OF PRINCETON MAR 1 8 2008 I J THEL. UNARY $n 0f h THE NEW COVENANT: Jeremiah 31.31-34: Inaugural Address delivered by the Rev. William Henry^Oxtoby, D. D., as Gray Pro- fessor of Hebrew Exegesis and Old Testament Literature. SAN FRANCISCO THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY SAN ANSELMO, CALIFORNIA SEPTEMBER 16, 1914 LIBRARY OF PRINCETON MAR 1 8 2008 THEOL j EM I NARY THE NEW COVENANT: Jeremiah 31.31-34: Inaugural Address delivered by the Rev. William Henry CDxtoby, D. D., as Gray Pro- fessor of Hebrew Exegesis and Old Testament Literature. FEB 2 1915 SAN FRANCISCO THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY SAN ANSELMO, CALIFORNIA SEPTEMBER 16, 1914 Printed by Taylor, Nash & Taylor San Francisco PREFATORY NOTE At a meeting of the Board of Directors of the San Fran- cisco Theological Seminary of the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America, held April 23, 1913, the Rev. William Henry Oxtoby, D. D., Pastor of the Tabernacle Presbyterian Church of Philadelphia, Pa., was unanimously elected Gray Professor of Hebrew Exegesis and Old Testa- ment Literature. This election was approved by the General Assembly, in session at Atlanta, Georgia, May 23, 1913; and by the Synod of California, in session at Santa Rosa, Oct. 16, 1913. Dr. Oxtoby accepted this election, and entered upon his duties at the beginning of the session of 1913-14. The Inaugural Service was held in Assembly Hall, San Anselmo, California, Sept. 16, 1914. President Warren Hall Landon, D. D., presided, and led in the Invocation. The Les- son from the Scriptures was read by the Rev. John C. Miller, D. D. The Rev. Walter Hays offered Prayer. The Formula of Subscription was read by Mr. George D. Gray, Vice-President of the Board of Trustees, and son of Mr. Nathaniel Gray, in honor of whom the Chair was named. The Charge to the newly inaugurated Professor was de- livered by the Rev. Robert Freeman, D. D. The Inaugural Address was then delivered, and the service was closed with Prayer and the Benediction by the Rev. Ernest F. Hall, D. D. The Inaugural Address is published by the Board of Trustees of the Seminary. Mr. President, Members of the Board of Trustees and Friends of San Francisco Theological Seminary : Before discussing the theme which I have chosen for this inaugural occasion, I wish to express my sincere appreci- ation of the honor which has been conferred upon me in my election to the Chair of Hebrew Exegesis and Old Testament Literature, founded in memory of the late Na- thaniel Gray. My constant endeavor shall be to prove worthy of the confidence thus reposed in me, and so to teach that those who here are trained for the work of the gospel ministry may be the better equipped to take part in that ministry, and rightly to interpret to others, beginning from Moses and from all the prophets, the things concerning our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. I have taken as my theme on this occasion the prophecy of Jeremiah concerning the New Covenant, recorded in the 31st Chapter of his Book, verses 31 to 34: "Behold, the days come, saith Jehovah, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah: not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt ; which my covenant they brake, although I was a husband unto them, saith Je- hovah. But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith Jehovah: I will put my law in their inward parts, and in their heart will I write it; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. And they shall teach no more every man his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, Know Jehovah; for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith Jehovah : for I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin will I remember no more." The Jeremianic authorship of this passage has been ques- tioned by some. Movers attributed both Chapters 30 and 31, in their present form, to the Second Isaiah, a view with which in general de Wette and Hitzig later accorded. Graf upheld, while Stade and Smend rejected, the authorship of Chapters 30 and 31 by Jeremiah. Giesebrecht rejected the Jeremianic authorship of Chapter 30, but attributed certain verses in Chapter 31, including verses 31-34, to Jeremiah. Duhm in part agreed with Giesebrecht, but rejected verses 31-34. 1 The most forceful arguments against the authen- ticity of the passage have been made by Duhm; 2 and the 1 For a discussion regarding the authenticity of the passage, see Cornill, Das Buck Jeremia, pp. 323, 348 f f. ; Peake, Jeremiah, ii. pp. 68 ff., 101 ff. - Das Buck Jeremia, p. 255 ff. strongest arguments in favor, by Cornill. 1 Cornill's argu- ment is pronounced by George Adam Smith 2 to be "un- answerable;" and Peake 3 expresses the hope that Cornill's "brilliant refutation" of Duhm's position "may prove a final vindication of the authenticity." Cornill himself, writing since the publication of his commentary, declares, 4 "The famous oracle about the New Covenant still appears to me to be incontestable." McFadyen 3 is non-committal, but says, "At any rate, it is conceived in the spirit of the prophet." H. P. Smith declares that the language of Chaps. 30 and 31 "we cannot possibly suppose to have been used by" Jere- miah; and Schmidt 7 gives as the probable date of 30-31 "the eve of Xerxes' expedition against Greece." Buhl, 8 however, maintains that there is no real ground for denying the Jere- mianic authorship of verses 31-34. Marti 9 holds to the au- thorship by Jeremiah, as do also Kautzsch 10 and Kent. 11 Driver 12 assumes the authorship by Jeremiah: "By his con- ception of the 'New Covenant' he surpasses in spirituality and profoundity of insight every other prophet of the Old Testament." Buttenwieser 13 also takes the Jeremianic au- thorship for granted, characterizing this vision of the proph- et as "the very pinnacle of prophetic idealism, (than which no visionary of whatever age could go farther.)" Peake 14 registers "his unshaken conviction that though in its present form we may owe it (verses 31-34) to Baruch, the prophecy itself comes from Jeremiah and from no other, and is the worthy crown of his teaching." "Even so not the substance alone, which is the vital matter, but also the form is largely Jeremianic." 15 A strong argument in favor of the authenticity of the passage is its harmony, both in language and thought, with recognized Jeremianic prophecies. And it is also true that the passage forms an appropriate climax to the teaching of the prophet of Anathoth. As regards linguistic harmony, the phrase, "Behold, the days come, and," is characteristic of Jeremiah, 16 occurring elsewhere in his writings no less than fourteen times, 17 1 Das Buch Jeremia, pp. 323, 348 ff. 2 Jerusalem, ii. p. 313, note 3. 8 Jeremiah, ii. p. 102. 4 Introduction to the Canonical Books of the Old Testament, p. 304. Mm Introduction to the Old Testament, p. 142. The Religion of Israel, p. 245 f. ''Encyclopaedia Biblica, col. 2391. 8 Realencyltlopadie , fiir protestantische Thcologie und Kirche, viii. p. 655. 8 Die Religion des alten Testaments, p. 60. 10 Hastings, Dictionary of the Bible, Extra Vol. p. 697. 11 Sermons, Epistles and Apocalypses of Israel's Prophets, p. 285. 12 Introduction to the Literature of the Old Testament, 1913 Ed., p. 275; and A Standard Bible Dictionary, p. 393. 13 The Prophets of Israel, pp. 23 f.; 318 f. 14 ii. p. 70. 10 ii. p. 103. "Driver, Introduction. 1913 Ed., p. 276. " Ter. 7.32; 9.25; 16.14; 19.6; 23.5, 7; 30.3; 31.27, 38; 33.14; 48.12; 49.2; 51.47, 52. 8 while aside from these passages the expression is found, in the entire Old Testament, but six times. 1 "In the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt" reminds us of four other passages.