The Children of Abraham and Keturah

QUESTION #26 (continued): How should this group of Noahides celebrate the birth of their children? > K. ANSWER : As outlined by Maimonides in his Laws of Kings, Chapter 10, Gentile males who are descended patralinearly from Abraham after the death of Sarah, through his six sons by his handmaid Keturah (Gen. 25:1-2) are obligated by Torah Law to be circumcised. According to Torah the circumcision should be done on the child's 8th day (Gen. 17:9-14). This applies to the Arabs of today, since the descendants of Keturah have become intermingled with the descendants of Ishmael (both groups settled in the Arabian desert). For this group, the obligation is on the father to have the child circumcised, but if he does not, the obligation transfers to the child himself once he reaches maturity (the age of 13). (NOTE: "Keturah" was another name given to Hagar, the mother of Ishmael. She returned to Abraham when Sara died, and she was not married to any other man in the intervening years.)

QUESTION : As Noachides, we have 7 Divine commandments. But we also know that males descended patralinearly from Abraham and Keturah should be circumcised on the 8th day after birth! Isn't that an 8th commandment?

ANSWER : It is a Divine commandment that applies to some particular ethnic groups of the Gentiles. It does not have the status of one of the 7 universal Noahide commandments, and a Noahide court has no authority to punish a descendant of Keturah for not observing it.

QUESTION : For Gentiles, what is the spiritual meaning, symbolism and significance of circumcision?

ANSWER : For Gentiles in general who are not "Children of Keturah," it is a matter of personal choice. Each pair of Gentile parents should use their own reasoning or personal symbolism, or family tradition, in deciding whether or not to have their sons circumcised.

QUESTION : Should the Children of Keturah identify with Abraham as their "father," and remember that he used to be a Righteous Gentile as well?

ANSWER : Perhaps we can note that when the Children of Keturah observe the ritual of circumcision for this reason, it is an additional and "independent" testimony to the world that G-d made an everlasting spiritual covenant with Abraham, as the Torah teaches (Gen. 17:9-10).

What does it mean that there was a religious practice for Israelites that predated Moses? Abraham received a personal directive from G-d that he, his male descendants and his male servants should be circumcised, with the obligation beginning on the child's eighth day (or as soon afterwards as the child's health permits). Abraham's descendents through Jacob/Israel kept this Divine directive of circumcision on the child's eighth day. Despite this distinction (and other additional self-imposed restrictions) which they had before the revelation at Mt. Sinai, the Israelites (Hebrews) were still obligated to observe the Noahide Commandments, as were all other people of the world. However, when G-d revealed Himself to the Hebrews with the giving of the Ten Commandments (the Jewish Covenant), and all of the other commandments of the Torah which He transmitted to them through the prophet Moses, those commandments replaced all their previous obligations, and they became the Jewish People. So from that time on, the Jews do not practice circumcision based on the directive to their patriarch Abraham, but rather because G-d commanded to them in the Torah of Moses, "On the eighth day, the flesh of his foreskin shall be circumcised." (Leviticus 12:3)

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