HISTORY OF OUR SAVIOUR JESUS CHRIST.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume I, Issue 43, 21 February 1874, Page 13

HISTORY OF OUR SAVIOUR JESUS CHRIST.

By the Abb 6J. E. D auras. (Translated from the French for the New Zealand Tablet.) § 11. CIRCUMCISION. PRESENTATION IN THE TEMPLE. 8. — THE HEBREW BITE OF CIROTTMCISION. " And after eight days were accomplished thai", the child should be circumcised," says St. Luke, " his name was called Jesus, which was called by the Angel before he wa3 conceived in the womb."(l) The time at which the sons of the Hebrews were to receive the dolorous impression of the Sacrament of the Ancient AlliaMce, was not left to the discretion of the parents. Jehovah, himself, had fixed it, when he said to Abraham : " When the infant shall be eight days, he shall bs circumcised." (2) The Mosaic law had renewed the precept. "And on the eighth day the infant shall be circumcised." (3) The evangelical text is here in perfect conformity with the Jewish legislation. The Son of God, who was come, in his own person, to fulfil the law, commences in the Crib Hi 9 mission of bloody victim, whioh will only terminate on Calvary. In effect, it was in the " Praeaepium" of BethUhem that the Christ " who was before Abraham," and of whom the father of the faithful had " desired to see the day," received by the Circumcision, the mark of the children of Abraham. The rites in use for the legal ceremony have been transmitted to us by the Talmud, and their observance continues the same to the present day among the Jews. (4) On the eighth day, ten persons, at least, were to assemble around the newborn child. The operation, as we have said, was not a sacerdotal function. Modern iconography, in fixing the temple as the ordinary place for the ceremony of circumcision, and in naming the High Priest as its minister, commits an error against historical truth. The minister, or Mohel, was, and is' still in our days, chosen indiscriminately from among all classes of the Jewish population ; his skill being tho only title which recommends him to families. The father pronounced the following words : " Blessed be the Lord our God, who has imprinted the law in our flash, and who marks his children with the sign of his holy alliance, to render them participants in the blessings of Abraham, our father!" Two seats of honour were prepared ; the one for the sponsor, the other remained vacant. This latter was presented to the child, to whom these words were at the same time addressed : " Behold the seat of the Prophet Elias."(s) On erery spot of the universe where the sons of Israel are now dispersed, this symbolical custom is observed ; by it they attest their faith in the expectation of a precursor, who ia to open the way for the Messiah. But, for them, the seat of Elias always remains vacant. John the Baptist sat in it, and Jesus Christ, tho divine Infant of Bethlehem, has taught the world from a more august pulpit than that of Moses.