- "In their heart will I write it" recalls "It is graven upon the tablet of their heart." 3 The expression, "know Jehovah," Jeremiah uses fre- quently. 4 The terms of the historic covenant, "I will be their God, and they shall be my people," occur several times in Jeremiah's writings. 5 Nor is any of the language em- ployed necessarily later than Jeremiah, or opposed to his usage. 6 The arguments in favor of the authenticity of the pas- sage drawn from its relation to Jeremiah's other teachings, can be better presented later on. Suffice it here to say that Jeremiah, influenced strongly as he was, both in style and ideas, by the Book of the Covenant, 7 is the very prophet who would have been likely to refer to a New Covenant. The idea of such a covenant is not only not incongruous with the rest of his teaching, but is in truth the fitting cli- max of his book. Appropriate it is that he who foresaw the time when the ark of the covenant would be no longer re- membered or missed, 8 he who thinks of circumcision as a rite of the heart, 9 he who laid supreme stress for the first time upon the individualistic note in religion, 10 should here strike the highest spiritual note of any teacher before the Divine One of Nazareth. Confident, then, that "so far nothing has been urged against its authenticity that need shake our confidence in it," 11 let us glance at the date of composition, and then ex- amine the teaching of the passage. The time of composition would seem to be soon after the destruction of Jerusalem, in 586 B. C. This is Cornill's con- clusion, and also Buhl's, 12 and gains probability from the fact that Chaps. 30 and 31 appear to be post-exilic. Batten, 13 however, dates the prophecy a year earlier, while the prophet was a prisoner in the court of the guard. Driver gives a similar date, 14 although he adds, "It is more than possible that the contents had in part been originally uttered pre- 1 Amos 4.2; 8.11; 9.13; 1 Sam. 2.31; 2 Kgs. 20.17; Isa. 39.6. 2 Jer. 7.22; 11.4; 11.7; 34.13. Cf. also 7.25. s Jer. 17.1. * Jer. 2.8; 4.22; 9.3,6,24; 22.16; 24.7. B jer. 11.4; 24.7; 30.22; 31.1; 32.38. e See W. J. Moulton, in The Expositor, April, 1906 1 , p. 381 f. T 2 Kgs. 23.2, 21; cf. Deut. 29.1. 8 Jer. 3.16. 8 Jer. 4.4. 10 jer. 31.30. 11 Peake, ii. p. 103. 12 Realencyklopddie , p. 655. " The Hebrew Prophet, p. 158, making Chaps. 30-33 a unit, and giving to 30- 31 the date of 32-33. 14 Introduction, p. 262. viously, but not committed to writing till subsequent- ly, probably after the fall of the city." Coming now to an examination of the prophecy itself, we find the prophet looking towards the future: "Behold, the days come, saith Jehovah." Jeremiah, as all the prophets, was a preacher to his own day, but forceful in that message to his own generation, because he caught a vision of coming glory. God's spokesman was he, but a true representative, because he penetrated behind and beyond the present to the days to come. "That I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah." The word for "cove- nant" is found almost three hundred times in the Hebrew Old Testament, but its place in the religion of Israel is even more important than such an arithmetical standard would indicate. It is the central idea of the Old Testament, and al- though the word itself occurs infrequently in the New Testa- ment, the idea, in the more spiritual form of fellowship with God, is equally central there. The Hebrew word for covenant, B e rith, is now known to be derived from an Assyrian root meaning "bind." A cove- nant, then, is literally a bond, — at times imposed by one party upon another; or, more usually, in covenants among men, a contract wherein each party assumes certain obliga- tions, as in the compact between Ahab and Ben-hadad: 1 Ben-hadad said unto Ahab, "The cities which my father took from thy father I will restore; and thou shalt make streets for thee in Damascus, as my father made in Samaria. And I, (said Ahab,) will let thee go with this covenant. So he made a covenant with him, and let him go." A covenant, however, even when between men, is not merely equivalent to what we would understand by a contract; it always contains a religious element: God is invoked, or a religious sacrifice is offered. The records relating to covenants often make men- tion of a solemn oath, each party invoking upon himself a curse, in case he violates his part of the contract. The Hebrew phrase for making a covenant is literally "cutting a covenant," an expression evidently derived from such a ceremony as is described in the covenant made with Abram, 2 where the patriarch divided the sacrifice into two parts, laying one half over against the other half, with a space between, and in the darkness of the night, as deep sleep fell upon him, a smoking furnace and a flaming torch passed between the pieces. The ceremony, which was ob- served also by Assyrians and others, in antiquity, prevailed 1 1 Kgs. 20.34. 2 Gen. IS. 10 among the Hebrews at least until Jeremiah's day, for we read, 1 "I will give the men that have transgressed my cove- nant, that have not performed the words of the covenant which they made before me, when they cut the calf in twain and passed between the parts thereof; the princes of Judah, and the princes of Jerusalem, the eunuchs, and the priests, and all the people of the land, that passed between the parts of the calf ; I will even give them into the hand of their ene- mies." The phrase, "cutting a covenant," evidently originat- ed from this rite of cutting in pieces the sacrificial victim.- The significance of passing between the parts of the slaugh- tered animal seems to have been either that each party in- voked upon himself, in case he violated the covenant, a similar fate; 3 or, that both parties passed between the pieces, as a symbol that they were united by being taken within the mystical life of the same victim. 4 Following the analogy of covenants among men, the covenants of God with men are of the nature of a bond ; but the divine covenants are unilateral, God taking the initiative, making certain promises to men, conditioned upon the ful- filment on their part of certain obligations. The divine cove- nants imply two parties, God and men, but the two are naturally not on an equality. The covenant is more a divine ordinance or promise, with pledges or signs, an expression of His love or gracious attitude. Thus we have the covenant made with Noah, 5 a promise by God that the deluge would never be repeated; the covenant with Abram, 6 promising him a numerous posterity, and possession of the land of Canaan; the covenant with Phinehas, 7 promising to him and his descendants an everlasting priesthood ; the covenant with David, 8 promising him and his descendants an everlast- ing kingdom. These are four great covenants of the Old Testament. Deuteronomy makes mention of three covenants. With the fathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, was a covenant made, 9 the promise connected with it being that Jehovah would multiply their descendants, 10 and assure them posses- sion of the land of Canaan. 11 At Horeb was a second cove- 1 Jer. 34.18. 2 For a derivation from a custom of covenanters cutting into each other's arm and sucking the blood, see Kohler, in The Jewish Encyclopedia, iv. p. 318. 3 So, Driver, The Book of Genesis, p. 176; and The Book of the Prophet Jere- miah, p. 213, note; Davidson, Hastings, D.B., i. p. 510; Kautzsch, Hastings, D.B., Extra Vol. p. 630; Schmidt, Encyclopaedia Biblica, col. 931; following Livy 1.24. 4 So, Peake, Jeremiah ii. p. 143; Skinner, Genesis, p. 283; following W. R. Smith, The Religion of the Semites, 2 p. 480 f. 5 Gen. 9.9 ff. 6 Gen. IS. 18; 17.2 ff. 7 Num. 25.12 f. 8 Ps. 89.3 {., 2S f., 34 ff.; 132.12; Jer. 33.21. 