their account of the fact as juft, that they might reconcile their fubjects to it, Gen. xxxiv. 13-24. which converfation feems to have been held more than 200 years before Joshua fucceeded Mofes as leader of the Jews.-And, finally, we faw from the words in the book of Joshua, a little ago produced, that all the males that came out of Egypt to go into Canaan through the wilderness, had endured this ceremony ere they removed thence. For which we may even bring Mr. Voltaire as a voucher *, as much as he contradicts himself in it.

Be the cause, however, what it will, of his grofs mifreprefentation, when he fays, 'The Jews, according to their own confeffion, were not circumcised till the days of Joshua, 'It may be proper, upon this occafion, to fhew, that the opinion of which he and

Thus, in Philofophical Dictionary, fame article, page 129. he writes,' The book of Joshua fays, that the Jews were circumcised in the defert.' Of which I cannot perceive the truth, unless he admit, that the males of the nation born in Egypt were circumcifed ere they left it. For the book of Joshua is express, that none of them, born during their pilgrimage in the defert, were circumcifed. It cannot be denied, indeed, that thus Mr. Voltaire contradicts his own affertion in the forty-ninth chapter of his Philosophy of History, which we have made the fubject of this fection. Nay, his own words a little before, in that very place of the Dictionary. For they run, 'The Jews ac

knowledge that they continued in Egypt 205 years; they say that ' in all that time they were not circumcifed.' But this cannot be helped. We have feen he does not fcruple to fay and unfay things, as well as that he does not hesitate to throw out affertions concerning the Jews, in flat oppofition to their own accounts in their facred books, which is the cafe in the last cited clauses; and again a little after, when he fays, page 130. The circumcifion of Abraham terminated ⚫ in himself; it was not till Joshua's time his pofterity underwent that ceremony.

some others are fo fond, that circumcifion prevailed more early among the Egyptians and neighbouring nations than among Abraham's defcendants, is deftitute of all good foundation.

pre

Account of the Heathen evidence upon which it is tended, that circumcifion among the Jews was of Egyptian original, with obfervations for destroying the force thereof.

By all who have contended, that the Jews borrowed circumcifion from the Egyptians, Herodotus's words * are much urged; who tells us, That the Colchians, and Egyptians, and Ethiopians, are ⚫ alone, of all men, circumcised from the beginning. That the Phenicians and Syrians, who are in Paleftine, themselves confefs they learned this rite 'from the Egyptians. But the Syrians who are about • Thermodon, and the river Parthenius, and the Macrones, who are their neighbours, fay they learned it lately from the Colchians. For those alone are * circumcised among men, and they appear to do it

in the fame manner with the Egyptians.' And then adds,' But as to the Egyptians and Ethiopians, I ⚫ cannot fay which of them learned it from the other, ❝ for it seems of antient standing. Nevertheless, that "it was introduced through intercourse with Egypt, this is to me a great proof, that those Phenicians who have commerce with Greece, do not imitate

* Lib. 2. cap. 104. (Edit. Steph. page 143.) the expreffion an aps, which I have rendered from the beginning,' Mr. Voltaire tranflates, from time immemorial.' Phil. Dict. page 1 27.

t

the Egyptians in circumcifing their children.' Diodorus Siculus + alfo affigns to the fame cuftom among the Jews an Egyptian original; for having confidered the Jews as an Egyptian colony like the Colchians, he obferves in fupport of this account, • Therefore, among both these races, children were circumcifed, the rite having been brought with them from Egypt.' In like manner I fhall allow, that Strabo bears teftimony to the derivation of

Lib. 1. page 24. Edit. Rhodom. Aιo xay жαрa тOIS YEVEσ! τέτοις εκ παλαιο παραδεδόσθαι, το περιτέμνειν τις γεννωμένες παρ δας, εξ Αιγυπτο μετενηνεγμένα τα νομιμα, and again in the fame book fpeaking of the Colchians, Ότι δε τυτο το γενος ΑιΓυπτιακον εςι ση μειον είναι το περιτεμναι της ανθρωπος παραπλησεως τοις κατα Αιγυπτον, διαμενοντός τε νομιμα παρα τοις αποικοις, καθαπερ και Tapa Tois Indayois, That this race is Egyptian, there is an evidence ' in their circumcifing men in like manner with the Egyptians, the ⚫ custom continuing with the colonists, as also with the Jews.'

