VOTE HERE: Final four questions for the Christian Debate

[I_am_not_mafia]

Circumcision was originally a Jewish only thing to differentiate Jews from non-Jews before the medical myths swept over into the USA and it started being done to non-Jews.

Wow, I just assumed they shook hands like everyone else.

[ignoramus]

I have a question I'd like to ask CL.

If a Christian has a poop, does it automatically become a holy sh ...oh never mind...

[Neo-Scholastic]

As the instigator of the thread, I can answer the first question.

The thread is in the debate section. It is there because my intention was to narrowly focus on a topic of specific concern of Christian members. I fully expected us to grapple with verses taken from the NT concerning the Great Commission and Pauline advice to believers. None of those would be relevant to anyone who was not a Christian. Additionally, Christians have a shared language a.k.a. "church-speak" and authority, i.e. Scripture. I felt that would make the discussion more productive, since we don't have to waste time backtracking to explain things we take for granted.

[Edwardo Piet]

Well The Jews originate from Israel. Fun fact: Circumcision was originally a Jewish only thing to differentiate Jews from non-Jews before the medical myths swept over into the USA and it started being done to non-Jews.

Then wouldn't the ethnicity just be "Israeli"?

Well I'm not quite sure how the ethnicity of modern Israel and the ethnicity of the Israel of the time differs. Also it may have been a particular area of Israel.

I don't know much about it really. But basically, originally at least, Judaism was only open to Jews and they were considered God's chosen people, from the Jewish perspective... they were not a missionary religion, basically. With Christianity and Islam you get both of those religions saying all is welcome and everyone can be a Christian or Muslim (and in the past if people didn't listen they got converted by force. Hence the crusades and all that jazz).

As far as I know there's not a such thing as a Jewish crusade to convert everyone into Jews. And as far as I know such a thing has never existed throughout history. Obviously there is technically no distinct lines to be drawn to determine what is one race and what is another race... but the Jews all felt that they were similar enough to know who was who (who was a Jew and who was a non-Jew), when Judaism was founded. And circumcision was one way of marking themselves as different from the rest.

Of course, the Jews have gotten a lot of unjust treatment throughout history (Hitler identified as Catholic and got the Pope on his side for instance). A lot of people got pissed off at them thinking they were God's chosen people.

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Well The Jews originate from Israel. Fun fact: Circumcision was originally a Jewish only thing to differentiate Jews from non-Jews before the medical myths swept over into the USA and it started being done to non-Jews.

Actually circumcision was an Egyptian thing with the earliest attestation to the practice going back to 2400 BC.... long, long, before there was any culture which could be identified as "jewish."

Interesting. I never knew that Min! (My history sucks).

Did the Jews come up with circumcision themselves or did they borrow it from the Egyptians or somewhere else?

Suffice to say: It's always been a religious thing until unscientific myths about health spread into America.