9 Deut. 4.31; 7.12; 8.18; 1.35; 6.18, 23; 7.8; 8.1; 1.8; 6.10. "Deut. 13.17. " Deut. 6.18. II nant made, based on the Decalogue, 1 — so absolutely identi- fied with the Ten Words, that the tables of stone and tables of the covenant become interchangeable terms, — that the ark in which this covenant reposes becomes known as the ark of the covenant. 2 In the plains of Moab was a third cove- nant made, which although essentially a renewal of that made at Horeb, is expressly distinguished from it. 3 Its con- tents are found in Deuteronomy, which passed by the name of the Book of the Covenant. 4 The terms of this third Deu- teronomic covenant are expressed in 26.17 f., "Thou hast avouched Jehovah this day to be thy God, and that thou wouldest walk in his ways, and keep his statutes, and his commandments, and his ordinances, and hearken unto his voice: and Jehovah hath avouched thee this day to be a people for his own possession, as he hath promised thee, and that thou shouldest keep all his commandments ; and to make thee high above all nations that he hath made, in praise, and in name, and in honor ; and that thou mayest be a holy people unto Jehovah thy God, as he hath spoken." These are the fundamental terms of the covenant of Israel's history: God, free to choose any nation, chose Israel to be the people through whom He should peculiarly reveal Him- self to the world ; but the promises to Israel were contingent upon their obedience to God's will. Israel, in turn, volun- tarily assumed its part of the covenant, pledging obedience to God, and subjection to His will. The Old Covenant referred to by Jeremiah, which is to be supplanted by a new, is that made by Jehovah with Israel at Horeb, and renewed on the plains of Moab, in which He becomes peculiarly their God, and they become peculiarly His people ; and Jeremiah, in thinking of the Old Covenant, does not distinguish between the two. This seems clear, in spite of the fact that Cornill, and, following him, Peake and Moulton interpret the Old Covenant as referring exclusively to that made at Sinai, — the Decalogue. The Ten Command- ments constitute unquestionably the foundation of this Old Covenant; but to find in them its entire content seems scarcely to be warranted by a study of Jeremiah's depend- ence upon the entire Book of Deuteronomy. The Old Covenant of 31.32 was made with the fathers, "in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt." What is the "day" referred to? Four other passages in Jeremiah's Book throw light upon both the "day," and the Old Covenant. 1 Deut. 4.13; 5.2 ff.; 9.9 ff. « 1 Kgs. 8.21; Jer. 3.16. 'Deut. 29.1. *2 Kgs. 23.2, 21. 12 Jer. 34.13 reads: "1 made a covenant with your fathers in the day that I brought them forth out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage, saying, At the end of seven years ye shall let go every man his brother that is a Hebrew, that hath been sold unto thee, and hath served thee six years, thou shalt let him go free from thee." The law is found both in Ex. 21.2 and Deut. 15.12; but Jeremiah's quotation is from Deuteronomy, as the expression, "thou shalt let him go free from thee," clearly indicates. So that here, by "the day that I brought thee forth out of the land of Egypt," Jeremiah must mean the general period of the Exodus, and the covenant referred to can be only the third Deuteronomic covenant. The reference can not be to the Decalogue. A second passage containing a reference to "the day that I brought them forth out of the land of Egypt" is Jer. 11.2 ff. : "Hear ye the words of this covenant Thus saith Jehovah the God of Israel : Cursed be the man that heareth not the words of this covenant, which I commanded your fathers in the day that I brought them forth out of the land of Egypt, out of the iron furnace, saying, Obey my voice, and do them, according to all which I command you: so shall ye be my people, and I will be your God; that I may establish the oath which I sware unto your fathers, to give them a land flowing with milk and honey, as at this day." 1 Here, all the references seem indubitably to be to the Book of Deuteronomy, and not at all confined to the Decalogue covenant. "Out of the iron furnace", as a characterization of Egypt, is found elsewhere only in Deut. 4.20 and 1 Kgs. 8.51. "Obey my voice and do them, according to all which I command you" recalls Deut. 27.9 f., "This day thou art be- come the people of Jehovah thy God. Thou shalt therefore obey the voice of Jehovah thy God, and do his command- ments and his statutes, which I command thee this day." The curse pronounced recalls Deut. 28.15, 45 or Deut. 11.28. The terms of the covenant, "So shall ye be my people and I will be your God," are expressed in Deut. 26.17 f. The refer- ence to the establishment of the oath sworn unto the fathers, in conjunction with the land flowing with milk and honey, is found in Ex. 13.5, but also in Deut. 11.9 and 26.15. The reference to the oath is frequent in Deuteronomy. 2 In this passage, also, "the day that I brought them forth out of the land of Egypt" would seem to refer to the period of the Exodus in general; and the covenant mentioned can scarce- ly be exclusively the Decalogue. 1 It is true that the authenticity of this passage has been contested; but see Peake's reply, i. p. 12 f. 2 Deut. 6.10, 18, 23; 7.13; 8.1; 10.11; 11.21; 19.8; 26.3; 28.11. 13 A third reference to "the day that I brought them up out of the land of Egypt" is found in Jer. 11.7: "I earnestly pro- tested unto your fathers in the day that I brought them up out of the land of Egypt, even unto this day, saying, Obey my voice. Yet they obeyed not, nor inclined their ear, but walked every one in the stubbornness of their evil heart; therefore I brought upon them all the words of this cove- nant, which I commanded them to do, but they did them not." The reference is clearly to the covenant just cited, Deut. 27.9 f. And while the reference to the "words of this covenant", "brought upon them," might be found in Lev. 26.14 ff., a more exact reference to the horrors of captivity at the hand of a foreign nation is found in Deut. 28, verses 36 ff., 49 ff., 64 ff. So that here, again, the "day that I brought them up out of the land of Egypt" refers quite evi- dently to the general period of the Exodus, and there is no evidence whatever of the covenant referring only to the Decalogue. A fourth passage from Jeremiah's own Book that throws light upon the meaning of "the day" is Jer. 7.22 ff. : "For I spake not unto your fathers, nor commanded them in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, concern- ing burnt-offerings or sacrifices : but this thing I command- ed them, saying, Hearken unto my voice, and I will be your God, and ye shall be my people ; and walk ye in all the way that I command you, that it may be well with you. But they hearkened not, nor inclined their ear, but walked in (their own) counsels (and) in the stubbornness of their evil heart, and went backward, and not forward." The meaning of which, if interpreted not only in the light of other propheti- cal parallels, but in the light of Jeremiah's own words re- corded elsewhere, is that all sacrifices have worth in God's sight only if they are the expression of a truly devout spirit ; sacrifices were commanded, but it was never intended that worship should be something merely external ; with the of- fering must go inner piety, obedience of the heart and life, or it can find no acceptance with God. This is not only the plain teaching of other prophets prior to Jeremiah, 1 but we have Jeremiah's own commentary, 2 "To what purpose com- eth there to me frankincense from Sheba, and the sweet cane from a far country? your burnt-offerings are not ac- ceptable, nor your sacrifices pleasing unto me," — which clearly means that "an elaborate ritual and costly sacrifices" 3 gave God no pleasure "if they were dissociated from obedi- 'Hos. 6.6; Am. 5.22 ff. ; Isa. 1.11 ff. : Micah 6.6 ff. 2 Jer. 6.20. 