theology largely views the Christian sacrament of baptism as fulfilling the Jewish practice of circumcision, as both serve as signs and seals of the covenant of grace.[27]

While circumcision is not observed by the majority of Christians in most parts of the Christian world, and mainstream Christian denominations neither require it for religious observance[28] nor forbid it for medical or cultural reasons,[29][30][31] it is practiced among some Christian communities.[32][33][34][35] Some Oriental Christian denominations retained the practice,[36][33][29] as part of a rite of passage.[36]

Modern Christianity

"Scène de la circoncision de Jésus", a sculpture in the Cathedral of Chartres.

Circumcision is considered a customary practice among Oriental Christian denominations such as the Coptic, Ethiopian, and Eritrean Orthodox churches,.[37] The practice is near-universal in the Ethiopian Orthodox Church.[38] Some Christian churches in South Africa oppose circumcision, viewing it as a pagan ritual, while others, including the Nomiya church in Kenya,[37][39] require circumcision. It is common in Cameroon, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Eritrea, Ghana, Liberia, and Nigeria.[38]

Ethiopian Orthodox children wearing traditional circumcision costumes

Circumcision is widely practiced in the Anglosphere, Oceania,[40] South Korea, the Philippines, and the Middle East.[41] Circumcision is rare in Europe, East Asia, as well as in India. Christians in the East and West Indies (excluding the Philippines) do not practice it. and is also widely practiced among Christians from Philippines, South Korea,[42] Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Palestine, Israel, and North Africa.

The Lutheran Church and the Greek Orthodox Church celebrate the Circumcision of Christ on 1 January,[43] while Orthodox churches following the Julian calendar celebrate it on 14 January. All Orthodox churches consider it a "Great Feast".[44] In much of Western Christianity, the Feast of the Circumcision of Christ has been replaced by other commemorations,[45] such as the Solemnity of Mary in the Roman Catholic Church or the Feast of the Holy Name of Jesus in the Lutheran Churches.[46] Exceptions, such as among most Traditionalist Catholics, who reject Novus Ordo and other changes following Vatican II to varying degrees, maintained the feast as a Holy day of obligation.[citation needed]

Roman Catholic Church

The Roman Catholic Church denounced religious circumcision for its members in the Cantate Domino, written during the 11th Council of Florence in 1442, warning of loss of salvation for converts who observe it.[47][48] This decision was based on the belief that baptism had superseded circumcision (Col 2:11–12),[49] and may also have been a response to Coptic Christians, who continued to practice circumcision.[50]

Origen stated in his work Contra Celsum that circumcision "was discontinued by Jesus, who desired that His disciples should not practise it."[51]

Pope Pius XII taught that circumcision is only §"[morally] permissible if, in accordance with therapeutic principles, it prevents a disease that cannot be countered in any other way."[52]

On another occasion, he stated:

Furthermore, Christian doctrine establishes, and the light of human reason makes it most clear, that private individuals have no other power over the members of their own bodies than that which pertains to their natural ends: and they are not free to destroy or mutilate their members, or in any other way render themselves unfit for their natural functions, except when no other provision can be made for the good of the whole body.[53]

The Church has been viewed as maintaining a neutral position on the practice of cultural circumcision, due to its policy of inculturation,[54][55] although some Catholic scholars argue that the church condemns it as "elective male infant circumcision not only violates the proper application of the time-honored principle of totality, but even fits the ethical definition of mutilation, which is gravely sinful."[47]

Fr. John J. Dietzen, a priest and columnist, argued that paragraph number 2297 from the Catholic Catechism (Respect for bodily integrity) makes the practice of elective and neonatal circumcision immoral.[56] John Paul Slosar and Daniel O'Brien, counter that the therapeutic benefits of neonatal circumcision are inconclusive, but that recent findings that circumcision may prevent disease puts the practice outside the realm of paragraph 2297.[54] They claim that the "Respect for bodily integrity" paragraph apply in the context of kidnapping, hostage-taking or torture, and that if circumcision is included, any removal of tissue or follicle could be considered a violation of moral law.[54] The proportionality of harm versus benefit of medical procedures, as defined by Directives 29 and 33 of the Ethical and Religious Directives for Catholic Health Care Services (National Conference of Catholic Bishops),[57] have been interpreted to support[54] and reject[58] circumcision. These arguments represent the conscience of the individual writers, and not official doctrine. The most recent statement from the Church was that of Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI:

