Genesis Vol 3.pdf - College Press

PROVISIONS FOR POSTERITY 2 3 : 1-2 5 : 1 8
superior adjures an inferior, such as a master his servant
or a father his son who also owes him obedience: cf. 47:20
(Rashbam). It was the custom in those days for a servant
to take an oath in this manner, placing his hand under his
master’s thigh, the latter sitting upon his hand. This signi-
fied that the servant was under his master’s authority. It
is still the practice in India (Abraham Ibn Ezra)” (SC,
122). “The same gesture as in 47:29; contact with the
genital organs is intended to make the oath inviolable” (JB,
41). “A reference to an oath by the genital organs, em-
blems of the life-giving power of deity” (IBG, 652). “The
symbolism of this act is not clear. At any rate, the pledge
thus elicited was evidently a most solemn one, for it carried
with it a curse or ban in the event of non-compliance.
Since sons are said to issue from their father’s thigh (46:26,
Exo. 1:5), an oath that involved touching this vital part
might entail the threat of sterility for the offender or the
extinction of his offspring. The only other instance of
the same usage in the Bible, 47:29, is linked, like the present,
to a man’s last request-always a solemn occasion” (ABG,
178). “Note passages such as 46:26, Exo. 1:5, Judg. 8:30.
Consequently, this form of oath has particular regard to the
descendants and is taken in reference to them. But we
cannot stop short with this correct statement. For when
we consider how eagerly from the time of Adam believers
looked forward to a Savior that was to be born, and also
how Abraham (12:3) knew and believed that from his own
line such a Savior was to follow, we cannot but accept
the orthodox view held by the churchfathers from days
of old, that this oath was administered in view of the Savior
to come from Abraham’s line. The whole course of pro-
cedure builds upon this prominent fact. This same form
of oath is found besides only in 47:29. Consequently, we
do not find here a remnant of some old custom now no
longer understood, nor is this a remnant of some phallic
cult, nor was this an oath by the wzembrum virile, for the
469