8 Peake, i. p. 143. 14 ence to His commands." 1 So, elsewhere, Jeremiah insists that God asks for justice 2 and obedience to the moral de- mands of the Decalogue rather than complacent public wor- ship, 3 rather than fasting and offerings. 4 Surely, Jeremiah meant what Isaiah before him had meant, when speaking in the name of God, he exclaims, 5 "I delight not in the blood of bullocks, or of lambs when ye spread forth your hands, I will hide mine eyes from you; yea, when ye make many prayers, I will not hear : your hands are full of blood." If it is maintained that Isaiah meant that sacrifices in themselves are unacceptable to God, then it must also be maintained that he meant that prayers in themselves are also unacceptable to God. Isaiah did not reject sacrifice, any more than he rejected prayer; he meant that both must be accompanied by a devout spirit and a clean life. 6 Prof. Moulton says of 7.22 ff., "Here it seems most likely that he is distinguishing between the code of Deuteronomy, with its insistence on the central sanctuary and on sacrificial dues, and some earlier and simpler law of obedience." 7 But, what proof is there of the existence of "some earlier and simpler law of obedience"? Instead of opposing the teaching of Deuteronomy, is Jeremiah not rather here stating its underlying principle, using distinctively Deuteronomic phraseology 8 in which to express that principle: "hearken unto my (God's) voice," 9 "to walk in the ways" of Jehovah, 10 "that it may be well with you," 11 (a phrase used by no other prophet, and in the rest of the Pentateuch found only in Gen. 12.13 and 40.14). More than any other prophet, Jere- miah reveals the influence of Deuteronomy; 12 and his use of the fundamental principles of Deuteronomy is in harmony with Christ's use of the same book, in repelling the Tempter, 13 and in taking from it His summary of the Law and the Prophets, 14 "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might." 15 While the passage, 7.23, is not found in exact verbal 1 Cf. also 1 Sam. 15.22. 2 Jer. 7.5. s Ter. 7.9 f. 4 Jer. 14.12. 5 Isa. 1.11-15. 8 "What the prophet repudiates is not cultus as such, but the unholy com- bination of ritual worship with immoral conduct." (Skinner, Isaiah, i. p. 6.) 7 The Expositor, April, 1906, p. 374. 8 Driver, Deuteronomy, p. lxxix. ff. "Deut. 4.30; 8.20; 9.23; 13.4, 18; 15.5; 26.14, 17; 27.10; 28.1, 2, 15, 45, 62; 30 ^ 8 10 20 "' 10 Deut. 8.6; 10.12; 11.22; 19.9; 26.17; 28.9; 30.16. 11 Deut. 4.40; 5.16, 29, 33; 6.3; 6.18; 12.25, 28; 19.13; 22.7. 12 Driver, Deuteronomy, p. xcii. f. "Zunz has transcribed in parallel columns 66 passages of Deut., of which there are echoes in not less than 86 of Jer.; and he certainly has not exhausted all that could be found." 13 Matt. 4.3 f.; Luke 4.3 f. Cf. Deut. 8.3; 6.16; 6.13. u Matt. 22.37; Deut. 6.5. 15 Cf. also Matt. 18.16 with Deut 19.15; and Matt. 5.48 with Deut. 18.13. 15 form in the Pentateuch, the employment of Deuteronomic phrases, and the quotation of the terms of the third Deu- teronomic covenant, "I will be your God and ye shall be my people," would indicate again that Jeremiah's reference is to the general period of the Exodus, and that he is not thinking exclusively of the Decalogue. The fact seems to be, as before said, that Jeremiah does not distinguish between the covenant made at Horeb and its renewal in the plains of Moab. "The day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt" is no particular day of twenty-four hours, but the entire genera- tion spent in the passage from Egypt to the promised land. In that general period, God made the Old Covenant with His people, its terms being that He would be their God, and they His people, — the content of the covenant being found in both the Decalogue and Deuteronomy, the "Book of the Covenant." 'It is true, as Cornill has argued, 1 that Jeremiah lays stress upon the Decalogue, 2 and that the expression, "In their heart will I write my law," gains new meaning, as we contrast it with the Ten Commandments written by the finger of God on the tables of stone ; 3 but the contrast does not necessarily imply that the Old Covenant and the Deca- logue are interchangeable terms, although unquestionably the Covenant includes and rests upon the Commandments. The Old Covenant, in the thought of Jeremiah, in each passage, seems to be that made at Horeb, and renewed in the Moabite plains. If, now, by the Old Covenant, Jeremiah means the Deca- logue and the Deuteronomic legislation as well, does the objection hold good, that Jeremiah should have spoken of a new law, rather than of a New Covenant? Can God in the days to come write on the heart these old laws? Certainly, as far as the Decalogue is concerned, He may and will. CorniU's reply 4 at this point is final: in the Decalogue are laid once for all the foundations of religion and morality; Jesus did not abrogate the Ten Commandments, but rather filled them more full of meaning. Adultery He traced to the thought of lust, and murder to anger and hate, but He did not repeal or amend any one of the Ten. Sinai is a Christian as well as a Hebrew Mount. The moral law within will ever stir to awe. As for the Deuteronomic legislation, will it not, in its innermost meaning, also abide? If God's requirements are obedience, hearkening to His word, walking in the ways 1 Jeremia, p. 349. 2 Jer. 7.9. 3 Deut. 4.13; Ex. 31.18. 4 Jeremia, p. 350. 16 which He commands, if sacrifices are worthless unless as the expression of inner piety, will not all this continue in the days to come, even as in the days that are past? The ques- tion does not concern "food laws" and "holiness-regula- tions," but, by Jeremiah's own interpretation, the spiritual requirements of the old legislation. "Still stands Thine ancient Sacrifice, An humble and a contrite heart." The New Covenant will not differ from the Old in that it will have for its content a new law ; the Decalogue and the real requirements of the Deuteronomic legislation will con- tinue still in force; nor will it differ from the Old in its terms; these will continue the same, "I will be their God, and they shall be my people." But, the New will be able to accomplish that wherein the Old failed, because it possesses a new efficient power. ~> "I will make a new covenant." A New one is necessary, because the Old one has been abrogated. Of old, Jehovah chose Israel to be His people, and Israel took Him to be their God. But, Israel broke its part of the contract. Instead of loyally serving Jehovah, altars to strange gods had been erected ; the worship that should have been offered to Him alone had been offered repeatedly to others; therefore the Old Covenant had become null and void. "Which my covenant they brake, although I was a hus- band unto them." 1 In spite of God's love for them, they had broken His covenant, and had been rejected. Samaria and the Northern Kingdom had fallen before the Assyrians in 722 B. C. ; now, in 586, Jerusalem and the Southern King- dom had fallen before the Babylonians. In the story of his nation, Jeremiah reads how God deals with men. The break- ing of the covenant and the national disaster were no hap- hazard coincidence; the deportation is explained by the apostasy. In giving us this philosophy of history, the prophet makes a contribution of peculiar worth. For, only in a his- tory which runs through centuries can God's ways be traced. Not in a generation, however replete with interest, but only in a millennium, is it possible to find the final explanation of things. The Hebrews, through their prophets, gave to the world its first divine philosophy of history, and in so doing added to the Old Testament a unique value. 