The Church of Antioch sent Barnabas on a mission with Paul, which became known as the Apostle's first missionary journey . . . Together with Paul, he then went to the so-called Council of Jerusalem where after a profound examination of the question, the Apostles with the Elders decided to discontinue the practice of circumcision so that it was no longer a feature of the Christian identity (cf. Acts 15: 1-35). It was only in this way that, in the end, they officially made possible the Church of the Gentiles, a Church without circumcision; we are children of Abraham simply through faith in Christ.[59]

Latter Day Saints

Passages from scriptures connected with the Latter Day Saint movement (Mormons) explain that the "law of circumcision is done away" by Christ and thus unnecessary.[60][61]

Druze

Circumcision is widely practiced by the Druze:[62] practiced as a cultural tradition, and has no religious significance.[63] No special interval is specified: Druze infants are usually circumcised shortly after birth,[64] however some remain uncircumcised until age ten or older.[64] Some Druses do not circumcise their male children, and refuse to observe this "common Muslim practice".[65]

Islam

The origin of circumcision in Islam is a matter of religious and scholarly debate.[66][67] It is mentioned in some hadith and the sunnah, but it not in the Quran,[66][67][68][69] though perhaps it is implied by the command to "follow the way of Ibrahim, the true in Faith".[70] In the time of Muhammad, circumcision was carried out by Pagan Arabian tribes,[67][68][69] and by the Jewish tribes of Arabia for religious reasons.[67] This was attested by al-Jahiz[69] and by Jewish historian Flavius Josephus.[67][69]

The four schools of Islamic jurisprudence have different views towards circumcision.[68]Some state that it is recommendable, others that it is permissible but not binding, while others regard it as a legal obligation.[67] According to Shafi‘i and Hanbali jurists male circumcision is obligatory for Muslims,[67][68] while Hanafi jurists consider circumcision to be recommendable.[67] Some Salafis have argued that circumcision is required in Islam to provide ritual cleanliness based on the covenant with Abraham.[71]

Whereas Jewish circumcision is closely bound by ritual timing and tradition, Islam states no fixed age for circumcision.[66][69][72] In Muslim communities, children are often circumcised in late childhood or early adolescence.[72] It varies by family, region, and country.[72] The age when boys get circumcised, and the procedures used, tend to change across cultures, families, and time.[72] In some Muslim-majority countries, circumcision is performed after boys have learned to recite the Quran from start to finish.[73] In Malaysia and other regions, the boy usually undergoes the operation between the ages of ten and twelve, and is thus a puberty rite, serving to introduce him in the adult world.[citation needed] The procedure is sometimes semi-public, accompanied with music, special foods, and much festivity.[citation needed]

Islam has no equivalent of a Jewish mohel. Circumcisions are usually carried out in health facilities or hospitals, and performed by trained medical practitioners.[72] The circumciser can be either male or female,[72] and is not required to be a Muslim,[73] and circumcision is not required of converts to Islam.[74]

Indian religions

Hindu canons make no reference to circumcision.[75] Both Hinduism and Buddhism appear to have a neutral view on circumcision.[76] However, Hinduism discourages non-medical circumcision, as according to them, the body is made by almighty God, and nobody has right to alter it without the concern of the person who is going for it.[77] Certain Hindu gurus consider it to be directly against nature and God's Design.[78][79]

Sikh infants are not circumcised.[80] Sikhism criticizes the practice.[81] For example, Bhagat Kabir criticizes the practise of circumcision in the following hymn of Guru Granth Sahib.

Because of the love of woman, circumcision is done; I don't believe in it, O Siblings of Destiny. If God wished me to be a Muslim, it would be cut off by itself. If circumcision makes one a Muslim, then what about a woman? She is the other half of a man's body, and she does not leave him, so he remains a Hindu. Give up your holy Books, and remember the Lord, you fool, and stop oppressing others so badly. Kabeer has grasped hold of the Lord's Support, and the Muslims have utterly failed.

