Images de page
PDF
ePub

the rite itself, even where there are incidental references in the Bible to the rite and its observances; but, on the other hand, we are to find an explanation of the biblical illustrations of the primitive rite, in the understanding of that rite which we gain from outside sources. In this way, we are enabled to see in the Bible much that otherwise would be lost sight of.

"1

But when we consider

The word for "covenant," in the Hebrew, bereeth (), is commonly so employed, in the sacred text, as to have the apparent meaning of a thing "cut," as apart from, or as in addition to, its primary meaning of a thing "eaten." This fact has been a source of confusion to lexicographers. that the primitive rite of blood-covenanting was by cutting into the flesh in order to the tasting of the blood, and that a feast was always an accompaniment of the rite, if, indeed, it were not an integral portion of it, the two-fold meaning of "cutting" and "eating" attaches obviously to the term "covenant"; as the terms "carving," and "giving to eat," are often used interchangeably, with reference to dining; or as we speak of a "cut of beef" as the portion for a table.

The earliest Bible reference to a specific covenant between individuals, is in the mention, at Genesis 14: 13, of Mamre, Eshcol, and Aner, the Amorites,

1 Comp. Gen. 15: 18; Jer. 34: 18; 2 Sam. 12: 17.
2 See Gesenius, Fuerst, Cocceius, s. v.

AT THE WELLS OF BEER-SHEBA.

265

who were in covenant with-literally, were "masters of the covenant of "-" Abram the Hebrew." After this, comes the record of a covenant between Abraham and Abimelech, at the wells of Beer-sheba. Abimelech sought that covenant; he sought it because of his faith in Abraham's God. "God is with thee in all that thou doest," he said: "Now, therefore, swear unto me here by God, that thou wilt not deal falsely with me, nor with my son, nor with my son's son: but according to the kindness that I have done unto thee, thou shalt do unto me, and to the land wherein thou hast sojourned. And Abraham said, I will swear." Then came the giving of gifts by Abraham, according to the practice which seems universal in connection with this rite, in our own day. "And Abraham took sheep and oxen, and gave them unto Abimelech." And they two "made a covenant,"—or, as the Hebrew is, "they two cut a covenant." This covenant, thus cut between Abraham and Abimelech-patriarchs and sovereigns as they were—was for themselves and for their posterity. As to the manner of its making, we have a right to infer, from all that we know of the manner of such covenant-making among the people of their part of the world, in the earliest days of recorded history.

Herodotus, who goes back well-nigh two-thirds of the way to Abraham, says, that when the Arabians. 1 Gen. 21: 22-24. 2 See pages 14, 16, 20, 22, 25, 27, etc., supra.

would covenant together, a third man, standing between the two, cuts, with a sharp stone, the inside of the hands of both, and lets the blood therefrom drop on seven stones which are between the two parties.1 Phicol, the captain of Abimelech's host, was present, as a third man, when the covenant was cut between Abimelech and Abraham; at Beer-sheba-the Well of the Seven, or the Well of the Oath.2 Instead of seven stones as a "heap of witness" between the two in this covenanting," seven ewe lambs" were set apart by Abraham, that they might "be a witness"—a symbolic witness to this transaction.

In the primitive rite of blood-covenanting, as it is practised in some parts of the East, to the present time, in addition to other symbolic witnesses of the rite, a tree is planted by the covenanting parties, "which remains and grows as a witness of their contract." "5 So it was, in the days of Abraham. "And Abraham planted a tamarisk tree in Beer-sheba, and called there on the name of the Everlasting God. And Abraham sojourned [was a sojourner] in the land of the Philistines many days"-while that tree, doubtless, remained and grew as a witness of his bloodcovenant compact with Abimelech the ruler of the

1 See page 47, supra.

3 Comp. Gen. 31: 44-47.

5 See page 53, supra.

2 Gen. 21: 31.

4 Gen. 21: 30.

6 Gen. 21: 33.

CUTTING AND STRIKING.

267

Philistines.1 Abimelech was, as it were, the first-fruits of the "nations "2 who were to have a blessing through the covenanted friend of God.

It is a noteworthy fact, that when Herodotus describes the Scythians' mode of drinking each other's mingled blood, in their covenanting, he tells of their "cutting covenant" by "striking the body" of the covenanting party. In this case, he employs the words tamnomenon (tapvoμévwv) “cutting,” and tupsantes (túavtes) "striking," which are the correspondents, on the one hand of the Hebrew karath (n) "to cut," and on the other hand of the Latin ferire, "to strike;" as applied to covenant making.3 And this would seem to make a tri-lingual "Rosetta Stone" of this statement by Herodotus, as showing that the Hebrew "cutting" of the covenant, and the Latin "striking of the covenant, is the Greek, the Arabian, the Scythian, and the universal primitive, method of covenanting, by cutting into, or by striking, the flesh of a person covenanting; in order that another may become a possessor of his blood, and a partaker of his life.

[ocr errors]

Yet later, at the same Well of the Seven, another Abimelech came down from Gerar, with "Ahuzzath his friend, and Phicol the captain of his host," and,

1 See references to the blood-stained covenant-tree, in Appendix, infra.

2 Gen. 22: 18.

3 See page 61 f., supra.

prompted by faith, sought a renewal of the covenant with the house of Abraham.1 It is not specifically declared that Abimelech and Isaac cut a covenant together; but it is said that "they did eat and drink” in token of their covenant relations, and that they "sware one to another."2 Apparently they either cut a new covenant, or they confirmed one which their fathers had cut.3

When Jacob and Laban covenanted together, in "the mountain [the hill-country] of Gilead," before their final separation, they had their stone-heap of witness between them; such as Herodotus says the Arabs were accustomed to anoint with their own blood, in their covenanting by blood, in his day;3 for Jacob, perhaps, had more tolerance than Abraham, for perverted religious symbols. "And now let us cut a covenant, I and thou," said Laban; "and let it be for a witness between me and thee. set it up for a pillar [a pillar instead of a tree]. And Jacob said unto his brethren, Gather stones; and they took stones, and made an heap: and they did eat there on the heap [the Revisers have translated this, by the heap"] And Laban called it Jegar-sahadutha: but

And Jacob took a stone, and

1 Gen. 26: 25-29. 2 Gen. 26: 30, 31. 3 See page 62, supra.

4

Comp. Gen. 12: 6-8; 28: 18-22; 31: 19–36.

5 Mr. Forbes tells of a custom, in Sumatra, of taking a binding oath above the grave of the original patriarch of the Passumah. An animal

« PrécédentContinuer »