Leviticus 19:28 - Coke's Commentary on the Holy Bible

Ye shall not make any cuttings, &c.— The Egyptians, and many other idolaters, did this when they mourned for their friends; defiling their bodies with slashes and cuttings, as some say, to express the extremity of grief; as others, to pacify the infernal spirits, and propitiate them for the dead. See Jeremiah 16:7. As for the marks, spoken of in the latter part of the verse, it was usual for the Zabii and others to burn marks in their bodies, that they might thus signify to what particular deities they were devoted. The greatest part of the Arabian women had their cheeks and arms marked with these stigmata; and Lucian says, that all the Assyrians bore these printed characters, some on their wrists, others on their necks: so Herodotus tells us, that he, who devoted himself to Hercules, received Στιγματα ιερα, sacred stigmata; giving up himself to that god. These marks, says Calmet, were imprinted either by a hot iron, or with a needle; with which they made several punctures, which they afterwards filled with a fine powder, of either black, blue, or some other colour, which incorporated with the flesh, and remained printed in it for all their lives after. Ptolemy Philopater gave orders, that the Jews who had forsaken their religion, and had embraced that of the pagans, should be stigmatized with the mark of an ivy-leaf, which tree is dedicated to Bacchus. See Revelation 13:16-17. Isaiah 49:16 and Galatians 1:17. Philo says, that there were men who printed characters upon their flesh with hot irons, to devote themselves more solemnly to their idols: and something of this kind was early found and still prevails among the Eastern Christians, who mark themselves with a cross; especially such as go in pilgrimage to Jerusalem. See Calmet on the word stigmata. Perhaps, says Parkhurst, the incisions which the ancient Britons made on their bodies in various shapes, and afterwards dyed with the juice of woad or kelp, were of the same idolatrous sort. These are called by Tertullian Britannorum stigmata, the marks of the Britons.