Were Women Thrown from a City Wall Because They Circumcised Their Children?

Primary: 2 Maccabees 6:10 · Related: 1 Maccabees 1:60–61; Josephus, Antiquities 12.5

What the ancient record says

2 Maccabees: two women accused of having their children circumcised; the infants hung from their breasts, the women paraded publicly and thrown from the city wall. Not the only source of deadly punishment for circumcision: 1 Maccabees 1:60–61 reports women executed, infants hung from their necks, households killed; Josephus preserves a tradition of women and circumcised sons killed.

Details vary and that variation is shown, not hidden. Multiple attestation supports the broader pattern: circumcision prohibited, families resisted, lethal punishment followed.