2 But, proclaims the prophet, Jehovah's love for His peo- 1 When the author of the Epistle to the Hebrews (8.8 ff.) quotes this passage, he writes, "And I regarded them not," instead of "Although I was a husband unto them," following the LXX., which perhaps translated "ga'alti" instead of "ba'alti;" the Syriac has also this sense. (So, Giesebrecht, and others, following Capell; see Moulton, p. 380.) The Massoretic reading, however, is in harmony with Jer. 3.14. 2 The Books of Joshua, Judges, Samuel and Kings were included by the He- brews under the category of "Former Prophets;" historians were prophets, and prophets were historians, interpreting the Divine purpose in the story of the past. 17 pie still continues. The former relationship will some day be re-established, a new bond will be formed. "I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah," — not with the Southern Kingdom alone, but with the Northern as well. The prophet's vision sees the nation united as in days of yore, no North, no South, one reunited people, bound by a common New Covenant to a common God. This New Covenant is defined, first negatively, then pos- itively. Negatively, "Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt," — tender and lov- ing words, — a picture of a parent taking the child by the hand, guiding it, upholding it, lest it stumble or fall. It is Murillo's beautiful conception of the Guardian Angel, that wins more loving admiration from visitors than does the more wonderful St. Anthony and the Christ-Child tfiat hangs so near it in the Seville Cathedral. Where in Scripture is a more tender delineation of a Father's love — unless it be Hosea's thought of God 1 as the parent teaching the infant child to walk — with outstretched arms encouraging the tod- dling one to take the first steps? Let it never be said that the God of the Old Testament is a cruel deity. A guardian angel, a parent teaching the first step, — let such pictures be hung in the gallery side by side with those which St. John has portrayed. Positively, "But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith Jehovah: I will put my law in their inward parts, and in their heart will I write it ; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. And they shall teach no more every man his neigh- bor, and every man his brother, saying, Know Jehovah ; for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith Jehovah: for I will forgive their in- iquity, and their sin will I remember no more." Three characteristics will the New Covenant possess, as distinguished from the Old: inwardness, universal knowl- edge of God, forgiveness of sin. First, inwardness: "I will put my law in their inward parts, and in their heart will I write it." No longer will the law be inscribed on tables of stone, but on the tables of the heart. The New Covenant does not mean so much the giving of a new law as the imparting of a new inner motive force that will make possible obedience to the spirit, the per- manent, eternal element of the old law. The weakness of any 1 Hos. 11.3. 18 law written on stone or clay tablets is that it is fixed, un- alterable; the law written on the individual heart will be elastic, adaptable to changing times and circumstances. The tables of stone might be "in the ark, and yet...per- sistedly neglected, ignored ; a law in the heart is a law remembered, comprehended, inwardly treasured." 1 It will be not so much an external code as a principle, applicable to individuals of varying climes and times. Each individual will have an alert, awakened conscience to act as each sep- arate occasion demands. The New Covenant will be the spiritual reality to which the Old looked forward. Even as sin is graven on the tablet of the. heart, 2 so will the heart be filled with a new motive power for good. Jeremiah does not amplify his statement regarding the inwardness of true religion. This very circumstance is a strong argument for the authenticity of the passage; for if the prophet has elsewhere explained his thought, then is it unnecessary for him here to expand. And clearly has he elsewhere shown how the heart will be enabled to receive this inward law. To him, as to St. Paul, "circumcision is of the heart, in the spirit and not in the letter" : 3 "Circumcise yourselves to Jehovah, and take away the foreskins of your heart ;" 4 "all the house of Israel are uncircumcised in heart." 5 On the heart cleansed, dedicated to Jehovah, will the law be written, in the days to come. Again had Jeremiah pro- claimed Jehovah's determination, "I will give them a heart to know me, that I am Jehovah ; and they shall be my people, and I will be their God ; for they shall return unto me with their whole heart." The old heart had been "evil," "stub- born," disobedient; 7 the new heart will be transformed, made fit to receive the divine law. It will be obedient to God, submissive to His will. '"The 'new birth,' the 'new heart,' as the Gospel proclaims them, are really implied in this great saying." 8 .--'Secondly, the New Covenant will differ from the Old, in that it will be characterized by universal knowledge of God: "And they shall teach no more every man his neigh- bor, and every man his brother, saying, Know Jehovah ; for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith Jehovah." In the old day, knowledge of God was confined to a few ; in the coming era, it will be the possession of all. Jeremiah is a nationalist, still ; the New 1 Adeney, in Men of the Old Testament, Solomon to Jonah, p. 215. 2 Jer. 17.1. 3 Rom. 2.28 f.; Col. 2.11. * Jer. 4.4. 6 Jer. 9.26. • Jer. 24.7. 7 Jer. 11.8; 7.24. 8 Peake, ii. p. 106. 19 Covenant is made with the nation; but he is also an indi- vidualist, in that each Israelite for himself will know God. His knowledge will be derived immediately, directly, not at second-hand. The covenant will for the first time become truly national, because every individual component part of the nation will possess this knowledge. Every individual heart will be renewed, and so will the nation be really re- newed. This knowledge will be independent of teacher or neigh- bor or relative. Each for himself will know God. Here again we have teaching in harmony with the prophet's words on other occasions. "I will give them a heart to know me, that I am Jehovah." 1 Nor are we left in doubt as to what he means by "knowing God." Before him, Hosea had shown wherein true knowledge of Jehovah consists, 2 — "not so much the ac- quisition as the impression of facts, an impression which masters not only a man's thoughts but his heart and will," 3 "to feel the force of the deity and to act accordingly, i.e., to have the feeling (of love, or duty, or whatever else) which a knowledge of God implies." 4 Jeremiah, adopting Hosea's definition, bewails the fact that the representatives of religion know not Jehovah, 5 that the people know Him not. 6 While it is a fact of life that wisdom gives intellectual prowess, and might gives physical, and riches material prowess, "Thus saith Jehovah, Let not the wise man glory in his wis- dom, neither let the mighty man glory in his might, let not the rich man glory in his riches; but let him that glorieth glory in this, that he hath understanding, and knoweth me," as the One "who exerciseth loving-kindness, justice, and righteousness, in the earth." 