Why would God want man's foreskin ?

In Genesis 17 God seals a covenant with Abraham and the Jewish nation.

"9And God said unto Abraham, Thou shalt keep my covenant therefore, thou, and thy seed after thee in their generations.

10This is my covenant, which ye shall keep, between me and you and thy seed after thee; Every man child among you shall be circumcised.

11And ye shall circumcise the flesh of your foreskin; and it shall be a token of the covenant betwixt me and you.

12And he that is eight days old shall be circumcised among you, every man child in your generations, he that is born in the house, or bought with money of any stranger, which is not of thy seed.

13He that is born in thy house, and he that is bought with thy money, must needs be circumcised: and my covenant shall be in your flesh for an everlasting covenant.

14And the uncircumcised man child whose flesh of his foreskin is not circumcised, that soul shall be cut off from his people; he hath broken my covenant. "

Now why would this God that created this planet want man to have his penis mutilated to show that he is a child of God? By the same token why should it be a child who is 8 days old and has no power to make this kind of long term decision, and definitely has no contractual capacity to enter into any covenant with anybody? Would it not make sense that say when the child is an adolescent and can actually make that decision that this God would want him to contract with him?

The next question - why the foreskin? What special significance does the foreskin have to God?

The final question is : Why in heaven's name would the Mohel ( the rabbi who actually does the circumcision) then have to suck the baby's penis.
It sounds terribly barbaric and primitive.

"Shabbath 19:2
They may perform on the Sabbath all things that are needful for circumcision: excision, tearing, sucking [the wound], and putting thereon a bandage and cumin. If this had not been pounded up on the eve of the Sabbath a man may chew it with his teeth and then apply it."

The Mishnah

Just a form of ritual mutilation. The Egyptian upper classes were doing too.

Circumcision in ancient Egypt was thought to be a mark of passage from childhood to adulthood. The alteration of the body and ritual of circumcision was supposed to give access to ancient mysteries reserved solely for the initiated. The content of those mysteries are unclear but are likely to be myths, prayers, and incantations central to Egyptian religion. The Egyptian Book of the Dead, for example, tells of the sun god Ra performing a self-circumcision, whose blood created two minor guardian deities. Circumcisions were performed by priests in a public ceremony, using a stone blade. It is thought to have been more popular among the upper echelons of the society, although it was not universal and those lower down the social order are known to have had the procedure done. The Egyptian hieroglyph for "penis" depicts either a circumcised or an erect organ.
en.wikipedia.org...

[edit on 28-1-2009 by Sonya610]

Its a pagan tradition...ancient practice. Something that man came up with, not God.

2nd line.


Cheers!!!!

reply to post by Sonya610


Sonya, I was just thinking how incredibly pagan the right appears to be. My penis is so important that even God wants a piece of it. It really sounds like an earthling wrote this not a divine being.

reply to post by Mynaeris


The mohel doing that came from the Talmud, NOT the Tenach.
I don't know why, my self.
Just a identifying mark, I think?

reply to post by Mynaeris


What? You're a man?
Didn't know that.

Well male humans are born with a foreskin so if you creationists believe we are created by God and then that God commands you to cut the foreskin off then it begs the question why did he create such a thing as a foreskin in the first place? Dumb God.

This must be the third penis related thread in 24hrs.

reply to post by Clearskies


Nope Supergirl is all woman, baby.

Maybe I should have put that in quotation marks or something.

reply to post by Mynaeris


Thanks for the clarification.
Isn't there medical research that found circumcision to be helpful against STDs?
I'll look it up.

edit to add: Found some.
From wiki

The World Health Organization (WHO; 2007), the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS; 2007), and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC; 2008) state that evidence indicates male circumcision significantly reduces the risk of HIV acquisition by men during penile-vaginal sex, but also state that circumcision only provides partial protection and should not replace other interventions to prevent transmission of HIV.

