할례에 대한 문화적 견해 차이 - 고대 그리스 로마인과 유대인의 상반된 인식을 중심으로 -

Abstract

This study examines the controversial understanding on circumcision between the Greco Roman world and the Jewish world. The Greeks and the Romans had a strong negative perception against the Jewish circumcision. Jews viewed their circumcision as a holy covenantal action between God and man so that they considered the mark on their penis as divine signature of God. However, the Greeks and the Romans considered the Jewish circumcision simply a mutilation of the body and an uneducated barbarian custom. Analysis on the writings of Greek and Roman writers such as Herodotus, Hacataeous, Diodorus, Tacitus, Satiricon, Persius, Domitianus and so on shows their negative understanding on circumcision and antisemitic attitude against the Jews due to their Greco Roman cultural code. Greek vase paintings and Greco Roman statues frequently show the ideal shape of the penis and the beauty of male genital aesthetics. Those pictures and the statues show the ideal shape of the prepuce in ancient Greece and Rome. The Greeks valued the longer prepuce for a ideal penis and they enjoyed the aesthetic preference for the longer, tapered prepuce. That was a reflection of a deeper ethos involving Greco Roman cultural identity and morality. It was a great shame for them to expose the glen in public while they wrestle or do other sport activities. In order to prevent the exposure of the glen with their naked activities they fastened the end of the prepuce with the thin leather and draw their penis upon the bottom of the lower stomach and tie the leather around the waist. That leather made device was called kynodesme. With kynodesme the glen was secured inside the prepuce so that they were able to prevent the exposure of the glen in public. Accordingly, the violation of this ethos was prohibited. Thus it was a full mockery if one is found with exposed glen in public in the Gymnasium. Josephus the Jewish historian in the 1st century reported there were Jews who had surgery recovering the prepuce in order to hide the glen while they were naked. The book of Maccabeus and the book of Jubilee also witness that it was popular among Jews who hide their circumcision in order to meet the cultural code of the Greco Roman world at that time. However, the rabbinic writings witnesses that the Jews set the new regulations for the circumcision which is called periah. With the practice of periah they were able to avoid the restoration surgery of the prepuce among Jews. They cut the prepuce deep into the penis and tear the skin of the prepuce with their thumb nail or with the sharp object so that no Jews would have th restoration prepuce surgery later. The reconciliation between two cultures on the issue of circumcision never have accomplished throughout the ages up to now. Different cultural code between two people produced a controversial cultural interpretation on the same subject through out the ages.