From the first century on, Christians took a strong stand against circumcision in the first century. Christians rejected circumcision at the Council at Jerusalem (Acts 15). St. Paul, the apostle to the gentiles, taught parents that they should not circumcise their children (Acts 21:25). In a reference to the old practices of genital mutilation, St. Paul warned Titus to beware of the "circumcision group." Christians did not circumcise their children until only in modern times when it was “medically” promoted within the last hundred years. The procedure accepted for medical use essentially was the Jewish ***peri'ah***. More will be explained about peri'ah later on. The claim for imposing circumcision was an attempt to prevent masturbation. The biblical circumcision was much different and far less invasive procedure than the Jewish peri'ah method. The circumcision of Abraham removed only the very tip that extended beyond the glans penis. Moses and his sons were not circumcised. (Exodus 4:25) Although Moses apparently prohibited circumcision during the 40 years in the wilderness, (Joshua 5:5) Joshua reinstituted circumcision at Gilgal after the death of Moses. (Joshua 5:2-10) It is interesting to note that after the Israelites were circumcised, they immediately became soldiers in Joshua's army for the conquest of Palestine. (Joshua 6:1-3). This suggests circumcision was used in the least to differentiate soldiers from the enemy. In contrast to the Jews, the Greeks and the Romans placed a high value on the prepuce. **The Romans passed several laws prohibiting circumcision**. The laws were applied to everyone and were not directed against the Jews. Much later in the Hellenic period, about 140 C.E., the Jewish authorities modified circumcision procedure to make it impossible for a Jew to appear to be an uncircumcised Greek. A radical new procedure called ***peri'ah*** was introduced by the priests and rabbis. In this procedure the foreskin was stripped away from the glans, with which it is fused in the infant. In a painful procedure known today as a synechotomy, more foreskin was removed than before and the injury was correspondingly greater. With the introduction of peri'ah, the glans could not easily be recovered, and so no Jewish male would easily be able to appear as an uncircumcised Greek. **This radical modified procedure eventually was adopted by the medical profession and is the circumcision operation used today.** In Judaism, several methods of foreskin restoration were devised and practiced (create problem, pay for solution). It may have been at this time that the Pondus Judaeus (also known as Judaeum Pondum), a bronze weight worn by Jews on the residual foreskin to stretch it back into a foreskin, gained popularity amongst Jewish males. This lessened the ugly appearance of the bare exposed circumcised penis. This restorative procedure was known by the Greek word epispasm, or "rolling inward." The third stage of ritual circumcision, the Messisa or Metzitzah, was not introduced until the Talmudic period (500-625 C.E).In Metzitzah, the mohel (ritual circumciser) sucks blood from the penis of the circumcised infant with his mouth. This procedure has been responsible for the death of many Jewish babies due to infection. The procedure accepted for medical use essentially was the Jewish peri'ah. Moscucci reports that circumcision was imposed in an attempt to prevent masturbation. The ***peri'ah*** brutal procedure is used for circumcision in hospitals today. There's studies that show the severe trauma causes damage to parts of the brain and permanently scars the limbic system, which includes the amygdala and frontal and temporal lobes. Don't ever circumcise your newborns.