Why was circumcision invented?

Answer 1

it wasn't invented. It was commanded by God (Genesis ch.17).

Answer 2

Circumcision was first recorded by the Egyptians where it was done to adults of the upper classes. it is thought that the Jews adopted the idea from the Egyptians and the Muslims from the Jews. The only reason that this rite would be done would be for reasons of setting their people aside, from the rest.

Answer 2

Many people do not believe in that god. However, according to the Hebrew scriptures ("Old Testament" to Christians) that God instructed Abraham to circumcise himself, his sons, slaves and all their male descendants as a sign of his promise to make them a great nation. (It's a great mystery, which scholars discuss endlessly, giving many convoluted reasons, why the Creator of the galaxies, stars and planets, should demand just that particular surgery...)

According to the Greek scriptures ("New Testament"), Jesus was circumcised in the Jewish tradition. He was a baby and had no choice. St Paul, who was converting Gentiles (who were, understandably, unwilling to be circumcised) argued that male circumcision had been superseded by Jesus' self-sacrifice, by baptism, and by a "circumcision of the heart". Physical removal of the foreskin is therefore not a requirement of Christianity. Yet some Christian denominations still insist upon it.

The Hebrew scriptures say 'God created man in his own image', suggesting his design was a good one. (According to biology, the foreskin was formed by natural selection. If it had been harmful in any way, those with it would not have survived to leave as many descendants as those without it, and over the course many generations it would have ceased to develop - or never have formed at all.) The foreskin is not a 'mistake'. It has several protective functions throughout life, and its unique rolling action and the large number of nerves in it (~20,000) strongly suggest it also has pleasure-giving functions for both a man and his partner/s.

Answer 3

The origin of Jewish circumcision is in the Torah, which is the foundation of Judaism. God told Abraham "every male among you shall be circumcised" (Gen. 17) as part of the covenant between God and the Jewish people.

Since that time, virtually all Jews have observed the command of circumcision (Genesis ch.17) for close to four millennia, even in times of religious persecution under the Greeks, Romans, Spaniards, Soviets and others. Circumcision is the indelible sign of God's covenant with Abraham and is just as important as Yom Kippur in terms of the stringency which the Torah places upon it. And similar to Yom Kippur, it is one of the observances which are common to Orthodox, Conservative and Reform Jews alike.
While we do not keep God's commands because of physical benefits, it is still interesting to note that: Circumcision has been known to offer virtually complete protection from penile cancer. According to a recent review article in the New England Journal of Medicine, none of the over 1,600 persons studied with this cancer had been circumcised in infancy. In the words of researchers Cochen and McCurdy, the incidence of penile cancer in the U.S. is "essentially zero" among circumcised men.
Also, research at Johns Hopkins University Medical School in Baltimore have shown that circumcised men are six to eight times less likely to become infected with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. Researchers believe that protection is due to the removal of the foreskin, which contains cells that have HIV receptors which scientists suspect are the primary entry point for the HIV virus. (Reuters, March 25, 2004) Several studies reported that circumcised boys were between 10-to-39 times less likely to develop urinary tract infections during infancy than uncircumcised boys. In addition, circumcision protects against bacterial, fungal, and parasitic infections and a variety of other conditions related to hygiene. The extremely low rate of Cervical cancer in Jewish women (9-to-22 times less than among non-Jewish women) is thought to be related to the practice of circumcision. As a result of studies like these, a number of prestigious medical organizations such as the California Medical Association have recognized the benefits of circumcision. As an operation, circumcision has an extremely small complication rate. A study in the New England Journal of Medicine (1990) reported a complication rate of 0.19 percent when circumcision is performed by a physician. When performed by a trained mohel, the rate falls to 0.13 percent or about 1 in 800. When a complication occurs, it is usually due to the bleeding, which is easily correctable. No other surgical procedure can boast such figures for complication-free operations.
One reason why there are so few complications involving bleeding may be that the major clotting agents, prothrombin and vitamin K, do not reach peak levels in the blood until the eighth day of life. Prothrombin levels are normal at birth, drop to very low levels in the next few days, and return to normal at the end of the first week. One study showed that by the eighth day, prothrombin levels reach 110 percent of normal. In the words of Dr. Armand J. Quick, author of several works on the control of bleeding, "It hardly seems accidental that the rite of circumcision was postponed until the eighth day by the Mosaic law." See also:

http://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/144122/jewish/Brit-Milah-Circumcision.htm

http://www.milah.net/

http://judaism.about.com/od/lifeevents/a/britmilah.htm