FORESKIN, or Præputium, the skin which covers the nut of a man’s natural part, and is cut when a child is circumcised. We have spoken at large of this ceremony in the article of CIRCUMCISION. Several Churches glory in possessing our Saviour’s Foreskin, which was cut off at his Circumcision. For example, the Cathedral-Church of Puy, in Velay; the Collegiate-Church of Antwerp, in the Low-Countries; that of our Lady de la Colombe, in the diocese of Chartres; the Abbey of St. Cornelius of Compiegne; the Church of St. John Lateran at Rome. It is very hard to reconcile all these different pretensions, since there can be but one Foreskin, and there is no certainty of its being preserved so long as our time.
Children are sometimes born without a Foreskin; which the Hebrews look upon as a particular favour of Providence. They maintain that Moses was born in this manner. Upon these occasions the child is not circumcised; the skin is only cut so as to draw some drops of blood.
As the Jews esteemed the Foreskin or Uncircumcision, as a very great impurity, and the greatest affront they could receive was to be called uncircumcised, they sometimes gave the Gentiles and strange people, in contempt, the name of Uncircumcised. And St. Paul, in his Epistle to the Romans, frequently mentions the Gentiles by the word Præputium, in opposition to the Jews, whom he names Circumcisio. Si præputium justitias legis custodiat, nonne præputium Rom. ii. 26. Gal. ii. 8.ejus in circumcisionem reputabitur? And in the Epistle to the Galatians, Creditum est mihi Evangelium præputii, sicut & Petro circumcisionis.
1 Macc. i. 16. 1 Cor. vii. 18. Bartolin. de Morbis Biblicis. Epiphan. de ponderib. & mensuris. Origen. Philocol. c. 1. Cornel. Celf. l. 7. c. 25.There is mention in the Maccabees, and in St. Paul’s first Epistle to the Corinthians, of a custom among certain wicked Jews, who being ashamed to appear circumcised, and wear this mark of their Religion, made use of the Surgeons art to conceal this pretended deformity, and make their Foreskin grow again. Origen acknowledges that some Jews put themselves into the Physicians hands for this purpose. And Epiphanius speaks of the instrument and means imployed to make the skin join which had been cut asunder. Cornelius Celsus, an eminent and ancient Physician, has written a chapter particularly concerning this operation. Galen mentions it in the same manner almost as Celsus; and Bartolin cites Æginetus and Fallopius, who have explained the manner how the marks of circumcision may be concealed. The same Bartolin cites a letter written by Buxtorf, the son, wherein he relates a great number of testimonies from Jewish Authors, who speak of this practice as usual among apostates from their Religion. The reader may consult our Comment upon 1 Macc. i. 16. where we have treated at large of this matter. See likewise St. Jerom, in Isai. c. LIII. and in Jovinian. l. 1. Liran. in 1 Macc. i. 16. Rupert. l. 9. De Victoria Verbi, c. 18. Haimo in 1 Cor. vii. 18. who maintain, that it is impossible to efface the mark of circumcision; to these you may add Origen, l. 4. de Principiis, c. 2. who seems to be of the same opinion.
As a consequence of this opinion, entertained by all true Jews, who looked upon uncircumcision, as a thing unclean, and dishonourable; circumcision on the contrary as a mark of honour and distinction; they use the Foreskin, or uncircumcised, in a figurative sense, to signify something impure, superfluous, dangerous and useless. For example, Moses says of himself, that Exod. vi. 12, 30. ערל שפתים Jer. vi. 10. Idem iv. 4. & ix. 26. Levit. xxvi. 41.he is of uncircumcised lips; that is to say, he had an impediment in his speech. Jeremiah says of the Jews, that they had uncircumcised ears, that is to say, they would not hear the instructions that were given them; he exhorts them to circumcise their hearts; literally, Take away the Foreskins of their hearts; be tractable and attentive. Moses inveighs against the uncircumcised hearts of the Jews, who would not obey the Lord. He says, that during the three first years after a tree is planted, all the fruit of it is unclean, and that no one should eat of it. Cum plantaveritis ligna pomifera, auferetis præputia eorum; poma quæ germinant, immunda erunt vobis. In the Hebrew, Fructus ejus erit vobis præputiàtus. We have the same expressions in the New Testament; St. Stephen reproaches the Jews, with the hardness of their heart, and their indocility, saying, Ye Acts vii. 51.uncircumcised in heart and ears, ye do always resist the Holy Ghost.