Listen to our Sunday morning sermons at our
Sermons Page

Foreword

Some things are so obvious they elude our scrutiny. Ask a series of people, chosen at random, "What is the first thing you need to do in order to stay alive?" The answers will vary, and less than half are likely to give the obvious answer: "Keep breathing." The act of breathing is so automatic, and the air we breathe so invisible, that we tend to overlook them until some respiratory crisis brings them to our attention.

It can be the same with our understanding of the Bible. Especially amongst evangelicals, whose high view of Biblical authority can lead to proof-texting, it is easy to get caught up in the minutiae and forget to stand back and look at the larger picture—what John Wesley called "the whole scope and tenor of Scripture." Thus Christians can be filled with details about Biblical teaching, but fail to comprehend those over-arching themes which place these details in perspective. This situation can lead to serious misinterpretation of Biblical doctrine. In the area of eschatology, for example, a lack of appreciation for the Old Testament imagery of judgment may result in a completely futuristic—and erroneous—interpretation of the Revelation to John and other parts of the New Testament.

What, after all, is the purpose of the Bible as a whole? What motivated its appearance within the religious community we call Israel, and the new Israel of the church of Jesus Christ? Scripture came into being as an expression of the relationship between God and His people, a relationship which the Bible typically portrays in terms of the covenant or its equivalents: the kingdom of God, the family of God, new life through membership in the Son of God. Although the Bible may focus on a variety of issues and concerns, all of these have their meaning within the ebb and flow of the covenant relationship between the Lord and those who have pledged their loyalty to Him in worship and obedience. In this sense, covenant is the air which Scripture breathes; it supplies the framework and the thematic material for understanding all parts of the Old and New Testaments.

The distinctive structure and terminology of the Biblical covenant began to be rediscovered with the appearance, earlier in this century, of several publications which brought to light the features of ancient Near Eastern treaties. The important volume by Viktor Korosec, Hethitische Staatsvertrage, initially laid out the structure of Hittite vassal treaties in particular. George E. Mendenhall’s monograph of 1955 (originally published the previous year in The Biblical Archaeologist) called attention to the structural connections between these ancient treaties and the Biblical covenant, and subsequent studies by authorities such as Klaus Baltzer (1964; Eng. trans., 1971), Delbert Hillers (1969) and D. J. McCarthy (1972) further developed the concept of the covenant along these lines. From an evangelical perspective, the work of Meredith G. Kline has been of particular significance in demonstrating the importance of treaty-covenant structure for an understanding of the meaning of Biblical revelation.

The present volume by J. E. Leonard draws upon these earlier studies, but takes the further step of applying the concept of the covenant to the Bible as a whole, both Old and New Testaments, not just historically but in a thematic and theological way. The result is a frequently amazing Erklarung, or almost revelatory clarification, of the meaning of Scripture in whole and in part. Not only the Old Testament Law, but also prophecy, psalm, New Testament epistle and the gospel declarations of Christ take on a fresh impact when viewed as expressions of covenant-related motifs. It is perhaps not going too far to suggest that the thoughtful reader, interacting with the material presented in this study, should be led to a complete and radically Biblical rethinking of the meaning of Christian faith, both historically and in a contemporary context.

 Buy It Now!    Back to Top    Featured Books    Booklist

Prologue

How often people are heard to complain that they cannot understand the Bible, especially the Old Testament and the Book of Revelation. Such an admission might be considered acceptable from the unchurched or even the nominally Christian, but when sincere, devout believers have difficulty in making sense from what they read in the Bible, something must be terribly wrong. After all, the Bible itself says that the word of God is spiritually understood (1 Cor. 2:14). "Therefore," reasons the bewildered Christian, "if I cannot comprehend it, I must be unspiritual," a most discouraging possibility. The word of God is spiritual food to God’s people, and daily reading is necessary to remain alive and related to God. Unfortunately, many take it like medicine—unaware of the ingredients, but convinced that it must be consumed for one’s own good.

Bible translators have attempted to remedy the situation by rewriting the text in "modern" linguistic idiom. In some ways, perhaps, this is helpful, but in trying to clarify, translators often do violence to meanings instead, and the average reader, not being familiar with the original languages, is at their mercy. "Furlongs" are translated into the equivalent distance in "miles," for example, and in the process the number of furlongs, which may be theologically significant, becomes something altogether different. The reader may have a better understanding of the distance involved, but he loses entirely the symbolism which the number represents and which the original author so carefully included. Parallel construction, which serves to clarify the meaning of a phrase or sentence, is sometimes obscured, particularly in the paraphrastic renditions of Scripture. And key terms or Semitic idioms often completely disappear. The result is that much depth of meaning is sacrificed for the dubious benefit of bringing the literary level of the Bible down to the intellectual capabilities of a third or fourth grade reader.

The answer for these serious Christian is not to update the Biblical text. Instead, it is to discover what those obscure phrases and expressions meant to the ancient Hebrews who wrote and lived by this unique book. Rather than looking at the Bible through modern mental filters which distort and confuse, it would be well to ask what the words and concepts on the pages of Scripture signified in the culture out of which they came.

A century ago, this might have been more difficult than it is today. But extensive archaeological activity in Israel and throughout the Near East has opened a window into the content of our Bible. Literature has been discovered which comes from Israel’s pagan neighbors but sounds very much like the Old Testament and sheds new light on its meaning.

This is sometimes frightening to evangelicals. The Bible is a holy book, unlike anything else ever written. To suggest that ancient heathen peoples might have produced anything similar to it may seem to threaten the whole concept of the Scriptural authorship of God, inerrancy, and revelation. This need not be the case, however. In fact, an understanding of the ancient documents which have been unearthed in the Near East, and dating as far back as a thousand years before Abraham, reinforces the uniqueness of the Christian Scriptures, at the same time opening up their meaning in a fresh and exciting way.

This book will take a look at some of the treaty texts unearthed by archaeological excavations of sites from ancient Egyptian, Hittite, and other cultures. The language in these treaties will be startlingly familiar to Bible students. Difficult passages will break open, and even some which seemed clear to us will take on new and deeper meaning. Best of all, what is discovered in these treaties will provide insight into what is probably the least understood, yet most important concept in the entire Bible. That concept is the covenant, and is at once the heart and the foundation of mankind’s relationship with God.

Buy It Now!     Back to Top    Featured Books    Booklist