Abstract
To the Editor:— While it is true that this rite had been practiced among other peoples before Israel in the ancient world, for the Jews the practice of circumcision has nothing whatsoever to do with the assumptions cited by Dr. Morgan. The reason for the Jewish rite of circumcision is based solely on the divine commandment to Abraham some 3,600 years ago: This is My covenant, which you shall keep, between Me and you, and your children after you: every male shall be circumcised... (Genesis 17: 9-14). Thus for Abraham and his descendants this rite was to be the external sign of the covenant, the eternal symbol of the consecration of the children of Abraham to the God of Abraham. The Maccabean martyrs died for its observance, and in the times of the Hadrianic persecutions Jews sacrificed even their lives in defense of this sacred rite. W. K. C. M.
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