— Bhagat Kabir, Guru Granth Sahib 477[82]

Africa

In West Africa, infant circumcision had religious significance as a rite of passage or otherwise in the past; today in some non-Muslim Nigerian societies it is medicalised and is simply a cultural norm.[83] In many West African traditional societies circumcision has become medicalised and is simply performed in infancy without ado or any particular conscious cultural significance.[citation needed] Among the Urhobo of southern Nigeria it is symbolic of a boy entering into manhood. The ritual expression, Omo te Oshare ("the boy is now man"), constitutes a rite of passage from one age set to another.[84]

In East Africa, specifically in Kenya among various so-classified Bantu and Nilotic peoples, such as the Maragoli and Idakho of the Luhya super-ethnic group, the Kikuyu, Kalenjin and Maasai, circumcision is a rite of passage observed collectively by a number of boys every few years, and boys circumcised at the same time are taken to be members of a single age set.[85]

Authority derives from the age-group and the age-set. Prior to circumcision a natural leader or Olaiguenani is selected; he leads his age-group through a series of rituals until old age, sharing responsibility with a select few, of whom the ritual expert (Oloiboni) is the ultimate authority. Masai youths are not circumcised until they are mature, and a new age-set is initiated together at regular intervals of twelve to fifteen years. The young warriors (Il-Murran) remain initiates for some time, using blunt arrows to hunt small birds which are stuffed and tied to a frame to form a head-dress. Traditionally, among the Luhya, boys of certain age-sets, typically between 8 and 18 years of age would, under the leadership of specific men engage in various rites leading up to the day of circumcision. After circumcision, they would live apart from the rest of society for a certain number of days. Not even their mothers nor sisters would be allowed to see them.

The Xhosa Tribe from the Eastern Cape in South Africa has a circumcision ritual. The ceremony is part of a transition to manhood. It is called the Abakwetha - "A Group Learning". A group of normally five aged between 16 and 20 go off for three months and live in a special hut (sutu). The circumcision is the climax of the ritual. Nelson Mandela describes his experiences undergoing this ritual in his biography, Long Walk to Freedom.[86][87] Traditional circumcisions are often performed in unsterile conditions where no anesthetic is administered; improper treatment of the wound can lead to sepsis and dehydration, which has in the past lead to initiate deaths.[88][89]

Among some West African animist groups, such as the Dogon and Dowayo, circumcision represents a removal of "feminine" aspects of the male, turning boys into fully masculine males.[40]

Ancient Egypt

Ancient Egyptian carved scene of circumcision, from the inner northern wall of the Temple of Khonspekhrod at the Precinct of Mut, Luxor, Egypt. Eighteenth dynasty, Amenhotep III, c. 1360 BC.

Sixth Dynasty (2345 - 2181 BC) tomb artwork in Egypt is thought to be the oldest documentary evidence of circumcision. The most ancient depiction is a bas-relief from the necropolis at Saqqara (ca. 2400 B.C) with the inscription "Hold him and do not allow him to faint". The oldest written account, by an Egyptian named Uha, in the 23rd century B.C, describes a mass circumcision and boasts of his ability to stoically endure the pain: "When I was circumcised, together with one hundred and twenty men ... there was none thereof who hit out, there was none thereof who was hit, and there was none thereof who scratched and there was none thereof who was scratched."[90]

Circumcision in ancient Egypt was thought to be a rite of passage from childhood to adulthood. The alteration of the body and ritual of circumcision was supposed to give access to ancient mysteries reserved for the initiated.[91] The content of those mysteries are unclear but are likely to be myths, prayers, and incantations central to Egyptian religion. The Egyptian Book of the Dead, for example, tells of the sun god ra performing a self-circumcision, whose blood created two minor guardian deities. Circumcisions were performed by priests in a public ceremony, using a stone blade. It is thought to have been more popular among society's upper echelons, although it was not universal and those lower down the social order also had the procedure.[92]

Asia

In early 2007 it was announced that rural aidpost orderlies in the East Sepik Province of Papua New Guinea were to undergo training in circumcision with a view to introducing the procedure as a means of prophylaxis against HIV/AIDS, which was becoming a significant problem in the country.[citation needed]

Neither the Avesta nor the Zoroastrian Pahlavi texts mention circumcision. Traditionally, Zoroastrians do not practice circumcision.[93] Circumcision is not required in Yazidism, but is practised by some Yazidis due to regional customs.[94]

