Because the primitive rite of blood-covenanting was well known in the
Lands of the Bible, at the time of the writing of the Bible, for that
very reason, we are not to look to the Bible for a specific explanation
of 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.
The word for “covenant,” in the Hebrew, _bereeth_ (בְּרִית), 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.”[568] This fact has been a source
of confusion to lexicographers.[569] But, when we consider 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, 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.”[570] Then came the giving of gifts by Abraham,
according to the practice which seems universal in connection with
this rite, in our own day.[571] “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 more than two-thirds of the way to Abraham,
says, that when the Arabians 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.[572] 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.[573] Instead of seven stones as a “heap of
witness”[574] between the two in this covenanting, “seven ewe lambs”
were set apart by Abraham, that they might “be a witness”[575]--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.”[576] 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”[577]--while that tree, doubtless, remained and grew as a
witness of his blood-covenant compact with Abimelech the ruler of the
Philistines.[578] Abimelech was, as it were, the first-fruits of the
“nations”[579] 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_
(ταμνομένων) “cutting,” and _tupsantes_ (τύψαντες) “striking,” which
are the correspondents, on the one hand of the Hebrew _karath_ (כָּרַת)
“to cut,” and on the other hand of the Latin _ferire_, “to strike;”
as applied to covenant making.[580] 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.
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, prompted by faith, sought a renewal of the covenant
with the house of Abraham.[581] 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.”[582] Apparently they either cut a new
covenant, or they confirmed one which their fathers had cut.
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;[583] for Jacob, perhaps, had more
tolerance than Abraham, for perverted religious symbols.[584] “And
now let us cut a covenant, I and thou,” said Laban; “and let it be
for a witness between me and thee. And Jacob took a stone, and 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].[585] And Laban called it Jegar-sahadutha: but Jacob
called it Gilead. And Laban said, This heap is witness between me and
thee this day.... God is witness betwixt me and thee.... The God of
Abraham and the God of Nahor, the God of their father, judge betwixt
us. And Jacob sware by the Fear of his father Isaac. And Jacob offered
a sacrifice in the mountain, and called his brethren to eat bread: and
they did eat bread.”[586] Here again, the cutting of the covenant, and
the sharing of a feast in connection with the rite,--the “cutting” and
the “eating”--are in accordance with all that we know of the primitive
rite, of blood-covenanting in the East, in earlier and in later times.
Yet more explicit is the description of the blood-covenanting which
brought into loving unity, David and Jonathan. It was when the
faith-filled heroism of the stripling shepherd-boy was thrilling all
Israel with grateful admiration, that David was brought into the royal
presence of Saul, and of Saul’s more than royal hero-son, Jonathan,
to receive the thanks of the king for the rescue of the tarnished
honor of the Israelitish host. Modestly, David gave answer to the
question of the king. “And it came to pass, when he had made an end
of speaking unto Saul, that the soul of Jonathan was knit with the
soul of David, and Jonathan loved him as his own soul.” “Then Jonathan
and David cut a covenant, because he [Jonathan] loved him [David] as
his own soul [as his own life, his own blood].”[587] Then followed
that gift of raiment and of arms which was a frequent accompaniment
of blood-covenanting.[588] “And Jonathan stripped himself of the robe
that was upon him, and gave it to David, and his apparel, even to his
sword, and to his bow, and to his girdle.”[589] From that hour the
hearts of David and Jonathan were as one. Jonathan could turn away from
father and mother, and could repress all personal ambition, and all
purely selfish longings, in proof of his loving fidelity to him who was
dear to him as his own blood.[590] His love for David was “wonderful,
passing the love of women.”[591]
Nor was this loving compact between Jonathan and David for themselves
alone. It was for their posterity as well.[592] “The Lord be with thee,
as he hath been with my father,” said Jonathan. “And thou shalt not
only while yet I live shew me the kindness of the Lord, that I die not:
but also thou shalt not cut off thy kindness from my house for ever:
no, not [even] when the Lord hath cut off the enemies of David every
one from the face of the earth. So Jonathan cut a covenant with the
house of David, saying [as in the imprecations of a blood-covenant],
And the Lord shall require it [fidelity to this covenant] at the hand
of David’s enemies. And Jonathan caused David to swear again, for the
love he had to him: for he loved him as he loved his own soul [his own
life, his own blood].”[593] And years afterward, when the Lord had
given David rest from all his enemies around about him, the memory of
that blood-covenant pledge came back to him; “and David said, Is there
yet any that is left of the house of Saul, that I may shew him kindness
for Jonathan’s sake?”[594] The seating of lame Mephibosheth at David’s
royal table,[595] was an illustration of the unfailing obligation of
the primitive covenant of blood; which had bound together David and
Jonathan, for themselves and for theirs forever.