The Covenant ritual (1)

Text
The Bible presents the laws of Israel as a covenant or treaty drawn up between God and his people by an intermediary. Hittite influence through treaties and loyalty oaths has been invoked to explain similarities in the invocation of heaven and earth as witnesses, and the curse-and-blessing element, which characterize biblical laws. The same themes occur in Aramaic and Assyrian treaties of the early Iron Age; and other kinds of text contain them, including monumental royal inscriptions. Egypt too used such forms in its treaties with rulers of western Asia. All treaty texts and loyalty oaths contain prohibition clauses such as: ‘You shall not hold an assembly to adjure one another and give the kingship to one of you.’

A ritual is described in cuneiform texts from Mari and Tell al-Rimah in Northern Iraq, dating from the time of Hammurapi. Animals were cut in half and two parties contracted a treaty or alliance by passing between the halves. Some of the vocabulary used is west Semitic, perhaps because the ritual was widespread among Amorite peoples in upper Mesopotamia, different groups using different wording. Genesis 15:9-18 describes a ritual for making a covenant or agreement between Yahweh and Abraham. Abraham cut in half several animals, and a ‘smoking furnace and a firebrand’ passed between the halves. Jeremiah 34:18-19 refers also to the ritual in which a calf is cut in half and men walk between the halves to conclude their covenant. In Mesopotamia the covenant ritual cemented an agreement between men although they acted with the approval of their gods and invoked their support. The biblical ritual, however, cemented an agreement between man and god.

Sources (list of abbreviations) (source links will open in a new browser window)
Genesis 15:9-18
Jeremiah 34:18-19

Bibliography

Stephanie Dalley

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