Circumcision is forbidden in Mandaeism,[95] and the sign of the Jews given to Abraham by God, circumcision, is considered abhorrent.[96] According to the Mandaean doctrine a circumcised man cannot serve as a priest.[97]

Circumcision in South Korea is largely the result of American cultural and military influence following the Korean War.[citation needed]

The origin of circumcision (tuli) in the Philippines is uncertain. One newspaper article speculates that it is due to the influence of Western colonisation.[98] However, Antonio de Morga's 17th-century History of the Philippine Islands documents its existence in pre-Colonial Philippines, owing it to Islamic influence.[99]

Circumcision is not a religious practice of the Bahá'í Faith, and leaves that decision to the parents.[100]

Oceania

Circumcision is part of initiation rites in some Pacific Island, and Australian aboriginal traditions in areas such as Arnhem Land,[101] where the practice was introduced by Makassan traders from Sulawesi.[102] Circumcision ceremonies among certain Australian aboriginal societies are noted for their painful nature, including subincision for some aboriginal peoples in the Western Desert.[103]

In the Pacific, ritual circumcision is nearly universal in the Melanesian islands of Fiji and Vanuatu;[104] participation in the traditional land diving on Pentecost Island is reserved for those who have been circumcised.[citation needed] Circumcision is also commonly practised in the Polynesian islands of Samoa, Tonga, Niue, and Tikopia. In Samoa, it is accompanied by a celebration.

