What is a Covenant, Pt. 1

One of the tenets of Covenant Theology revolves around, of course, the covenants. What, exactly, is a covenant?

O. Palmer Robertson defines a covenant as “a bond in blood” [1]. He goes on to state that covenants bind people together, or bind people to God. He describes the use of the word “to cut” in the context of Biblical covenants, stating that “‘to make a covenant’ in the Old Testament literally reads ‘to cut a covenant'” [1], referring to cutting animals apart as a covenant is made.

Brown, Driver and Briggs define a covenant variously as “a compact, covenant”, “constitution, ordinance”, “agreement, pledge”, “alliance” [2].

The Hebrew word for covenant is indeed often preceded by the word meaning “to cut”, giving some credence to Robertson’s idea.

The Hebrew word for covenant, ber-eeth (H1285), occurs over 280 times in the Old Testament, and the Greek word, diatheke (G1242), occurs 33 times in the New Testament.

The word is used in a variety of ways, from covenants between humans or nations and between God and mankind.

[1] O. Palmer Robertson, 1980. The Christ of the Covenants. Presbyterian and Reformed Publishing Co., Phillipsburg, New Jersey.

[2] F.H. Brown, S.R. Driver, C.A. Briggs, 1991, “The Brown-Driver-Briggs Hebrew and English Lexicon”, Hendrickson Publishers,