Basic Nature of OT Covenants and ANE Treaties

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A. In general, what is an OT covenant / ANE treaty?

In brief, a covenant or treaty is a solemn, binding, sworn agreement between two parties. It governs their relationship until one of the parties dies.

The fact that OT uses the same word for covenant and for treaty tells us that, even if there are some differences between a covenant and a treaty, nonetheless, they are generally very similar.

Covenants/treaties were used in the world of the Old Testament, often called “the ancient Near East” (ANE).

The ancient Near East is mainly the nations surrounding Israel during the time of the Old Testament, such as: Egypt, Babylonia, Assyria, Moab, Edom, Philistia, etc.

Covenants and treaties governed the relationship between nations, and sometimes between individuals. To be more precise, a covenant or treaty usually bound one king to another king.

In the modern world …

We find covenants in the Old Testament as well as in the greater ancient Near East. The OT refers to covenants between individuals (Jacob & Laban, Gen 31; David & Jonathan, 1 Sam 20). There are also covenants/treaties between kings (such as Solomon & Hiram, 1 Kings 5:12).

B. Why is it important to understand the nature of Old Testament covenants?

Because in the Old Testament, there are not just covenants between persons or between kings, but between humans and God. These covenants are important for understanding what God is doing, and how He wants us to live and to relate to him.

Covenants are not vague theological ideas. Rather, they provide structure, definition and explanation to the overall question of what is going on in the Old Testament. And they are the key to understanding how the Old Testament applies to Christians.

C. The Major OT Covenants:

The major covenants in the Old Testament are:

For now we are just listing them. We will come back to them in H/O #09.

• The covenant with Noah & the whole earth (Genesis 8 &9).

• The covenant with Abraham and his seed (Gen 12, 15, 17, 22).

• The covenant given through Moses to the nation of Israel at Mt. Sinai, which came with the 10 commandments and the rest of the law (Exodus 19 → Deuteronomy).

• The covenant with David, and his son (2 Sam 7 = 1 Chron 17; 1 Kgs 2 & 9; Ps 2, 89, 110, & 132).

• The New covenant (Jer 31; also Ezek 36 [in the NT, see Hebrews 8] ).

D. In Specific: What is a “Covenant”? [Hebrew: be·rît’ ]

The lecturer wrote his doctoral dissertation (May, 2000) on this topic.

A good short definition of a covenant is:

A covenant is a life-long unchangeable solemn agreement between two designated parties in which one or both of them make an oath-bound pledge to the other to continue to perform a specified commitment or else suffer the wrath of God.

It is vital to observe that a covenant always involves a promissory oath; promissory oaths have two features:

1. A solemn pledge sworn before God (the gods) to perform a specified ongoing commitment.

2. There is a curse invoked upon the person taking the oath. The curse invites the lethal wrath of God (the gods) upon the person taking the oath if he/she should break the oath.

Q: If a covenant always contains an oath, is there any difference between a covenant and an oath?

A: Yes there is. The difference is that a covenant contains a pledge to continue to perform a specified commitment. An oath, in and of itself, does not have a such an ongoing pledge.

The essence of an oath is that …

E. Are all covenants basically alike?

While all covenants share certain common features (a lifelong oath-bound unchangeable commitment, etc.), there are nonetheless meaningful differences among them. In the Old Testament, we find three ‘kinds’ of covenants:

1. A “Parity” Covenant / Treaty. A parity covenant or treaty was between two parties of essentially equal strength. In parity treaties, both kings take an oath to each other, and the terms are very balanced, often identical. The kings refer to each other as “brothers.”

   A famous ANE parity treaty was between Pharaoh Ramses the Great and the Hittite King Hattusilus III. It was made at Kadesh (in modern-day Syria, near Lebanon), in 1258 BC. Archaeologists have found both the Hittite language and the Egyptian hieroglyphic version of this treaty. In the Old Testament, two examples of parity treaties are: (1) the treaty between Solomon and Hiram, the King of Tyre (I Kings 5:1); and (2) the treaty between Ahab and Ben-Hadad of Syria (I Kings 20:32-34).
   

