Jewish Invention Myths: Circumcision
Circumcision is one of the most fundamental rites in all of Judaism and jewish history. So thus, it should come as no surprise that jews have repeatedly tried to claim that ‘they’ invented it. (1)
The problem is that we’ve long known that it was present in predynastic Egypt (2) and also present in Palestine and Syria long before jews became… well… jews. (3)
Given this it is almost certain that the jews of biblical history simply carried it over from either local Phoenician/Canaanite, Syrian and/or Egyptian religious/cultural ritual into Second Temple Judaism and then Rabbinic Judaism.
Indeed, the first hard archaeological evidence for circumcision as a practice occurs in what is now Algeria before 6,000 B.C. – (4) and could possibly date to as early as 10,000 B.C. – (5) and then spread from there to ancient Egypt. (6)
We know this because we have evidence from jewish style Brit Milah circumcisions in Egypt (7) which have been dated to circa 6,000 B.C. (8) and we have extent circumcised Egyptian mummies that date as early as 4,000 B.C. (9)
Therefore we can see that jews certainly did not invent circumcision since it was around thousands of years before they even existed!
References
(1) For example: https://boulderjewishnews.org/2009/an-informal-list-of-jewish-inventions-innovations-and-radical-ideas/; https://jewishstandard.timesofisrael.com/when-is-a-jew-not-a-jew/
(2) Jack Sasson, 1966, ‘Circumcision in the Ancient Near East’, Journal of Biblical Literature, Vol. 85, No. 4, pp. 473-474
(3) Ibid., p. 476
(4) https://web.archive.org/web/20221026015942/https://media.africanrockart.org.s3.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/26145300/NG_Ancient-art-of-the-Sahara-June-1999.pdf
(5) Jitka Soukopova, 2017, ‘Central Saharan Rock Art: Considering the Kettles and Cupules’, Journal of Arid Environments, Vol. 143, p. 12
(6) https://web.archive.org/web/20221026015942/https://media.africanrockart.org.s3.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/26145300/NG_Ancient-art-of-the-Sahara-June-1999.pdf
(7) John Willis, 2010, ‘Yahweh and Moses in Conflict: The Role of Exodus 4:24-26 in the Book of Exodus’, 1st Edition, Peter Lang: New York, p. 69; David Gollaher, 2000, ‘Circumcision: A History of the World's Most Controversial Surgery’, 1st Edition, Basic Books: New York, p. 3
(8) Ahmed Al-Salem, 2016, ‘An Illustrated Guide to Pediatric Urology’, 1st Edition, Springer: New York, p. 480
(9) Gollaher, Op. Cit., pp. 2-3