What if: No Circumcision

[Tate the Brewer]

I'm not trying to start a war here, since I know this is a very controversial topic (for some reason), but what do you guys think the consequences of a world where Judaism never adopts circumcision, or perhaps circumcision is not practiced within Islam would look like?


Might Jews and Muslims be better received by a European audience in these different scenarios?

 

[Minchandre]

I'm not trying to start a war here, since I know this is a very controversial topic (for some reason), but what do you guys think the consequences of a world where Judaism never adopts circumcision, or perhaps circumcision is not practiced within Islam would look like?


Might Jews and Muslims be better received by a European audience in these different scenarios?

Anecdotal stories such as Slavic kings choosing Christianity over Islam in part because of circumcision aside, it's only started being an issue in the past few decades. I can't imagine it'll have a huge impact.

You can even look at historical Christian propaganda against Muslims and Jews, and you'd be hard-pressed to find to many examples of "And they even mutilate their bodies, cutting off a part of their flesh and thus opposing the plan in which God made them!"

 

[Tripledot]

I think circumcision is the least of the problems Europeans had with monotheist (read: "atheist") religions. It might encourage more people to convert to Judaism, though I don't think it'll have a major effect on proselytization.

 

[Xenophonte]

It is difficult

It is difficult to avoid that circumcision which was already an traditional practice of the Semitic peoples, before becoming a religious mandate for the Jewish people; helping them create their unique identity as distinct from other peoples.

Given this context is difficult that could replace circumcision as a method and symbol its ethnic-religious self-identification.
The most likely option is that by some Pod early before or during their arrival in Canaan and contact with their inhabitants, was reduced to a tradition and remain as a popular, purely cultural habit not tied to the construction of its ethnic-religious identity as Jews.
Of course coexistence and possible conversions to Judaism, at least among the Gentile (goyim) of the Hellenic culture before Christianity he had been greatly facilitated ...

'' ... The Middle East in the 4th century BCE, and in the following centuries ancient Greek cultures and values beef to the Middle East.

The Greeks abhorred circumcision, making life for circumcised Jews living among the Greeks (and later the Romans) very difficult.
Antiochus Epiphanes outlawed circumcision, as did Hadrian, which helped the Bar Kokhba revolt cause. During this period in history, some Hellenized Jews attempted to look Uncircumcised by 'stretching'.

This was Considered by the Jewish leaders to be a serious problem, and During the 2nd century CE They changed the Requirements of Jewish circumcision to call for the complete removal, Emphasizing the Jewish view of circumcision as Intended to be not just the fulfillment of a Biblical also commandment but an essential and permanent mark of membership in a people .. ''

 

[Mike Stearns]

Having the Jews not adopt circumcision might mean that the Jews don't go to Egypt. Supposedly that's where the Jews first encountered the practice.

 

[Tate the Brewer]

You can even look at historical Christian propaganda against Muslims and Jews, and you'd be hard-pressed to find to many examples of "And they even mutilate their bodies, cutting off a part of their flesh and thus opposing the plan in which God made them!"

I think circumcision is the least of the problems Europeans had with monotheist (read: "atheist") religions. It might encourage more people to convert to Judaism, though I don't think it'll have a major effect on proselytization.

No offense, but I have always found these kind of arguments to be more than a little intellectually dishonest. Early Christianity spoke openly against the practice, and especially considering the fact that circumcision was and continues to be performed at an advanced age in Islam (sometimes as old as 13 years old, depending on the region). Early Europeans probably found the idea of holding your son down and taking knives to his genitals while he screams and begs you to stop as appalling as we do today when we witness it, and I have a hard time believing that this didn't contribute to the common image of Muslims as barbarians across Europe.

The Greeks abhorred circumcision, making life for circumcised Jews living among the Greeks (and later the Romans) very difficult.
Antiochus Epiphanes outlawed circumcision, as did Hadrian, which helped the Bar Kokhba revolt cause. During this period in history, some Hellenized Jews attempted to look Uncircumcised by 'stretching'.

This was Considered by the Jewish leaders to be a serious problem, and During the 2nd century CE They changed the Requirements of Jewish circumcision to call for the complete removal, Emphasizing the Jewish view of circumcision as Intended to be not just the fulfillment of a Biblical also commandment but an essential and permanent mark of membership in a people .. ''

For good reason


I think it would be very interesting to see a timeline in which Judaism is a much more open and proselytizing religion, as I think this was made largely impossible in Antiquity because of the ethnic groups that they were coming into contact with in the Mediterranean (Greeks and Romans) for more reasons than one, but this one being a very big barrier.

Given this context is difficult that could replace circumcision as a method and symbol its ethnic-religious self-identification.
The most likely option is that by some Pod early before or during their arrival in Canaan and contact with their inhabitants, was reduced to a tradition and remain as a popular, purely cultural habit not tied to the construction of its ethnic-religious identity as Jews.
Of course coexistence and possible conversions to Judaism, at least among the Gentile (goyim) of the Hellenic culture before Christianity he had been greatly facilitated ...

Side-locks, beards... some kind of other hairstyle? Religions and ethnic groups have all kinds of markers that don't involve anything like circumcision.


It would also be interesting, I think, if there could be a way for the practice to be lost when it was banned by the Greeks or the Romans, at least in Hellenic Jewish populations, which might facilitate a decrease in its popularity among Jews elsewhere.