The Book of Deuteronomy Excludes Circumcision

"The one who has crushed or mutilated genitals will not be admitted in the assembly of the Lord." - Deuteronomy (23: 2) ~ Michel Hervé Navoiseau-Bertaux

Paris, France - Modern exegesis [1] considers that, unlike the other books of the Bible, the Book of Deuteronomy was written under the direction of Moses with a great unity of style. Then, it is not content with condemning sexual mutilation in the Second Commandment.

Contrary to other books of the Torah, it does not speak about excluding the "noncircumcised" from the temple and the meal of Passover but insists upon the fact that the only condition of the Second Covenant is the respect of the Ten Commandments.

Indeed, introducing them [(*)], it takes care to affirm:

"Observe everything I lay down for you, without adding anything to it... " (13: 1)

We are in the presence of a Preliminary Commandment. Forbidding everything and thus sexual mutilation, that is not included in the following, it reduplicates the Second:

"... I am your God, a jealous God, who prosecute the crime of fathers... "

"The crime of fathers" can only be circumcision.

The Deuteronomy then speaks on thirteen occasions (4: 5, 4: 8, 4: 14, 4: 45, 5: 7, 5: 31, 6: 1, 6: 20, 7: 11, 7: 12, 8: 11, 11: 1) of "the laws and rules..." (4: 1) it advocates. But circumcision does not figure there any more than in the Ten Commandments. Neither does it figure in the regulations of verses 12: 1 to 27: 26.

On the other hand, Moses excludes distinctive physical signs; the consecration of the Jewish people to the divinity does not allow it to distinguish itself through gross exterior signs:

"You are the children of the Eternal, your God: do not cut your body, do not shave yourself between the eyes, in the honour of a dead man. Because you are a people consecrated to the Eternal, your God, and you are the one he, the Eternal, chose to be for him a special people amongst all the peoples spread over the earth." (14: 1)

Taking the opposite requirement to the exclusion of the intact, he distrusts the last (sexually maimed) survivors of the old warlike generation:

"The one who has crushed or mutilated genitals will not be admitted in the assembly of the Lord." (23: 2)

In order to notify the abolition of the commandment imposed to Abraham, he points out that the Eternal changed his mind between both Covenants:

"The Eternal did not conclude this covenant with our fathers but with ourselves, who are here today, all alive." (5: 3)

He does not ignore the ancient Covenant:

"... he will not forget the covenant of your fathers..." (5: 3)

but he seems to refer to the version of chapter 15 of the Book of Genesis, which does not mention circumcision, rather than to that of chapter 17. Then he explains the great difference of nature between both Covenants, a difference that condemns the Covenant through submission:

"The Eternal talked with you face to face..." (5: 4)

Both Covenants are discrepant; whereas Abraham had kept his face on the ground, the New Covenant is an alliance between equals, in which Moses obtained the abolition of sexual mutilation from Pharaoh:

"And now, Israel, the Eternal, your God, only expects from you that you should revere the Lord, your God, follow his ways in everything, love him and serve him with all your heart and all your soul, observing the precepts and laws of the Lord which I impose on you today, so that you would be happy." (10: 12-13)

On the other hand, we have seen that through prescribing "circumcision of the heart", Moses takes an ethical stand against circumcision of the flesh:

"Thus circumcise your heart, stop stiffening your neck." (10: 16)[(*)]

Inviting the Hebrews to relax, he underlines an obsessive symptom, undoubtedly a sign of pride but also of emotional distress, fear of beheading, of total castration, of impotence. This "circumcision" is granted by God as a grace:

"And the Eternal, your God, will circumcise your heart and your descendants' heart so that you love the Lord, your God, with all your heart and with all your soul, and make your living." (30: 6)

A reference to Abraham's Covenant, mention of the descendants is significant of the replacement of circumcision of the body by that of the heart.

It is obvious that the Book of Deuteronomy forbids circumcision.

Michel Hervé Navoiseau-Bertaux - June 9, 2012 - posted at SalemNews

[1] cf. the article "Bible" of the Encyclopaedia Britannica.

[(*)] An Eleventh Commandment synthesizes the first: "Thou shalt love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, all your soul and all your strength." (6: 5). Jesus-Christ extended it by recommending: "You will love your neighbour as yourself."

[(*)](*) Verses 10: 16 and 30: 6 are the only acceptations of the term "circumcision" in the whole book of Deuteronomy.

Michel Hervé Navoiseau-Bertaux (Sigismond) is the author of "Sexual mutilation: excision, circumcision, the victims' point of view", for free at circabolition.multiply.com; he is an Independent psychoanalysis researcher (Chercheur indépendant en psychanalyse) based in Paris, France, who works with Salem-News.com to help raise awareness of the massive societal problems connected to the blindly accepted, mutilating practice of circumcision.

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