Endnote 11 – “Put Your Hand Under My Thigh”—The Patriarchal Oath

The only apparent exception proves the rule. R. Harris, “The Archive of the Sin Temple in Khafajah,” Journal of Cuneiform Studies, vol. 9 (1955) p. 101, no. 98, has published a text which records the donation of private property to the high priest of the Sin temple. The reverse of the tablet provides that if the donor raises claims against the gift, two gods should “pluck up his offspring, and the Son God should be the commisary (to take the offender to court for condemnation).” (lines 1–4). Two things must be pointed out: first, the tablet is from Tutub (modern Khafajah, about 15 miles East-Northeast of Baghdad, on the Diyala River), from which we hardly expect to find legal holdovers in the Patriarchal narratives. Second, the dire sanctions on this tablet are due to the fact that the gift is being made to the high priest and the temple estates, claims against the gift would involve expropriation of temple land to private ownership, and the curse formula is therefore present. We can hardly count this tablet as a private contract.