See also

References

  1. ^ a b Hirsch, Emil; Kohler, Kaufmann; Jacobs, Joseph; Friedenwald, Aaron; Broydé, Isaac (1906). "Circumcision: The Cutting Away". The Jewish Encyclopedia. Retrieved October 13, 2020. In order to prevent the obliteration of the "seal of the covenant" on the flesh, as circumcision was henceforth called, the Rabbis, probably after the war of Bar Kokba (see Yeb. l.c.; Gen. R. xlvi.), instituted the "peri'ah" (the laying bare of the glans), without which circumcision was declared to be of no value (Shab. xxx. 6).
  2. ^ Gollaher, David (2001). Circumcision: A History Of The World's Most Controversial Surgery. United States: Basic Books. pp. 1–30. ISBN 978-0-465-02653-1.
  3. ^ Tractate Nedarim 32a
  4. ^ Harlow, Daniel; Collins, John (2010). "Circumcision". The Eerdmans Dictionary of Early Judaism. William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company. ISBN 978-1-4674-6609-7.
  5. ^ Hamilton, Victor (1990). The Book of Genesis, Chapters 1-17. Eerdmans Publishing Company. p. 473. ISBN 978-0-8028-2521-6. In fact, circumcision is only one of two performative commands, the neglect of which bring the kareth penalty. (The other is the failure to be cleansed from corpse contamination, umb. 19:11-22.)
  6. ^ Mark, Elizabeth (2003). "Frojmovic/Travelers to the Circumcision". The Covenant of Circumcision: New Perspectives on an Ancient Jewish Rite. Brandeis University Press. p. 141. ISBN 978-1-58465-307-3. Circumcision became the single most important commandment... the one without which... no Jew could attain the world to come.
  7. ^ a b c Rosner, Fred (2003). Encyclopedia of Jewish Medical Ethics. Feldheim Publishers. p. 196. ISBN 978-1-58330-592-8. Several eras in subsequent Jewish history were associated with forced conversions and with prohibitions against ritual circumcision... Jews endangered their lives during such times and exerted strenuous efforts to nullify such edicts. When they succeeded, they celebrated by declaring a holiday. Throughout most of history, Jews never doubted their obligation to observe circumcision... [those who attempted to reverse it or failed to perform the ritual were called] voiders of the covenant of Abraham our father, and they have no portion in the World to Come.
  8. ^ Oliver, Isaac W. (2013-05-14). "Forming Jewish Identity by Formulating Legislation for Gentiles". Journal of Ancient Judaism. 4 (1): 105–132. doi:10.30965/21967954-00401005. ISSN 1869-3296.
  9. ^ a b Wilson, Robin (2018). The Contested Place of Religion in Family Law. Cambridge University Press. p. 174. ISBN 978-1-108-41760-0. Jews have a long history of suffering punishment at the hands of government authorities for engaging in circumcision. Muslims have also experienced suppression of their identities through suppression of this religious practice.
  10. ^ a b Livingston, Michael (2021). Dreamworld or Dystopia: The Nordic Model and Its Influence in the 21st Century. Cambridge University Press. p. 87. ISBN 978-1-108-75726-3. In Jewish history, the banning of circumcision (brit mila) has historically been a first step toward more extreme and violent forms of persecution.
  11. ^ "What Is Hanukkah?". Chabad-Lubavitch Media Center. In the second century BCE, the Holy Land was ruled by the Seleucids (Syrian-Greeks), who tried to force the people of Israel to accept Greek culture and beliefs instead of mitzvah observance and belief in G‑d. Against all odds, a small band of faithful but poorly armed Jews, led by Judah the Maccabee, defeated one of the mightiest armies on earth, drove the Greeks from the land, reclaimed the Holy Temple in Jerusalem and rededicated it to the service of G‑d. ... To commemorate and publicize these miracles, the sages instituted the festival of Chanukah.
  12. ^ Cohen-Almagor, Raphael (9 November 2020). "Should liberal government regulate male circumcision performed in the name of Jewish tradition?". SN Social Sciences. 1 (1): 8. doi:10.1007/s43545-020-00011-7. ISSN 2662-9283. S2CID 228911544. Protagonists and critics of male circumcision agree on some things and disagree on many others... They also do not underestimate the importance of male circumcision for the relevant communities.... Even the most critical voices of male circumcision do not suggest putting a blanket ban on the practice as they understand that such a ban, very much like the 1920–1933 prohibition laws in the United States, would not be effective... Protagonists and critics of male circumcision debate whether the practice is morally acceptable... They assign different weights to harm as well as to medical risks and to non-medical benefits. The different weights to risks and benefits conform to their underlying views about the practices... Protagonists and critics disagree about the significance of medical reasons for circumcision...
  13. ^ Stendahl, Krister (July 1963). "The Apostle Paul and the Introspective Conscience of the West" (PDF). Harvard Theological Review. 56 (3). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press on behalf of the Harvard Divinity School: 199–215. doi:10.1017/S0017816000024779. ISSN 1475-4517. JSTOR 1508631. LCCN 09003793. OCLC 803348474. S2CID 170331485. Archived (PDF) from the original on 24 December 2021. Retrieved 12 February 2022.
