Is there more than one Covenant? Does the Torah mention a "New Covenant"?

  • There has always been multiple promises/covenants of G-d...the Law at Mt. Sinai is one that was conditional on Israel... but also refers to earlier ones.
  • Leviticus 26:42-45 speaks of the covenant of the Patriarchs, not the Mosaic covenant as being the one G-d will remember and not break

Then will I remember my covenant with Jacob, and also my covenant with Isaac, and also my covenant with Abraham will I remember; and I will remember the land.

Leviticus 26:42 (KJV)

  • And there are several places in the book of prophets where an actual new covenant is mentioned:

Wherefore do ye spend money for that which is not bread? and your labour for that which satisfieth not? hearken diligently unto me, and eat ye that which is good, and let your soul delight itself in fatness. Incline your ear, and come unto me: hear, and your soul shall live; and I will make an everlasting covenant with you, even the sure mercies of David.

Isaiah 55:1-3 (KJV)

For I the Lord love judgment, I hate robbery for burnt offering; and I will direct their work in truth, and I will make an everlasting covenant with them.

Isaiah 61:8 (KJV)

Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah: Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; which my covenant they brake, although I was an husband unto them, saith the Lord: 
But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the Lord, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people.

Jeremiah 31:31-33 (KJV)

  • Paul writes in one of his epistles about this, and quotes Jeremiah...

But now hath he obtained a more excellent ministry, by how much also he is the mediator of a better covenant, which was established upon better promises. For if that first covenant had been faultless, then should no place have been sought for the second. For finding fault with them, he saith, Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah: Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt; because they continued not in my covenant, and I regarded them not, saith the Lord. For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord; I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts: and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people: And they shall not teach every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for all shall know me, from the least to the greatest. For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more. In that he saith, A new covenant, he hath made the first old. Now that which decayeth and waxeth old is ready to vanish away.

Hebrews 8:6-13 / Jeremiah 31:31-34 (KJV)

  • It is clear that there is expected to be a New covenant in Judiasm...which is just that, a new contract.
  • A covenant if broken, is no longer binding. See Jeremiah 31:32, Deut. 31:16-17, 20, Isaiah 24:5-6
  • This does not mean that the laws of the Torah are not good. It just means the covenant was broken...and G-d has provided something better.
  • Modern Jewish scholars often point out that the Torah states that the Law should not be a burden. That the law is able to be kept according to the Torah itself in Deuteronomy. Therefore there is no need for a new covenant...

For this commandment which I command thee this day, it is not hidden from thee, neither is it far off. It is not in heaven, that thou shouldest say, Who shall go up for us to heaven, and bring it unto us, that we may hear it, and do it? Neither is it beyond the sea, that thou shouldest say, Who shall go over the sea for us, and bring it unto us, that we may hear it, and do it? But the word is very nigh unto thee, in thy mouth, and in thy heart, that thou mayest do it.

Deut 30:11-14 (KJV)

  • Yet in the very next chapter G-d states that he already knows they will break the covenant. He has Moses write a song down as a witness for that day. This same foreshadowing is also in the writings of the prophets, such as Hosea.

And the Lord appeared in the tabernacle in a pillar of a cloud: and the pillar of the cloud stood over the door of the tabernacle. And the Lord said unto Moses, Behold, thou shalt sleep with thy fathers; and this people will rise up, and go a whoring after the gods of the strangers of the land, whither they go to be among them, and will forsake me, and break my covenant which I have made with them.

Deut 31:15-16 (KJV)

Now therefore write ye this song for you, and teach it the children of Israel: put it in their mouths, that this song may be a witness for me against the children of Israel. For when I shall have brought them into the land which I sware unto their fathers, that floweth with milk and honey; and they shall have eaten and filled themselves, and waxen fat; then will they turn unto other gods, and serve them, and provoke me, and break my covenant.

Deut 31:19-20 (KJV)

For I desired mercy, and not sacrifice; and the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings. But they like men have transgressed the covenant: there have they dealt treacherously against me.

Hosea 6:6-7 (KJV)