Was Noah’s flood meant to destroy the giants born to women seduced by angelic beings? And what exactly was the point of circumcision?
I continue here my discussion of Hebrew Bible points of interest by sharing two more of the side-boxes found in my book The Bible: A Historical and Literary Introduction, 2nd ed. (Oxford University Press). These are both taken from my chapter on the book of Genesis.
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BOX 3.1 SONS OF GOD AND THE DAUGHTERS OF MEN
One of the most mysterious stories in Genesis happens
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Today, most people circumcize their children as a matter of cleanliness and personal hygiene. Human waste and other stuff as well, can get stuck under the foreskin. This is particularly true when people wear diapers and clothing. Infections can and do occur, and they can become serious. It’s also possible that it can lessen the chances of a person passing on STDs.
I’ve always found circumcision as a way of making a covenant with God rather funny and peculiar. I can understand a tattoo, wearing the hair, or dressing a particular way, or something like that,… But circumcision?
I sometimes wonder if, in Jewish and other theologies, if something seems like a good idea and something that people should do, they just say it’s “the word of God”. & that’s all there is to it. Perhaps it has something to do with their way of understanding things.
Saying “most people” circumcise their male children is inaccurate. Only about 37 to 39 percent of males worldwide are circumcised (according to Wikipedia). Most Europeans I know look at the American predilection for circumcision of infant boys with bemusement sometimes shading over into horror.
You should see the look on the baby boys….
What I was saying was that of the people who do circumcize their children, most of them do it for reasons of hygiene. Not that most people on earth circumcize.
Apparently, they have ways of circumcizing that are not painful nowadays. Which can only be a good thing for those who do it.
Some neighbors of mine have a baby boy who seems to have that look on his face. If people are doing this, they really should make sure they have a good doctor who knows what they are doing.
I’ve met one adult man who told me he had had it done for reasons of hygiene and infection. It’s not something people talk about much. Perhaps we should. I’m wondering how things are going for people on both sides of the issue.
“One of the most mysterious stories in Genesis happens right at the beginning of the Flood narrative…”
Did the writer think he needed a reason for a worldwide flood that destroys the world?
Apparently. And he gives two (the giants and the wickedness of the humans)
It is possible that a global catastrophe occurred. It was a maritime event. It caused a massive Extinction Event. Many culture have preserved the history of the maritime global catastrophe as flood myths. Noah’s Ark is an analogy of the surviving land species – including isolated human populations.
Natural causes? A swarm of asteroids striking the oceans of a rotating Earth. Magnetic Pole reversal. The mantle or crust chose to separate the single supercontinent into the modern continents. Subterranean ocean(s) cracked the mantle as exploding volcanoes and earthquakes.
Obviously, GOD was angry. It was the easiest explanation.
1. “but the twelve sons of Jacob would not allow it because he was uncircumcised.”
The Bible often mentions Jews calling others uncircumcised. Is this an assumption due to the other men not being one of them? How do they know who is circumcised and who is not?
2. “Egyptians, Edomites, Moabites, and Ammonites also circumcised ”
Did these people make as big of a deal about circumcision as the Jews did?
They certainly did it. I suppose that was a bid deal!
I think the “angelic beings” were really aliens. If angels are indeed spiritual beings it would have been impossible for them to have sex, as they are sexless. The Annunaki were aliens who came to earth to mine gold. It could have been their offspring that mingled with humans.
Circumcision: I am not Jewish but I am circumcised. I am 73 years old and when I was born it was done routinely for health reasons, or so I was told. Who knows. It’s weird.
Another possibility for circumcision is that it originated as a way to get war trophies. Chopping off the foreskin was a way to show you had defeated another male in combat (You could string them on a necklace, perhaps!). If you captured him the foreskin showed your victory and the defeated was marked as such without being killed. Circumcision may have been a mark of someone defeated and now enslaved. Later this became a religious symbol: you are now God’s slave/servant. In 1st Samuel 18 David is tasked by Saul to prove himself by collecting 100 Philistine foreskins: this may be a memory of how foreskins were used to show your prowess in combat. Of course, David either loved killing or loved foreskins, so he collected 200, not just 100!
Are there ways of making circumcision non-painful nowadays?
Yup!
Well that story of The Shechem escalated quickly. Definitely not a story i heard in Sunday school.
A Pakistani colleague, many years ago, said he was circumcised at 14 and immediately afterwards had to ride a donkey to a party in his honor. Ow
Ah, Circumcision. I have so many questions. Like did men go around naked or how would they know if someone had been done or not? Why not something more noticable like a finger or something?
And did they think it gave some benefit, like health or easier sex or something?
What a weird idea in the first place.
In Judaism it had the benefit of making a person a member of God’s covenant, and so one of the Chosen ones. But the idea of it affecting health is a fairly modern one, I believe.
One of my Bible college professors said circumcision was a problem for Jews after Hellenization of ANE. Going to the public baths meant being exposed as a Jew since the baths were mostly nude.
Yup, that’s apparently true.
Angels seducing women. That is from the Book of Enoch. A highly placed editor inserted it into the Genesis scroll or codex as an existing copy was being hand-copied for preservation. The arrival of the children of the Babylonian Captives in 500 BCE introduced the Persian religions of Yazidism and Zoroasterism into the Jewish Scriptures and extra-canonical writings. Job, Zechariah, the latter chapters of Daniel, perhaps sections of Ezekiel, perhaps some Wisdom Literature: any text about Satan, satanic angels, arch angels (Gabriel, Michael). Job might have come from the eastern Diaspora after the mercenary army of Alexander the Great passed through.