circumcise, circumcision

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The Hebrew and Greek terms that are translated as “circumcise” or “circumcision” in English (originally meaning of English term: “to cut around”) are (back-) translated in various ways:

  • Chimborazo Highland Quichua: “cut the flesh”
  • San Miguel El Grande Mixtec, Navajo (Dinė): “cut around”
  • Javanese: “clip-away”
  • Uab Meto: “pinch and cut” (usually shortened to “cut”)
  • North Alaskan Inupiatun, Western Highland Purepecha: “put the mark”
  • Tetelcingo Nahuatl: “put the mark in the body showing that they belong to God” (or: “that they have a covenant with God”)
  • Indonesian: disunat — “undergo sunat” (sunat is derived from Arabic “sunnah (سنة)” — “(religious) way (of life)”)
  • Ekari: “cut the end of the member for which one fears shame” (in Gen. 17:10) (but typically: “the cutting custom”) (source for this and above: Reiling / Swellengrebel)
  • Hiri Motu: “cut the skin” (source: Deibler / Taylor 1977, p. 1079)
  • Garifuna: “cut off part of that which covers where one urinates”
  • Bribri: “cut the soft” (source for this and the one above: Ronald Ross)
  • Amele: deweg cagu qoc — “cut the body” (source: John Roberts)
  • Eastern Highland Otomi: “cut the flesh of the sons like Moses taught” (source: Ronald D. Olson in Notes on Translation January, 1968, p. 15ff.)
  • Newari: “put the sign in one’s body” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
  • Central Mazahua: “sign in his flesh”
  • Hopi: “being cut in a circle in his body” (source for this and above: Waterhouse / Parrott in Notes on Translation October 1967, p. 1ff.)
  • Mandarin Chinese: gēlǐ (割礼 / 割禮) or “rite of cutting” (Protestant); gēsǔn (割损 / 割損) or “cut + loss” (Catholic) (Source: Zetzsche)
  • Tibetan: mdun lpags gcod (མདུན་​ལྤགས་​གཅོད།), lit. “fore + skin + cut” (source: gSungrab website )
  • Kutu: “enter the cloth (=undergarments)” (source: Pioneer Bible Translators, project-specific translation notes in Paratext)

Learn more on Bible Odyssey: Circumcision .

Translation commentary on 2 Maccabees 6:10

See 1Macc 1.60-61 for what appears to be another version of the same story here.

For example, two women were brought in for having circumcised their children: The phrase For example is not in the Greek text, but translators may find that such an introduction is helpful in alerting the readers to the fact that this verse gives the first of two examples of Jews being punished for continuing to live as Jews. Verse 11 provides the other example. Brought in means “brought to trial” (New English Bible). Good News Bible says “arrested,” which shifts the focus slightly. Circumcising baby boys was, of course, an essential part of Jewish religion. A parent who had a baby circumcised clearly intended to defy the Syrian king and continue living as a Jew. For circumcised see the comments on 1Macc 1.15. It will be helpful to identify the children as “baby boys” (Contemporary English Version).

These women they publicly paraded about the city, with their babies hung at their breasts: The two women were forced to walk through the city streets in humiliation, before being put to death. The picture intended by with their babies hung at their breasts is not at all clear. It sounds as if the babies were hanged by their necks from their mothers’ breasts, but it is hard to imagine how this would be done. At least it does not present an immediately clear picture. In 1Macc 1.61 there is a reference to babies being hung from their mother’s necks. Maybe this is what is intended here: the babies were hanged from their mother’s necks, but dangling at the level of the mothers’ breasts. If this is the case, it would be clearer to say “with their babies hanging from their [the mothers’] necks.”

Then hurled them down headlong from the wall: The Greek verb rendered hurled them down headlong does not necessarily mean they were thrown head first. Here it simply means that they were thrown down in a violent manner. The wall refers to the city wall. This whole clause may be rendered “then they threw them down violently from the top of the city wall.”

Alternative models for this verse are:

• On one occasion, two women were brought to trial for having their baby boys circumcised. The Gentiles made these women walk through the city streets with their babies hanging from their necks [at the mothers’ breasts]; then they threw them down violently from the top of the city wall.

• On one occasion, they brought to trial [or, arrested] two women for having….

Quoted with permission from Bullard, Roger A. and Hatton, Howard A. A Handbook on 1-2 Maccabees. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 2011. For this and other handbooks for translators see here.