What is the New Testament?

What is the “New Testament”?

Is it the same as the New Covenant?

A Terminology Exposé

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, 31-36 At that time, says Yehovah, “I will be the Elohim of all the clans of Israel, and they will be My people”. ... 31 Look, the time is coming, says Yehovah, when I will make a New Covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah; 32 Unlike the covenant that I made with their ancestors during the time when I took them by the hand and led them out of the land of Egypt; since they broke My Covenant, tho I was their Husband, declares Yehovah: 33 In this Covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says Yehovah; I will put My Torah in the seat of thought and emotions, and I will write it in their minds. I will be their Elohim, and they will be My people. 34 Men will no longer teach their neighbors, and their brothers, by asking, “Do you know Yehovah”; because they will all know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them, declares Yehovah. “I will forgive their depravity, and I will no longer remember their sins”. 35 This is what Yehovah says, who provides the sun to light the day and decreed the moon and stars to light the night, who instantaneously quiets the raging waves of the sea; Yehovah, leader of Heavens army is His name; 36 “If these enactments ever fail in My presence, says Yehovah, then the descendants of Israel will also cease from being a nation in My presence forever”. —The Word of Elohim, Gabriel Version (WE)

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, that John called “the Testimony of Yeshua”, OR to any fulfilled prophecy, OR to any people other than with “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” refers to a legal testimony.

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

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*”, rather than to Israel. I believe that the Apostle John used “the Testimony of Yeshua/Messiah”, when he meant the 27 books. He finalized the writings*. Tertullian also “Koined” Vetus Testamentum, meaning “old testament”. That is what he began referring to the Tanak as. 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 sacred 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” Yeshua (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.

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 Yeshua’s followers 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 those “Old Scriptures” were regarded as the means to salvation:

2 Timothy 3:16-17 All Scripture [1] was written by the spirit, and is profitable for doctrine, for proving convictions, for improving character, and for complete instruction in righteousness; 17 so that a person of Aloha can become perfect, and accomplished in every good work. —The Testimony of Yeshua, Gabriel Version (GV)

[1] It is apparent that the Scriptures leading to eternal Life, mentioned in vs.15-16, are referring to the Tanakh, mistakenly called the “Old Testament”, since all 50 other references to Scripture/s, in the Testimony of Yeshua, refer to it, including a twisted interpretation of 2 Peter 3:16. Same goes for “the Word of God”. No reference to “the Word of God” includes the Testimony of Yeshua, look them up!

Then in the 3rd century, Lactantius took Tertullian’s idea and went a giant step further by defining the concept in his Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol VII: Lactantius: Chap. XX:

“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 the Bible. 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 “New Covenant” that will be enacted, is essentially a strengthened version of the original Covenant, as it had been originally in the Sinai, then the harmony and continuity with Israel would be readily apparent!

How will the New Covenant differ from the old one? The people themselves will be strengthened with the sacred spirit and the promise of eternal life comes into play!

Hebrews 8:9 It wont be like the covenant that I made with their ancestors during the time when I took them by the hand and brought them out of the land of Egypt, because they didnt remain loyal to My covenant, and I rejected them, declared Yehovah. GV

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 Then in that day, says Yehovah, leader of Heavens army, I will break the yoke from your neck, and will snap your chains; and foreigners will no longer enslave you; 9 but you will serve Yehovah your Elohim, and David your king, who I will raise for you. WE

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 God’s Torah 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 The world was not worthy of them, yet they wandered in deserts and mountains, or hid in caves and fissures in the earth. 39 None of these honorable witnesses received their promised blessings; 40 because Yehovah has determined that it is better that they not be made perfect and complete beings without [ahead of] us. GV

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 of flesh; and those born of the spirit, ARE composed of spirit. 7 Dont be surprised when I tell you that you must be born anew [as in “again”]. . 8 The wind blows where it chooses; and you hear it sing, but you dont know where it came from, or where it is going. That is how it is with everyone who is born of the spirit. GV

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

Centuries after the Apostles had already finalized “the books”, Tertullian and friends “canonized” the Messianic Texts, 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, according to a real New Covenant Chapter—Jeremiah 31:32; and that the new 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?