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Critical Cutlery

Critical Cutlery
By Wendy Wippel

I think that out of all the figures in the Bible, Joshua would have to be the one that wore the most hats.  He was a warrior, a military leader, an administrator (truly a job of Biblical proportions), and one more: erstwhile surgeon. Joshua circumcised all the men before they entered the promised land.

Specifically, at a spot called Gilgal. The Bible’s description goes like this:

And it came to pass, when all the kings of the Amorites, which were on the side of Jordan westward, and all the kings of the Canaanites, which were by the sea, heard that the LORD had dried up the waters of Jordan from before the children of Israel, until we were passed over, that their heart melted, neither was there spirit in them any more, because of the children of Israel. At that time God says unto Joshua, Make you sharp knives, and circumcise again the children of Israel the second time.” Joshua 5:1-2

A second time because all the original male Israelites had been circumcised in Egypt, on the other side of the desert, and so at this point only Joshua was circumcised. So Joshua was told to circumcise them.  And he did.  But his story ends there.

Or did it?

In 1873, a French explorer in Palestine, Mr. M. Guern, showed up at a professional archaeological meeting in Lyon, France with an interesting tale to tell. He had been exploring in an area near the Jordan, an area, in his words, with “at least 3000 niches scattered among the hills that surrounded the Jordan and area it flowed through.”  Intrigued, he spent some time exploring those 3000 niches. And he found something, to put it mildly, that was interesting.

In the words of, Arty Johnson, verrryy interesting.

Remember how the Bible recorded the event? ”And it came to pass, when all the kings of the Amorites, which were on the side of Jordan westward, and all the kings of the Canaanites, which were by the sea, heard that the LORD had dried up the waters of Jordan from before the children of Israel, until we were passed over, that their heart melted, neither was there spirit in them any more, because of the children of Israel. At that time God says unto Joshua, Make you sharp knives, and circumcise again the children of Israel the second time.”

Interestingly enough, an early Greek version of the Scriptures (the Septuagint) records one more detail. The Septuagent reveals that, when Joshua died, “there they put with him, into the tomb in which they buried him, the knives of stone with which he circumcised the children of Israel in Gilgal.”

Those knives that turned up at the conference were apparently the ones Joshua actually used.

The knowledge of where Joshua’s tomb really was has been lost to history, as has the knowledge of where the Frenchman took the knives, but in the hill country of Ephrem  there’s a village called Kfr Ishu’a. Which means village of Joshua.

Anybody up for a road trip?

NOTE: I have been having these weird seizures for about 4 years, increasing in frequency and intensity with an accompanying memory loss increasing as well. Things in general have  become more and more difficult. I was in the the neuro department for almost a week for testing and have been definitively diagnosed with PNES, which stands for Pschogenic no=epileptic seizures, which was the best possible diagnosis, so I am grateful. Prayers certainly appreciated, but GOD is Good!

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