2. A “Vassal” Covenant / Treaty. A vassal treaty is not between to kings who are equals. They are between a stronger king (also called the sovereign, or the great king), and a weaker king. The weaker king is the vassal.

   The general meaning of the term "vassal" is a person who serves and does the will of another, stronger person.
   

   In a vassal covenant / vassal treaty, the vassal swears an oath to perform specified services to the stronger king. The oath places him under the threat of destruction if he fails to do so. The vassal refers to himself as the servant of the great king. He refers to the great king as his ‘father’; the great king refers to the vassal as his ‘son’. This sort of covenant/treaty is well known from the world of the Old Testament.

   The benefit to the great king was …

   The benefit to the lesser king was …

   If the vassal violated the covenant …

   We have examples of vassal treaties in the Old Testament. Ezekiel 17:11-15 explicitly mentions one.

   Also, such a treaty was almost certainly involved in the plea of King Ahaz (of Judah) to the king of Assyria to rescue him from Aram / Syria (“I am your servant and your son … now save me from the king of Aram …”; 2 Kings 16:7).

3. A “Promissory” Covenant / a “Royal Grant”. In a promissory covenant, the stronger member freely grants a benefit on behalf of the weaker member. However, such grants are not given at random. Rather, they are given to people who have already served the king well. Nonetheless, they are given freely; the king was not required to do so. It is not part of a deal, so to speak.

   Among the nations which were near Israel in the times of the Old Testament, such promissory covenants are called …

F. Important Clarifications about Covenants: How they do and do not work:

1.  

   1. They do not expire. But neither are they automatically eternal. Rather, they last until one of the parties dies.

   2. However, they can be broken. This can end the covenant.

      In 1 Kings 15:19, Asa (king of Judah) offers a bribe to Ben-Hadad (king of Syria), to break(!) his existing treaty with Baasha (king of N.# K. Israel), so as to make a treaty with him (Asa).
      

   3. Even a covenant with God can be broken and come to an end, if the earthly party is disobedient and breaks the covenant.

2.  

   1. The terms of a covenant do not change. They are locked in. You cannot add to them or subtract from them.

   2. The basic dynamics of a covenant do not change.

      That is, a gracious promissory covenant does not change into a vassal-like covenant; neither does a vassal-like covenant change into a promissory covenant.

3. The covenant is between the two parties who formed the covenant, so covenants do not ‘transfer’ from one party to another.

   Even when a vassal king dies, and his son succeeds him, the covenant does not transfer to the son. That son must affirm the terms of the covenant himself; he must personally swear the oath.
   

4. What binds the parties in a covenant together is the oath.

   The parties might or might not be friends; that does not matter. They are bound, they are obligated, by the oath they took.

5. Covenants are fundamentally bilateral, or two-sided.

   1. Even in vassal treaties that are heavily one-sided, there is always some element or expectation of responsibility or obligation on both parties.

   2. In the end, they are entered into by agreement; they are not imposed unilaterally.

   3. It is inaccurate to call a covenant “unconditional.” There is always some expectation of response or obligation on the other party.

6. The covenants in the OT might not line up with ANE treaties exactly; there are some differences. But they are close enough that it makes sense to use the same word for both of them.

G. How do these different types of covenants pertain to the major OT covenants?

We will elaborate on this in H/O #09. For now we just want to state which OT covenants resemble what sort of ANE treaties & covenants.

• The covenant with Abraham, the covenant with David, and the New covenant resemble promissory covenants / grants.

  In these covenants …

• The covenant made with the nation of Israel at Mt. Sinai, given through Moses (involving the 10 Commandments and the rest of the law), resembles a vassal treaty-covenant.

  In the “Sinai covenant” (also called “the Mosaic covenant”), …

H. Some Important Conclusions So Far:

• The main covenants in the OT are not all the same. They are not different ways of describing one collective covenant. Rather, they are five different covenants, with different earthly parties. Further, they are not even all the same kind of covenant. The covenants with Abraham, with David, and the new covenant, resemble royal grants, but the Sinai covenant is like a vassal covenant. They are different covenants.

• It is not accurate to say that . Covenants do not transfer.

  The question is: Which OT covenant is with the nation of Israel? Answering that question is the key.