  14. ^ Adams, Gregory; Adams, Kristina (2012). "Circumcision in the Early Christian Church: The Controversy That Shaped a Continent". In Bolnick, David A.; Koyle, Martin; Yosha, Assaf (eds.). Surgical Guide to Circumcision. London: Springer-Verlag. pp. 291–298. doi:10.1007/978-1-4471-2858-8_26. ISBN 978-1-4471-2857-1.
  15. ^ Jacobs, Andrew (2012). Christ Circumcised: A Study in Early Christian History and Difference. United States: University of Pennsylvania Press. ISBN 9780812206517.
  16. ^ Bolnick, David; Koyle, Martin; Yosha, Assaf (2012). "Circumcision in the Early Christian Church: The Controversy That Shaped a Continent". Surgical Guide to Circumcision. United Kingdom: Springer. pp. 290–298. ISBN 9781447128588. In summary, circumcision has played a surprisingly important role in Western history. The circumcision debate forged a Gentile identity to the early Christian church which allowed it to survive the Jewish Diaspora and become the dominant religion of Western Europe. Circumcision continued to have a major cultural presence throughout Christendom even after the practice had all but vanished.... the circumcision of Jesus... celebrated as a religious holiday... [has been] examined by many of the greatest scholars and artists of the Western tradition.
  17. ^ Dunn, James D. G. (Autumn 1993). Reinhartz, Adele (ed.). "Echoes of Intra-Jewish Polemic in Paul's Letter to the Galatians". Journal of Biblical Literature. 112 (3). Society of Biblical Literature: 459–477. doi:10.2307/3267745. ISSN 0021-9231. JSTOR 3267745.
  18. ^ a b Cross, F. L.; Livingstone, E. A., eds. (2005). "Paul the Apostle". The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church (3rd Revised ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press. pp. 1243–45. doi:10.1093/acref/9780192802903.001.0001. ISBN 978-0-19-280290-3.
  19. ^ Dunn, James D. G., ed. (2007). "'Neither circumcision nor uncircumcision, but...'". The New Perspective on Paul: Collected Essays. Wissenschaftliche Untersuchungen zum Neuen Testament. Vol. 185. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck. pp. 314–330. ISBN 978-3-16-149518-2.
  20. ^ Thiessen, Matthew (September 2014). Breytenbach, Cilliers; Thom, Johan (eds.). "Paul's Argument against Gentile Circumcision in Romans 2:17-29". Novum Testamentum. 56 (4). Leiden: Brill Publishers: 373–391. doi:10.1163/15685365-12341488. eISSN 1568-5365. ISSN 0048-1009. JSTOR 24735868.
  21. ^ Thiessen, Matthew (2016). "Gentile Sons and Seed of Abraham". Paul and the Gentile Problem. New York: Oxford University Press. pp. 105–115. ISBN 978-0-19-027175-6.
  22. ^ Bisschops, Ralph (January 2017). "Metaphor in Religious Transformation: 'Circumcision of the Heart' in Paul of Tarsus" (PDF). In Chilton, Paul; Kopytowska, Monika (eds.). Language, Religion and the Human Mind. New York: Oxford University Press. pp. 1–30. doi:10.1093/oso/9780190636647.003.0012. ISBN 978-0-19-063664-7. Retrieved 13 February 2020.
  23. ^ Bokenkotter, Thomas (2004). A Concise History of the Catholic Church (Revised and expanded ed.). Doubleday. pp. 19–21. ISBN 0-385-50584-1.
  24. ^ Acts 15:1–2, 15:6–10; Galatians 1:15–16, 2:7–9, Galatians 5:2–3, 5:6–12, 6:12–15; Philippians 3:2–3; 1 Corinthians 7:17–21; Romans 2:17–29, 3:9–28, 5:1–11, Romans 11:13; 1 Timothy 2:7; 2 Timothy 1:11; Titus 1:10–16.
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  26. ^ Jewish Encyclopedia: Baptism: "According to rabbinical teachings, which dominated even during the existence of the Temple (Pes. viii. 8), Baptism, next to circumcision and sacrifice, was an absolutely necessary condition to be fulfilled by a proselyte to Judaism (Yeb. 46b, 47b; Ker. 9a; 'Ab. Zarah 57a; Shab. 135a; Yer. Kid. iii. 14, 64d). Circumcision, however, was much more important, and, like baptism, was called a "seal" (Schlatter, "Die Kirche Jerusalems," 1898, p. 70). But as circumcision was discarded by Christianity, and the sacrifices had ceased, Baptism remained the sole condition for initiation into religious life. The next ceremony, adopted shortly after the others, was the imposition of hands, which, it is known, was the usage of the Jews at the ordination of a rabbi. Anointing with oil, which at first also accompanied the act of Baptism, and was analogous to the anointment of priests among the Jews, was not a necessary condition."
  27. ^ Clark, R. Scott (17 September 2012). "Baptism and Circumcision According to Colossians 2:11–12". The Heidelblog. Retrieved 24 December 2020.
  28. ^ Loue, Sana (29 June 2020). Case Studies in Society, Religion, and Bioethics. Springer Nature. p. 42. ISBN 978-3-030-44150-0. Although many Christian denominations maintain a neutral stance with respect to infant male circumcision, there continues to be a debate regarding the practice.
