Page 3 - Old Testament Survey Student Textbook

Old Testament Survey
By Prof. Kennedy Daniel Banda

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 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
and New “covenants.” It is important to note that most English Bibles use the word
1
“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
2
be made at individual, tribal or national level.” In other words it was a way of bringing
agreement where there was disagreement. Sandra quotes Frank Cross who calls them,
3
“Legal mechanisms or devices.”

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

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

3 Ibid, p 72.
2