Note 340 — Chapter III · SYMPATHETIC MAGIC (continued 2)

If the possession of the foreskin conferred on the possessor a like power over the person to whom it had belonged, we can readily understand why the Israelites coveted the foreskins of their enemies the Philistines (1 Samuel xviii. 25–27, 2 Samuel iii. 14). Professor H. Gunkel interprets a passage of Ezekiel (xxxii. 18–32) as contrasting the happy lot of the circumcised warrior in the under world with the misery of his uncircumcised foe in the same place, and confesses himself unable to see why circumcision should be thought to benefit the dead. See H. Gunkel, “Über die Beschneidung im alten Testament,” Archiv für Papyrusforschung, ii. (1903) p. 21. (Prof. Gunkel’s paper was pointed out to me by my friend Mr. W. Wyse.) The benefit, on the theory here suggested, was very substantial, since it allowed the dead to come to life again, the grave being a bourne from which only uncircumcised travellers fail, sooner or later, to return. But I confess that Prof. Gunkel’s explanation of the passage seems to me rather far-fetched.