What is the New Testament?

What is the “New Testament”?

Is it the same as the New Covenant?

A Terminology Exposé

Jeremiah Awaiting The New Covenant

The Biblical term “New Covenant” originated with the famed prophecy occupying Jeremiah chapters 30-31, and it defines, in two words, the sole reason for the entire book of Jeremiah being written!

Jeremiah 31:1...36 At that time, says [Yehovah], will I be the God of all the families of Israel, and they shall be My people. 31 Behold, the days come, says [Yehovah], that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah: 32 not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; which My covenant they broke, although I was a husband to them, says [Yehovah]. 33 But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says [Yehovah]: I will put My law [Hebrew Torah] in their inward parts, and in their heart will I write it; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people: 34 and they shall teach no more every man his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, Know [Yehovah]; for they shall all know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them, says [Yehovah]: for I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin will I remember no more. 35 Thus says [Yehovah], who gives the sun for a light by day, and the ordinances of the moon and of the stars for a light by night, who stirs up the sea, so that its waves roar; [Yehovah] of Armies is his name: 36 If these ordinances depart from before Me, says [Yehovah], then the seed of Israel also shall cease from being a nation before me forever. WEB

INDEX

Whenever “New Testament” or “New Covenant” is mentioned in the Bible, it is ALWAYS in reference to Jeremiah 30-31! It is never in reference to the 27 books of the Apostles OR to any fulfilled prophecy OR to any people other than “the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah”! The KJV uses the term “New Testament” six times, but never mentions “New Covenant”. The NKJV uses “New Covenant” six times but never mentions “New Testament”. Here are the six places: Matthew 26:28; Mark 14:24; Luke 22:20; 1 Corinthians 11:25; 2 Corinthians 3:6; Hebrews 9:15. While “testament” and “covenant” are traditionally used interchangably in English, they are not at all the same thing. The Greek term “diatheke” refers to a covenant, as in the Jeremiah 31 New Covenant, while the term “marturia” [3141] refers to a legal testimony, such as the Testimony of Yeshua-Messiah, which I do believe refers to the 27 books.

So why do people believe that “New Testament” means the “canonized” Apostolic Scriptures?

So far as is known, a second century Catholic named Tertullian “Koined” the Latin term Novum Testamentum, (Latinizing the Koine Greek phrase), as a means to associate “New Testament” with the 27 books, rather than the Jeremiah 31:31 covenant “with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah”. Thus, in one wave of his magic wand, he made Yeshua’s statments about the New Testament (New Covenant) apply to “the Church” (off site), rather than to Israel. I believe that that the Apostle John used “the Testimony of Yeshua/Messiah”, when he meant the 27 books. He finalized the writings (off site). Tertullian also “Koined” vetus testamentum by which he began referring to the “old [Hebrew] testament”. Here is perhaps Tertullian’s first usage of his new term New Testament, from his Against Marcion, book 3, chapter 14:

“This may be understood to be the Divine Word, who is doubly edged with the two testaments of the law and the gospel....”

Actually it was Marcion who got the ball rolling by inserting a stone wall between the so-called “Old Testament” and the so-called “New Testament”; separating the mean “spirited” old God from the the good “spirited” Jesus. He and his followers believed that the Hebrew Scriptures were totally divorced from the “the Testimony of Yeshua”, and that the God of ancient Israel was a cruel God. They believed that worshiping Jesus was far superior to that.

Tertullian’s “New Covenant”

Ironically, while Tertullian blasted Marcion’s stone wall, he really only softened Marcion’s artificial divide. In essence, it appears that Tertullian didnt describe the Father and the Son as “divorced”, as did Marcion, rather, they were merely “separated”.

In book 4, chapter 6, Tertullian wrote:

“For it is certain that the whole aim at which [Marcion] has strenuously laboured even in the drawing up of his Antitheses, centres in this, that he may establish a diversity between the Old and the New Testaments, so that his own Christ may be separate from the Creator, as belonging to this rival god, and as alien from the law and the prophets.”

But if the followers of Yeshua (Jesus) had been “New Covenant Christians”, then why did it take centuries to figure it out? For all practical purposes Marcionism won out, with only limited historic value now placed on those so-called “old worn out scriptures”.

Martin Luther, the father of Protestantism, was a “Marcionist”! See for yourself:

“We don’t want to see or hear Moses. How do you like that, my dear rebels? We say further, that all such Mosaic teachers deny the gospel, banish Christ, and annul the whole New Testament. I now speak as a Christian for Christians. For Moses is given to the Jewish people alone, and does not concern us Gentiles and Christians. We have our gospel and New Testament. If they can prove from them that images must be put away, we will gladly follow them. If they, however, through Moses would make us Jews, we will not endure it....”

