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  • From: Harold Holmyard <hholmyard3 AT earthlink.net>
  • To: b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] Dying, you will die Gen 2:17
  • Date: Thu, 12 Apr 2007 06:52:30 -0500

Dear Yohanan,
There is not forced translation here - the text states that this B'rit
Hadashah is the writing of His Torah within the hearts of B'nai Yisra'el. I
read the Christian arguments about ".....this could be the law of......"
making there to be more than one Torah, but such is not the case. It is
evident that this speaks of the Torah given us through Mosheh bin-Amram from
our Creator. The only difference between this, and the original covenant is
that now it will be inscribed upon our hearts, rather than in a scroll for
us to read.

As to the etimology of the word Hadashah, is it not linked to the word
Hodesh, which is the word the Miq'ra uses constantly to refer to the "new
moon", something which truly is no new, but rather it renews itself every
month? I think this is where the concept of this being a renewed covenant
rather than a new covenant derives.

HH: It is true that the related verb can mean "renew" alongside "make new," but the adjective "chadash" regularly means "new" in contrast to "old." See some samples of the word below:

Lev. 26:10 You will still be eating last year’s harvest when you will have to move it out to make room for the NEW.

Ex. 1:8 Then a NEW king, who did not know about Joseph, came to power in Egypt.

Lev. 23:16 Count off fifty days up to the day after the seventh Sabbath, and then present an offering of NEW grain to the LORD.

Deut. 20:5 ¶ The officers shall say to the army: “Has anyone built a NEW house and not dedicated it? Let him go home, or he may die in battle and someone else may dedicate it.

Josh. 9:13 And these wineskins that we filled were NEW, but see how cracked they are. And our clothes and sandals are worn out by the very long journey.”

Judg. 5:8 When they chose NEW gods, war came to the city gates, and not a shield or spear was seen among forty thousand in Israel.

Judg. 15:13 ¶ “Agreed,” they answered. “We will only tie you up and hand you over to them. We will not kill you.” So they bound him with two NEW ropes and led him up from the rock.

1Sam. 6:7 ¶ “Now then, get a NEW cart ready, with two cows that have calved and have never been yoked. Hitch the cows to the cart, but take their calves away and pen them up.

2Sam. 21:16 And Ishbi-Benob, one of the descendants of Rapha, whose bronze spearhead weighed three hundred shekels and who was armed with a NEW [sword], said he would kill David.

1Kings 11:29 ¶ About that time Jeroboam was going out of Jerusalem, and Ahijah the prophet of Shiloh met him on the way, wearing a NEW cloak. The two of them were alone out in the country,

2Kings 2:20 ¶ “Bring me a NEW bowl,” he said, “and put salt in it.” So they brought it to him.

Is. 41:15 “See, I will make you into a threshing sledge, NEW and sharp, with many teeth. You will thresh the mountains and crush them, and reduce the hills to chaff.

Is. 42:9 See, the former things have taken place, and NEW things I declare; before they spring into being I announce them to you.”

Is. 42:10 Sing to the LORD a NEW song, his praise from the ends of the earth, you who go down to the sea, and all that is in it, you islands, and all who live in them.

Is. 65:17 “Behold, I will create NEW heavens and a NEW earth. The former things will not be remembered, nor will they come to mind.

HH: And see how Jeremiah himself uses the word elsewhere:

Jer. 31:22 How long will you wander, O unfaithful daughter? The LORD will create a NEW thing on earth — a woman will surround a man.”

HH: The New Testament cites this very passage of Jeremiah 31 in Greek, and it uses the word as "new" in contrast with the "old":

Heb. 8:13 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.

HH: Even if the word could possible mean "renewed," the context in Jeremiah 31 does not really allow that meaning. This is not a renewal of the first covenant because Jeremiah contrasts it as different than the first covenant, not a renewal but something different and better. It is not like the old covenant:

Jer. 31:32 It will not be like the covenant that I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt—a covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, says the LORD.

HH: If it is "not like" the covenant that God made with Israel when he brought it out of Egypt, then it is not a renewal of that covenant but something different. It is something new.

Yours,
Harold Holmyard





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