Library / Commentary on Joshua, Volume I

Book III: Commentary

Question VI. How many were circumcised? (Quotnam circumcisi fuerint?)

A little before this crossing of the Jordan, a third census of the whole people was made, and its sum found [to be] 601,730 (Num. 26 v. 51). And in that sum [there] were none of the warriors who were 61, 62, and beyond years [old], except our one Joshua, and Caleb (Num. 14); nor any Levites (Num. 26 v. 62). Therefore in that same sum [there] were only warriors of a twofold kind: namely, those who, when [they] emigrated from Egypt, were 20, 19, and under years [old]; and those who, in the following 40 years, had been born in the desert places. But the former [ones] are now not circumcised [again], but only the latter, as was explained above (quaest. 5). Now of these [there] were very many thousands — which, although they cannot be defined by a certain and precise number, yet the number can be entered upon from a good and clear conjecture, which errs little or nothing from the truth. For that whole sum [it] is permissible to divide, in a manner, into three parts: because, as the 20 years which were passed in Egypt before the departure — with the use of circumcision — stand toward that sum, so also the following 20 [years] which [were passed] in the desert, and again the other 20 which followed — that is, all the 40 in the desert without the use of that same circumcision. Therefore from that sum let us take away a third part — [those] who were circumcised in Egypt, namely, 200,576, or thereabouts (for we cannot divide into three precise parts) — [and there] will remain uncircumcised 401,154, or 401,153. But let us similarly add of the Levites — who (in the same Num. 26 v. 62) are said [to be] 23,000 — the two-thirds, that is, the 1,532 who remain, if we subtract from them the third part (that is, 766), or [rather] the 768 [reckoning the two who are always required for the whole sum]; [and] there will be, of all who were uncircumcised in the desert and circumcised beyond the Jordan — both from the other [tribes] and from the Levitical — 402,686, in this manner: 401,154 + 1,532 = 402,686.

Add now also those who had not yet come to the number of the warriors — that is, who were 20 years and under; and these, in the same proportion (another ~200,576), added to the former, make the sum of the circumcised [about 603,000]. [The figures are Serarius’s own conjectural reckoning.]

To cite this page

Nicolaus Serarius, S.J., “Question VI. How many were circumcised? (Quotnam circumcisi fuerint?),” in Commentary on Joshua, Volume I, English translation, Mind of the Church, https://mindofthechurch.com/works/serarius-joshua-1/315-question-vi-how-many-were-circumcised-quotnam-circumcisi/.

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