New Covenant
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- This article is about the theological concept of the New Covenant. For other uses, see New Covenant (disambiguation).
The term New Covenant (Hebrew • ברית חדשה • berit hadashah — Greek • διαθήκη καινή • diatheke kaine) is used in the Bible (both in the Hebrew Bible and the Greek New Testament) to refer to an epochal relationship of restoration and peace following a period of trial and judgment. As all covenants between God and man described in the Bible, it is "a bond in blood sovereignly administered by God." <ref>This definition of covenant is from O. Palmer Robertson's book The Christ of the Covenants. It has become an accepted definition among modern scholars. See this critical review of his book by Dr. C. Matthew McMahon.</ref>
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[edit] Key Text: Jeremiah 31:31-34
This is the only passage in the Hebrew Bible that uses the wording "new covenant", but there are very many other passages in the Hebrew Scriptures that speak about the same epochal relationship, without using this exact wording. Some passages speak of a "covenant of peace"; others use other constructions; some simply say "covenant", but in context it is clearly the New Covenant at issue; and some use metaphorical descriptions, like "Mount Zion", referring to the New Covenant. The key text at issue here is quoted in full in Hebrews 8:8-12 in the New Testament, with an interpretation in the surrounding text. That full quotation, with partial quotations of the same text in other New Testament passages, reflects that the authors of the New Testament and Christian leaders generally, consider Jeremiah 31:31-34 to be a central Old Testament prophecy of the New Covenant. Here is the key text:
"Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, declares the Lord. But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people. And no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, 'Know the Lord,' for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the Lord. For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more." — Jeremiah 31:31-34 ESV <ref>Scripture quotations marked "ESV" are taken from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. Copyright ©2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved. Text provided by the Crossway Bibles Web Service.</ref>The 1988 New JPS version of Jeremiah 31:34 is:
No longer will they need to teach one another and say to one another, "Heed the LORD"; for all of them, from the least of them to the greatest, shall heed Me—declares the LORD. ...
[edit] Outline of the New Covenant
Based on a plain reading of the text of Jeremiah 31:31-34, the following points are discernible:
- The New Covenant is established by God himself.<ref>The New Covenant is clearly a future event from the point of view of the prophet Jeremiah. Judaism still ascribes it to the future. Christianity ascribes at least its inauguration to the time of Jesus, particularly at his death.</ref>
- The New Covenant is made with the house of Israel (including Judah).<ref>Understanding who is a member of the "house of Israel" is at the core of the difference between a Jewish and a Christian understanding of this prophecy. See Different Views of the New Covenant.</ref>
- The New Covenant is not like the Mosaic Covenant (a.k.a. the Old Covenant, or Sinaitic Covenant).
- Unlike the Mosaic Covenant, the New Covenant is kept by its members, not broken.<ref>Indeed, this is the very stated purpose of the New Covenant.</ref>
- Characteristics of the members of the New Covenant:<ref>These characteristics of the New Covenant's members are the content of the covenant. The New Covenant is changed hearts and minds, etc.</ref>
- The law of God is written in their thinking and their affections, not just in stone.
- The LORD, i.e. YHVH, will be their God, and they will be his people.<ref>A four-letter word, Y (yodh) H (heh) V (vav) H (heh), is the covenantal name of the God of the Bible. It is a Hebrew word. The Septuagint, an ancient Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible, translates YHVH as kurios, which means Lord in English. The New Testament does the same. The New Testament also ascribes the name to Jesus, who most Christians believe is YHVH incarnate. See Romans 10:5-13, where the name YHVH from the quoted passage in Joel 2:32 (quoted in Romans 10:13) is equated with Jesus Christ.</ref>
- Every single member of the New Covenant "knows the LORD" in an intimate way.<ref>Why "intimate" knowledge? Even beyond a word-study of the Hebrew word translated "know" (which does suggest intimate knowledge), simple context of this very passage shows that the knowledge in reference cannot be bare knowledge of God's existence, or something similar. It must be knowledge that goes beyond the knowledge of God received at Mount Sinai, because this covenant will be kept. Also, the text says the law of God will be written inside the New Covenant members, not just in stone (as from Mount Sinai). At minimum, the members of the New Covenant do not have to be taught to hold the knowledge of God in their "minds" and "hearts".</ref> <ref>Understanding the nature of this "knowledge of God" is at the core of the difference between a contemporary and a future-oriented understanding of this prophecy. See Different Views of the New Covenant Knowledge of God.</ref>
- The sins of the members of the New Covenant are forgiven by God, and will never be recalled.
[edit] Key Interpretive Texts in the New Testament
The Greek New Testament uses the exact wording "New Covenant" five times<ref>Luke 22:20, 1 Corinthians 11:25, 2 Corinthians 3:6, Hebrews 8:8, 9:15</ref> using the combination of some form of διαθήκη and καινός. One passage<ref>Hebrews 12:24</ref> uses the construction διαθήκης νέας, also meaning New Covenant.
