"Introduction to the Covenant"
Notes from The Economy of the Covenants Between God and Man
by Herman Witsius (1636 - 1708), Professor of Divinity at the University of Franeker, Utrecht, Leyden; Regent of Divinity, College of the States of Holland, West Friesland
Covenant of God with Man =An agreement between God and Man, about the way of obtaining consummate happiness, including a commination of eternal destruction, with which the contemner of the happiness, offered in that way, is to be punished.
- consumate = perfect, or carried to the utmost degree;
- commination = a threat or threatening; a denunciation;
- contemner = a person who scorns or holds in contempt a certain person or object;
- Covenant of God with Man = An agreement between God and Man, about the way of obtaining perfect happiness, including a threat of eternal destruction as the punishment upon the person who has held in contempt the perfect happiness offered.
Three Parts of the Covenant:
- 1) The Promise = God's sincere offer & provision of perfect happiness;
- 2) The Conditions = God's requirements for Man receiving the promise;
- 3) The Sanctions = God's penalties for Man's failure to meet the conditions.
The Hebrew "________________":
- Proper usage = "mutual agreement between parties with respect to something" (Genesis 14:13; 26:28,29; I Samuel 18:3)
- Improper usage = "an immutable ordinance made about a thing" (Jeremiah 33:20)
"last irrevocable will" (Numbers 18:19)
The Greek "__________________":
- denotes a testament. (Hebrew 9:15-17)
Both Hebrew & Greek literature, as well as the Latin literature, refer to the "cutting or striking" a covenant:
- The source = Ancient Near Eastern Practice (Genesis 15; Jeremiah 34:18)