The rite of circumcision was among those practised by the Egyptians, but whether it was performed with a stone knife, as was the case with the Jews when they came out of Egypt, is not certain. Among the latter people, not to lay stress on the case of Zipporah,[1] it is recorded of Joshua,[2] that in circumcising the children of Israel he made use of knives of stone. It is true that, in our version, the words חַרְבוֹת צוּרִים are translated sharp knives, which by analogy with a passage in Psalm lxxxix. 44 (43 e.v.), is not otherwise than correct; but the Syriac, Arabic, Vulgate, and Septuagint translations all give knives of stone;[3] and the latter version, in the account of the burial of Joshua, adds that they laid with him the stone knives (τὰς μαχαίρας τὰς πετρίνας) with which he circumcised the children of Israel—"and there they are unto this day." Gesenius (s. v. צוּר) observes upon the passage, "This is a circumstance worthy of remark; and goes to show at least, that knives of stone were found in the sepulchres of Palestine, as well as in those of north-western Europe."[4] In recent times the Abbé Richard, in examining what is known as the tomb of Joshua at some distance to the east of Jericho, found a number of sharp flakes of flint as well as flint instruments of other forms.[5]
Under certain circumstances modern Jews make use of a fragment of flint or glass for this rite. The occurrence of flint knives in ancient Jewish sepulchres may, however, be connected with a far earlier occupation of Palestine than that of the Jews. It was a constant custom with them to bury in caves, and recent discoveries have shown that, like the caves of Western Europe, many of these were at a remote period occupied by those unacquainted with the use of metals, whose stone implements are found mixed up with the bones of the animals which had served them for food.[6]
Of analogous uses of stone we find some few traces among classical writers. Ovid, speaking of Atys, makes the instrument with which he maimed himself to be a sharp stone,
"Ille etiam saxo corpus laniavit acuto."
The solemn treaties among the Romans were ratified by the
- ↑ Exod. iv. 25.
- ↑ Josh. v. 2.
- ↑ Ib. xxiv. 30.
- ↑ See also Tylor's "Early History of Mankind," 2nd ed., p. 217. The entire chapter on the Stone Age, Past and Present, is well worthy of careful perusal, and enters more fully into the whole question of the Stone Age throughout the world than comes within my province.
- ↑ C. R. du Cong. Int. des Sc. Anth. 1878. Paris 1880, p. 280. Comptes Rendus de l'Acad. des Sciences, vol. lxiii, August 28, 1871.
- ↑ Comptes Rendus, 1871, vol. lxxiii. p. 540.
