Page 3 - Advanced OT Survey Student Textbook

Old Testament Survey
Kennedy Daniel Banda, M.A.B.E. & Kris Bjorgen, Ed.D.

Study Section 1: Testament or Covenant?

1.1 Connect.
If you haven’t already, some day you will stand before a judge or pastor and make a
covenant vow to your husband or wife, to love them and be faithful to them from the time of
the covenant until death. It is considered an unconditional vow or covenant where you
promise to partner with that person until God takes you home. It is unconditional, because
it is not based on either the husband’s or wife’s performance in the marriage. It does not
matter. It is a promise for better or worse, in sickness and in health. Not matter what
comes, you promise to be faithful. Unfortunately almost 50% of the people now days who make these
vows do not keep them.

Today we are going to look at what it means to make a covenant and how God initiated covenants by
making promises to various people in the Bible. Another word for covenant is “testament.” So, in a
sense, we are going to study a survey of the Old Covenants of God. Let’s dig in…

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 were 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
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and New “covenants.” 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 L. Richter puts it is this way, “a covenant was
much like a contract… these contracts could be made at individual, tribal or national

1 Sandra L. Richter, Epic of Eden: A Christian Entry into the Old Testament (Downers Grove, Illinois: IVPress
Academic; illustrated edition, 2008), p. 70.
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