Syrians in Palestine Practice Circumcision
About This Entry
Herodotus, writing in the fifth century BCE, provides the first testimony in Greek to Jewish circumcision (his reference to “Syrians in Palestine” likely refers to Judeans). Like many Greek ethnographers after him, Herodotus asserts that these “Syrians” learned the practice from the Egyptians.
[T]he Colchians and Egyptians and Ethiopians are the only nations that have from the first practiced circumcision. The Phoenicians and the Syrians of Palestine acknowledge of themselves that they learned the custom from the Egyptians. [ . . . ]
Credits
Herodotus, Histories 2.104.2–3, from Herodotus, vol. I, trans. A. D. Godley, Loeb Classical Library, vol. 117 (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1920), p. 393.
Published in: The Posen Library of Jewish Culture and Civilization, vol. 2: Emerging Judaism.
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Antiochus’ Prohibition of Circumcision
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On the Special Laws 1.2–11