Page 3 - Old Testament Survey Student Textbook- short

Old Testament Survey
By Kennedy Daniel Banda, MABE

Study Section 1: Testament or Covenant?

1.1 Connect.

Have you ever heard of these two terms, Testament or Covenant? Or maybe
these terminologies seem far-fetched than what you are possibly used to from
everyday language. Today, we will try to define what these terms mean. We will
look at the how people in the Middle-Eastern culture in the past viewed this
concept. We will look at the different types of covenants in the Old Testament.
We will also look at how we can make this concept more practical in our day-to-day life. That being said,
let’s start our journey……..

1.2 Objectives:

1. The student should be able to define a testament and a covenant, especially in the Hebrew
and Greek language.

2. The student should be able to describe how these terms were used in the Near Eastern
Culture.

3. The student should be able to how these concepts was used at individual, group and national level.

4. The student should be able to explain how he/she can apply these principles in our modern society.

1.3 The role of the covenant in the Old Testament

(1)Definition of the word “covenant/Testament”

`The concept of covenant is very important because, “covenant is a major structuring
principle of our Scriptures…. In fact that the two divisions of our book are known as the Old
and New “covenants.”” (p. 70) It is important to note that most English Bibles use the word
“Testament” instead of “covenant”. The concept, however, remains the same even with a
different usage of words. The Greek word for “Testament” is diatheke, from the Hebrew word “berit”
and it basically means covenant. In addition, it is also very significant to note that the root of this
concept was significantly and completely secular in its native usage in the Ancient Near East. Sandra
puts it is this way, “a covenant was much like a contract… these contracts could be made at individual,
tribal or national level.” (p. 70) In other words it was a way of bringing agreement where there was
disagreement. Sandra quotes Frank Cross who calls them, “Legal mechanisms or devices.”(p. 72)

More specifically the concept of covenant in the Near East is what in Nowadays we can term as Fictive
kinship. Fictive kinship is the idea that a non-kin or someone who is not part of the household would be
considered part of the family upon agreement by oath. The concept was very
important in the Near East because of the patriarchal cultural system, especially
concerning privileges and responsibility. Privileges and responsibilities were only
reserved for the members of the household/family or the bet ab. Thus the significance
of kinship lies in its power to make it possible for an individual (non-kin) to establish a

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