  29. ^ a b Pitts-Taylor, Victoria (2008). Cultural Encyclopedia of the Body [2 volumes]. ABC-CLIO. p. 394. ISBN 9781567206913. For most part, Christianity does not require circumcision of its followers. Yet, some Orthodox and African Christian groups do require circumcision. These circumcisions take place at any point between birth and puberty.
  30. ^ Meyer, Barbara U. (12 March 2020). Jesus the Jew in Christian Memory: Theological and Philosophical Explorations. Cambridge University Press. p. 117. ISBN 978-1-108-49889-0. In his cultural accounts of circumcision, Boyarin clearly presupposes an alienated attitude to circumcision in Western countries. They show that the Christian memory of Jesus' circumcision is significantly weaker than the growing awareness of his Jewishness. In contemporary political debates – as in Canada or in North-European countries and especially in Germany – circumcision is typically described as an "archaic" rite, with those practicing it presented as forced to do so by some "ancient" law or custom.
  31. ^ Levine, Alan J. (2000). Captivity, Flight, and Survival in World War II. Greenwood Publishing Group. p. 174. ISBN 978-0-275-96955-4. In the last resort, even Jewish men otherwise well equipped to pretend to be Christians could be spotted, since circumcision was rare among Eastern European Christians.
  32. ^ Gruenbaum, Ellen (2015). The Female Circumcision Controversy: An Anthropological Perspective. University of Pennsylvania Press. p. 61. ISBN 9780812292510. Christian theology generally interprets male circumcision to be an Old Testament rule that is no longer an obligation ... though in many countries (especially the United States and Sub-Saharan Africa, but not so much in Europe) it is widely practiced among Christians
  33. ^ a b R. Peteet, John (2017). Spirituality and Religion Within the Culture of Medicine: From Evidence to Practice. Oxford University Press. pp. 97–101. ISBN 9780190272432. male circumcision is still observed among Ethiopian and Coptic Christians, and circumcision rates are also high today in the Philippines and the US.
  34. ^ "Circumcision protest brought to Florence". Associated Press. March 30, 2008. However, the practice is still common among Christians in the United States, Oceania, South Korea, the Philippines, the Middle East and Africa. Some Middle Eastern Christians actually view the procedure as a rite of passage.
  35. ^ Creighton, Sarah; Liao, Lih-Mei (2019). Female Genital Cosmetic Surgery: Solution to What Problem?. Cambridge University Press. p. 63. ISBN 9781108435529. Christians in Africa, for instance, often practise infant male circumcision.
  36. ^ a b N. Stearns, Peter (2008). The Oxford Encyclopedia of the Modern World. Oxford University Press. p. 179. ISBN 9780195176322. Uniformly practiced by Jews, Muslims, and the members of Coptic, Ethiopian, and Eritrean Orthodox Churches, male circumcision remains prevalent in many regions of the world, particularly Africa, South and East Asia, Oceania, and Anglosphere countries.
  37. ^ a b Customary in some Coptic and other churches:
    • "The Coptic Christians in Egypt and the Ethiopian Orthodox Christians—two of the oldest surviving forms of Christianity—retain many of the features of early Christianity, including circumcision. Circumcision is not prescribed in other forms of Christianity... Some Christian churches in South Africa oppose the practice, viewing it as a pagan ritual, while others, including the Nomiya church in Kenya, require circumcision for membership and participants in focus group discussions in Zambia and Malawi mentioned similar beliefs that Christians should practice circumcision since Jesus was circumcised and the Bible teaches the practice."
    • "The decision that Christians need not practice circumcision is recorded in Acts 15; there was never, however, a prohibition of circumcision, and it is still practiced by Coptic Christians." "circumcision" Archived 2007-08-08 at the Wayback Machine, The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition, 2001-05.
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Works cited:

Clarence-Smith, William G. (2008). "Islam and Female Genital Cutting in Southeast Asia: The Weight of the Past" (PDF). Finnish Journal of Ethnicity and Migration. 3 (2). Archived from the original on 2009-03-06.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)

  • Glick, Leonard B. Marked in Your Flesh: Circumcision from Ancient Judea to Modern America. New York: Oxford University Press, 2005. (ISBN 0-19-517674-X)

 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domainSinger, Isidore; et al., eds. (1901–1906). The Jewish Encyclopedia. New York: Funk & Wagnalls. {{cite encyclopedia}}: Missing or empty |title= (help) The rabbinic literature and Converts to Judaism are sections are an evolution of the corresponding article which gives the following Bibliography:

  • Pocock, Specimen Historiœ Arabum, pp. 319 et seq.;
  • Millo, Histoire du Mahométisme, p. 350;
  • Hoffmann, Beschneidung, in Ersch and Gruber, Encyc.;
  • Steinschneider, Die Beschneidung der Araber und Muhammedaner, in Glassberg, Die Beschneidung;
  • Jolly, Etude Critique du Manuel Opératoire des Musulmans et des Israélites, Paris, 1899.