Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 3.djvu/863

 CIRCUMCISION

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CIRCUMCISION

Khabur, where the river was commonly crossed. The ancient city, however, had replaced a still older one, called Sirhi in Assyrian texts. Benjamin of Tudela and many after him identified it wrongly with Kharkamis (Carchamish), one of the capitals of the Hittites, situated at Jirhas, or Jerablus, the present name of Europos, or Oropos. Circesium was a bishopric i:i Osrhocne. suffragan of Edessa; it figures only in Parthey's "Notitise episcopatuum" (c. 840). Lequien (II. 977) mentions five bishops: Jonas, who was present at Nicsea, and had suffered mutilation during the preceding persecution; Abramius, present at Chalcedon; Nonnus, a Severian (518 and 532); Davides, present at Constantinople (536); Thomas (553). There are also records of fourteen Jacobite bishops, from 793 to 1042.

Rawlinson, The Five Great Monarchies (4th ed., London, 1879). II, 67; Maspf.ro, De Charchcmis oppidi silu el hiitorid antiquissim>i, 14 sq.; Noldeke, GOttina. Nachrichi. 'Jan., 1876), nn. 11, 13, 15; Chabot in Revue de VOrienl ehrftien, VI, 194.

S. Petrides.

Circumcision. — The Heb. r6lD, like the Gr. ire/Hro/ii}, and the Lat. eireumr-i.w, signifies a cutting and, specif- ically, the removal of the prepuce, or foreskin, from the penis. The number and variety of tribes and nations who practised it are surprising ;' a conservative esti- mate places the number that practise it in our day at two hundred millions. Herodotus says that the Egyp- tians, Colchians. and Ethiopians, from very early times, were circumcised; and he mentions other races, the Phoenicians and Syrians of Palestine (the Jews, as Jo- sephus maintains), who say that they learned the use of circumcision from the Egyptians (Herod., II, 104; Jos., C. Ap., I, 22). Even some Christians circumcise their children, the Copts, for instance, and the Abys- Binians, in Africa; and among the Filipinos, the same may be said of most of the Tagalos, who are Catholics. To these last, however.it is a mere ceremony without religious import. The Mohammedan Moros may have introduced it into the islands, where it remains, not- withstanding centuries of Christian influence against it (C. N. Barney, see bibliography). The Abyssinians are entirely under Jewish influence, though they pro- fess Christianity: they observe the Jewish Sabbath cir- cumcise on the eighth day, and observe many other usages. (See Andree, cited below, p. 189.) Andree states also that the custom of circumcising is found in Sumatra (pp. 191, 192), the east coast of New Guinea (p. 107), and among the Samoans, who call Europeans "the uncircumcised". Even in America, circumcis- ion was in use among the Aztec and Maya races (op. cit. 201, 202). The fact of its existence in Australia (Spencer and Gillen, Tribes of Central Australia, p. 2 1 8 sq.), and in a great part of the islands of Occanica. not to speak of America, would seem to throw some doubt on the assertion of Herodotus that it had its origin in Egypt.

It is not easy to assign satisfactory reasons for a usage so general. Those who think it was a tribal mark, like tattooing, or the knocking out of the front teeth, should consider that such marks are usually conspic- uous. Was it connected with phallic worship, and thus regarded as an offering to the deity of fertility? or was it, as some think, a substitute for human sacrifice? From the fact that the priests in Egypt were, beyond question, circumcised (G. Rawlinson — Ancient Egypt, vol. I, p. 452), as also from the fact that the upper classes among the Aztec and Celebes tribes made use of it, we may conclude that circumcision was not looked upon as a mark of slavery or subjection, but rather of nobility and superiority. Father Lagrange holds that it had a religious significance, ami that, as it is not referred to in Chaldean monuments, it was not a protosemitic practice, but may have had its origin in Arabia (Etudes sur les religions semitiques, 1903, pp. 239-243). Merely utilitarian motives have been assigned by

many: even Philo (De Circumcisione, II, 211, ed. Mangcy) gives cleanliness, freedom from disease, off- spring, and purity of heart, this last the only mystical or sacramental one among the four, which Herodotus also mentions as the motive of the Egyptians, Kaffa- Pi6tt)to5 elWa (II, 37). Physicians prescribe circum- cision in certain cases, for instance, to guard against phimosis, balanitis, and other such evils; further, Bo- senzweig recommended its general adoption in the Prussian army (Zur Beschneidungsfrage, 1878). That the ceremony had some relation to initiation into manhood, at the marriageable age, seems to receive support from the custom of certain tribes of being circumcised at the age of puberty; and also from the fact that the Arabic word khatan signifies to circum- cise and to be allied by marriage.

It is strange that the universal practice of circum- cision among those who profess Mohammedanism is neither based upon, nor sanctioned by, the Koran. Was this silence observed by the Prophet of Islam be- cause there was no need of prescribing what already had the force of law or, perhaps, because it did not seem to him to have any religious significance? How- ever we explain his silence, tradition, by appealing to his authority, soon gave to the practice all the weight of his sanction. The age at which the Arabs were cir- cumcised was, according to Josephus (Ant., I, xii, 2), thirteen years, in imitation of Ismael (Gen. xvii, 25). At present the regular time for circumcising Moham- medan children is between the ages of seven and twelve years. The Bedouin tribes too, though not scrupu- lous Islamites, have adhered faithfully to this usage of their forefathers. A short description of the cere- mony of circumcision among the nomads of the Sina- itic peninsula may be read in the " Palestine Explora- tion Fund, Quarterly Statement" (Jan., 1906, p. 28). The writer says that the ceremony has "nothing re- ligious" about it: yet, as he states, the beginning of the Koran is recited on the occasion.

The relation, if there lie any. between Gentile and Jewish circumcision is an interesting subject. The clear statement of the Bible that circumcision was given to Abraham, as ''a sign of the covenant" (Gen. wii, 11), heed not, compel us to believe that hitherto it was unknown in the world. Like the law of clean and unclean, in food and daily life, it may be regarded as a practice of venerable antiquity that was adopted and adapted to express what it had not expressed be- fore. The rainbow existed from the first days of rain and sunshine, for it is the result of both, but the Lord gave its future significance to Noe. The same is true of incense, sacrifice, and lustra] water, which, though found very early among nations not in touch with rev- elation, are yet prescribed by Divine ordinance and used in Divine worship. If, therefore, we question the assertion of Herodotus, that circumcision was of Egyp- tian origin, and was adopted from the Egyptians by surrounding nations, and, among these, by the Syrians (Jews) of Palestine, it is not because of theological scruples, but rat Iter because of lack of argument. \\ oatever may be said about Herodotus as a witness

in matters that fell under his personal observation, when he argues, his authority is only in proportion to the weight of his arguments, and these are. in many instances, mere conjectures. Artapanus, quoted by Eusebius (Pra>par. Evan.. IX. xxviii), goes so far as to say that the Egyptians adopted the practice of cir- cumcision from Moses.

The illustration of the ceremony of circumcision pictured on the ruins of Karnak. is probably later than

the '-:"i\)n down of Israel into I gypt. It ie given in Andrce's work. pp. Is7. l.ss i- belov |; and also in F.bers, "Aegypten etc.", pp.278 284 (see below), who, moreover, discusses the inferences to be drawn from the finding of a i ircumcised mummy. \\> may safely say, however, that up to our tune the monuments of antiquity furnish no conclusive proof that circum-