CE), which led in part to the Bar Kokhba revolt. During this period in history, Jewish circumcision called for the removal of only a part of the prepuce, and some Hellenized Jews attempted to look uncircumcised by stretching the extant parts of their foreskins. This was considered by the Jewish leaders to be such a problem that during 2nd century CE, they changed the requirements of Jewish circumcision to call for removal of every bit of the foreskin, emphasizing the Jewish view of circumcision as intended to be not just the fulfillment of a Biblical commandment, but also an essential and permanent mark of membership in a people.

A narrative in the ChristianGospel of Luke makes a brief mention of the circumcision of Jesus, but the subject of physicalcircumcision itself is not part of the received teachings of Jesus. Paul the Apostle reinterpreted circumcision into a spiritual concept, arguing the physical one to be no longer necessary. The teaching that physical circumcision was unnecessary for membership in a divine covenant was instrumental in the separation of Christianity from Judaism. Although it is not mentioned in the Quran (early 6th century CE), circumcision is considered essential to Islam, and it is nearly universally performed among Muslims. Circumcision spread across the Middle East, North Africa and Southern Europe with Islam.

Circumcision is thought to have been brought to the Bantu-speaking tribes of Africa by either the Jews or Muslims, the Jews “having settled there after one of the many expulsions from European countries, the Moors settling in North Africa