Forced circumcision is the circumcision of men and boys against their will. R 1 Maccabees relates the story of how Mattathias ca. In BC John Hyrcanus conquered Edom , which the Romans called Idumea; and the Idumeans were forcibly converted to Judaism, by threat of exile or death, depending on the source. Hyrcanus took also Dora and Marissa, cities of Idumea, and subdued all the Idumeans; and permitted them to stay in that country, if they would circumcise their genitals, and make use of the laws of the Jews; and they were so desirous of living in the country of their forefathers, that they submitted to the use of circumcision, and the rest of the Jewish ways of living; at which time therefore this befell them, that they were hereafter no other than Jews.
Scholars disagree on the interpretation of the sources. For example, Steven Weitzman believes the Idumeans were forcibly circumcised for political, not religious, reasons. Cohen , " Ptolemy 's claim, that the Idumaeans were compelled to be circumcised and to adopt Jewish ways, is a simplified account of what these urban Idumaeans experienced.
In this case, too, sources indicate that the residents were subjected to forced circumcision. He argues that Mattathias did not forcibly circumcise, but instead re-established circumcision among Jewish inhabitants of Judea "in strength". Greeks and Romans regarded circumcision as a mutilation of the male genitalia , but the practice is little discussed in Roman literary sources until the second century of the Christian era. Josephus, declaring that "every one should worship God in accordance with the dictates of his own conscience," claims to have saved the two Gentiles from forced circumcision.
According to Suetonius , Domitian c. Titus Flavius Clemens was put to death in 95 for adopting Jewish customs. In 96 Nerva relaxed the Jewish tax as applying only to those who professed to be Jews.
Sometime between and AD, the emperor Hadrian seems to have temporarily banned circumcision, on pain of death. Although Greco-Roman writers view circumcision as an identifying characteristic of Jews, they believed the practice to have originated in Egypt, [ 23 ] and recorded it among peoples they identified as Arab , Syrian , Phoenician , Colchian , and Ethiopian ; circumcision was a marker of "the Other".
