p. 3 | Testament or Covenant?

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Oct 31, 1907

Testament or Covenant?

IN the Authorized translation of the New Testament the same Greek word, diatheke, is sometimes rendered “covenant” and sometimes “testament.” In the Revised Version the word is uniformly translated “covenant,” with the exception of the passage in Heb. 9: 16, 17, where the word “testament” is retained. Which is the proper rendering? Does it make any difference which is used?

As throwing light upon this inquiry we will quote from the preface to Green’s Greek-English Lexicon to the New Testament, the writer of the preface being the late H. L. Hastings, well known as a Bible student: —

The Greek of the New Testament differs materially in its character from the classical Greek, or from the Greek language as a whole. About B. C. 288 the law of Moses was translated from Hebrew into Greek, by request of Ptolemy Philadelphus, who sought everywhere for books to enrich his great library at Alexandria. Subsequently other portions were translated, and hence, we have what is known as the Septuagint version of the Old Testament. This was largely used among the Jewish people in Egypt and elsewhere in the time of our Saviour. It was a Greek version of a Hebrew book, and it was through this book, as well as by intercourse with Grecian people and foreigners of Jewish stock, that the Jewish people became acquainted with the Greek tongue. But the Greek of the Septuagint was full of Hebrew ideas and idioms, and hence the Greek of the Jews in Palestine, and of the New Testament which is also saturated with Old Testament ideas, differed from the ordinary language of the Greeks, new meanings having been imparted to various words, in order that they might represent Hebrew words and Hebrew ideas. For example, when the Greek word hades is used, we are not thereby committed to a belief in all the fabulous ideas of the Greeks concerning the abode of the dead, for the word was but the representative of the Hebrew word sheol, which is almost always translated hades in the Greek Old Testament. Hence in studying this Greek word in the New Testament we are not to go to the Greek classics to find out what they mean by the word hades, but rather to the Hebrew prophets to learn in what sense they use the word sheol, of which it is the Greek equivalent. So the word diatheke in classic Greek signifies a will, testament, covenant, and so the term in the common English version is translated in both these ways. But in the Septuagint the word diatheke is used to translate the Hebrew word berith, which signifies covenant, but does not signify a will or testament.

Both the Authorized and the Revised Versions of Heb. 9: 15, 16, give countenance to the assumption that our Saviour made his last will and testament, and by his death gave it validity. But in that case would not his resurrection three days later have rendered it null and void? The subject under discussion in Hebrews 9 is not two testaments, or wills, but two covenants, or agreements; and the death referred to seems to be not the death of a “testator,” or mediator, but the death of the sacrifice which was offered after the custom of ancient times when a solemn covenant was made, and whose blood sprinkled on the ground and over the covenanting parties, sealed the covenant, which was of no force until the sacrifice was slain. The first covenant was sealed with the blood of calves and goats; the second covenant with the blood of the Son of God.

In harmony with the principles laid down in this extract is the translation of Heb. 9: 15-17 as made by B. Boothroyd, D. D., which reads as follows: “And for this purpose he is the mediator of the new covenant, that by means of death for the redemption of the transgressions under the first covenant, those, who are called might receive the promised blessing of the everlasting inheritance. For where a covenant is, there must also of necessity be the death of that which establisheth it. For a covenant is made firm over the dead victims; whereas it is of no force while that which establisheth it liveth.” This translation of this passage makes it consistent with the dedication of the first covenant as recorded in Ex. 24: 6-8: “And Moses took half of the blood, and put it in basins; and half of the blood he sprinkled on the altar. And he took the book of the covenant, and read in the audience of the people: and they said, All that the Lord hath said will we do, and be obedient. And Moses took the blood, and sprinkled it on the people, and said, Behold the blood of the covenant which the Lord hath made with you concerning all these words.”

The force of this suggestion concerning the proper translation of the Greek word diatheke and of this translation of Heb. 9: 15-17 by Boothroyd, in their relation to some false teaching, is pointed out in another article with the title “‘The Testator’ Error.”