Circumcised the Eighth Day

For those who believe the commandment of circumcision still applies, there is an often missed, but important question to answer. Which day is the eighth day?

Genesis 17:12 And he that is eight days old shall be circumcised among you, every man child in your generations, he that is born in the house, or bought with money of any stranger, which is not of thy seed.

Leviticus 12:3 And in the eighth day the flesh of his foreskin shall be circumcised.

Comparing these two commands for circumcision, we see that the phrases "eight days old" (Hebrew "ben-sh'monat yamim" literally "son of eight days) and "in the eighth day" (Hebrew "bayom hashmini" literally "in day eight") are synonyms when it comes to stating a child's age in days. To confirm this, we also have perfectly corresponding statements about Noah's age in years.

Genesis 7:6 And Noah was six hundred years old [Hebrew "ben-shesh meot shanah"] when the flood of waters was upon the earth.

Genesis 7:11 In the six hundredth year [Hebrew "bishnat shesh-meot"] of Noah’s life, in the second month, the seventeenth day of the month, the same day were all the fountains of the great deep broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened.

In other words, Biblical Hebrew has two ways that the same age can be specified. The formats “X days/years old” and “in the X day/year” are equivalent ways of counting in the Torah. The phrasing is slightly different, but we see that it means the same thing. With this established, lets look at some other events in the life of Noah and how they are dated.

Genesis 7:11 In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month, the seventeenth day of the month, the same day were all the fountains of the great deep broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened.

Genesis 8:4 And the ark rested in the seventh month, on the seventeenth day of the month, upon the mountains of Ararat.
5 And the waters decreased continually until the tenth month: in the tenth month, on the first day of the month, were the tops of the mountains seen.

Genesis 8:13 And it came to pass in the six hundredth and first year, in the first month, the first day of the month, the waters were dried up from off the earth: and Noah removed the covering of the ark, and looked, and, behold, the face of the ground was dry.
14 And in the second month, on the seven and twentieth day of the month, was the earth dried.

Here we see that the story of the flood is dated using the year of Noah's life along with calendar months and days. While Noah was six hundred, the flood started, the ark floated around and eventually the tops of the mountains were seen again. Then, as soon as the first day of the first month comes around, it is Noah's six hundred and first year of life. Noah became a year older when a new calendar year started! So we see here that the age of a person did not change on their "birthday" like we reckon in our modern culture. Instead, in the Torah, you - and everyone else - becomes another year older at the start of a new year.

While this concept might be counter-cultural, it is not really a new concept for those familiar with the Jewish traditions regarding circumcising on the eighth day. According to the Jewish reckoning, the day a son is born is his first day, even if it is only minutes before sunset that he is born. As soon as sunset comes, they say he is now two days old. They do not do a calculation of twenty-four hour periods where if a son was born at midnight, his eighth day would also start at midnight, instead, they use calendar days. Taking this concept of an age in days incrementing when a new day starts and applying it so that an age in years increments when a new year starts, we can see how this lines up with what we see regarding Noah becoming a year older on the first of the year.

Traditions can be helpful at times, but as followers of Yeshua, we must ask if is this a Jewish tradition that contradicts the commandments of God, or if it is truly what we see in the Torah.

Numbers 19:11 He that toucheth the dead body of any man shall be unclean seven days.
12 He shall purify himself with it on the third day, and on the seventh day he shall be clean: but if he purify not himself the third day, then the seventh day he shall not be clean.

Numbers 19:19 And the clean person shall sprinkle upon the unclean on the third day, and on the seventh day: and on the seventh day he shall purify himself, and wash his clothes, and bathe himself in water, and shall be clean at even.

In Numbers 19 we have instruction regarding cleansing after touching a human corpse. The rule is that someone who has touched one is unclean for seven days and those seven days end at evening on the seventh day. While simple enough, there is an important concept contained in it. The seven days of uncleanness always end at the same time of day regardless of what time of day the person touched the corpse.

It follows that the seventh day of uncleanness also begins - and the sixth day ends - at the same time of day regardless of what time of day the person touched the corpse. We can take this back to the sixth day, fifth day and likewise all the way back to the first day. This method of using calendar days for the count also matches the counting of calendar years for Noah in Genesis 7 and 8, giving us a solid confirmation that it is the correct way to count time. So on this aspect, I see Torah lining up with the Jewish tradition of using calendar days to count out the eight days until a circumcision.