[edit on 28-1-2009 by Clearskies]

OK well just try to tear off the skin of a 14 year olds penis and if he is worth anything he is gonno fight to keep it.
Is any teen ager gonno voulntary do it . i dont think so .I did not have a choice.
It was done when i was born.
.Also Ive heard it keeps it cleaner, Less prone to disiese
And my Elder told me thrid world countries the people men folk dont live as long because of it.
I was not gonno have my son get cut but my wife insisted on it , funny wasnt her getting cut ,any way my 2 cents

reply to post by Soloman Kane



I knwo many women who prefer a man in a turtleneck. Yes like female genital mutilation , male circumcision is often pushed by the mother.

My parents wouldn't let them do it to my brother. I highly doubt that anyone dies sooner due to not having the procedure done. If I ever have a son, they're not going to do it to him. My cousin told us how they do it when she had her first child circumcised and it sounds downright awful.

I wont be putting any child of mine through that just for some silly rite of passage.

12And he that is eight days old shall be circumcised among you, every man child in your generations, he that is born in the house, or bought with money of any stranger, which is not of thy seed.

Anyone else find it odd that this god condones slavery as well?
Not only may you purchase people, you must also make sure they are circumsized as well? God must really like foreskins.

I agree with the statement "barbaric and primitive".

The idea is that you are giving a piece of your ability to reproduce to god; and as such are surrendering a psychological and spiritual part of yourself towards what morals you consider he/she/it represents.

It's meant to be voluntary, so that people can make the religious choice in full conscience of what they are doing.

So Mohammad married a seven year old,
Jesus had a prostitute foot fetish
Rabies mutalate then suck babies penis's.

Religion is a bit odd really isn't it?

Am I really meant to think that the wisest and greatest being in the universe told them to do these things? haha crazy metally delusional perverts all of them.

Did you see that ladies are supposed to keep 'proof of virginity' if it #heh# 'falls our'and this is to be examined at the marrage, ewwww... bit of cloth with a hymen in anyone? I suspect the clergyman #HAD# to poke around inside the occasional woman to confirm it was still in place too, these people are crazy.

And what exactly is with this sucking of the baby's penis by the Mohel? Sounds incredibly ritualistic to me. And not in a good way either.

Originally posted by Mynaeris
And what exactly is with this sucking of the baby's penis by the Mohel? Sounds incredibly ritualistic to me. And not in a good way either.

I think...and I find it a bit disturbing that I had to ponder this...that maybe the sucking part is supposed to be a bit like cleaning the wound. You know, like when you cut your finger a little and you suck it to get rid of the blood?

It is not just religious people who do this.

This is wide spread in America and has been for who knows how long. Seriously. And many (most?) people having their sons circumcised here in America are NOT doing it for religious reasons. Its not just Jews circumcising their sons.

So why is this?

Lets clear something up. Circumcision only helps lower the risk of STDs in an individual with poor hygiene. If you don't wash your willy, you may be more likely to get a bug.

My guess, and this seems to be backed by the historical evidence, is that circumcision was used to prevent medical complications in a population that had poor hygiene. Water was scarce, knowledge of proper hygiene was non existent, and someone came up with the idea of removing a bit of flesh that, if not kept clean, could lead to problems. The old testament is full of stories where people had their feet washed, but you never hear them talking about washing their penis.

Sadly, it is nothing more than barbaric ritualized mutilation. It destroys countless nerve endings and forever, the individual will lack sensation in that area. But then again Jewish mothers love to control the sex lives of their offspring.


Or... God likes it because when fried, it tastes like Bacon. Forskin, the other white meat. Kosher???? Maybe that is why the Mohel puts it in his mouth after he cuts it.

[edit on 28/1/09 by Terapin]

As it says in the bible they had a big pile of forskins , right after the God said to cut part of your penis off .Talk about a blood sacerfice.
Is there a leget reason to do this Just cause a race of jews do it. and how does it carry into being an American practice?