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Ban on circumcision

If the prohibition existed, some scholars suggest Hadrian, as a Hellenist, recognized circumcision as bodily mutilation. E. Mary Smallwood argues he imposed a universal ban, later relaxed by Antoninus Pius, who is known to have granted Jews an exemption. She cites Talmudic passages implying the ban preceded the revolt, including one where Rabbi Eliezer ben Hurcanus permitted hiding circumcision knives in peril. Other scholars such as Peter Schäfer and Joseph Geiger doubt an antecedent ban, suggesting that Roman laws against genital mutilation were meant to stop the castration of slaves, not Jewish circumcision, and that any prohibition on circumcision may have been imposed after the revolt as retribution.