HEBREWS 8:7-13

^NAS  Hebrews 8:7-13 For if that first covenant had been faultless, there would have been no occasion sought for a second. ⁸ For finding fault with them, He says, “Behold, days are coming, says the Lord, When I will effect a new covenant With the house of Israel and with the house of Judah; ⁹ Not like the covenant which 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 I did not care for them, says the Lord. ¹⁰ “For 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 I will write them upon their hearts. And I will be their God, And they shall be My people ¹¹ “And they shall not teach everyone his fellow citizen, And everyone his brother, saying, ‘Know the LORD,’ For all shall know Me, From the least to the greatest of them. ¹² “For I will be merciful to their iniquities, And I will remember their sins no more.” ¹³ When He said, “A new covenant,” He has made the first obsolete. But whatever is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to disappear.

THE “FATHERS” OF GOD’S PEOPLE, WITH WHOM HE MADE THE FIRST COVENANT, ARE TO BE IDENTIFIED WITH THE ‘FATHERS’ TO WHOM HIS WORD WAS ADDRESSED OF OLD…

“THE LAST LINE OF JEREMIAH 31:32 – ^NAS  Jeremiah 31:32 not like the covenant which I made with their fathers in the day I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke, although I was a husband to them,” declares the LORD. (HEBREWS 8:9) – SUMMARIZES THE CONSEQUENCES SUFFERED BY THAT REBELLIOUS O.T. GENERATION (CF. 3:16-19) WITH AN UNDERSTATEMENT ALL THE MORE OMINOUS FOR ITS BREVITY: ‘AND SO I [GOD] SHOWED NO CONCERN FOR THEM.’ NOTHING COULD CONTRAST MORE SHARPLY WITH GOD’S FORMER DELIVERANCE THROUGH ‘TAKING THEM BY THE HAND.’

“THIS PASSAGE FROM JEREMIAH PROVIDES AN IDEAL TRANSITION BETWEEN THE PASTIOR’S WARNING AGAINST IMITATION BY THE DISOBEDIENT WILDERNESS GENERATION IN 3:4 – 4:11 AND HIS EXHORTATION TO IMITATE THE FAITHFUL IN 11:1 – 12:3. While the disobedience of the former exposes the inadequacy of the Old Covenant (vv. 8-9; Jeremiah 31:31-32), the faithfulness of the latter anticipates the resources for obedience and fellowship with God available through Christ in the promised NEW COVENANT (vv. 10-11; Jeremiah 31:33-34). Even those who lived before Christ will not ‘be made perfect’ apart ‘from us’ (11:39-40) and the fulfillment Christ has now achieved (12:1-3). Thus, those the pastor addresses have all the more reason to be faithful than the best examples he could muster from the OT era.

“THERE IS ONLY ONE PAIR OF VARIATIONS FROM THE STANDARD LXX (Greek translation of the Hebrew Old Testament – TAR) TEXT OF JEREMIAH 31:31-34 THAT MAY BE SIGNIFICANT.

{Said somewhat reluctantly owing to the fact not only that I could be wrong but that I spent the greater part of my entire teaching career arguing the exact opposite view which I am arguing now [more surely to be added in the course of discussing this delicate point], in my humble view many otherwise credible scholars too often engage in making mountains out of questionable molehills. I hope I get the opportunity to more fully discuss the point I have in mind, and I hope my readers keep reading should I do…}

“GREEK JEREMIAH USES THE USUAL WORD FOR ‘MAKE’ OR ‘ORDAIN’ A COVENANT WITH REFERENCE  TO THE NEW COVENANT IN JEREMIAH 31:31, 33 AND THE OLD IN 31:32. This word is cognate with the word ‘covenant’ and so could be translated. ‘I WILL COVENANT A COVENANT.’ However, Hebrews uses a stronger word for God establishing the NEW COVENANT in Jeremiah 31:31 (Hebrews 8:8), and a weaker when speaking of His establishing the old in Jer 31:32 (Heb 8:9). According to v. 8, God will ‘accomplish,’ ‘fulfill,’ ‘perfect,’ or ‘complete’ the NEW COVENANT. This expression is closely related to the pastor’s favorite terms – ‘perfect’ and ‘perfection.’

{Perhaps a good example of what I am in general saying and in particular here is this footnote from Cockerill, Greek simplified into English by me: the Greek verb “‘I will fulfill or perfect’ and the Greek noun ‘a covenant’: the use of these words accounts for the change from Jeremiah’s dative ‘with the house of Israel and the house of Judah (Jer 31.31)’ to Hebrews’ same expression in the accusative (Heb 8:8), without change of meaning.”}

“ON THE VERY ACT OF DECLARING THIS COVENANT ‘NEW’ AND ‘NOT LIKE’ THE EARLIER COVENANT, GOD ‘MADE THE FIRST OBSOLETE

“ON THE OTHER HAND, V. 9 USES THE GENERAL WORD FOR ‘MAKE’ – NOT THE ‘FIRST COVENANT WHICH I COVENANTED’ BUT SIMPLY ‘THE FIRST COVENANT WHICH I MADE.’ BY THIS SLIGHT PARAPHRSE THE PASTOR ANTICIPATES THE SUFFICIENCY OF THE NEW.

“GOD WILL ‘FULFILL’ OR ‘PERFECT’ THE NEW COVENANT SO THAT IT WILL ACCOMPLISH WHAT WAS LACKING IN THE FIRST COVENANT, WHICH HE MERELY ‘MADE.’” – Cockerill

I COULD WELL BE WRONG IN MAKING SOME OF THE NEGATIVE REMARKS I HAVE MADE REGARDING WHAT I SEE AS PREMATURE AND UNDULY DOGMATIC IN THESE LAST FEW BLOGS, BUT THESE ARE MY HONEST THOUGHTS AT THIS JUNCTURE IN MY WRITING.

 

– Professor Thomas A. Rohm