Covenant (religion)

In religion, a covenant is a formal alliance or agreement made by God with a religious community or with humanity in general. The concept, central to the Abrahamic religions, is derived from the biblical covenants, notably from the Abrahamic covenant. Christianity asserts that God made an additional covenant through Jesus Christ, called the "new covenant". A covenant in its most general sense and historical sense, is a solemn promise to engage in or refrain from a specified action. A covenant is a type of agreement analogous to a contractual condition. The covenantor makes a promise to a covenantee to do (affirmative covenant) or not do some action (negative covenant). Covenant is the customary word used to translate the Hebrew word berith. It is used in the Masoretic Text 264 times. The equivalent word in the Septuagint and the Greek New Testament is διαθήκη, diatheke. Mosaic covenant The Mosaic covenant refers to a biblical covenant between God and the biblical Israelites. The establishment and stipulations of the Mosaic covenant are recorded in the first five books of the Hebrew Bible, which are traditionally attributed to Mosaic authorship and collectively called the Torah, and this covenant is sometimes also referred to as the Law of Moses or Mosaic Law or the 613 Mitzvot. Covenants are often initiated by an oath and can be of two types: grants or treaties. Grants are generally unilateral, unconditional covenants such as those where God made unconditional promises to Noah (Genesis 9), Abraham (Genesis 15, Genesis 17) and David (2 Samuel 7:8ff). Bilateral covenants are generally conditional with blessings for obedience and curses for disobedience as in Deuteronomy 28 and 30. New Covenant Biblical theology and systematic theology for covenants often intertwines the unilateral and the bilateral, the conditional and the unconditional, such that much has been written and said about "Old" and "New" Covenants and the extent to which the "Old Covenant" still persists.