' heirship' ai
These two passages in Hebrews and Galatians are the only NT passages which explicitly refer to the testamentary character of the iittQ^xyj. In how far in other instances the associations of the testament idea lay in the speaker's or writer's mind cannot be determined with certaintj- (of. Ac 3'-» M iv iK^Hxv.; ; Gal
In the AV of the NT ii^Hxr is in 14 instances rendered by ' testament ' (Jlt 2B« Mk 14M, Lk 22a>, 1 Co 111''. 2 Co 36 », He 72! 915 his. 16. 17. 18. 20, Rev 1119). As a marginal alternative " is also offered in Ro 94, Gal 3i-' 424, He 86 V»* 1320. II these cases, except in He 916. n, the RV has replaced anient ' by ' covenant,' offering, however, the former as a
20. The principle by The only question I stated above, they were
f to be i. W'hat
these cises been dropped, except 1
which the Revisers were guided is plain.
can be whether, in view of what wi
right in rendering 'covenant' ant
315- 17. The point to be determined in each cas
the associations of 'testament' were present
or writer's mind, but whether those of ' covena
onlv where the latter is the case ought '1
abandoned, and Gal 315- n seems to belong to t
motives in each case underlie the choice of
' covenant ' in AV is not so plain. Possibly these motives were
not always exegetical, but derived from the usage of earlier
(English and other) versions. The following explanation is
offered tentatively : wherever the contrast between the old and
the new luxSy.xv^' is expressed or implied, 'testament' was
chosen, because ' testament ' had long since, on the basis of
the Latin Bil)le, become familiar as a designation of the two
,. .1 i -,f ■<-r.v--.r^. :-! *hf forms 'the Old Testament,' 'the
\, . T.-l nii-il ■ Tin. .All! .xplain Mt 2628, Mk 1424, Lk 2220,
' , ■ li. : \ In He 915-20, of course, the import
I :, j. :--... -IT r i . ; 1 'testament.' He 86- (' a better
,' i : (that til -I -■ '.'/ia?!*') s- ('a new covenant') s-
1" •■> fa new mnimnt ). 'j' ('the first cocenonf '), 1224 ('the new cotenant '), seem to run contrarj' to the explanation offered, but in each of these instances the context furnished a special reason for favouring 'covenant': in He 86-13 the dis- course revolves around the quotation from Jeremiah, which had ' covenant ' ; 91 is still continuous with this section, and in 12" the contrast between the mediatorship of Moses and that of Jesus, and the reference to the transaction of Ex 24, suggested ' covenant.' In 2 Co 30 n ' testament ' was especially suitable, because here the idea of i,^Hx^ might seem to approach that of a body of writings (v. 14 ' the reading of the Old Testa- ment'). Strange and unexplained is Rev ll'S (' the ark of his ". He 94 (' the ark of the c
It seems strange at first sight that a conception so prominent in the OT is so little utilized in the NT. Perhaps the main reason for this was the intensity of the escliatological interest in that age, which made other terms appear more suitable to describe the neiv order of things felt to be approaching or to have already begun. On the wliole, the covenant idea had not been intimately associated with eschatology in the OT. The con- sciousness that the work of Christ had ushered in a new state of tilings for the present life of the people of God, distinct and detached from the legal life of Judaism, for which latter the word ' cove- nant ' had ijecome the characteristic expression, dawned only gradually upon the early Clmrcli. The phrase ' Kingdom of God,' while emphasizing the newness of the Messianic order 01 things, leaves unexpressed the superseding of the Mosaic institutions by the introduction of something else.
AVith this agrees tlie fact that the conception of Cliristi.-mity :is a cuvi'iiaiit i-s must familiar to pre- cisely I 111 1-1' i"i. NI" vviitiM- wlio with greate.st clc'ii'iir-s ami ciiiiilia-is ilniw tin' contrast between till- M.wiir tonus ..1 liiV .Hiiil those of the Christian era, viz. St. Paul and the author of Hebrews. Even with St. Paul, however, the contrast referred to finds only occasional expression in terms of the covenant : as a rule, it is expressed in other ways, such as the antithesis between law and grace, works and faith. The Epistle to the Hebrews is the only NT -KTiting which gives to the covenant idea the same central dominating place as it has in the greater part of the OT.
In the Gospels the word ' covenant,' in a religi- ous sense, occurs but twice, in Lk 1", and in the words spoken by our Lord at the Supper. In the former passage the covenant with Abraham is referred to, and the Messianic salvation repre- sented as a fulfilment of the promise of that cove- nant. The emergence of the idea here is in harmony with the best OT traditions : it expresses the consciousness of the sovereign grace and unde- served faithfulness of God which pervades the pro- plietic pieces preserved for us in the gospel of the incarnation according to St. Luke. Of course, in a broad sense the idea of the relation between God and Israel embodied in the word ' covenant' under- lies and perv.ades all our Lord's teaching. Notwith-