[edit] Newness of the New Covenant
One of the unique things about the New Covenant, among covenants described in the Bible, is that it will not be broken, by definition. All prior biblical covenants between God and man are described as being broken.<ref>This unbroken nature of the New Covenant is understood by both Jewish and Christian scholars. Messiahtruth.com (a very anti-Christian pro-Jewish site) makes this point in their commentary on Jeremiah 31:31-34, maintaining that Christians do not understand this truth because Christians are claiming the advent of the New Covenant has already occurred with the death of Jesus, and yet they still do missionary work, though the prophecy entails universal knowledge of God. The difference is explained in the differing understandings of who Israel is, and therefore who the recipients of the New Covenant are. The difference is also related to the "already and not yet" principle in Christian theology, see also Kingdom of God. See these sections in this article on these topics.</ref>
[edit] Different Views on the New Covenant
[edit] Different Views on the Covenant Recipients
There are two basic understandings of the New Covenant. The difference between them revolves around mutually-exclusive understandings of the nature of Israel, to whom the covenant was given in prophecy. The difference between these two views is largely the difference between a Jewish view of the world and a Christian view of the world.
- Jewish view <ref>The Jewish view of Israel is also held by Christian Dispensationalists, which has become a major view among Evangelicals and Christian Fundamentalists, since its inception in the 1820s.</ref> — Israel includes primarily (if not exclusively) those who can trace their physical ancestry to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, i.e. the children of Israel or Israelites. Since the New Covenant was prophetically made with "the house of Israel and the house of Judah", it cannot be understood apart from the nation of Israel, i.e. the group of all people who are naturally related to Jacob, i.e. Israel, Judah's father (note that the political nation-state of Israel is not in view here). For many this is matrilineally determined. While proselytes have had a place in Judaism from early times, and most Jewish leaders advocate that non-Jews obey the Noahide laws (because all people are a part of the covenant made with Noah), and the prophets speak of the time as coming when the proselytes shall share in all the privileges of Israel (Ezekiel 47:22; Isaiah 2:2; 11:10; 56:3-7; Micah 4:1), even still, the closest a non-Jew can come to the covenant is to be considered a ger toshav, or sojourning foreigner. In this view, Gentiles are not required to keep the Ten Commandments, per se, because they are not of the Israel which was forever bound by the covenant which the Decalogue described in stone. Because of the debated status of proselytes in Judaism, it is a different question to ask about the nature of Israel (the question at hand) than to ask "Who is a Jew?" Someone can be considered a proselyte Jew, and not be considered a part of the nation of Israel. Indeed, this is a common view of proselytes. While many Jews await the coming of the Jewish Messiah, few Jewish scholars have explored, or developed a theology of, the New Covenant. The New Covenant has never been a significant feature of Jewish eschatology, other than the belief that eventually all Jews will know and follow the Torah without the need to study (Jer 31:32-33). For example, the article Jewish Encyclopedia: New Testament states: "The idea of the new covenant is based chiefly upon Jer. xxxi. 31-34 (comp. Heb. viii. 6-13, x. 16). That the prophet's words do not imply an abrogation of the Law is evidenced by his emphatic declaration of the immutability of the covenant with Israel (Jer 31:35-36; comp. 33:25); he obviously looked for a renewal of the Law through a regeneration of the hearts of the people."
- Christian view <ref>The Christian view of Israel has been almost universally held among Christians (to the extent that it has been pondered) from the beginning, until Dispensationalism began to replace that view, among its adherents, with the Jewish view.</ref> — Before the advent of Dispensationalism in the 1820s, the almost universal Christian view of the nature of Israel is that it is, according to Jesus and his Apostles (most notably John and Paul), primarily a spiritual nation (considered so especially since the coming of Jesus) composed of (1) the faithful remnant of the Jews (understood as those claiming Jesus as their Messiah, see also Jewish Christians), and (2) believers from among the Gentiles, who have been grafted into the promises made to the nation of Israel, including the New Covenant. According to Christian theology, this spiritual Israel is composed of only and all Jews and Gentiles who are genuinely of the faith of Abraham,<ref>While many religions can be considered "Abrahamic religions", what is meant in this context is the Christian faith.</ref> i.e. the Christian faith (believing Jesus to be Christ and Lord). The Apostle Paul says that "it is not the children of the flesh (i.e. the natural descendents of Abraham) who are the children of God, but the children of the promise (i.e. the spiritual descendents of Abraham)."
