Saturday, January 02, 2016

The circumcision of Jesus

ANCIENT JEW REVIEW: On the Eighth Day of Christmas… (Andrew Jacobs).
And the eight days were fulfilled for circumcising him, and he was called by the name Jesus, which he was called by the angel before he was conceived in the womb. - Luke 2:21

Since antiquity Christians have imagined Jesus as an infant, circumcised according to Jewish Law on the eighth day of his life: the paradigmatic mark of the Jewish covenant on the Christian savior's body. While modern Christians may derive an irenic interfaith message from this image, this sign had quite a different significance in the first Christian centuries.

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Somewhat related posts are here and here.