# Adam's Penis in the Sistine Chapel **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [October 5, 2018, 7:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/adams-penis-in-the-sistine-chapel/822521 "2018-10-05T19:20:19Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2018, 3:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/adams-penis-in-the-sistine-chapel/822521/41 "2018-10-08T03:35:09Z")
> [@Roderick\_Femm](#): > > eta: why did I never notice that Adam is painted with a navel. Isn’t that completely wrong? Or was he created with a navel so that he wouldn’t stand out as weird from his male offspring? It’s not the usual representation; Adam and Eve are usually portrayed navel-less. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2018, 12:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/adams-penis-in-the-sistine-chapel/822521/42 "2018-10-08T12:58:19Z")
Believe it or not, that question has actually spawned serious philosophical disputes. ---
**Author:** ![Mk\_VII](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Mk\_VII](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mk_VII)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2018, 6:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/adams-penis-in-the-sistine-chapel/822521/43 "2018-10-08T18:02:52Z")
Yes, Philip Gosse wrote a book [_Omphalos: An Attempt to Untie the Geological Knot_] which argued that as the First Man, Adam, had a navel, so, an instant after the single catastrophic act of Creation, the Earth presented the appearance of having existed for millions of years. The book, was not, however, well received, even by other creationists. Gosse was a biologist, who was trying to reconcile his religious faith with the evidence that his science was presenting him with. ---
**Author:** ![Pleonast](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pleonast/32/1183_2.png) [@Pleonast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pleonast)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2018, 6:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/adams-penis-in-the-sistine-chapel/822521/44 "2018-10-08T18:29:39Z")
> [@kaylasdad99](#): > > Speaking of which, why isn’t he circumcissd? I think that’s because the commandment to circumcise had not yet been given. ---
**Author:** ![DPRK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4491bb/32.png) [@DPRK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DPRK)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2018, 11:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/adams-penis-in-the-sistine-chapel/822521/45 "2018-10-08T23:31:09Z")
Surely the commandment was old-school, even if David was around around 1000 BC. ---
**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2018, 12:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/adams-penis-in-the-sistine-chapel/822521/46 "2018-10-09T00:28:45Z")
Yeah, the “covenant of circumcision” was made with Abraham, who in biblical chronology is assigned to about a millennium before David. However, it [has been argued](http://www.i2researchhub.org/articles/brit-milah-a-study-of-change-in-custom/) that the David statue **does** represent a penis circumcised according to the biblical-era procedure, in which just the tip of the foreskin is cut. This procedure was modified to removal of the entire foreskin around the start of the Common Era. ---
**Author:** ![susan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/susan/32/17537_2.png) [@susan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/susan)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2018, 1:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/adams-penis-in-the-sistine-chapel/822521/47 "2018-10-09T01:10:27Z")
> [@Kimstu](#): > > Yeah, the “covenant of circumcision” was made with Abraham, who in biblical chronology is assigned to about a millennium before David. > > However, it [has been argued](http://www.i2researchhub.org/articles/brit-milah-a-study-of-change-in-custom/) that the David statue **does** represent a penis circumcised according to the biblical-era procedure, in which just the tip of the foreskin is cut. This procedure was modified to removal of the entire foreskin around the start of the Common Era. …because Hellenized Jews were having surgeries to stretch it back out. ---
**Author:** ![actualliberalnotoneofthose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e79b87/32.png) [@actualliberalnotoneofthose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/actualliberalnotoneofthose)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2018, 5:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/adams-penis-in-the-sistine-chapel/822521/48 "2018-10-09T17:55:19Z")
My first thought that it would be more strange for the penis to be “tucked away,” but I wasn’t sure so I decided to recreate this pose with my own body. I can report that, at least for me, my body parts naturally fall in the same direction as the painting. ---
**Author:** ![Muffin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/muffin/32/4341_2.png) [@Muffin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Muffin)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2018, 7:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/adams-penis-in-the-sistine-chapel/822521/49 "2018-10-09T19:27:48Z")
DId Sistine Chapel consent to limp dick exposing himself? ---
**Author:** ![Rough\_Draft](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/76d3ee/32.png) [@Rough\_Draft](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rough_Draft)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2018, 12:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/adams-penis-in-the-sistine-chapel/822521/50 "2018-10-10T00:01:56Z")
> [@Nava](#): > > It’s not the usual representation; Adam and Eve are usually portrayed navel-less. I just did a Google image search for “Adam and Eve painting”, and I found very little evidence to support this claim, at least in the Renaissance-to-Baroque era. ---
**Author:** ![Procrustus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/procrustus/32/2994_2.png) [@Procrustus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Procrustus)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2018, 12:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/adams-penis-in-the-sistine-chapel/822521/51 "2018-10-10T00:04:51Z")
> [@actualliberalnotoneofthose](#): > > My first thought that it would be more strange for the penis to be “tucked away,” but I wasn’t sure so I decided to recreate this pose with my own body. I can report that, at least for me, my body parts naturally fall in the same direction as the painting. I’m sure 100s of dopers spent the weekend naked and posing as Adam to fight ignorance. I know I did. ---
**Author:** ![Irishman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/b487fb/32.png) [@Irishman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Irishman)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2018, 3:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/adams-penis-in-the-sistine-chapel/822521/52 "2018-10-10T15:50:36Z")
Oops, can’t read. ---
**Author:** ![Isamu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/7c8e57/32.png) [@Isamu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Isamu)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2018, 4:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/adams-penis-in-the-sistine-chapel/822521/53 "2018-10-12T04:34:13Z")
> [@Roderick\_Femm](#): > > Adam is leaning to his right and resting on his right hip; a line drawn through his hips would be somewhere between 30 and 45 degrees off the horizontal. What’s holding the penis in that position is gravity. > > eta: why did I never notice that Adam is painted with a navel. Isn’t that completely wrong? Or was he created with a navel so that he wouldn’t stand out as weird from his male offspring? Leonardo did a lot of thumbing his nose at the Church in that painting, and in others. ---
**Author:** ![RadicalPi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/radicalpi/32/9806_2.png) [@RadicalPi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RadicalPi)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2018, 8:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/adams-penis-in-the-sistine-chapel/822521/54 "2018-10-12T08:31:31Z")
Leonardo? ---
**Author:** ![Muffin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/muffin/32/4341_2.png) [@Muffin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Muffin)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2018, 12:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/adams-penis-in-the-sistine-chapel/822521/55 "2018-10-12T12:58:26Z")
Mikey’s original [del]manly-man[/del] godly-man _ **"PENIS"** _ was painted over as just a “penis” by Leonardo. ---
**Author:** ![DPRK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4491bb/32.png) [@DPRK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DPRK)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2018, 2:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/adams-penis-in-the-sistine-chapel/822521/56 "2018-10-12T14:54:07Z")
I can never tell those damned turtles apart, especially without the differently coloured masks. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/adams-penis-in-the-sistine-chapel/822521.md?page=2)