If I were to ask you what the “Old Testament” is, what would you tell me? The writings of Scripture before Jesus came to this world? What about the “New Testament”? Would you say they were the Scriptures that were written after the birth of Christ? Kind of a B.C./A.D. type dichotomy?
How would it change your understanding of the Bible if Old Testament/New Testament were mistranslations of the Septuagint into the Latin Vulgate? Not much? Well, there is a huge difference between a “Testament” and a “Covenant” and that is the issue we will address in this blog.
What is a testament?
Both in Latin and in English a testament is: a last will, a solitary declaration of how to dispose of one’s property after one’s death… Have you made yours yet?
What is a covenant?
A covenant is made between those who are alive as to how they will treat each other. i.e. between God and His people – called the Old Covenant of the Law or between God and Abraham – called the Abrahamic Covenant or the New Covenant in the Blood of Jesus.
It is true that the word testament has been used to describe a covenant but it should be obvious what can be lost in this mistranslation.
How would the above information change the way we understand the following quote:
“The New Testament is hidden in the Old Testament and the Old Testament is revealed in the New Testament”?
Or
“The New Covenant is hidden in the Old Covenant and the Old Covenant is revealed in the New Covenant”?
Now think about what it means to read the Bible as the Old Covenant and/or the New Covenant…
Confused? You should be!
The books of the bible that were written before the Advent of Christ contain: The Torah, the writings of the Prophets and Psalms. To call them the “Old Testament” Scriptures muddles “New Covenant” scriptural interpretations or understandings. For instance when the Apostle Paul speaks about the “Old Covenant” fading away, he is NOT talking about all the Pre-Advent Jewish writings. Paul is referring directly to the Mosaic Covenant (Ex 20 etc) given to Moses on Mt. Sinai to give to His people, the Jews.
Many have come away with the misunderstanding that the “Old Testament” was for the Jews and the “New Testament” was for the “church”. This is actually one of the seeds of “Replacement Theology” which pits the “church” against the Jews. Whenever the “church” becomes separated from the commonwealth of Israel it takes on a un-scriptural identity.
When Jesus came to this world He was performing the fulfillment of the “New Covenant” given in Jeremiah 31:31-34 to the “house of Israel and the house of Judah”(the Jews). Take a gander!
Did you know that Jesus (Yeshua) was “sent only to the house of Israel” (Matthew 15:24 NASB) and the Apostles biggest challenge was trying to figure out how to fit the Gentiles (Goyim) into their Messianic Jewish assemblies (churches?)? Selah!!!
Odd, isn’t it, that today we are trying to figure out how to get the Jews back into our theologies(?) of the “Church”!
We will discuss what we call the “church” in my next blog.
