Past Pacts and Contemporary Covenants

The word “covenant” is used all throughout the Scriptures. While many people assume to understand this word - And many do have some understanding as to what it is - It is important that we really understand what it meant for those who wrote the Scriptures (as opposed to assuming that it means the same thing here today). A covenant is a pact or an agreement between two people or groups of people. However, how people make pacts is done differently based on era and culture. So, for contemporary westerners like ourselves to understand how ancient Israelites from the other side of the globe made pacts 4000-2000 years ago means re-understanding the term all together.

Now there were many different types of pacts in the ancient near east. First, there are suzarian-vassal treaties where one party had more influence or a higher status than the other. This is in contrast to parity treaties: those that are between two relatively equal powers (Hess 167). As for the Israelites and their relationship with Yahweh, they had nothing that they could give to Him - This is in stark contrast with the other ancient near eastern gods that had to feed off of their sacrifices (see the Atrahasis Epic). Thus, every covenant that Yahweh made with the Israelites - From Abraham to David - was suzarian.

Not only were the covenants that Yahweh made with Israel suzarian (meaning that humans were the ones that had the opportunity to make something out of their covenants), but they were relational. Hess notes that “The treaty established a family-like relationship that involved love and obedience as one” (168). Earlier, he notes how the God of Israel even gave mercy and forgiveness in His covenant. For this reason, Exodus 34.6-7 is the most referenced passage in the Hebrew Bible: Yahweh is described first as “abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness” (New Revised Standard Version updated edition, Ex. 34.6). The Hebrew word translated as “steadfast love” (‘khesed’) means covenant faithfulness. The mention of this attribute of Yahweh is besides the mention of His mercy, grace, slowness to anger, and faithfulness.

This faithfulness of Yahweh God in His covenants is proved throughout the drama of the Hebrew Bible. It starts in Genesis 9 with Noah: God establishes His covenant not just with Noah, but with all his descendants after him (in other words, everyone forever - Gen. 9.8). The covenant comes after He lets loose chaos waters on the earth to wash it of those that were already bringing ruin on it (ch. 6-8). The sign of the covenant is “the bow” (vv. 16-17).

It is not much longer in the drama, however, that God has to make another covenant with a human because of the corporate wickedness of humanity (see Gen. 11). Just three pages later, the author sees God making another covenant. This time, He makes it with just one man and his seed (Gen. 12.1-3). This is due to the fact that the rest of humanity has already shown that they are only evil when they come together (again, see ch. 11) - So Yahweh decided to bless one man to be a blessing to all the nations (Gen. 12.1-3). Because God had promised to give Abraham a son (17.16; also implied in the preceeding verses), Abraham would have to sacrifice his foreskin as a sign for the covenant (obviously, this is circumcision - vv. 11-14).

God next makes a covenant with Israel (Abraham’s [true] children) after freeing them (Ex. 14; 15) from being enslaved in Egypt for some time (1.8-14). Yahweh calls them to Sinai to have take up their sacerdotal obligation (19.6) to the nations and enter into a relational covenant with Him. This covenant consists of following the 613 commands of the Torah (Ex-Deut) and meant blessing if they were to be faithful, and cursing were they to turn away (Ex. 22:20-33; Deut. 30.19). Fast-forward to some time after Israel had entered the land and was on their second king (David). As found in 2 Samuel 7, faithful King David asks to build Yahweh a house (vv. 1-3). Yahweh responds by promising to make a house for David (vv. 4-11).

Today, many Christians here in the west have become familiar with these covenants. They seem to appreciate them with their understanding of Jesus having completed them all (Heb. 8), but lack an understanding of their specialty among other ancient near eastern covenants. Not only is it special in that God Himself became man to fulfill them all, but it is special in that God had humbled himself to work with humus-made humans from the beginning. As mentioned beforehand, God was relational in how He covenanted with the Israelites (again, see the Epic of Atrahasis).

While the covenants Yahweh made with Israel in their near eastern context were special, they were also similar to the other covenants in other ways. Hess notes that “the form of certain biblical covenants is related to the ancient Near Eastern treaty form” (167). Bienkowski and Millard note the structure for Hittite treaties going as such:

(1) title, (2) historical prolouge (a sometimes lengthy rehearsal of events leading to the conclusion of the treaty), (3) stipulations, (4) instructions for depositing the document in a shrine or other safe place, (6) lists of witnesses, (7) blessings on those who keep the terms and curses on those who break them, (8) oath-taking ceremony and affirmation of the sanctions. (301)

Interestingly enough, Hess mentions comparisons of Hittite treaties to that of the Bible as “address[ing] theological issues” (167).

This brings up the point of differences. Hess notes that the covenant “occur[ed] in a cult that allowed for repentance, forgiveness, and the restoration of relationship with God. The nature of the covenant emphasized the importance of personal responsibility” (168). Hess states the lack of an image to represent the God of Israel in the Torah (the requirements for the Mosaic Covenant - 163-166). He further references the Sabbath setting the people of Israel apart from all their other neighbors in the near east in how they practiced Sabbath (166-167).

So what do all of the similarities and differences mean? Well, the fact that God made treaties with Israel similar to those of the surrounding nations should not come as a surprise. It does not mean that Israel ‘stole’ from their neighbors (whatever that even means) but that God communicates to His people in the time and place in which they are situated. Just as God reveals Himself in the wonderful world that we have come to better understand through science today, He showed Himself to those on the other side of the globe millenia ago in ways that appealed to them. As always, God desired relationship, and so made covenants with His people in a way familiar to them.

While Yahweh revealed Himself to His people in a way they would understand, that did not mean that it was not weird - Even for the Israelites. The idea of stopping everything in remembrance of the creation of the cosmos would have been unheard of. Further, having a god that was not represented by a statue would just sound silly to those in the surrounding nations. All of these ideas are from the first pages of the Bible: God stopped from creating on the seventh day (Gen. 2.2-4) and made humans as His images (Heb. ‘tselem’ - Also translated as ‘idol’ - Gen. 1.27). God commands the Israelites to stop to have relationship with Him instead of slaving away to gain money that would be useless when they were in Sheol (Eccl.). God commanded the Isrealites not to make any idol-statutes because humanity was supposed to be His image since day one (Ex. 20.4-6)! What ultimately makes the covenants between Yahweh and Israel different is the real relationship to which He called them to (and that He continues to call us to to this day). 

Bibliography

Bienkowski, Piotr, and Alan Millard. Dictionary of the Ancient Near East. University of Pennsylvania, 2000. 

Boda, Mark J., and J. G. McConville. Dictionary of the Old Testament Prophets. IVP Academic, 2012.

Hess, Richard S. Israelite Religions: An Archaeological and Biblical Survey. Baker Academic, 2017.