significance of circumcision on the eighth day

[Brennno]

i would like to have a jewish understanding of why the newborns were circumsized specifically on the eighth day everything seems to be a visual aid and of great meaning for them, sometimes the little things mean so much.

[JohnD]

Chuck Missler teaches that the human immunity is at its peak 8 days after being born. I have no idea where he gets his stats you can check at khouse.org (his website).

[David ben Ephraim]

On ‎6‎/‎26‎/‎2013 at 7:57 AM, Brennno said:

i would like to have a jewish understanding of why the newborns were circumsized specifically on the eighth day everything seems to be a visual aid and of great meaning for them, sometimes the little things mean so much.

 

Shalom and good evening, my name is David, and I am a born-from-above, Torah Observant believer in Yeshua HaMashiach. The reason male infants are not supposed to be circumcised until the eighth day after birth is because an infant's blood does have the ability to clot so as to prevent death by bleeding out until the eighth-day after birth. In fact, when my two daughters were born they were given a vitamin K injection immediately after birth to help their bodies begin the process of developing thier blood-clotting abilities. In the ancient times, it was not possible (due to the lack of today's medical technology) to circumcise a male infant before the eight-day after birth without killing him. This is why the Father commanded circumision to be performed eight days after birth.

 

Shalom,

David

Edited December 16, 2015 by David ben Ephraim
Correcting a misspelled word

[JohnD]

Found a tad bit more information.

 

Biblical Accuracy and Circumcision on the 8th Day by  Bert Thompson, Ph.D.
Q.

In Genesis 17:12, God commanded Abraham to circumcise baby boys on the eighth day of their lives. Why day eight? Is there any good, scientific rationale behind such a command?

A.

The faith of each individual Christian rests upon the bedrock foundation of the Bible’s inspiration. If the Bible is of human origin, then it logically follows that the facts and doctrines found therein are only as reliable as human knowledge can be. However, if the biblical records were provided by the Holy Spirit (2 Peter 1:20-21), then we have every reason to believe that the facts and doctrines recorded therein are free of those imperfections and blemishes that characterize all purely human efforts.

The Greek word used in the New Testament to express the concept of inspiration is theopneustos, and itself derives from two roots—theos, God, and pneustos, breathed (from pneo, to blow or breathe). Theopneustos, therefore, would mean “God-breathed.” The word implies an influence from without producing effects that are beyond natural powers. The proper view of inspiration often is referred to as being verbal (word-for-word) and plenary (complete). This concept suggests that men wrote what God directed, without errors or mistakes, yet with their own personalities reflected in their writings.

A close examination of the Bible reveals startling proof of its inspiration. Sometimes that proof comes in the form of prophecy (always minutely foretold and completely fulfilled). Sometimes the proof comes in the form of scientific facts that were placed in the divine record hundreds or thousands of years before they were known to the modern scientific mind. This brief article deals with the latter—an important piece of scientific foreknowledge found with the biblical text that was completely unknown to man until fairly recently.

In Genesis 17:12, God specifically directed Abraham to circumcise newborn males on the eighth day. Why the eighth day? In 1935, professor H. Dam proposed the name “vitamin K” for the factor in foods that helped prevent hemorrhaging in baby chicks. We now know vitamin K is responsible for the production (by the liver) of the element known as prothrombin. If vitamin K is deficient, there will be a prothrombin deficiency and hemorrhaging may occur. Oddly, it is only on the fifth through the seventh days of the newborn male’s life that vitamin K (produced by bacteria in the intestinal tract) is present in adequate quantities. Vitamin K, coupled with prothrombin, causes blood coagulation, which is important in any surgical procedure. Holt and McIntosh, in their classic work, Holt Pediatrics, observed that a newborn infant has “peculiar susceptibility to bleeding between the second and fifth days of life.... Hemorrhages at this time, though often inconsequential, are sometimes extensive; they may produce serious damage to internal organs, especially to the brain, and cause death from shock and exsanguination” (1953, pp. 125-126). Obviously, then, if vitamin K is not produced in sufficient quantities until days five through seven, it would be wise to postpone any surgery until some time after that. But why did God specify day eight?

On the eighth day, the amount of prothrombin present actually is elevated above one-hundred percent of normal—and is the only day in the male’s life in which this will be the case under normal conditions. If surgery is to be performed, day eight is the perfect day to do it. Vitamin K and prothrombin levels are at their peak. The chart below, patterned after one published by S.I. McMillen, M.D., in his book, None of These Diseases, portrays this in graphic form.

Dr. McMillen observed:

We should commend the many hundreds of workers who labored at great expense over a number of years to discover that the safest day to perform circumcision is the eighth. Yet, as we congratulate medical science for this recent finding, we can almost hear the leaves of the Bible rustling. They would like to remind us that four thousand years ago, when God

initiated

circumcision with Abraham....

Abraham did not pick the eighth day after many centuries of trial-and-error experiments. Neither he nor any of his company from the ancient city of Ur in the Chaldees ever had been circumcised. It was a day picked by the Creator of vitamin K (1984, p. 93).

Moses’ information, as recorded in Genesis 17:12, not only was scientifically accurate, but was years ahead of its time. How did Moses have access to such information? The answer, of course, is provided by the apostle Paul in 2 Timothy 3:16—“Every scripture is inspired of God.”

REFERENCES

Holt, L.E. and R. McIntosh (1953), Holt Pediatrics (New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts), twelfth edition.

McMillen, S.I. (1984), None of These Diseases (Old Tappan, NJ: Revell).

 

Used with permission from: http://www.apologeticspress.org/apcontent.aspx?category=13&article=1118

[nebula]

In the Hebrew understanding, numbers have meaning to them.

