Jacob's Crossed Hands: the Blessing Given in the Form of the Cross
Old Testament: Genesis 48:14
But he stretching forth his right hand, put it upon the head of Ephraim the younger brother; and the left upon the head of Manasses who was the elder, changing his hands.
Old Testament, also: Genesis 48:19
But he refusing, said: I know, my son, I know: and this also shall become peoples, and shall be multiplied: but this younger brother shall be greater than he: and his seed shall grow into nations.
New Testament: Galatians 3:14; Acts 8:17
That the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Christ Jesus: that we may receive the promise of the Spirit by faith. ... Then they laid their hands upon them, and they received the Holy Ghost.
The connection
Joseph brought his two sons to his dying father and set them in order, the elder at Jacob's right hand and the younger at his left. Jacob, almost blind, reached across: "stretching forth his right hand, put it upon the head of Ephraim the younger brother; and the left upon the head of Manasses who was the elder, changing his hands" (Genesis 48:14). Joseph tried to move his father's hand, "It should not be so, my father", and Jacob answered, "I know, my son, I know ... but this younger brother shall be greater than he" (Genesis 48:18-19). Hebrews counts the scene among the great acts of faith: "By faith Jacob dying, blessed each of the sons of Joseph" (Hebrews 11:21). The Fathers saw the shape of the blessing. Tertullian writes that Jacob laid his hands on them "interchanged, and indeed so transversely slanted one over the other, that, by delineating Christ, they even portended the future benediction into Christ." St Augustine calls them hands "mystically crossed", by which Jacob "threw light upon the races of the future people, presignified in them": the younger set before the elder. The blessing of Abraham comes to the nations by the Cross. "Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us", on the tree, "That the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Christ Jesus: that we may receive the promise of the Spirit by faith" (Galatians 3:13-14). And it is given still by hands: "they laid their hands upon them, and they received the Holy Ghost" (Acts 8:17). Tertullian sets Jacob's crossed hands at the head of that rite, and the Catechism teaches that the Holy Ghost is given by the apostles' laying on of hands (CCC 699).
Moral sense
Joseph wanted his father's right hand on the son he had chosen, and tried to move it. We do the same with God's blessings, and want them to fall where we would put them. The answer is Jacob's: "I know, my son, I know" (Genesis 48:19). The blessing often comes crossed against our plans, and its shape is always the Cross. Every sign of the cross we make, and every blessing a priest gives, is traced in the form Jacob's arms made over the boys' heads.
Anagogical sense
At the end the right hand is still the place of blessing: "Then shall the king say to them that shall be on his right hand: Come, ye blessed of my Father, possess you the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world" (Matthew 25:34).
The Fathers
Tertullian, On Baptism, chapter 8: "this, as well as the former, is derived from the old sacramental rite in which Jacob blessed his grandsons, born of Joseph, Ephrem and Manasses; with his hands laid on them and interchanged, and indeed so transversely slanted one over the other, that, by delineating Christ, they even portended the future benediction into Christ." St Augustine, Confessions, Book 10, chapter 34: "Jacob ... with an enlightened heart, in the persons of his own sons, threw light upon the races of the future people, presignified in them; and laid his hands, mystically crossed, upon his grandchildren by Joseph."
Warrant
Patristic. Tertullian (On Baptism, chapter 8) says the crossed hands, delineating Christ, portended the blessing into Christ, and sets them at the head of the laying on of hands after baptism; St Augustine (Confessions, Book 10, chapter 34) calls them mystically crossed and the boys a figure of the peoples to come. Hebrews 11:21 names the blessing as an act of faith but does not draw the figure, so the grade rests on the Fathers. Checked in the languages: the Septuagint says Jacob laid on his hands enallax, crosswise; the Douay, after the Vulgate, has changing his hands; and the Hebrew sikkel et-yadav is usually read he guided his hands wittingly, from a root meaning to act wisely, so the crossing was deliberate. The lead was Dunk's, from a talk about the blessing hand in Christian art.
Catechism of the Catholic Church, paragraph 699.
