THIS Ceremony is so ancient among the Jews, that it distinguished formerly God’s People from the idolatrous Nations; for which reason Divines, Commentators, and Criticks, have fully treated of it; and this obliges us to make a particular Article of it, though we shall treat of it again on Genesis.
Spencer speaks of it in his Work, De Legibus Hebræorum Ritualibus, l. 1. c. 4. sect. 2, 3. John Marsham, in his Chronological Canon, the fifth Age. Bartolocci, in his Rabbinical Library, tom. 3. p. 468.
See our Dissertation on the Original of Circumcision, prefixed to our Comment upon Genesis; and concerning the Effects of Circumcision, before our Comment on the Epistle to the Romans.
Fabricius, in his Bibliographia, ch. xi. numb. 24. refers us to the Talmud, in the Treatise of the Sabbath, tom. 2. of Surenhusius’s Edition, p. 62, &c.
Philo Judæus, in his Book of Circumcision, gives reasons why God instituted it. St. Justin, in his 102d Question to the Orthodox; Photius, in his 248th Letter: Sebastian Schmid, in his Dissertations, p. 213. Suicer, in his Observationes Sacræ, the 57th and following Pages: Peter Rhedan, upon the first Book of Maccabees, p. 207, &c. Simon Episcopius, in his Theological Institutions, tom. 1. of his Works, p. 45.
Anastasius Sinaita, Question 28. pretends that the Egyptians borrowed it from the Israelites. St. Jerome says they receiv’d it from Joseph the Son of Jacob; and this, as he takes notice in his Comment upon Jeremiah, ch. ix. 25. according to the Tradition of the Hebrews. There are others, on the contrary, who maintain that the Hebrews received it from the Egyptians; upon which, see Fabricius, in the Place above-mentioned, p. 383.
Henry Krenschner has treated of the Circumcision-Knife, in a Book printed at Koningsberg, 1713, in 4to. See those likewise, who have written upon Exodus iv. 25. Ramires, in his Pentecontarchus, ch. iv. the Analecta of Matthias Zimmerman, the 412th and following Pages; the Literary News from the Baltick Sea, of the Year 1698, p. 29. Christian Wasewitz, in Turture Johanneo, p. 136.
There are other Authors who have treated of many things relating to Circumcision; as may be seen in Fabricius, p. 384. We pass them by here, because they come not within the Compass of our Design: We shall only enquire who was the ordinary Minister of it.
Richard Montague, in the 1st Tome of his Origines Ecclesiasticæ proves that it was performed by Laymen, p. 81. Grotius, in his Law of Natrue, p. 81. proves by the Manner of practising it, that any Person had a Power of circumcising, p. 18. and upon St. Luke, p. 59, of ch. 1. See the Commentators upon Exodus and Maccabees.
M. le Pelletier, of Rohan, has a fine Dissertation in the way of Letter, concerning the Original and Ceremonies of Circumcision; it is in the Memoirs of Trevoux. As for the Original of it, he pretends to shew that other People borrowed it from the Hebrews. As to Ceremonies, he finds fault with the Painters, who add many things in their Pictures contrary to what the Gospel tells us of our Saviour’s Circumcision.