Likewise He also took the cup after supper, saying,
“This cup is the new covenant in My blood,
which is shed for you.”
Gospel of Luke 22:20
A new commandment I give to you,
that you love one another;
as I have loved you, that you also love one another.
Gospel of John 13:34
In this chapter we will deal with a theme that, paradoxically, has been ignored or only marginally considered in the context of the salvation theories, but that represents a fundamental element of the work accomplished by Jesus. This confirms, once again, how the soteriological doctrines that have succeeded over the centuries have mostly neglected the message of Jesus to focus on important but not final questions, on which theological edifices with fragile foundations have been built. What we will discuss in this chapter is the new covenant announced by Jesus at the Last Supper as the climax of his preaching. It is surprising to note how the two great sections of the Bible, Old and New Testament (or alternatively Old and New Alliance or Covenant), bear such a name to emphasize the absolute centrality of this theme that is often overlooked by most theology. We will therefore try to rediscover the deeper meaning of what constitutes one of the lintels on which the entire edifice of the Sacred Scriptures rests, the foundation of our faith.
14.1. The berith
We have just seen how the word “testament” was used in the Bible alternately with the words “alliance” or “covenant”,310 even though in the English language these words have different meanings; it is necessary to start from this linguistic oddity in order to understand where the authors of the Bible wanted to take us. Let us see in detail:
Testament: legal act by which a person disposes of his or her assets in writing for the period following his or her death. It may also be of a non-pecuniary, but ideological or moral nature.311
Alliance: convention, agreement between two persons or between two parties, by virtue of which they undertake to give each other support with a view to achieving a common purpose.
Covenant: generally, convention, agreement between two persons or parties.
It is clear from these definitions that we are talking about different concepts that cannot be used as synonyms. In fact, the word testament will indicate a unilateral disposition of a subject to other subjects; alliance implies instead a mutual and reciprocal obligation of support between several subjects; while the word covenant is simply an agreement stipulated between two parties on certain premises. In the Hebrew language, the only word used in the Bible translated into English as testament, alliance, or covenant, was berith;312 the understanding of this term is of absolute centrality for our study, let us see its exact definition:
The original meaning of berith is not “agreement or settlement between two parties”, as is commonly argued. Berith implies first and foremost the notion of “imposition” “liability” or “obligation”. Thus we find that the berith is commanded (tsisvvah beritho, he has commanded his “covenant” Psalms 111:9; Judges 2:20) which certainly cannot be said about a mutual agreement. Berith is synonymous with law and commandment and the covenant at Sinai in Exodus 24 is in its essence an imposition of laws and obligations upon the people. […] Berith as a commitment has to be confirmed by an oath which included most probably a conditional imprecation: “May thus and thus happen to me if I violate the obligation”. The oath gives the obligation its biding validity, and therefore we find in the Bible, as well as in the Mesopotamian and Greek sources the pair of expressions: berith ve’alah, covenant and oath.313
The correctness of this interpretation can be seen both in the work of the translators of the Septuagint Bible314 and in that of the New Testament authors, where berith was translated by the Greek word diatheke meaning promise or testament, and not by sunthke meaning alliance. Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, and Paul, whom were Jews, knew that berith was not a suntheke, an agreement of mutual support, but a diatheke, i.e., an arrangement in which one will imposes an order on another.315 The word diatheke was later translated into Latin as testamentum and thus the definition of Old and New Testament came down to us.316
The choice of the word diatheke “testament” was only an approximation of berith, but it was the closest Greek word to it. This inevitable imprecision, however, might be misleading for those of us unfamiliar with the Hebrew context, since it leads one to think only of a final disposition of a person before his death, but it does not represent the wider use and full sense of the Hebrew word.
Berith was an imposition, a constraint, a strong obligation, corroborated by an oath of allegiance, which could be imposed on oneself, others or each other. It was accompanied by solemn oaths to keep the commitment at all costs, sometimes even by curses if the obligation was not fulfilled and was normally finalised with a banquet. The word berith was often used in conjunction with the verb karath, meaning to cut, karath berith, to cut a promise, an oath; it was in fact customary to reinforce the oath by literally “cutting” animals and sometimes by passing through the two cut parts arranged one in front of the other. This bizarre practice meant: “Let the same happen to me if I do not keep what has been imposed.” A clear example of this custom can be found in Genesis Chapter 15th, where God, after promising Abraham an offspring, ordered him to take several animals and cut them in half, and to place the two halves in front of each other. When night fell, a flame of fire (God himself) passed through the cut animals, confirming the commitment made to Abraham. From this account it is clear no alliance was made, for it was God alone who swore allegiance to Abraham, who received the promise. God's obligation to Abraham, at the cost of his own life, would not have made much sense, however, unless God had become a mortal man... in other words, God was swearing allegiance to Abraham unto death and would fulfil his oath in Jesus.
