No account of surgery in the Bible would be complete without mention of the exceedingly common and important operation of circumcision. The spiritual implications of the act of cutting off of the flesh and casting it away are reflected throughout Scripture from Abraham onwards, but for a moment we must consider the medical implications of this act as well. It is an operation practised in many parts of the world and in many races it has become part of tribal ritual (the earliest Egyptian mummies, B.C. 2300, were circumcised). In this country it was practised widely until 1949 when a paper was published in the British Medical Journal1 criticising the operation as being unnecessary in the great majority of cases; it is now seldom performed except when very definite indications are present. Nevertheless, Jewish children are still invariably circumcised on the eighth day by a specially appointed rabbi, who, it must be confessed, performs this operation with more expertness and skill than the finest surgeons in the country.
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Author: J. Weston Smith
Keywords: Circumcision, Circumcise, Circumcize, Penis, Foreskin, Removal of the foreskin, Performing circumcision, Jews circumcision, Penis foreskin, Circumcised, Circumcized, Penile cancer, Penis cancer
Bible reference(s): Genesis 17:10-14, Genesis 17:23-27, Genesis 21:4, Genesis 34:15, Genesis 34:17, Genesis 34:22, Genesis 34:24, Exodus 4:26, Exodus 12:44, Exodus 12:48, Leviticus 12:3, Deuteronomy 10:16, Deuteronomy 30:6, Joshua 5:2-8, Jeremiah 4:4, Jeremiah 9:25, Luke 1:59, Luke 2:21, John 7:22-23, Acts 7:8, Acts 10:45, Acts 11:2, Acts 15:1, Acts 15:5, Acts 16:3, Acts 21:21, Romans 2:25-29, Romans 3:1, Romans 3:30, Romans 4:9-12, Romans 15:8, 1 Corinthians 7:18-19, Galatians 2:3, Galatians 2:7-9, Galatians 2:12, Galatians 5:2-3, Galatians 5:6, Galatians 5:11, Galatians 6:12-13, Galatians 6:15, Ephesians 2:11, Philippians 3:3, Philippians 3:5, Colossians 2:11, Colossians 3:11, Colossians 4:11, Titus 1:10, Judith 14:10, 1 Maccabees 1:15, 1 Maccabees 1:60, 1 Maccabees 1:61, 1 Maccabees 2:46, 2 Maccabees 6:10, 4 Maccabees 4:25, 2 Esdras 1:31
Source: “Medicine in the Bible: Surgery,” The Testimony, Vol. 22, No. 260, August 1952, pp. 243-4.
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