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Genesis 17 describes circumcision as the covenant sign God gives Abraham, done on the eighth day. Jubilees expands on this to describe circumcision happening before the creation of the world, with even the highest angels created already circumcised.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
Genesis 17:12
Hebrew Bible
11 You must circumcise the flesh of your foreskins. This will be a reminder of the covenant between me and you. 12 Throughout your generations every male among you who is eight days old must be circumcised, whether born in your house or bought with money from any foreigner who is not one of your descendants. 13 They must indeed be circumcised, whether born in your house or bought with money. The sign of my covenant will be visible in your flesh as a permanent reminder. 14 Any uncircumcised male who has not been circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin will be cut off from his people—he has failed to carry out my requirement.”
Jubilees 15:27
Pseudepigrapha
25 This law is valid for all history forever. There is no circumcising of days, nor omitting any day of the eight days because it is an eternal ordinance ordained and written on the heavenly tablets. 26 Anyone who is born, the flesh of whose private parts has not been circumcised by the eighth day does not belong to the people of the pact which the Lord made with Abraham but to the people meant for destruction. Moreover, there is no sign on him that he belongs to the Lord, but he is meant for destruction, for being destroyed from the earth, and for being uprooted from the earth because he has violated the covenant of the Lord our God. 27 For this is what the nature of all the angels of the presence and all the angels of holiness was like from the day of their creation. In front of the angels of the presence and the angels of holiness he sanctified Israel to be with him and his holy angels.
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Notes and References
... The election of Israel is thus an integral part of creation. This is signified by the emphasis in Jubilees that twenty-two acts were included in creation before the Sabbath, which correspond in number to the twenty-two generations from Adam to Jacob, whose descendants are ‘the children of Israel,’ the elect, who are ‘holy and blessed,’ and were added by God to the two orders of greater angels who were to rest on the Sabbath with God. Just like the Sabbath, circumcision is a sign, and Israel's adherence to this commandment makes them close to the angels ...
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