7 This is the knowledge alone worth acquiring; herein consists the true glory of life, to have this insight into the divine character. Elsewhere, 8 we have as a proof of Josiah's truly knowing God, that "he judged the cause of the poor and needy," — "was not this to know me? saith Jehovah." To know God is more than a mat- ter of the intellect; it involves the affections and will, as well; to know about God is theology, to know Him is re- ligion. Nowhere in the Old Testament is the truth more clearly expressed, that true knowledge of God is not theo- retical, but such an acquaintance that the heart and will are involved, and right conduct ensues. This will characterize 1 Jer. 24.7. 2 Hos. 4.1; 6.6; 5.4. 8 G. A. Smith, The Book of the Twelve Prophets, i. p. 318 ff . : "Not to know so as to see the fact of, but to know so as to feel the force of;" "parallel to loyalty, repentance, love and service." 4 Harper, Amos and Hosea, p. cl. » Jer. 2.8. •Jer. 4.22; 9.3, 6. 7 Jer. 9.24. ( Jer. 22.16. 20 the era of the New Covenant — personal fellowship with God, that results in doing the right. And such an era will be pos- sible, because the law of God will be written on the heart, because religion will be an inward spiritual affair. How perfectly in harmony with Jeremiah's teaching is this thought of first-hand knowledge of God is evident, further, from 3.16, "In those days saith Jehovah, they shall say no more, The ark of the covenant of Jehovah; neither shall it come to mind; neither shall they remember it; neither shall they miss it; neither shall it be made any more." The ark which served as a visible evidence of the divine presence, the symbol so sacred that it alone was worthy to stand in the Holy of Holies, would in the era of the New Covenant, not only not be restored, it would not even be missed. For every heart would be a mercy-seat, over- shadowed by the divine presence. Here, again, the authen- ticity of the New Covenant passage is guaranteed by its not only being in harmony with Jeremiah's teaching else- where, but by its proving itself to be the needed climax of his Book. A third characteristic of the New Covenant will be for- giveness of sin: "For I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin will I remember no more." In the divine forgiveness of human sin is found the reason for this new condition. In- wardness and universal knowledge of God will be possible, because the sin that disturbs the relationship of the soul with God will be pardoned. The iniquity that testifies against man 1 will no longer be a witness. Jeremiah knew human nature too well to assert that there would be no sin in the coming era; but he is bold to state that the back- slidings will be healed, because the wanderers will return to God. 2 The guilt which is so deep in human nature that it cannot be removed with lye nor with much soap 3 God will remove. Sin will be forgiven; nay, more, it will be for- gotten, and a new power will be bestowed upon life that will enable each one to do the right and perform his part of the covenant, and so assure its permanence. This, then, will mark the New Covenant — inwardness, universal knowledge of God, forgiveness of sin. And all of this shall avail for the individual. Not only will it be true, in the glorious future, that "every man that eateth the sour grapes, his teeth" — and his alone — "shall be set on edge;" 4 but it will also be true that the divine blessings will come to each individual soul. The covenant is national, but the 1 Jer. 14.7. 2 Jer. 3.22. 3 Jer. 2.22. * Jer. 31.30. 21 blessings are individual. "Their heart" is the Hebrew idiom 1 for "their hearts," 2 in a distributive sense, — that is, the in- dividual hearts of the people composing the nation. This again accords with the prophet's teachings elsewhere; he is the foremost individualist among the prophets;" the ark will not be missed, the temple will be destroyed, the people will be scattered in a foreign land, but worship of God will still be possible, because each individual will be able to maintain for himself a true spiritual life. Such a conception made possible the development of the synagogue worship, — made possible a vacant Holy of Holies which so astonished Pompey, as he burst boldly into the all-sacred place. These characteristics that differentiate the New Cove- nant from the Old make possible a realization of the terms of the Old Covenant, which are also the terms of the New, "Ye shall be my people, and I will be your God." They also enable the New to accomplish that wherein the Old failed — to make possible the keeping of the content of the Old Covenant, which is also the content of the New — the Decalogue, obedience to God's will, hearkening to His word, walking in the ways which He commands, development of inner piety. Here is the high-water mark of the Old Testament. "Jeremiah was the first to set religion consciously free from all extraneous and material elements, and to establish it on a purely spiritual basis." 4 Here are three abiding qual- ities of all true religion — not rites and ceremonies, but a principle operating from within, — direct contact with God, without mediation of priest or neighbor, — pardon which restores God's trust in the soul, and makes friendship possi- ble. As long as religion endures, so long will it be radiant with this glory. It is true that Jeremiah's horizon is the nation; all of this future blessedness is promised only to Israel and Judah ; but it is only a question of time until the larger universal conception shall find expression. The hour will come when a Voice will be heard, "Neither in this mountain, nor in Jerusalem, shall ye worship the Father." Jeremiah himself foresaw the day when "unto thee shall the nations come from the ends of the earth." With him, "the religion of the Hebrews began to burst its national bonds and to be- come a universal world-religion." 7 1 Gesenius-Kautzsch, Hebrew Grammar, 2d Eng. Ed., Sec. 124, s. 2 Driver translates "hearts," (Jeremiah, p. 191). 3 Kautzsch, in Hastings, D.B., Extra Vol., p. 697. ' Cornill, The Prophets of Israel, p. 96. 6 G. A. Smith, The Forgiveness of Sins. p. 18 ff. "Jer. 16.19, a passage isolated in the prophet's theology, but acknowledged by Cornill and others to be his. 7 Kent, Sermons, Epistles, etc., p. 285. 22 Not until Christ came did Jeremiah's words find their realization. Then, in so remarkable a manner did Jesus ful- fil the prophet's ideal, that Jeremiah has been styled "em- phatically the one Christian before Christ." 1 When Christ instituted the sacrament of bread and wine, the central words in that ordinance, "This cup is the new covenant in my blood," 2 carry us back to Jeremiah's pro- phetic vision. Jesus at once fulfilled and immortalized the New Covenant of Israel's prophet. "This cup," according to the idiom of the language of Jesus, signifies the wine contained in the cup ; and the wine contained in the cup symbolizes the blood shed on Calvary. "Is" means not being identical with the New Covenant, but representing it, — more even than representing : "this cup is" "a silent announcement" 3 of the covenant soon to be ratified in His blood, — nay, more, it is the means of spiritual communion with the glorified Christ, in such a way, that the blessings of the New Covenant are appropriated. "New" 4 means not having yet been, taking the place of something which has previously existed, rather than new in reference to time, 5 recent; 6 and involves a qualitative contrast. "In my blood" signifies sealed in my blood, in virtue of my blood, "the Lord's death" being the ratification of the New Covenant. The analogy between the Old Covenant and the New is close. That at Sinai had been ratified by the blood of ani- mals: "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 Jehovah hath spoken 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 Jehovah hath made with you concern- ing all these words." 