Does circumcision promote sexual purity?

[Subduction Zone]

You might want to consider that the Egyptians were circumcising before the Jews. And in Oceania, circumcision is practiced by the Australian Aboriganls and Polynesians (since long before contact with the Abrahamic religions). There is also evidence that circumcision was practiced among the Aztecs and Mayans in the Americas, also before contact with Abrahamic religions. (This is less well attested, though.)

And if you think it promotes sexual purity -- well, sorry, you're quite wrong. Circumcised men are having just as much fun as the other sort.

If you have it done as an adult it can lead to sexual purity. For maybe as long as a month.

 

[Dan From Smithville]

I'm circumcised and impure.

I'm not and I am impure. No one circumcises rabbits. Just rabbis.

 

[John53]

I'm not and I am impure. No one circumcises rabbits. Just rabbis.

I'd like to have a chat with the doctor who did me, he took too much off

 

[beenherebeforeagain]

Circumcising a guy is in a way neutering him.

No. It in no way neuters a person, and it doesn't seem to have a great impact on sexual desire, experience, or performance.

 

[Dan From Smithville]

No. It in no way neuters a person, and it doesn't seem to have a great impact on sexual desire, experience, or performance.

Maybe sensitivity, but I doubt that it is much of a difference.

 

[Subduction Zone]

Maybe sensitivity, but I doubt that it is much of a difference.

Hard to say for sure. It is still lots of fun. It may decrease sensitivity which should please women, at least theoretically.

 

[Sand Dancer]

The covenant of circumsision is just another rule imposed in order to seperate an eternal nation from the others. From my POV, that's the 'why'.

I agree. The Hebrews were to be separate from the gentiles in many ways.

 

[Subduction Zone]

I agree. The Hebrews were to be separate from the gentiles in many ways.

Yeah, as an adult one is not going to want to join that club.

 

[beenherebeforeagain]

Maybe sensitivity, but I doubt that it is much of a difference.

I've never heard from anyone with experience with both states of existence...

edit

 

[Evangelicalhumanist]

Yeah, as an adult one is not going to want to join that club.

Paul certainly understood that!

 

[Evangelicalhumanist]

I've never heard from only with experience with both states of existence...

I actually have --- just once, so not much of a sample -- but he wanted it sewn back on!

 

[Revoltingest]

Has anyone ever told you that you are a genius?

Many other words, but never "genius".

 

[Subduction Zone]

Paul certainly understood that!

I can only imagine the reactions they received in trying to spread the word before Paul thought of his excuse for an exemption. And how did it ever become the norm in the US?

 

[beenherebeforeagain]

I actually have --- just once, so not much of a sample -- but he wanted it sewn back on!

I guess there's no hope of hearing from someone who started without, and got it added later...

 

[Glaurung]

The obvious answer is that the Hebrew Bible prescribes circumcision because circumcision was a long established practice of Afroasiatic speaking cultures. The Biblical narrative serves to provide the practice with a mythic/religious justification; which has nothing to do with sexual morality, so much as it does with tribal affiliation. Genesis is explicit about that.

 

[Dan From Smithville]

Many other words, but never "genius".

Great minds often go unrecognized in their lifetimes.

 

[Dan From Smithville]

I've never heard from anyone with experience with both states of existence...

edit

I'm not volunteering either.

 

[John D. Brey]

I think the purpose of circumcision is to promote sexual purity. I think the process of being circumcised is similar to neutering ones dog. When you neuter a dog, you take care of some behavioral issues that a tame animal shouldn’t have, right? Perhaps not the best comparison but that’s what I’m getting at. Circumcising a guy is in a way neutering him. Perhaps it makes it easier to control sexual urges and be pure. Israel was supposed to remain pure as they were the catalyst for the Messiah.

Very insightful. Brit milah, ritual circumcision, is ritualized emasculation. But the Talmud, with most other meaningful Jewish midrashim, makes it clear that brit milah, ritual circumcision, is also a sign, a signifier, an emblem. Which segues into your statement about messiah.

If brit milah, ritual circumcision, is a sign, an emblem, related to messiah, then we have a strangely kerygmatic nuance to brit milah since it's hidden unless the person who is circumcised is naked.

So if brit milah, ritual circumcision, is an emblem related to messiah, then only a naked messiah can reveal, and fulfill, the meaning, the symbolic import, of brit milah.

Which gives me an idea. Combine your question with the last three or four threads I've fed to start a new thread of my own: What did Jesus Look Like Naked.

Hopefully you won't mind me freeloading off your question.



John

 

[Dan From Smithville]

I actually have --- just once, so not much of a sample -- but he wanted it sewn back on!

That sounds worse than the removal process.

 

[Dan From Smithville]

Hard to say for sure. It is still lots of fun. It may decrease sensitivity which should please women, at least theoretically.

I don't think there is any hard science available.