Page 1 of 1

Why isn't Michelangelo's David circumcised?

PostPosted: Tue Jan 18, 2011 1:33 pm
by CAP
Well apparently he is, I've only just learned today. But circumcision in that Biblical era (David Vs Goliath) was not circumcision as we know it today. In those days a lad just had the top trimmed off his penis. There is a technical Hebrew term for it. Naturally I've forgotten it. Anyway the more extensive circumcision we've come to expect was only brought in (by the Jews) in about 170 A.D. It too has a technical Hebrew name. And there was an even more radical version brought in even later, but I gave up reading about that.

Anyway - So Michelangelo even got the historical details right!

Although, on my reading of the relevant Old Testament passage - 1 Samuel 17 - there is mention of David's possession of a cloak and pouch, in which he carries five smooth stones for his slingshot (this, after discarding the armour and weapons offered by King Saul). But I guess Mick thought it was hotter (and perhaps more Greek) to just go in the altogether with just the slingshot and the one, sizeable 'pebble'. Mick was definitely a genius, but kinky.