Bible Review

Our oldest textual reference to the operation is an Egyptian inscription from 2300 B.C.E. A man boasts, “When I was circumcised, together with one hundred and twenty men, there was none thereof who hit out” (trans. by John A. Wilson in James B. Pritchard, Ancient Near Eastern Texts Relating to the Old Testament [Princeton: Princeton Univ. Press, 1969], p. 326). Our first graphic depiction of the operation also comes from Egypt, from a bas relief at Saqqara dated to about 2400 B.C.E.

The controversy arises from the negative connotations of “mutilate.” Cultures that practice initiatory mutilation consider themselves not to be spoiling the body but perfecting it.

See Walter Burkert, Creation of the Sacred (Berkeley: Univ. of California Press, 1996), pp. 34–55.

Dan Brown, The Da Vinci Code (New York: Doubleday, 2003).

Michael Baigent, Richard Leigh and Henry Lincoln, Holy Blood, Holy Grail (New York: Dell, 1982).

For more on Glastonbury and its surrounding legends, see Ronald Hutton, “Glastonbury: Alternative Histories,” in his book Witches, Druids and King Arthur (London: Hambledon and London, 2003).

See Barber, Holy Grail, pp. 167–172.

See Barber, Holy Grail, pp. 135–147, esp. p. 144.

See Barber, Holy Grail, pp. 116–124.

Quoted in Barber, Holy Grail, p. 167.