I’ve covered the histories of salt and chili pepper and other various topics previously, but in this post I’m going to take a topic all together different and review the history of male circumcision. Today most Americans think of cutting off the foreskin for males shortly after birth as completely natural. Yet this is a modern phenomenon—the practice of male circumcision was long shunned in the Western world. There are no nasty pictures or gory details in this post, but for those of you repulsed by the topic, don’t read below the fold.

Circumcision was common among ancient Semitic peoples, and the Book of Jeremiah (6th century BC) lists the Egyptians, Jews, Edomites, Ammonites, and Moabites as circumcising cultures. Herodotus (5th century BC) would add the Colchians, Ethiopians, Phoenicians, and Syrians to that list. The oldest documentary evidence for circumcision is from Egypt, where Tomb artwork of the Sixth Dynasty (2345 – 2181 BC) shows pictures of men with no foreskins. Some Egyptian mummies have foreskins, others were circumcised.

By contrast, ancient Greece artwork portrayed penises covered by foreskins, and all evidence points to the fact that it was never practiced. In the aftermath of Alexander the Great’s conquests, Greek revulsion of circumcision led to a rapid decline in its incidence among many ancient middle eastern peoples that had previously practiced it, even leading some Jewish men attempted to hide (or reverse!) their circumcision so they could exercise in Greek gymnasia, where nudity was the norm. The Seleucid Empire forbade Jewish circumcision, and punished those who performed it with death.

Such was the state of Helleninstic power that by the time Roman power grew in the Mediterranean and the middle east at around the time of Jesus, only the priestly caste in Egypt and Jews retained the practice. The Romans shared the Greek dislike of circumcision, although there is evidence that it was used as a punishment for insubordination in the military. Circumcision was so rare that being circumcised was considered conclusive evidence of Judaism in Roman courts. Yet Jewish scholars defended Jewish circumcision on several grounds, including health, cleanliness, and fertility, and continued to practice it despite persecution.

Circumcision became an important issue as the “Jewish Cult of Christianity” spread west from Judeau. Simon spoke against requiring circumcision in Gentile converts, which set the precedent for mere baptism as what was required to convert to Christianity. We can only wonder what would have happened to the history of Christianity if Simon had not been so lenient in giving up the practice!

Meanwhile, in parts of Africa, male circumcision was long a rite of passage from childhood to adulthood for many tribes, after which young men became members of the warrior class. And it was practiced as a matter of course in the Islamic world with the same frequency as the Jews, although like in Africa the procedure generally took place between ages 7 to 12, as opposed to shortly after birth as with the Jewish practice.

As under Rome, Europeans into the Middle Ages did not practice male circumcision, with the exception of European Jews. The Catholic Church issued a papal bull in 1442 that prohibited the practice of circumcision for all Christians. In 1753 in London, in response to a proposal for Jewish emancipation, pamphlets were issued to warn that Jewish emancipation meant universal circumcision! These fears continued well into the 19th century, where modern Europeans continued to believe, as the Greeks and Romans before them, that circumcision was an ancient pagan sacrifice, akin to mutilation, and a repulsive practice.

Yet this was about to change, as we will see in part 2. Stay tuned!

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