Knife and Penis

This from the daily lectionary yesterday set me to thinking.

Abraham was 99 years old when he circumcised the flesh of his foreskin, and his son Ishmael was 13 years old when the flesh of his foreskin was circumcised. That same day Abraham and his son Ishmael were circumcised. All the men of his household, those born in his household and those purchased with silver from foreigners, were circumcised with him.

Genesis 17.24-27 CEB

I imagine a conversation among Abraham’s men over this little development in their lives.

Eliezer:  “The master is going to circumcise us tomorrow.”

Asher:  “What is circumcision?”

Eliezer:  “He will take a knife and cut off that flap of skin on your penis.”

Asher:  “What!?  That will hurt.”

Eliezer:  “I know.”

Asher:  “Knife and penis do not belong together.”

Eliezer:  “True.”

Asher:  “Why is he going to do this?”

Eliezer:  “He had another of his visions.”

Asher:  “I wish God would stop talking to him.”

The benefit of circumcision as a symbol of the covenant is that it was a permanent mark in the body itself — like a tattoo, although that can be removed with some effort.  The disadvantage is that one half of all Jews could not take part in the ritual that made you a Jew.  So circumcision contributed to a segregation of the sexes in Judaism, which continued on in Christianity (in spite of Galatians 3.28).  Even today, at the Western Wall of Temple Mount in Jerusalem, men pray on the left, and women on the right.  I have prayed at that wall.  Men get the larger share of the wall, no doubt because we had to endure the knife and penis thing.