7 As has been observed, a significant feature of "cutting a covenant" was always the sacrificial element — passing between the parts of the animal sacri- ficed, 8 or partaking of a sacrificial meal, 9 or using blood in 1 Adeney, p. 216. 2 1 Cor. 11.25; Luke 22.20. The form of expression would seem to indicate that by the time these words were penned, they had become a part of the Christian liturgy. On the comparison of these passages with Mark 14.24 and Matt. 26.28, see Hastings, Dictionary of Christ and the Gospels, ii. p. 74. 3 Beet, St. Paul's Epistles to the Corinthians, p. 195. * Kaivds. 5 vios. 6 Thayer, Greek-English Lexicon of the Nezv Testament, p. 318; Cremer, Bibli- co-Theological Lexicon of New Testament Greek, p. 321 f . ; Trench, New Testament Synonyms, p. 206 ff. i Ex. 24.6 ff. 8 Gen. 15.17; Jer. 34.18 f. »Gc-n. 31.54. 23 various symbolical ways. 1 In the ratification of the Old Covenant at Sinai, half of the blood was sprinkled on the altar, and half on the people, perhaps to signify the mysti- cal union of Jehovah and the people. 2 Our Lord Himself is the sacrifice accompanying the making of the new cove- nant. 3 It is ratified in His blood. Through this "blood of the covenant," 4 the blessings of the new covenant, which is "not of the letter, but of the spirit," 5 are realized. The sacrifice on Calvary makes possi- ble inwardness of religion, universal knowledge of God, and forgiveness of sin, which in turn make it possible for God really to be our God, and for us truly to be His people, obedient to His will. v Through Christ's blood, the law of God is written inwardly on the heart; through His blood, we come into immediate knowledge of God; through His blood, sin is pardoned. This third blessing of the New Covenant is especially referred to in Matt. 26.28, "This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many, unto remission of sins." The blood shed on the Cross gives the assurance of the fulfilment of the covenant-promise, "I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin will I remember no more." 6 In partaking of the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper, in a mystical way we become partakers of Christ's body and blood, receiving the blessings of the New Covenant, pri- marily that of forgiveness of sin. For, sin disturbs the com- munion of the spirit with God; and until sin is pardoned, there can not be that unrestricted contact with God, that per- fect fellowship, which is the most fundamental thing in all religion. Consciousness of wrongness impedes fellowship with God, so that sin must be dealt with first, before true knowledge of God, which the New Covenant aims to give, can become our possession. Forgiveness of sin, made possi- ble by Calvary, prepares the way for this fellowship, this true knowledge of God, which is life eternal. From the New Covenant words of Jeremiah have come, indirectly, our names, "Old Testament" and "New Testament," as applied to the two great divisions of Scripture. This fact gives the passage an added historical interest. In the Hebrew Scriptures, themselves, we find 7 as names 1 See Trumbull, The Blood Covenant. Lect. 1. 2 The Jewish Encyclopedia, iv. p. 319; Driver, Exodus, p. 253. 'Heb. 9.11-22. ♦Mark 14.24; Matt. 26.28; Ex. 24.8; Heb. 9.20. 6 2 Cor. 3.6. •Cf. Rom. 11.27; Heb. 8.12. 7 See Ryle, The Canon of the Old Testament, p. 302. 24 for the Pentateuch, "the book of the law of Moses," 1 and "the law of Moses;"- and as a name for the Prophets, or perhaps for both Law and Prophets, "the books." 3 In the Old Testament Apocrypha, we find as names for the Law, "the book of the covenant of the Most High God," 4 "the books of the law," 5 and "book of the covenant;" and for the Scriptures as a whole, "the law and the prophets and the other books." 7 In the New Testament, omitting various names, we find the designation, "the Old Covenant," 8 referring evidently to the covenant contained in the Law. Gradually, "Old Covenant" came to be applied by Chris- tians 9 not only to the first five, but to all the books of the Hebrew Scriptures. The first recorded use of the name in this way is by Melito of Sardis, who wrote about A. D. 170 : "Accordingly, when I went East, and came to the place where these things were preached and done, I learned ac- curately the books of the Old Covenant, 10 and send them to thee as written below." 11 Clement of Alexandria, prior to A. D. 216, also quotes 12 from the "Old Covenant." 13 Julius Africanus, writing to Origen, 14 about A. D. 221, re- marks, "All the books of the Old Covenant 10 have been translated from Hebrew into Greek." And Origen, replying to Africanus, 15 uses the same expression, "Books of the Old Covenant." 10 Eusebius, A. D. 325, refers 16 to "a catalogue of the acknowledged books of the Old Covenant," 10 and 17 "a catalogue of the sacred Scriptures of the Old Covenant." 10 Cyril of Jerusalem, A. D. 348, enjoins, 18 "Learn. . . . which are the books of the Old Covenant;" 10 "Read the Divine Scriptures, the twenty-two books of the Old Covenant." 10 Athanasius, A. D. 367, says, 19 "There are, then of the Old Covenant, 10 twenty-two books in number." Gregory of Nazi- anzus, (died A. D. 389), uses 20 the same words 10 in refer- I Neh. 8.1. 3 Mai. 4.4. , „ „,„ 3 Dan. 9.2, — in LXX., *" T «« pvp\oit, (whence our "Bible"),— as applied to the entire Old Testament, first found in the so-called Second Epistle of Clement, (14.2), written A.D. 120-140. * Ecclus. 24.23. « 1 Mace. 1.56. • 1 Mace. 1 57. ' Ecclus., Prologue. 8 2 Cor. 3.14. 8 Because involving a Christian point of view, this name was rarely used by later Jews. (The Jewish Encyclopedia, iii. p. 141.) 10 ttjs IlaXotas Aiad-rjKrjs. II Eusebius, Hist. Eccl. iv. 26.14. " Stromatum, iii. 6. 13 iv ttJ IlaXcup Aiad^Kr). 14 Letter to Origen about the History of Susanna. "Letter from Origen to Africanus. "Hist. Eccl. iv. 26.12. » H.E. vi. 25.1. 18 Catechesis iv. 33. 18 Festal Letter xxxix. 20 Carmina, ii. 2. 25 ring to the Old Covenant. Didymus of Alexandria 1 (died 394), and Isidore of Pelusium 2 (died 449), both refer to "the Elder Covenant." 3 "New Covenant," as applied to the Christian Scriptures, is first found in the argument of the unknown writer against the Montanists, who wrote probably about A. D. 193, and who is quoted by Eusebius: 4 "That I might seem to some to be making additions to the doctrines or precepts of the Gospel of the New Covenant, 5 which it is impossible for one who has chosen to live according to the Gospel either to increase or to diminish." Clement of Alexandria men- tions 6 "the voice of the Lord according to the New Cove- nant." 7 Origen, prior to A. D. 228, refers 8 to "testimonies from what are believed by us to be divine writings, namely, from that which is called the Old Covenant, and that which is styled the New." 9 The statement is interesting as show- ing that, at the beginning of the third century, the two parts of Scripture were perhaps commonly, but not yet exclu- sively, designated by these names. In the first part of the following' century, Eusebius makes reference 10 to "the laws of the New Covenant." 3 Athanasius, in the same letter in which he mentions the Old Covenant, 11 remarks, "Again, it is not tedious to speak of the (books) of the New" 12 (Cove- nant). "Testament," as a name for each division of Scripture, was first applied by Tertullian. The Itala Version had al- ready translated diatheke 13 in both Old and New Testa- ments by "testamentum," and the Vulgate in the Gallican Psalter and in the New Testament had continued the usage. Tertullian was not responsible for this mistranslation, but he did help to fix the word in the vocabulary of daily life, 1 De Trinitate i. 2 Epistolarum i. * r) Upeo-fivrtpa AtadrjKrf. 