[B-Greek] Who does the circumcision?

Tony Costa tmcos at rogers.com
Tue Mar 30 18:33:37 EST 2004


The text is found in Luke 2:21: "And at the end of eight days, when he was
circumcised, he was called Jesus, the name given by the angel before he was
conceived in the womb." (RSV) It was not necessary to go to the Temple for
circumcision. That could have been done locally, even at the local synagogue
or in the home. Jesus' parents are said to have gone to the Temple in
Jerusalem for the purposes of fulfilling the purification ritual after a
woman had delivered a child, not for circumcision. (see Luke 2:22-24)

Tony Costa

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Bart Torbert" <Bart.Torbert at ihsenergy.com>
To: <b-greek at lists.ibiblio.org>
Sent: Tuesday, March 30, 2004 6:18 PM
Subject: Re: [B-Greek] Who does the circumcision?


>
>
>
>
>
> I don't have a Bible handy to quote chapter and verse about Jesus being
> taken to the temple after he was born.  But presumably it was to get
> circumcised only with Mary being purified after childbirth.
>
> I can imagine that in the temple, seeing that bureaucracies never change,
> there were specific temple servants charged with circumcision.  But in the
> hinterlands it would have been a bit looser with a local Rabbi or other
> respected elder performing the task.
>
> I have made some inquiries into this point but don't have anything back
yet
> except that the specific office of mohel is mentioned in the Talmud.  This
> would date the office to a few hundred years after Jesus's time.
>
> Bart Torbert
> bart.torbert at ihsenergy.com
>
>
>
>
>
>              "Barbara D. Colt
>              "
>              <babc2 at comcast.ne                                          To
>              t>                        b-greek at lists.ibiblio.org
>              Sent by:                                                   cc
>              b-greek-bounces at l
>              ists.ibiblio.org                                      Subject
>                                        Re: [B-Greek] Who does the
>                                        circumcision?
>              03/30/2004 04:08
>              PM
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> Are any of you experts on the Jewish culture of the time?  Who was
> the customary minister of circumcision?  I can't think of any place
> in the NT that is clear about it.  Even for John the Baptist, we read
> "On the eighth day they (apparently the neighbors and relatives
> previously mentioned) came to circumcise the child."
>
>
> Barbara D. Colt, mailto:babc2 at comcast.net
> St John the Evangelist, San Francisco
> >From envy, hatred, and malice and all uncharitableness
> Good Lord, deliver us.
>
> ---
> B-Greek home page: http://metalab.unc.edu/bgreek
> B-Greek mailing list
> B-Greek at lists.ibiblio.org
>  http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/b-greek
>
> ---
> B-Greek home page: http://metalab.unc.edu/bgreek
> B-Greek mailing list
> B-Greek at lists.ibiblio.org
> http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/b-greek




More information about the B-Greek mailing list