Circumcision

In Genesis, circumcision is a sign of the weakness of flesh. Abraham’s flesh is a good as dead, and Sarah’s womb is barren. Yahweh’s promise will be fulfilled only if Yahweh does something that flesh cannot do. Circumcision is a renunciation of hope in flesh, a confession of impotence.

That is not what it appears to mean in some other ancient cultures. Egyptians practiced circumcision, but from the fragmentary evidence it seems that it was a sign not of impotency but of virility. Boys of 13 were circumcised, and in an extant text a boy boasts about how manfully he endured the procedure, without “hitting out” or “scratching.” Circumcision gave boys boasting rights.

In the Egyptian Book of the Dead, the sun god Ra circumcises himself, and the blood of his circumcision produces two minor guardian deities. Here circumcision enhances fertility; it is a sign of potency and not of impotence.