 

The number 8 symbolizes the beginning of a new era or new order.

 

Read about this here

 

Thus, the males enter into the Covenant of Abraham on the day that symbolizes the entering into something new.

[Micheal Westin]

 

if your looking for a correlation, other than the medical one, maybe its the sign of Being of the descendants of Noah, from whom eight souls were cut out from the rest of humanity and saved 

[Guest]

In the Hebrew understanding, numbers have meaning to them.

 

The number 8 symbolizes the beginning of a new era or new order.

 

Read about this here

 

Thus, the males enter into the Covenant of Abraham on the day that symbolizes the entering into something new.

 

Amen~!

 

 

if your looking for a correlation, other than the medical one, maybe its the sign of Being of the descendants of Noah, from whom eight souls were cut out from the rest of humanity and saved 

 

 

~

 

And Perhaps Eight Is The Number

 

This is my covenant, which ye shall keep, between me and you and thy seed after thee; Every man child among you shall be circumcised. And ye shall circumcise the flesh of your foreskin; and it shall be a token of the covenant betwixt me and you. Genesis 17:10-11

 

Of New Beginnings

 

And the LORD thy God will circumcise thine heart, and the heart of thy seed, to love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, that thou mayest live. Deuteronomy 30:6

 

Interesting

 

And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made. Genesis 2:2

 

Huh

 

And he that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. And he said unto me, Write: for these words are true and faithful. Revelation 21:5

[Edwin]

Brennno, you ask about the significance of circumcision on the eighth day

The following might be of interest.

The Biblical significance of the number eight

Which means. Fresh start, new beginning.

Our Lord Jesus was raised on the first day of the following week, or if you like the eighth day of the previous week.

It could be argued that there only seven days in a week, this of course is true, but the expression, "the eighth day", occurs in 23 verses in the NKJV, nine of which are found in one book alone, namely Leviticus as below,

Lev 9:1 It came to pass on the eighth day that Moses called Aaron and his sons and the elders of Israel.

Lev 12:3 And on the eighth day the flesh of his foreskin shall be circumcised.

Lev 14:10 "And on the eighth day he shall take two male lambs without blemish, one ewe lamb of the first year without blemish, three-tenths [of an ephah] of fine flour mixed with oil as a grain offering, and one log of oil.

Lev 14:23 He shall bring them to the priest on the eighth day for his cleansing, to the door of the tabernacle of meeting, before the LORD.

Lev 15:14 On the eighth day he shall take for himself two turtledoves or two young pigeons, and come before the LORD, to the door of the tabernacle of meeting, and give them to the priest.

Lev 15:29 And on the eighth day she shall take for herself two turtledoves or two young pigeons, and bring them to the priest, to the door of the tabernacle of meeting.

Lev 22:27 "When a bull or a sheep or a goat is born, it shall be seven days with its mother; and from the eighth day and thereafter it shall be accepted as an offering made by fire to the LORD.

Lev 23:36 [For] seven days you shall offer an offering made by fire to the LORD. On the eighth day you shall have a holy convocation, and you shall offer an offering made by fire to the LORD. It [is] a sacred assembly, [and] you shall do no customary work [on it].

Lev 23:39 'Also on the fifteenth day of the seventh month, when you have gathered in the fruit of the land, you shall keep the feast of the LORD [for] seven days; on the first day [there shall be] a sabbath-[rest], and on the eighth day a sabbath-[rest].

The number of persons saved from the flood was eight as Peter said twice,

1Pe 3:20 who formerly were disobedient, when once the Divine longsuffering waited* in the days of Noah, while [the] ark was being prepared, in which a few, that is, eight souls, were saved through water.

2Pe 2:5 and did not spare the ancient world, but saved Noah, [one of] eight [people], a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood on the world of the ungodly;

In the verse below, why are told that it was the seventeenth day ? Add 1 to 7 and what do you get? Also what is the number of the Chapter in which we are told this?

Gen 8:4 Then the ark rested in the seventh month, the seventeenth day of the month, on the mountains of Ararat.

Seven also means, “Divine perfection, completion.

And what about, "The New Covenant",

Jer 31:31 "Behold, the days are coming, says the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah--

What do you get when you add 3+1+3+1 ?

And when it is repeated in the NT, it is found at,

Hbr 8:8 Because finding fault with them, He says: "Behold, the days are coming, says the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah--

And finally, how many NT verses mention, "eight days", in connection to Jesus?

There are only three, that is a Trinity of verses referring to Jesus,

Luk 2:21 And when eight days were completed for the circumcision of the Child,* His name was called JESUS, the name given by the angel before He was conceived in the womb.

Luk 9:28 Now it came to pass, about eight days after these sayings, that He took Peter, John, and James and went up on the mountain to pray.

Jhn 20:26 And after eight days His disciples were again inside, and Thomas with them. Jesus came, the doors being shut, and stood in the midst, and said, "Peace to you!"

Well that's enough for now, but before I go let me ask you a question.

How many books of the Bible have the same number of Chapters as the Bible has books, and why am I asking this question.?

Every blessing.

Edwin.

[WillfromTexas]

Isn't it amazing how God instructed us with such precision.  Very interesting to read- thanks for all the input.  Just shows how many things are in the Bible that are medically correct before modern science caught up.  One of many things I might add and always 100% correct!

 

My friend met a Jewish girl that he has been married to for 14 years.  But when he first met her he was agnostic and uncircumcised.  He got circumcized at the age of 25!  I know it's a bit off topic but can you imagine.

[Guest shiloh357]

Yikes!!!  I hope he was under some really good anesthesia...