COVENANT (an O. Fr. form, later convenant, from convenir, to agree, Lat. convenire)

This article appears in Volume V07, Page 339 of the Encyclopedia Britannica.

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COVENANT (an O. Fr. form, later convenant, from convenir, to agree, Lat. convenire) , a mutual agreement of two or more parties, or an undertaking made by one of the parties. In the Bible the Hebrew word ;'i., With, is used widely for many kinds of agreements; it is then applied to a

contract

between two persons or to a treaty between two nations, such as the

covenant

made between Abimelech and Isaac, representing
treaty between the Israelites and the Philistines (Gen. xxvi, 26 seq.); more particularly to an engagement made between God and men, or such agreements as, by the observance of a religious rite, regarded God as a party to the engagement. Two suggestions have been made for the derivation of With: (I) tracing the word from a root "to cut," and the reference is to the primitive rite of cutting victims into parts, between which the parties to an agreement passed, cf. the Greek 8pK1a T4u/6w, and the account (Gen. xv. 17) of the

covenant

between God and Abraham, where "a smoking furnace and burning lamp passed
between the pieces" of the victims Abraham had sacrificed; (2) connecting it with an Assyrio-Babylonian biritu, fetter, alliance. Beath was translated in the

Septuagint

SEPTUAGINT, THE (Gr. of 0', Lat. LXX.)

by Sta9ijarl, which in classical Greek had the meaning of "will"; hence the

Vulgate

VULGATE (from Lat. vulgus, the common people)

, in the

Psalms

PSALMS, BOOK
PSALMS, BOOK OF, or PSALTER

and the New Testament, translates the word by testamentum, but elsewhere in the Old Testament by foedus or pactum; similarly Wycliffe's version gives "testament" and "covenant" respectively. The books of Scripture dealing with the old or Mosaic, and new or Christian dispensation are sometimes known as the Books of the Old and the New Covenant. The word appears in the

system

SYSTEM

of theology developed by Johannes Cocceius (q.v.), and known as the " Covenant " or " Federal " Theology, based on the two Covenants of Works or Life made by God with

Adam

, on

condition

CONDITION (Lat. condicio, from condicere, to agree upon, arrange; not connected with conditio, from condere, conditum, to put together)

of obedience, and of grace or redemption, made with Christ. In Scottish ecclesiastical history, covenant appears in the two agreements signed by the members of the Scottish

Church

in defence of their religious and ecclesiastical systems (see

COVENANTERS

COVENANTERS

).

End of Article: COVENANT (an O. Fr. form, later convenant, from convenir, to agree, Lat. convenire)

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