In fact, sacrificing the animal and spilling its blood symbolised a commitment to keep what had been sworn at the cost of one's life, to remain faithful to one's promise until death; if one wished for death as a penalty for failing to keep the promise, maintaining the promise would go as far as giving one's life for it. To validate a promise, a commitment, by sacrificing one or more animals, was so much in use and widespread habit that it became a common way of saying “to cut a promise” or “to cut an oath” that has been handed down to us in the verb “to decide”.317
How was a covenant made in biblical times? The most common expression for “making a covenant” was karath berith, to cut a covenant. The same idiom appears in Aramaic gzr’dy and Greek hrkia tmnein, “to cut oaths”. This language seems to derive from the ceremony accompanying the making of a pact or a covenant, which included the killing of an animal, or the “cutting up of an animal.”318
The berith was thus always a constraint, whether imposed on oneself, on someone else or on each other, in the latter case similar to a covenant:
For the ancients, receiving a provision and not respecting it was a very, very serious matter. Jesus told the parable of a steward who was put in charge of the servants. When he saw that the master was late returning, he began to get drunk and beat the servants. When the master of that servant returns, Jesus said, “He will cut that servant in two; the servant who has known the Lord's will, his instructions, and has not followed them, will be skinned.”319
Similarly, the relationship between the people of Israel and God was seen as a solemn commitment, an oath taken as if it were a conjugal bond, to which absolute fidelity and loyalty were owed; the violation of fidelity, adultery, was considered an extremely serious matter:
The prophets, especially Hosea, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel, expressed the idea of exclusive loyalty by describing the relationship between God and Israel as one between a husband and wife, which itself is also considered covenantal. Although the idea of marital love between God and Israel is not explicitly mentioned in the Pentateuch, it seems to exist there in a latent form. Following other gods is warned against with the statement, “For I the Lord your God am a jealous God” (Ex. 20:5; Dt. 5:9; Ex. 34:14; Josh. 24:19) […] Similarly, the verb used in Pentateuch for disloyalty is zanah “to play the harlot, to whore”. […] The relationship of the vassal to his suzerain, and that of the wife to her husband, leave no place for double loyalty, and therefore are perfect metaphor for loyalty in a monotheistic religion.320
For the sake of simplicity, we will use the word “covenant” to represent this ancient tradition of berith.321
14.2. The ancient covenants
There are several ancient covenants/berith that God established with mankind, from the one with Noah to the one with David, of which five stand out in particular:
We have seen that, in four cases out of five, the covenant was imposed by God on himself (in this case we call it promissory). He was the only one involved, responsible for the observance of the bond and the keeping of the oath made; only God could in fact impose a berith on himself, there being no one superior to him. Today we can say that God kept his promises because, everything he swore to Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and David was fulfilled, and we could not expect otherwise. There is, however, another (mandatory) covenant that attracts our attention, number four on the list, the one God made with Moses and the people of Israel.
14.3. The ancient covenant
In the covenant with Moses, which is identified as the ancient covenant, we are in the presence of a typical berith/imposition, mandatory, imposed by a superior on an inferior. It is the law, the Torah, which is given to the people of Israel through Moses. In the book of Exodus, God said to Moses: “If you will indeed obey My voice and keep My covenant [berith], then you shall be a special treasure to Me above all people.”327 Moses went to the people and reported what the Lord had announced him, and the people replied: “All that the Lord has spoken we will do.”328 Then God communicated the law and the commandments, and Moses reported them to the people, who swore once more.329 Afterwards, Moses had bulls slaughtered as sacrifices of gratitude to the Lord, took half of the blood and sprinkled it on the altar, thereafter read the book of the berith to the people who, for the third time, promised: “All that the Lord has said we will do, and be obedient.”330 Then Moses took the second half of the blood, sprinkled the people with it, and said: “This is the blood of the covenant [berith] which the Lord has made with you according to all these words.”331 Finally, in the book of Deuteronomy, all the blessings that would descend upon the people of Israel if they diligently obeyed the voice of the Lord, taking care to put all his commandments into practice,332 and the curses that would befall them if they did not obey,333 were listed.
We are therefore faced with a perfect berith, consisting of an imposition (commandment), an oath of obedience, a blood sacrifice “cut” in two (half the blood shed on the altar and half on the people), a series of blessings as a promise for obedience and curses as a consequence of disobedience. We know, however, that from the very beginning the people of Israel proved to be grossly unfaithful to these commandments and for hundreds of years they constantly violated their promise, although the Lord tried in every way to bring them back to the right path through the prophets:
The prophets continually functioned within a covenant context, calling on the people to repent of their transgressions against Yahweh and to return to the practice of loving submission and fidelity toward him. This fidelity and submission would naturally find expression in the observance of the various covenant stipulations. Whenever the people listened to the prophetic preaching and repented of their infidelities, thereby removing the obstacles to the continued operation of the promises in their lives, Yahweh confirmed the promises once again. That is, the promises were never revoked, and Yahweh remained ready to bring them to fruition, although the indifference and irresponsibility and rebelliousness of the Israelites frequently made it impossible for him to do so.334
However, God, again through the prophets, announced that he would soon make a new berith, better than the previous one and with very special characteristics.
