Covenant

Covenant comes through Middle English from the Latin con (together) and venire (to come), conveying a coming together, an agreement, or a contract[1]. The Latin renders the Hebrew berit and the Greek diatheke, both of which name a binding relationship of promise and obligation between two parties[2]. In religious usage, covenant especially names the binding relationship between God and a people: God’s commitment to faithfulness and the people’s commitment to response[3].

covenant language is shared across traditions but interpreted differently in each.

Covenant is one of the central organizing categories of biblical religion[3]. The Hebrew Bible traces a sequence of covenants: God’s covenant with Noah after the flood, with Abraham, with the Israelites at Sinai through Moses, with David, and (in the prophets) a promised new covenant[4]. Each covenant carries its own promises and obligations[3]. The Sinai covenant, with its law including the Ten Commandments, is the most extensively developed in Jewish tradition[5].

Christian tradition reads the New Testament as inaugurating a new covenant in Christ, while continuing to honor the covenants of the Hebrew Bible[6]. Christian theologians have offered varied accounts of the relationship between the older covenants and the new covenant: supersessionist readings (the new replaces the old), continuity readings (one covenant in multiple administrations, common in Reformed theology), and various pluralist accounts[6]. Christian-Jewish dialogue since the 20th century has produced significant rethinking of this question, with many Christian traditions explicitly rejecting older supersessionist framings[6].

In Reformed and Puritan thought, covenant theology became an organizing framework for understanding the whole of scripture and salvation[6]. The Westminster Confession (1647) and other Reformed documents develop the categories of covenant of works, covenant of grace, and covenant of redemption[7]. Other Christian traditions use the language of covenant without this systematic theology[6].

Outside the biblical traditions, the term covenant is sometimes used loosely to describe binding religious or community commitments[2]. Within the biblical traditions, the term retains its specific theological weight[3].

Biblical studies has produced extensive comparative work on ancient Near Eastern covenant forms[3]. George Mendenhall’s mid-20th century studies of Hittite suzerainty treaties illuminated the form of the Sinai covenant[3]. Walther Eichrodt’s Theology of the Old Testament made covenant the central category of Hebrew Bible theology[3]. Jewish-Christian dialogue and post-Holocaust theology have generated significant rethinking of covenantal categories[6]. Reformed theology has produced its own systematic literature on covenant from the Reformation onward[7].

• Theology of the Old Testamentby Walther Eichrodt
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• The Faith of a Hereticby Walter Kaufmann
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