The New Covenant

The name itself is at the heart of the faith of Christianity. The very name of the New Testament is a version of that expression.

It comes from Jeremiah 31 and is claimed by Hebrews 8.

But, as in so many other places, the New Testament takes a passage of the Hebrew Bible and makes it into something different than it originally meant. To see this, we have to look at the passages side by side.

Hebrews begins with the idea that a “New Covenant” is a way of pointing out a fault with the Covenant first given by G-d and with Israel as G-d’s people.

“For if that first covenant had been faultless, there would have been no occasion for a second. For he finds fault with them when he says…”

(Hebrews 8:7-8)

To give an analogy, Hebrews will treat the New Covenant idea like a new marriage. God’s first marriage was flawed, so He chose a second wife to replace her. Israel is thus replaced with the Church. Jeremiah will be treating the New Covenant as a renewal of marriage vows. The marriage may have had its ups and downs, but in the end the commitment is eternal.

Notice that the New Covenant is specifically with Israel and Judah.

"Behold, the days are coming, says the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah…” (Jeremiah 31:31)

"The days will come, says the Lord, when I will establish a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah…” (Hebrews 8:8)

It is vital that we keep in mind that this covenant is with the original wife, not a second one. To make it even clearer, G-d uses both the names “Israel” and “Judah.” If my wife’s name was “Sally Mae” and I make new vows with “Sally Mae” I’m renewing my vows, and not divorcing her and marrying someone else named “Peggy Lou”.

In fact, any “new covenant” that isn’t with “Israel” cannot be the fulfillment of the true New Covenant. Every time a Christian tells a Jew that he isn’t in the New Covenant, the Christian is in fact proving that the New Covenant has not yet come. This is an irony many Jews know instinctively, but Christians miss it.

Even though it is with the same wife, these renewal vows do have their own special character. But before we can decipher that character we have to take a look at a misquote that cuts at the heart of the entire passage:

“not like the covenant which I made with their fathers when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant which they broke, though I was their husband, says the LORD.” (Jeremiah 31:32)

“not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt; for they did not continue in my covenant, and so I paid no heed to them, says the Lord.” (Hebrews 8:9)

G-d says “I was their husband.” Hebrews says “I paid no heed to them.” These cannot by any stretch of the imagination be saying the same thing. It’s a misquote, but it’s a necessary one. The entire point Hebrews is ultimately trying to make is that G-d’s first wife broke the marriage and G-d turned from them to the Church. G-d’s point in Jeremiah is that He is Israel’s husband. That is non-negotiable. For better or worse, G-d is married to Israel. In sickness and in health, He is their lover. For richer or poorer, He will keep them as His beloved.

So how is the new covenant different?

It’s not – at least on God’s part. He remains the husband of Israel. But on Israel’s part there is indeed a change:

“But this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the LORD: I will put my law within them, and I will write it upon their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.”  (Jeremiah 31:33)

“This is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put my laws into their minds, and write them on their hearts, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.” (Hebrews 8:10)

The “law” here is the “Torah.” It’s the same “Torah” given through Moses at Sinai – the same vows. It’s the same Israel who stood under the mountain at Sinai – the same wife. The only difference is that the “Torah” is closer to “Israel” than it was before. It’s inside their hearts and minds in an intimacy more comprehensive than before.

Immediately a Christian could look at that paragraph I just wrote and say that his new covenant is indeed the fulfillment of this promise, since he has replaced the law with the spirit. But that’s not what G-d is saying in Jeremiah. He isn’t replacing the “law” (Torah) with the spirit of G-d. He’s placing the Torah within the spirit of man.

Again, a Christian might come back to say that this proves no one in Israel really had the spirit before the new covenant, but again the Christian would be corrected by G-d:

“And no longer shall each man teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, 'Know the LORD,' for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, says the LORD; for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more." (Jeremiah 31:34)

“And they shall not teach every one his fellow or every one his brother, saying, 'Know the Lord,' for all shall know me, from the least of them to the greatest. For I will be merciful toward their iniquities, and I will remember their sins no more."  (Hebrews 8:11-12)

The difference isn’t necessarily applied to the greatest in Israel, but to the least. The teachers won’t need to teach, because everyone will know the Lord. There won’t merely be a remnant that keeps the covenant, but the entire nation will keep it.

Did the nation break the covenant? Yes, but not every person in the nation. There was always a remnant. Is the nation ignorant of Torah now? The majority is, but not everyone. There is always a remnant. When the new covenant comes, the Torah will be kept by all of Israel, from the least to the greatest.

Irony 1: the New Covenant is specifically with Israel and Judah. Any new covenant that isn’t specific to Israel isn’t the real New Covenant. So, when Christians tell Jews they need to be in the Christian new covenant, Christians are proving the real New Covenant hasn’t come. 

Irony 2: Christians claim that the law must be replaced with the spirit. But G-d says that the New Covenant will place that very same Torah within the spirit. The problem was when Jews did the very thing Christians are trying to get them to do now – ignore the Torah. The solution isn’t casting aside the Torah, but keeping it.

 Irony 3: Christians tell Jews they need to “know the Lord” because the new covenant has come. But when the real New Covenant comes, no one will tell anyone to know the Lord, for they shall all know Him from the least of them to the greatest. Every time a Christian tells a Jew to know they Lord he is proving that the real New Covenant hasn’t come. 

We started with the assertion of Hebrews that there was a problem with the original covenant (the Torah) and with the original people (Israel). In the middle of the section, Hebrews turned the meaning of Jeremiah upside down on the pivotal verse “I was a husband to them,” changing it to say instead “I paid no heed to them.”

Now, at the end, Hebrews continues the original assertion that the first covenant is obsolete and ready to vanish away. But G-d, who knows all things, knew what Hebrews was going to say. And so G-d, who has all the answers, gave His answer to Hebrews:

“Thus says the LORD, who gives the sun for light by day and the fixed order of the moon and the stars for light by night, who stirs up the sea so that its waves roar-- the LORD of hosts is his name: If this fixed order departs from before me, says the LORD, then shall the descendants of Israel cease from being a nation before me for ever. Thus says the LORD: "If the heavens above can be measured, and the foundations of the earth below can be explored, then I will cast off all the descendants of Israel for all that they have done, says the LORD." (Jeremiah 31:35-37)

“In speaking of a new covenant he treats the first as obsolete. And what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away.” (Hebrews 8:13)

Hebrews says that the first covenant (the Torah) is obsolete. The covenant people are therefore obsolete as well. If my marriage vows are obsolete, then so is my wife. But G-d insists that He has established the sun and the moon and the stars, and day and night, and the rushing of the tides as fixed orders. And Israel is even more permanent than these things. The heavens and the earth would have to vanish away before G-d would cast Israel or His Torah aside, no matter what Israel might do.

No matter what. Till the death of the universe do us part – and thank God, not even then.

Has Israel forsaken G-d? Sometimes. Has G-d forsaken Israel? Never. Has Israel forgotten the Torah? Sometimes. Will G-d forget the Torah? Never.

Is the Torah obsolete? No.

 The final irony: The very idea of the Torah being obsolete is the greatest sin Israel has ever committed. And it is the very sin that Hebrews 8, and Christians, do their best to seduce Israel to repeat.