14.4. The new covenant
We have seen that the covenant commanded to the people of Israel through Moses had not produced the expected fruits, but already God had planned to achieve something different and superior by announcing, through the prophets, a new berith:
Jeremiah 31:31-33 “Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant [berith] with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah not according to the covenant [berith] that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant [berith] which they broke, though I was a husband to them, says the Lord. But this is the covenant [berith] that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put My law in their minds, and write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people.”335
Ezekiel 36:24-28 “For I will take you from among the nations, gather you out of all countries, and bring you into your own land. Then I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean; I will cleanse you from all your filthiness and from all your idols. I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will keep My judgments and do them. Then you shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers; you shall be My people, and I will be your God.”336
Ezekiel 37:24-28 “David My servant shall be king over them, and they shall all have one shepherd; they shall also walk in My judgments and observe My statutes, and do them. Then they shall dwell in the land that I have given to Jacob My servant, where your fathers dwelt; and they shall dwell there, they, their children, and their children’s children, forever; and My servant David shall be their prince forever. Moreover, I will make a covenant [berith] of peace with them, and it shall be an everlasting covenant [berith] with them; I will establish them and multiply them, and I will set My sanctuary in their midst forevermore. My tabernacle also shall be with them; indeed I will be their God, and they shall be My people. The nations also will know that I, the Lord, sanctify Israel, when My sanctuary is in their midst forevermore.”
Isaiah 55:3-5 Incline your ear, and come to Me. Hear, and your soul shall live; And I will make an everlasting covenant [berith] with you—The sure mercies of David. Indeed I have given him as a witness to the people, A leader and commander for the people. Surely you shall call a nation you do not know, And nations who do not know you shall run to you, Because of the Lord your God, And the Holy One of Israel; For He has glorified you.”337
Zechariah 9:9-11 “Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your King is coming to you; He is just and having salvation, Lowly and riding on a donkey, A colt, the foal of a donkey. I will cut off the chariot from Ephraim And the horse from Jerusalem; The battle bow shall be cut off. He shall speak peace to the nations; His dominion shall be ‘from sea to sea, And from the River to the ends of the earth.’ “As for you also, Because of the blood of your covenant [berith], I will set your prisoners free from the waterless pit.
Let us now summarise the main aspects of this covenant, as portrayed by the prophets:
What we have just read must have been shocking to a Jew of the time, for it is said that God will give a man and his blood as a covenant for the people, a king through whom, by the Spirit to be given, he will write the law in the hearts of men and enable them to keep all his prescriptions. This king, who will inaugurate the new covenant in his own blood, will bring peace and liberation, his kingdom will extend to all nations and will never end. We are, of course, talking about the Messiah Jesus.
14.5. The new commandment
At the Last Supper, Jesus said something extraordinary, he made a statement in which there were centuries of history of the Jewish people, something that was certainly clear to the disciples, but for us, because of the cultural divide, is rather uncertain. He said, passing the cup to the disciples, that this was the blood of the new covenant:
Mark 14:23-24 Then He took the cup, and when He had given thanks He gave it to them, and they all drank from it. And He said to them, “This is My blood of the new covenant, which is shed for many.”
We would like to draw attention to a similar verse we saw earlier, the moment when Moses handed over the law to the Israelites:
Exodus 24:8 And Moses took the blood, sprinkled it on the people, and said, “This is the blood of the covenant which the Lord has made with you according to all these words.”
For the disciples, the words spoken by Jesus, like what Moses said, signified a new law, to which they were to swear allegiance, in the same way that the people of Israel swore allegiance to Moses. They could not have imagined that the blood of Jesus would be shed for real on the following day, they probably drank from the cup thinking it was just a symbolic way of receiving a new berith; they certainly expected to be told what the new law would be that would supersede that of Moses, yet the three Synoptic Gospels are silent on the matter... perhaps they took it for granted? But the fourth Gospel, that of John, makes no mention of the cup during the Last Supper, but places at the centre of the scene a new commandment that Jesus gave to his disciples:
John 13:34 A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another.
This is the new commandment, the new law, the new berith; Jesus' injunction is: “Love one another as I have loved you”, which sums up all the commandments previously given. But surprisingly, the new commandment, the law of love, is not just pronounced or written like the ancient law, it is also a person, Jesus himself, the one who makes it manifest in himself:
The Torah of the Messiah is the Messiah himself; it is Jesus. The invitation: “You must listen to him” therefore refers to him. This is how the “law” becomes universal, this is how it is grace, this is how it founds a people, which becomes a people through listening and