What about the other aspect of the Jewish tradition for determining when circumcision is to be done? Namely that the day a son is born is the first day of the count to eight. Is that also supported by Torah? If correct, it would mean that as soon as a child is born, they are one day old. Given the connections to Noah, it would also mean they are one year old and extending that out, one month old. There would be no such thing as being less than one day, one month or one year old. Unfortunately, I don't believe that this concept holds up when compared to the statements we find in the Torah. Let's start with the census of Israel taken in early Numbers.

Numbers 1:3 From twenty years old and upward, all that are able to go forth to war in Israel: thou and Aaron shall number them by their armies.

Numbers 3:15 Number the children of Levi after the house of their fathers, by their families: every male from a month old and upward shalt thou number them.

The first verse, numbering the males of Israel who are twenty years old and older, makes sense as a category. We can't just say "all the males" because we are excluding those who are under twenty years old. Twenty years old and upward means that some people will be numbered and some will not, specifically those under twenty years old will not be. In chapter 3 we have the verse about numbering the Levites. In their case, those who were one month old and above were numbered. If everyone is immediately one year/month/day old at birth, then this specification is unnecessary; it could just say, "all the males." There is a definite implication here that a baby might be less than one year/month/day old by the Torah's reckoning.

This might be the simplest way to show that someone is born is age zero, not age one in the Torah, but I see some others. They require a little math, but here we go.

Genesis 16:16 And Abram was fourscore and six years old, when Hagar bare Ishmael to Abram.

Genesis 17:24 And Abraham was ninety years old and nine, when he was circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin.
25 And Ishmael his son was thirteen years old, when he was circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin.
26 In the selfsame day was Abraham circumcised, and Ishmael his son.

I've included a chart so it is easier to see, but basically Ishmael has to be zero years old when he is born in Genesis 16 or the math doesn't work for him to be thirteen while Abraham is ninety-nine in Genesis 17. Again we see support here for being zero days/months/years old at birth rather than the tradition of being one day/month/year old at birth. A very similar, but touch more math, happens with Methuselah, Lamech, and Noah's ages and the fact that only Noah, his three sons and their four wives were on the ark.

Genesis 5:25 And Methuselah lived an hundred eighty and seven years, and begat Lamech:
26 And Methuselah lived after he begat Lamech seven hundred eighty and two years, and begat sons and daughters:
27 And all the days of Methuselah were nine hundred sixty and nine years: and he died.
28 And Lamech lived an hundred eighty and two years, and begat a son:
29 And he called his name Noah, saying, This same shall comfort us concerning our work and toil of our hands, because of the ground which Yahweh hath cursed.
30 And Lamech lived after he begat Noah five hundred ninety and five years, and begat sons and daughters:
31 And all the days of Lamech were seven hundred seventy and seven years: and he died.

Genesis 7:6 And Noah was six hundred years old when the flood of waters was upon the earth.

Again we see that if Lamech and Noah are counted as age one when they are born, there is a problem. In this case, it makes Methuselah live through the flood (two years after) while scripture is clear that only eight people were on the ark and survived. We also see that if Lamech and Noah have their age start at zero, rather than one, that the counting works out. Methuselah dies in the year of the flood that way, which makes sense. (Remember from our earlier discussion of Noah's age that age changes at the first of the year, so living even one day into the year of the flood for Methuselah still makes him reach nine hundred and sixty nine.)

In conclusion, I believe there is strong Biblical evidence to show that sons are born at age zero, not age one. When we understand this in context of circumcision, it means that the day of birth is not counted among the eight days when determining which day to circumcise a son. On this aspect, the Jewish tradition fails to match with the scripture and as such it should be laid aside in favor of the Biblical model.

Stated all together, we have seen that a son is born at zero days old and when the first evening arrives after his birth, he becomes one day old. Once he has lived into eight new days after being born (not including the day in which he was born) he is now "in the eighth day" and "eight days old," and that is the Biblically correct day for his circumcision.