Lib. 16. p. 760, 761. He indeed fpeaks of a prevailing report, that the Egyptians were the progenitors #pofores of the Jews; yet he there represents circumcifion to have been only introduced among them, through the influence of fuperftitious men, who came into the priesthood long after their fettlement in Judea, and the death of Mofes and his fucceffors, instead of making it to have been carried with them from Egypt. Again, however, p. 824, treating of the Egyptians he fays, according to Xylander's Latin tranflation, 'Id de maxime laudatis eorum moribus eft, quod omnem prolem educant, circum- ' ⚫cidunt etiam mares, et feminas excidunt, quod Judaeis eft legitimum, * qui origine funt Aegyptii,Και το περιτέμνειν, και τα θηλέα εκτεμνειν, ὅπερ και τοις Ιεδαφοις νομιμον, και έτοι δε εισιν ΑιΓυπτιοι το ανεκαθεν. Should any think he intended to say, the Jews had derived the practice he attributes to them with relation to females, from their Egyptian extraction, rather than circumcifion, fince he had before faid, it was brought in by fuperftition in a later age; it may be answered, perhaps he meant by όπερ here that περιτέμνειν, as well as εκτεμrer Onnea was lawful to the Jews, and the fruit of their being origin

this ceremony among the Jews from the Egyptians, because he makes them their defcendants, whatever room there may appear for difputing it. Celfus, again, two centuries after, is express that the ceremony was practised by the Egyptians ere it was received among the Jews, and then + remarks, 'They were t "not more holy through the use of it, than other people 'who in like manner performed it.' To the fame purpose, finally, fpeaks ‡ Julian, Those men, (Abra'ham, Ifaac, and Jacob,) being Chaldeans of the fa'cred and prieftly race, learned indeed circumcifion, having fojourned with the Egyptians.' Such is the heathen evidence from which it is concluded, that circumcifion was in previous use among the Egyptians.

But furely the authority of those writers fhould not be fufficient to perfuade us, that it was an Egyptian rite, antecedent to God's appointment of it unto Abraham and his pofterity, as a token of the covenant between him and them, and to its immediate obfervation among them thereon; for they are all of an age much too late to be depended on as fafe guides about the point, fince Herodotus flourished almost a thousand, and the oldest of the other four more than 1400 years after that event. What tho' the most antient, and in this refpect the most credible of them, had fuch information as he gives us, from the priests of Egypt? (for from them he declares he

ally Egyptians, because he had mentioned both among Jewish cuftoms, I have therefore ranked him among the heathen witneffes to the rife of circumcifion among the Jews from Egypt, p. 761.

Origen adv. Celf. lib. 5. p. 259.

Cyrill. adv. Julian, lib. 10. p. 254.

received all his knowledge + of the affairs of that country,) it doth not therefore follow, that the Egyptians, with the Ethiopians and Colchians, were the only people on earth who practifed circumcifion from the beginning, and who taught it the rest of mankind; for the heathen nations in general, and the Egyptians in particular, were ready to arrogate a far higher antiquity* than in truth belonged to them, and that they might justify such pretenfions, to represent certain ufages as of very long continuance among them, which had been but of recent establishment. Yea, what though he committed no mistake, in affirming as he does, that the Syrians in Paleftine owned they adopted circumcifion from the Egyptians, which yet all will not admit? Might not thefe Syrians in Palestine be the Samaritans, who, notwithstanding they conformed in many things to the Mofaic ritual, in order to avert the displeasure of the God of the land, were always unwilling to be thought to have any connection with the Jews, when this people was in diftrefs? for thro' this temper it is easy to fee, they would be ready to derive their performance of the ceremony from the Egyptians or any Gentile nation, rather than confefs it was borrowed from the Jews, however false such account of its rife among them might be in fact: and is it not the more probable, these Syrians in Palestine, whom he mentions, were that mixed people, (compofed at firft partly of the remnant of the ten tribes of

+ Herodot. lib. 2. cap. 46.

* What lies they told about this may be seen in the fame book of Herodotus, for inftance, they said that from their first king to Se thon was an interval of more than 11000 years.