Circumcision
was not unique to the Israelites, and many cultures before Abraham practised
such. The following comes from the only possible illustration of circumcision
in Egypt during the Old Kingdom period (ca. 2700-2170 BC) and is from the Tomb of Ankhmahor at Saqqara:
Left scene.
Above the
man with the stone: Hold him still; don’t let him faint resist
The man
holding the “patient”: I’ll do as you wish.
Right scene.
The “patient”:
Cut well.
The man with
the knife: I shall do
it without pain. (Nigel C. Strudwick, Texts
from the Pyramid Age [Writing from the Ancient World; Atlanta: Society of
Biblical Literature, 2005], 403)
One hopes
that the man with the knife had a steady hand . . . ;-)