But it is not as though the word of God has failed. For not all who are descended from Israel belong to Israel, and not all are children of Abraham because they are his offspring, but "Through Isaac shall your offspring be named." This means that it is not the children of the flesh who are the children of God, but the children of the promise are counted as offspring. — Romans 9:6-8 ESV <ref>Scripture quotations marked "ESV" are taken from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. Copyright ©2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved. Text provided by the Crossway Bibles Web Service.</ref>
[edit] Different Views on Covenant Membership
Among Christians, there also exists significant differences on the question of membership in the New Covenant. These differences can be so serious that they form a principle reason for division. Different Christian denominations exists because of their answer to this question. The first major split is between those that believe that only believers are members of the New Covenant, the credobaptist view, and those that believe that believers and their children<ref>The reference here is to children that have not themselves made a profession of Christian faith. For those that hold the paedobaptist view, the reception of believers' children into the covenant, via baptism, typically happens before the child is even able to express faith (usually as an infant, hence the name).</ref> are members of the New Covenant, the paedobaptist view. Secondarily, there are differences among paedobaptists as to the nature of the membership of children in the covenant.
- Credobaptist view — text
- Paedobaptist view — text
- Covenantal view of infant baptism — text
- Immediate regeneration view of infant baptism — text
- Mediate regeneration view of infant baptism — text
[edit] Different Views on the New Covenant Knowledge of God
Another difference is between those who believe the New Covenant has already substantially arrived, and that this knowledge of God that the member of the New Covenant has is primarily salvific knowledge; and those that believe that the New Covenant has not yet substantially arrived, and that this knowledge is more complete knowledge, meaning a member of the New Covenant no longer has to be taught anything. This division does not just break down along Jewish v. Christian lines (as the previous difference did). In general, those that are more likely to lean toward the "already view", or salvific knowledge view, are those Christians that do not believe in the invisible Church (e.g. Roman Catholics), and Christians that practice believer baptism, because both believe the New Covenant is more present reality than future reality. Also in general, those that lean toward the "not yet view", or complete knowledge view, are Jews, and Christians that practice infant baptism for covenantal reasons, and Dispensationalistic Christians (even though they tend to practice believer baptism), because they believe the New Covenant is more future reality than present reality.
- Salvific Knowledge view — text
- Complete Knowledge view — text
[edit] Different Views on the Extent of the Covenant
Who is the neighbor?
[edit] The New Covenant and the Kingdom of God
The New Covenant and the Kingdom of God are two very related concepts. So much so, that they are often considered interchangeable synonyms. While Jesus was much more likely to refer to the Kingdom of God (perhaps his favorite topic, as understood from the New Testament), he was not unknown to refer to the New Covenant. In the following passage reported by Luke, Jesus uses both terms to refer to the very same upcoming event, his death and resurrection, being represented in the Last Supper.
And when the hour came, he [ Jesus ] reclined at table, and the apostles with him. And he said to them, "I have earnestly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer. For I tell you I will not eat it until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of God." And he took a cup, and when he had given thanks he said, "Take this, and divide it among yourselves. For I tell you that from now on I will not drink of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes." And he took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to them, saying, "This is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me." And likewise the cup after they had eaten, saying, "This cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood. But behold, the hand of him who betrays me is with me on the table. For the Son of Man goes as it has been determined, but woe to that man by whom he is betrayed!" And they began to question one another, which of them it could be who was going to do this. — Luke 22:14-23 ESV <ref>Scripture quotations marked "ESV" are taken from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. Copyright ©2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved. Text provided by the Crossway Bibles Web Service.</ref>John the Evangelist recorded Jesus as saying:
"My kingdom is not of this world. If it were, my servants would fight to prevent my arrest by the Jews. But now my kingdom is from another place." — John 18:36 NIVLuke the Evangelist recorded Jesus as saying:
Once, having been asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, Jesus replied, "The kingdom of God does not come with your careful observation, nor will people say, 'Here it is,' or 'There it is,' because the kingdom of God is within you." — Luke 17:20-21 NIV
[edit] Already and Not Yet
[edit] The Invisible Church
[edit] The New Covenant and Supercessionism
[edit] Expansion and Contraction under the New Covenant
[edit] Critics of the New Covenant
[edit] See also
- Old Testament#Christian view of the Law
- New Testament#The history of translation and usage of the term New Testament
- Expounding of the Law
- New Wine into Old Wineskins
- Jewish Christians
- Jewish Messiah
- Judaism and Christianity
- Christian Zionism
[edit] Notes
<references/>
[edit] External links
- Catholic Encyclopedia: Epistle to the Hebrews: "... the Epistle opens with the solemn announcement of the superiority of the New Testament Revelation by the Son over Old Testament Revelation by the prophets (Hebrews 1:1-4). It then proves and explains from the Scriptures the superiority of this New Covenant over the Old by the comparison of the Son with the angels as mediators of the Old Covenant (1:5-2:18), with Moses and Josue as the founders of the Old Covenant (3:1-4:16), and, finally, by opposing the high-priesthood of Christ after the order of Melchisedech to the Levitical priesthood after the order of Aaron (5:1-10:18)."
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