New Covenant

The New Covenant is an interpretation of biblical language that refers to a spiritual contract between God and his people after the Old Covenant was broken. The New Covenant may be seen as either a renewal or replacement of the previous covenant. This original Old Covenant had been broken by humankind's failure to faithfully obey the rules set out by God. However, the New Covenant restored God's commitment to humanity despite its inherently sinful nature. It is a central theological point in establishing the relationship between God and humanity. The ultimate meaning of this New Covenant, however, differs between the Jewish and Christian faiths.

The language of the New Covenant is set forth in chapters thirty to thirty-three of the Book of Jeremiah, which is part of both the Hebrew Bible and the Christian Old Testament. Judaism interprets the New Covenant to be a prophetic reaffirmation of God's favor of his chosen people, the Jews. In this sense, Jeremiah's message was intended as an epistle of hope for his exiled people and a call to recommit themselves to God. For Christians, the New Covenant is also meant to be prophesying, but it was intended to be a testament of the coming sacrifice of Jesus on behalf of all humanity.

Background

Covenant is a term used to describe a binding agreement between two parties. In ancient Israel, such arrangements usually had religious implications. After agreeing orally to terms, the two parties would swear an oath to honor the arrangements as they had been outlined. As part of the terms of a covenant, each party innately understood that if either side failed to perform their duties as required, they were subject to punishment by God. A covenant held greater meaning than a simple contract to the ancient Israelites. As such, the covenants between God and his chosen people were particularly sacred. They were meant to be obeyed as if they were law.

God made several covenants with humanity in the Bible. Among the covenants recognized by various faiths are the Noahic Covenant, in which God promised Noah that he would not destroy all life again through flood, and the Abrahamic Covenant, whereby God established his special relationship to the Jewish people and promised them a land of their own in Israel. However, in the context of the New Covenant, the covenant that was broken by humankind was the Old, or Mosaic, Covenant.

This covenant between God and his chosen people was initially described in chapters seventeen through twenty-four of the Book of Exodus. According to biblical tradition, after God freed the Israelites from Egyptian slavery, Moses led them to Mount Sinai. There Moses received the Ten Commandments (also known as the Decalogue), a list of religious instructions that demonstrated both the proper way to worship God while providing guidance for living in communion with his laws. This covenant therefore helped established the laws of the Jewish Torah. In receiving news of the Mosaic Covenant, the children of Israel promised to obey the laws as outlined by God. However, the hearts of humanity are inherently selfish rather than filled with a desire to follow the path set by God. As such, humans were inevitably doomed to stray from the laws of God.

The New Covenant is mentioned on several occasions in the Bible. That humanity was incapable of fulfilling the duties outlined in the Old Covenant is foreshadowed in the Books of Deuteronomy and Joshua. However, in Isaiah, there is also mention of a coming reaffirmation of God's commitment to humanity despite its inherent faults.

The Book of Jeremiah details a period between 627 B.C.E. and 586 B.C.E. in which Babylon captured and destroyed the ancient Jewish state of Judah (a precursor to Israel). These events began the Babylonian exile of the Jewish people, in which many Jews were forced to leave their homelands for Babylon. It was a period of great devastation for the Jewish people, and they began to despair. Jeremiah presents this passage as a means of consolation to the Jews that God will once again reward his chosen people. However, Jeremiah was a prophet. As such, Christians believe that his message was intended to presage the coming of Christ.

Overview

The New Covenant has different meanings in Christianity and Judaism. For Judaism, the New Covenant is not meant to replace the Old Covenant. Rather, it is intended to be a renewal of the existing relationship between God and the Jewish people. The period described in the Book of Jeremiah represented a time of great sadness. Jewish rabbinical scholars usually represent Jeremiah's description of a New Covenant as not only God's commitment to the Jews but also a renewed willingness by them to demonstrate their own strengthened commitment to God's will. This is in line with Jewish tradition that says God does not deviate from his word, and that he is incapable of making mistakes. The Old Mosaic Covenant was therefore intended to be eternal and would not be broken by God, even in cases of human weakness.

For Christians, the underlying message of the New Covenant refers to God's forgiveness of sin. This is possible due to a differing interpretation of the message of Jeremiah. While Judaism holds that the related passage speaks to how God had not abandoned his chosen people and that the New Covenant merely reaffirmed their existing relationship, Christians believe the New Covenant allowed humanity to establish a new beginning.

Christians believe in the concept of original sin. This idea dates back to Adam and Eve's rebellion against God in the Garden of Eden. Since then, humanity has been burdened with sin. In Jeremiah, God states as part of his New Covenant, "I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more." For Christians, Jesus Christ was the fulfillment of this promise. Through Jesus's sacrifice, God forgave the sins of all humanity. In this sense, Jesus was the living embodiment of the New Covenant. His death paid for humanity's sins and paved the way for a new relationship between humanity and its heavenly creator. This New Covenant, then, was fully realized during the Last Supper when Jesus offered his blood as part of the Eucharist. This aspect of the Eucharist is typically recited as part of the liturgy of Christian mass.

These differing interpretations of the New Covenant are part of a fundamental point of contention between Judaism and Christianity. For Jews, the New Covenant was intended to be a contract between God and Israel. For Christians, it is seen as the bond between God and all people.

Bibliography

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Enns, Paul P. "Theology of the Prophetic Era: Anticipation of a Regenerated People: The New Covenant." The Moody Handbook of Theology. Moody Publishers, 2014, pp. 71–2.

Hahn, Scott. "The Eucharist in the New Testament." Catechetical Sunday, United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, 18 Sept. 2011, www.usccb.org/beliefs-and-teachings/how-we-teach/catechesis/catechetical-sunday/eucharist/upload/catsun-2011-doc-hahn.pdf. Accessed 4 Jan. 2017.

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Moon, Joshua. Jeremiah's New Covenant: An Augustinian Reading. Eisenbrauns, 2010.

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Tkach, Joseph. "The New Covenant in a Nutshell." Grace Communion International, 9 Apr. 2012, www.gci.org/law/nutshell. Accessed 4 Jan. 2017.