Ariel HaNaviy Messianic Jew and Torah Teacher with Messianic Congregation 'The Harvest'

Firstly I want to say that using a standard lexicon, anyone can see that in Greek, Old Testament is “palaios diathekes,” and New Testament is sometimes “neos diatheke” and sometimes “kainos diatheke” (essentially neos=new in time and kainos=new in quality, but they can be understood as working in tandem at times).

The Traditional Jewish community has never called their Scriptures the Old Testament, preferring instead the designation TaNaKH. TaNaKH refers to Torah (Law), Nevi’im (Prophets), and Ketuvim (Writings). As a Messianic Jew, I believe Paul was not conveying the sense of “old” as in “outdated and unwanted” in 2 Cor. 3:14. After all, the TaNaKH was highly revered by Jews in ancient Isra'el, as it is today. I believe Paul was intending to convey the Torah’s established anchor of reliability as God’s Word when he called the covenant “palaios.” For in fact, to call the TaNaKH the “ancient covenant” (Greek=palaios diathekes) is to give it a place of established honor due to its age. In fact, John writing in 1 Jn. 2:7 uses the very same word “palaios” to also describe the commandment that his readers had from the beginning, and in this verse, John is not looking down on the “old/ancient commandment” either.

Also, no one in the Apostolic period (the time when the apostles lived and wrote) ever called the TaNaKH the Old Testament (Paul’s excluded, but see below). By the same token, it is important to know that the apostles never called their own writings the “New Testament” either.

As a Jewish Christian and Torah Teacher, I only use the term 'Old Testament' when addressing Christians who might be unfamiliar with the term TaNaKH. I suggest 'TaNaKH' and 'Apostolic Scriptures' since they are less emotionally charged terms.

So, if no one in the entire Bible regularly used these descriptions, how did they come into use in the Church? According to many sources, the earliest uses of these terms dates back to the 2nd century in reference to a translation of the Greek term “diatheke,” translated as “covenant” in some bibles and as “testament” in others. Later in the 5th century, Jerome’s Latin Vulgate introduced the term “testamentum” for diatheke. From there, Wykcliffe’s famous 14th century translation turned diatheke into testament, and Tyndale’s well known 16th century translation echoed that sentiment. Then we went on to the Geneva Bible, and the popular King James Version, which choose “covenant” instead of “testament.” Covenant and testament are basically synonyms since they both originate from diatheke.

Important to my central point is my belief that Paul’s purpose of bringing the “old covenant” verbiage (Greek= palaios diathekes) into his 2 Cor. 3:14 teaching in the first place is to reinforce the biblical concept that ANYONE who reads ANY portion of the Bible with a veil over their hearts will fail to see the Messiah. Let us not miss this central point of the chapter. To be sure, he immediately states, “Yes, to this day whenever Moses is read a veil lies over their hearts. But when one turns to the Lord, the veil is removed.” This means, once Yeshua removes the veil, the very same “ancient covenant” can be read and followed.

September 02 2015 • 0 responses • Vote Up • Share • Report

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