What is the significance of putting ones hand under the thigh to swear an oath in the Bible (see Genesis 47:29 " and Genesis 24:9 9.)?

Answer 1

I agree with Paul's overall assessment that the act of placing one's hands upon the thigh, is an oath sign that has symbolic significance. However, let me add a few more details that might explain why this was even a thing.

One thing that is important to know is that the term "thigh" in either passage is a euphemism for another male body part. We know this by other passages (i.e. Gen. 26:26 & Ex. 1:5), which use the term as a reference to offspring. In these two instances, both individuals asking for the oath sign are older patriarchs (Abraham and Jacob) in which they themselves cannot carry out the given task. Furthermore, Victor Hamilton has noted that the nature of both requests are spatial (i.e. "not-here-but-there"). Abraham: a wife not from here but there; Jacob: buried, not here but there.

The overall force of the oath sign is somewhat tribal in nature within a larger Ancient Near Eastern context: as Paul noted, this type of oath sign bears the force of past lineage and future lineage implications. Some scholars have suggested that the placing of the hand symbolizes the source of the wrath (not unusual considering oath signs generally relate to punishment. Consider the common oath sign, "Cross my heart hope to die, stick a needle in my eye."); however, whether future generations or past generations is being invoked is not entirely clear (maybe both?). Nevertheless, the oath is to the patriarch and it is clear that oath signs reinforce both the oath as well as the consequences of non-performance of that oath.

Will all that said, I am really glad that we don't perform this oath sign anymore!

~Cameron brock

Answer 2

Throughout the Bible are examples of rituals that have a symbolic meaning that are also connected to the body. For example, the shedding of blood and the sprinkling of that blood of an animal was an example of sacrifice and purification. For Catholics, the Eucharist or communion is an actual injesting of the transformed body and blood of Christ. It is a way of becoming one with the presence of Christ, of being wiling to take up our Cross and follow him. It was rejected by many in the gospels, even disciples he had groomed, as so outlandish that they left him (John 6).

Likewise, putting one's hand under the thigh to swear an oath is not just to show in some uni unique way the seriousness by which one were to take the oath but that particular part of the body is significant because it has a precise connection with the nature of the oath itself - in the first case looking into the future at the lineage of Abraham and the fulfillment of the covenant God had made, and in the second case, looking into the past but also, without specifying exactly, the future of the promised land by his descendants 400 years later.