4 H. E. v. 16.3 6 ttjs Kaivrjs Aia.d-f]K-r)s. 8 Stromatum Hi, 11; also, v. 1. 7 ttjv NVav &iadi)K7)v. 8 Peri Archon, iv. 1.1. * tt)s re \eyo/j.4v7)s IlaXaias Aiadr/K-ns ical tt)s KoXoviiiv-ns Kaivr)s, 10 Demonstrationis Evangelicae i. 11 Festal Letter xxxix. 11 tt)s Kaivrjs. 18 The LXX. translators, rightly thinking of the divine covenant as one-sided, instead of translating the Hebrew "B e rith" by "suntheke," a compact in which two parties act on an equality, preferred "diatheke," a disposition or arrangement im- posed by one party upon another. But, inasmuch as "diatheke" was also used for what we know as "last will and testament," confusion has been introduced into the Biblical idea of the covenant. This confusion may be partly avoided by recalling that the "Testaments, from which our Wills are directly descended, at first took effect immediately on their execution; they were not secret; they were not re- vocable." "The Mancipatory Testament, as it may be called, differed in its prim- itive form from a modern will. As it amounted to a conveyance out-and-out of the Testator's estate, it was not revocable. There could be no new exercise of a power which had been exhausted. Again, it was not secret. The heir knew exactly what his 26 as he determined so many theological terms. He refers, 1 about 208 A. D., to "each 'Instrumentum' or 'Testamen- tum,' as it is more usual to call it." He wavered between the use of Instrument and Testament, but through his writ- ings the "more usual" term, "Testamentum," 2 passed into ecclesiastical Latin, and was gradually adopted. Lactantius, prior to 311 A. D., not only adopts the terminology of Tertullian, but thinks of "Testamentum" as a "last will and testament" : "All Scripture is divided into two Testaments. That which preceded the advent and pas- sion of Christ — that is, the law and the prophets — is called the Old ; but those things which were written after His res- urrection are named the New Testament. 3 The Jews make use of the Old, we of the New; but yet they are not dis- cordant, for the New is the unfolding of the Old, and in both there is the same testator, even Christ, who having suffered death for us, made us heirs of His everlasting king- dom." 4 He even misreads, in the same connection, Jer. 31.31 as referring to a "New Testament." This association of the name, New Testament, with the death of Christ, and with His making believers heirs, mak- ing "testament" equivalent to a last will and testament, was doubtless partly responsible for the continued use of the term in the centuries that followed. Through the Latin, the titles "Old" and "New Testament" entered into our own and other languages. The title-page of the American Revised Version, "The New Covenant, commonly called the New Testament of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ," recognizes the incorrectness of our customary designation; but centuries of usage have so entrenched "Testament," that to attempt a change seems to savor almost of pedantry. And, yet, "Old Covenant" and "New Covenant" alone are true to Scriptural thought, and these names we owe ulti- mately to the prophet of Anathoth. So long did superficiality associate Jeremiah with lamen- tation, that a "jeremiad" came to be a synonym for a tale rights were, and was aware that he was irreversibly entitled to the inheritance But perhaps the most surprising consequence of this relation of Testaments to Conveyances was the immediate vesting of the inheritance in the Heir." (Maine, Ancient Law, 3d American Ed., pp. 169, 199.) Such was the original will among the Romans. "But Greek law retained that character much longer" than Roman. "The Galatian Will is irrevocable and unalterable; it comes into operation as soon as the conditions are performed by the heir; it is public and open." (Ramsay, The Expositor, Nov. 1898, p. 337 f.) This idea is latent in the parable of the Prodigal Son, where the son in his father's life-time asks for his share of his father's estate. The Greek will did not differ therefore materially from the Hebrew idea of the divine covenant. But, when "diatheke" in the New Testament was translated "testament," endless confusion resulted. 1 Adversus Marcionem, iv. 1. - De Novo Testamento, {Adv. Praxcam IS.) 3 Novum Testamentum. * Divinae 1 nstitutiones iv. 20. 27 of grief. But, the prophet who foresaw the dawn of a New Covenant was far more than a prophet of despair. A man highly sensitive, deeply suffering, feeling the tremendous compulsion of a divine commission, communing with his God with a fulness and freedom almost unparalleled, seem- ing at times even to challenge the One Who had predestined him before birth to his awful life-task, — Jeremiah is per- haps the most human of all the prophets. A man of reverie, as Michelangelo and Sargent have pictured him, he also passed through a deep inner experience, out of which sprang this thought of a New Covenant, "the profoundest sentiment of the Old Testament." 1 Through one who himself had ex- perienced religion as an inward force, who himself knew God by a vital communion, who himself had received for- giveness for sin, — through such a one God spoke this mes- sage of a New Covenant, — a message that reveals the un- derlying unity of Hebrew and Christian Scriptures, — that links Calvary with Sinai, — that illustrates both how Juda- ism needs Christianity as its fulfilment, and how Christian- ity is rooted deep in Judaism, — a message that shows how the advance of the New Testament over the Old lies "in the liberation of the highest Old Testament ideas from their limitations and lower accompaniments, in their his- toric exhibition and enrichment through the life, death and resurrection of Christ, and in their combination with the fresh and powerful dynamic created by personal devotion to Him." 2 To ,rae, now, in this Seminary, has been entrusted the task of interpreting this Old Covenant and its relation to the New. The work of my Department is partly linguistic, to furnish a working acquaintance with Hebrew and the cognate Semitic languages, in order that the student may have first-hand knowledge of Scripture text. But this is only a means to an end. My aim is also to train in correct methods of interpretation; and above all to interpret the abiding spiritual message of the Old Testament, and to in- dicate the relationship between the message spoken by God "of old time unto the fathers in the prophets by divers por- tions and in divers manners," and the message "at the end of these days spoken unto us in his Son." To relate a knowl- edge of the Old Covenant to the practical requirements of the pastorate, — to enable the student to use the older Scrip- tures in teaching and in preaching Christ, — this is one dominant aim with which I enter upon my task. Congre- 1 McCurdy in The Jewish Encyclopedia, iv. p. 322. 2 H. W. Robinson, Religious Ideas of the Old Testament, p. 225. 28 gations of worshippers care very little for critical data; they care very much for spiritual truths. Important as is the place of critical study, its value is subordinate to that of the message which for all time will be able to make wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus ; which will ever be profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correc- tion, for instruction which is in righteousness, making the man of God complete, furnished completely unto every good work. 29 BS1525.6.098 The new covenant : Jeremiah 31:31-34 Princeton Theological Semmary-Speer Library 1 1012 00071 1798 Date Due 3139CE 03-04-08 321