The Bible, Archaeology, and the Practice of Circumcision in Israelite and Philistine Societies

Abstract

The Bible portrays circumcision as having an important role in Israelite culture. Consequently, circumcision has received a great deal of scholarly attention. Some have viewed it as having an role, for example, for rites of fertility and marriage, whereas others have highlighted its role as an ethnic marker, differentiating the Israelites from groups. Circumcision, however, was practiced by many groups in the ancient Near East, and it is commonly accepted that if circumcision was an ethnic marker, it functioned mainly against the foreign Philistines, who did not practice it. Interestingly, all the biblical texts that depict the Philistines as ... (uncircumcised) project this reality into the premonarchic period (Iron I), regardless of their date, source, or genre. Not a single text, regardless of genre, uses this pejorative to describe the Philistines in the monarchic period (Iron II). This clear-cut dichotomy is supported by additional historical and archaeological lines of evidence (direct and indirect) and is in line with other changes in Philistine culture. All this seems to suggest that the Philistines started to circumcise in Iron II, the time when they ceased to manufacture their Aegean-inspired decorated pottery, adopted the local script, changed their foodways, and so on. This, in turn, gives us a better understanding of the significance of circumcision for the Israelites, and it appears that the and explanations are not mutually exclusive. Rather, they reflect different perspectives on the practice over time, as well as different views by different social fractions.(ProQuest: ... denotes non-US-ASCII text omitted.)The Bible portrays circumcision as having an important role in Israelite culture. Many scholars have stressed the significance of circumcision for rites of fertility and marriage, whereas others have emphasized its role as an ethnic marker. After briefly reassessing the significance of circumcision in Israelite society in the first part of the article, I will argue that the two explanations are not mutually exclusive. In the second part of the article, I will discuss the main group of ... (uncircumcised)-the Philistines. An examination of the biblical texts, along with the few available external sources and the detailed archaeological data we possess, seems to indicate that the Philistines were uncircumcised only during the pre-monarchic era and that during Iron II they practiced circumcision.I. Circumcision in the BibleCircumcision has been discussed extensively by biblical scholars.1 On the basis of references in the Pentateuch and especially in the P source, many scholars adopt such factors as fertility, initiation, and education as explanations for circumcision in ancient Israel. Those scholars, therefore, stress the role of this practice for internal negotiations within Israelite society.2 Roland de Vaux, for example, concluded that circumcision ?is regarded as that which makes a man fit for normal sexual life; it is an initiation to marriage.?3 Howard Eilberg-Schwartz offered an elaborate explanation for the rite and for why it was practiced on babies (rather than at an older age, as is common in circumcision-practicing societies), and even for why it is prescribed for the eighth day after birth.4 David A. Bernat summarized: ?The dynamics of circumcision in the Priestly literature are exclusively internal, and its ramifications are solely upon the relationship between Israel and her deity,? adding, ?Nowhere in the P document is circumcision configured as mark of ethnic identity of communal boundaries that distinguished Israelites from the surrounding nations.?5One of the main reasons for denying ethnic significance to circumcision is that many groups in the ancient Near East practiced circumcision.6 As Michael V. Fox noted, ?It would not be of much use in distinguishing the Israelites from their neighbors because many of them were also circumcised. …