“... Therefore Moses? legislation about images and the Sabbath, and what else goes beyond the natural law, since it is not supported by the natural law, is free, null and void, and is specifically given to the Jewish people alone.” —LW 40:91: “LW” refers to Luther’s 55 volume Works, English edition

All but forgotten is Paul’s admonition to Timothy. He stated, before the “Testimony of Yeshua” was even finalized, that the “Old” scriptures were regarded as the means to salvation:

2 Timothy 3:16-17 All Scripture is written by the Spirit and is profitable for doctrine*[1319], for *proving convictions*[1650], for *improving character[1882}, and for *all instruction*[3809] in righteousness; 17 that the man of Yehovah may become perfect, and accomplished*[1822] in every good work. NMT

Then in the 3rd century, Lactantius took Tertullian’s idea and went a giant step further by defining the concept in his Divine Institutes, book 4, chapter 20:

“But all Scripture is divided into two Testaments. That which preceded the advent and passion of Christ-that is, the law and the prophets-is called the Old; but those things which were written after His resurrection are named the New Testament. The Jews make use of the Old, we of the New: but yet they are not discordant, for the New is the fulfilling of the Old, and in both there is the same testator, even Christ, who, having suffered death for us, made us heirs of His everlasting kingdom, the people of the Jews being deprived and disinherited. As the prophet Jeremiah testifies when he speaks such things: [Jer 31:31-32] “Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will make a new testament to the house of Israel and the house of Judah, not according to the testament which I made to their fathers, in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; for they continued not in my testament, and I disregarded them, saith the Lord.... For that which He said above, that He would make a new testament to the house of Judah, shows that the old testament which was given by Moses was not perfect; but that which was to be given by Christ would be complete.”

This is perfectly fine for Catholics who regard their traditions as more decisive than Scripture. If you call yourself a “New Covenant Christian”, then at least you now know who to credit with the name. Yet if people knew that the term “New” in this instance really means a “RENEWED COVENANT,” the harmony and continuity with Israel would be readily apparent!

The promised New Covenant of Jeremiah 31 actually includes all of chapter 30. It is entirely about Judah and the “Lost Tribes” inheriting the Promised Land after the climactic “time of Jacob’s trouble”, better known as “the Great Tribulation!”:

Jeremiah 30:7-8 Alas! for that day is great, so that none is like it: it is even the time of Jacob’s trouble; but he shall be saved out of it. 8 It shall come to pass in that day, says [Yehovah] of Armies, that I will break his yoke from off your neck, and will burst your bonds; and strangers shall no more make him their bondservant; 9 but they shall serve [Yehovah] their God, and David their king, whom I will raise up [resurrect] to them. WEB

Chances are, you can only paraphrase part of one verse in all of this—the part about writing “something” on their hearts. That something is the Torah. That time and place, according to the immediate context, is a time when all of the neighbors are on the same spiritual page! People wont be capable of teaching the neighbors anything because they already know Yehovah. It is the post evangelical age:

Verse 33 But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says [Yehovah]: I will put My Law [Hebrew: Torah]in their inward parts, and in their heart will I write it; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people: 34 and they shall teach no more every man his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, “Know [Yehovah]”; for they shall all know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them....

Verse 33 is the entire pickup line used to somehow equate the New Covenant with the here and now!

But having the laws of God in your heart was not a new thing. Notice what was said on the Day of Pentesost, in the wilderness, when Israel accepted the terms of the First Covenant:

Deuteronomy 6:1-6 Now this is the commandment, the statutes, and the ordinances, which [Yehovah] your God commanded to teach you, that you might do them in the land where you go over to possess it; 2 that you might fear [Yehovah] your God, to keep all his statutes and his commandments, which I command you, you, and your son, and your son’s son, all the days of your life; and that your days may be prolonged. 3 Hear therefore, Israel, and observe to do it; that it may be well with you, and that you may increase mightily, as [Yehovah], the God of your fathers, has promised to you, in a land flowing with milk and honey. 4 Hear, Israel: [Yehovah] is our God; [Yehovah] is one: 5 and you shall love [Yehovah] your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might. 6 These words, which I command you this day, shall be on your heart; 7 and you shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise up. WEB

But neither the Deuteronomy 6 conditions, nor the Jeremiah 30-31 conditions prevail today. Here are the conditions that have been the norm since the Diaspora (scattering of Israel):

Hebrews 11:38-40 ... of whom the world was not worthy, yet they were as wanderers in the desert, in mountains, in caves, and in caverns of the earth. 39 None of these, *divine witnesses*[3140], received their *promised blessing*[1860]: 40 because Yehovah has foreseen*[4265] something* *more excellent*[2909]; so that they wouldnt become perfected ahead of us. NMT

The New Covenant is no more here and now than people are “saved” here and now!

John 3:6-8 Those born of flesh, are composed offlesh; and those born of the Spirit, are composed of spirit. 7 Dont be surprised when I tell you, you must be born anew [as in “again”]. 8 The wind blows where it wishes; and you hear it sing*[5456], but you dont know where it came from, or where it is going; so it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.

To read an explanation about the prophetic New Covenant, covering every reference in the Bible see: Chapter 25: The “New Covenant”—Soon to be Implemented!

Centuries after the Apostles had already finalized “the books”, Tertullian and friends “canonized” the Messianic Scriptures, by simply scrambling the order of the books, and adding the Apocrypha!

People have no clue that the “First Covenant” had to do with Ancient Israel coming out of Egyptian slavery to be married to their Creator (New Covenant Chapter—Jeremiah 31:32) and that the renewed covenant, spelled out in great detail in Jeremiah 31, is The Time After Jacob’s Trouble—prophecies that can only be fulfilled when the modern nations of Israel “Exodus” 21st century slavery in the “North Country”!

You may also want to check out another Terminology Exposé: What is the Old Testament?