27
¶ And Israel dwelt in the land of Egypt,
in the country of Goshen; and they had possessions therein, and grew, and
multiplied exceedingly. 28 And Jacob
lived in the land of Egypt seventeen years: so the whole age of Jacob was an
hundred forty and seven years. 29 And
the time drew nigh that Israel must die: and he called his son Joseph, and said
unto him, If now I have found grace in thy sight, put, I pray thee, thy hand
under my thigh, and deal kindly and truly with me; bury me not, I pray thee, in
Egypt: 30 But I will lie with my
fathers, and thou shalt carry me out of Egypt, and bury me in their
buryingplace. And he said, I will do as thou hast said. 31 And he said, Swear unto me. And he sware unto
him. And Israel bowed himself upon the bed’s head.
We find another reference to the cultural practice of
putting a hand under someone’s thigh to declare an oath. Abraham made his
servant swear an oath that he would get Isaac a voluntary bride from his own
people.
Ge
24:2 And Abraham said unto his eldest
servant of his house, that ruled over all that he had, Put, I pray thee, thy
hand under my thigh…9 And the servant
put his hand under the thigh of Abraham his master, and sware to him concerning
that matter.
Now, I daresay that none of you who are of a sound
mind regard this as a requirement for you to be holy that you place your hand
under someone’s thigh to make a promise. If it is not in your cultural frame of
reference you pass over this like you would a verse number or a word you don’t
know and are too lazy to cross-reference or look up elsewhere. So, for cultural
practices that we know have an historical reason, we are not required, as a
matter of holiness, to practice. For instance, in 1Corinthians 11 Paul tells
them to follow the instructions he has given them and adds a but to include a practice of their own.
He agrees with them that their women should have long hair while at the end of
the brief argument he admits that it is not required practice in churches
elsewhere.
1Corinthians
11:1 ¶ Be ye followers of me, even as I
also am of Christ. 2 Now I praise you,
brethren, that ye remember me in all things, and keep the ordinances, as I
delivered them to you. 3 But I would
have you know, that the head of every man is Christ; and the head of the woman
is the man; and the head of Christ is God. 4
Every man praying or prophesying, having his head covered, dishonoureth
his head. 5 But every woman that prayeth
or prophesieth with her head uncovered dishonoureth her head: for that is even
all one as if she were shaven. 6 For if
the woman be not covered, let her also be shorn: but if it be a shame for a
woman to be shorn or shaven, let her be covered. 7 For a man indeed ought not to cover his head,
forasmuch as he is the image and glory of God: but the woman is the glory of
the man. 8 For the man is not of the
woman; but the woman of the man. 9
Neither was the man created for the woman; but the woman for the man.
10 For this cause ought the woman to
have power on her head because of the angels. 11 Nevertheless neither is the man without the
woman, neither the woman without the man, in the Lord. 12 For as the woman is of the man, even so is
the man also by the woman; but all things of God. 13 Judge in yourselves: is it comely that a
woman pray unto God uncovered? 14 Doth
not even nature itself teach you, that, if a man have long hair, it is a shame
unto him? 15 But if a woman have long
hair, it is a glory to her: for her hair is given her for a covering. 16 But if any man seem to be contentious, we
have no such custom, neither the churches of God. (Neither means roughly ‘not even’ in Paul’s
letters.)
From history we know that at Acrocorinth, the
acropolis of ancient Corinth, called Upper Corinth, stood the Temple of
Aphrodite, the goddess of sexual love, among other related things. There were a
thousand short-haired prostitutes working there that men would enjoy sexually
being the devoutly religious people they were. That was sarcasm, by the way. It
would not do, obviously, for a woman of Corinth’s church to be mistaken for a
prostitute, a priestess of Aphrodite. So, you have a conviction that you should
have long hair as I have a conviction that I should wear a suit when I teach
Sunday School. Don’t impose it on others. Remember that the time you are
honoring with your long hair, when you feel Christians were just and right, the
late 1800s, they believed that not wearing it up, letting your hair hang down
around your shoulders was sexually suggestive and scandalous just as my
business suit bought off the rack at a department store would have had a whole
different meaning in the early church. They were laborers and slaves and would
have worn their shabby work clothes to a meeting of the church and then gone
off to work. We must be careful about cultural practices becoming dogma.
In the same regard the letters of Paul call for the
members of the church to give each other a holy
kiss. That is not something we do in our culture in America typically. Nor
do we feel less close to God because we don’t. It is not our cultural practice
and Paul commanding it of the Roman church, the Corinthian church, and the
Thessalonian church and we not doing it doesn’t bother us one bit.
Be careful about standards that other people set for
you or as a Christian recently lamented on Facebook, “Don’t judge me for not
believing something the Bible did not say.” Cultural practices in the Bible are
not moral requirements, funnymentalist insistence aside.
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