"In the Bible you will find covenants made between men—David and Jonathan made a covenant, and it was on the basis of equality. But when you come to God and man, clearly there is of necessity a difference; the idea of covenant undergoes some modifications. This difference appears especially in the Authorised Version of the Bible in this way: the word is sometimes translated as ‘testament’ and not as covenant. So we talk about ‘Old Testament’ and ‘New Testament’; and you will find the word ‘testament’ in 2 Corinthians 3:6 and also in other places. Now it is generally agreed that the word which stands for this idea should always be translated as covenant except in one instance, and that one exception is Hebrews 9:16–17, where clearly it must be translated as testament for it refers to a person dying and making a will. But apart from that one instance you will find that the other translations, the Revised Standard Version, for example, always translate it as covenant rather than as testament. I emphasise that for this reason: the translators of the Authorised Version had a very definite object in view when they used the word ‘testament’. Their purpose was to emphasise the priority of God. When God makes a covenant with man, there are not two partners of equal standing, but God is giving, as it were, His covenant to man. So the translators thought that it was more like a testament than a covenant, and chose to use that word. Strictly speaking, they were wrong, but they certainly did emphasise this idea of the priority of God over against the idea of man as an equal. They did it also because they could see very clearly that in Hebrews 9 the word means a testament, and as it can be argued that ultimately all the blessings that come to us under the covenant of grace come as the result of the death of the Lord Jesus Christ, there is a sense in which we do inherit everything as the result of His last testament. So there was that much at least to be said for their translation. Furthermore, they were undoubtedly partly influenced by the fact that the Latin word for all this is testamentum, and they were dependent partly upon the Latin translations of the Scripture. However, the thing that we must keep in mind is that the priority of God must be emphasised. The covenant is a gift from God which has been ushered in by the death of Christ, and because it comes from God it is something which is certain, and inviolable, and unbreakable. And yet we must hold on to this idea of a covenant, because God in His wonderful love and grace and condescension chose to reveal His purposes in this particular way. He called man to Himself and He chose to make an agreement with man. God need not have done that, but He has done so. In spite of human rebellion, sin and arrogance, God, as it were, called man in and said, ‘I want to make an agreement with you.’ In a way, there is nothing that so displays the wonderful love and grace and kindness and condescension of God so much as this teaching in the Bible with regard to His making covenants with men." D. Martyn Lloyd Jones.
Posted on: Mon, 01 Jul 2013 04:13:06 +0000