The Old and New Covenants do not coexist. The Sinaitic Covenant, the Old Covenant, ceased at the death of Jesus of Nazareth. The symbolism of the Sinaitic Covenant did not cease until the destruction of the Second Temple and the demise of the Levitical priesthood. In some first-century Christian theologies, particularly in early Ebionite circles, flourished the notion that the Old Covenant did not terminate. To the adherents of this view, the Old and New Covenants coexisted. The New simply complemented the Old without nullifying it.

A quotation from Jeremiah 31:31-34 (Hebrews 8:8-12) in the letter to the Hebrews, which reads in reference to Jeremiah 31:31 (Hebrews 8:13 NIV), provides the gist of the matter:

By calling this covenant "new," he has made the first one obsolete; and what is obsolete and aging will soon disappear. (Hebrews 8:13 NIV.)

From Jeremiah�s perspective the Old Covenant had become obsolete and was ready to vanish. The statement refers back to Jeremiah�s time when the Old Covenant, arguably, "will soon disappear" but had not yet done so but was in the process. It would seem that the first, or Old Covenant, arguably, then would disappear but just had not yet done so.

According to this line of reasoning no one really knows when the Old Covenant actually will vanish. Jesus, according to Matthew�s gospel, had said, "For verily I say unto you, till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled" (Matthew 5:18). Hence, arguably, the Sinaitic Covenant must be observed and not be broken by Christians of Jewish descent (even though the fathers did break it), since it was never broken by God. This view was a very early heresy which resulted in those who became known as Ebionites, presumably messianic Pharisees who were Christianized Jews, leaving the fellowship of the Church of God. This group failed to identify Jesus as part of the Godhead and did not reach the conclusion that his death brought the cessation of the Sinaitic Covenant as an ancient marriage treaty.

In legal terms the Old Covenant was a form of "marriage" agreement between the ancient nation of Israel and the Eternal God of the Hebrew Scriptures (Jeremiah 2:2; Ezekiel 16:8, 16:20, 16:32). The death of the Messiah permanently terminated this "marriage" covenant following the nature and conditions of such agreements. The two covenants did not coexist, for without the cessation of the Old Covenant God could not be free to enter into the New Covenant, for it contained a marriage provision as well.^F1

The New Testament recorded that the Eternal, the God of the Old Covenant, without compromising or diluting any "godness," took on flesh and became a man in Jesus of Nazareth (John 1:1, 1:14; 17:5). This was the incarnation of God as Jesus.^F2 Hence, the one who became Jesus of Nazareth entered into the Old Covenant with the people of Israel.^F3

The apostolic understanding of the person of Jesus Christ should not be read into the biblical text but rather read out of it. Jesus was "the" Son of God (he had to be God in order to save and restore human kind�die to extinguish the Old Covenant) and the Son of Man (he had to be truly human in order to die for all humanity). The logos became flesh and tabernacled (became a man). No male participated in the conception. Matthew says that Mary was with child by the Holy Spirit (Matthew 1:18). His birth was necessary for God's plan of salvation requires redemption through the death and resurrection of God.

The sacrifice of Jesus not only made possible forgiveness of sin, but the Eternal God, in the person of the resurrected Jesus Christ was freed from the first "marriage" to the physical nation of Israel, including both the house of Israel and the house of Judah. It freed Jesus, for "marriage" to spiritual Israel, which is the Church, when Jesus reappears to establish the kingdom at the end of the age (Revelation 19:7-9; 21:9; 22:17). The Church in the present age is understood to be a bride in preparation.

The apostle Paul, who taught that the Old and New Covenants did not coexist and well-articulates this view in his writings, clarified this basic proposition in his ca. CE 49 epistle to the churches in Galatia. Here he referred to the two sons of Abraham, Ishmael and Jacob, as "one by the bond woman [Hagar] and one by the free woman [Sarah]" (Galatians 4:22-31).

"Now this" wrote Paul "is an allegory: for these women are two covenants. One is from Mount Sinai, bearing children [the house of Judah and the house of Israel] for slavery [held captive to sin]; she is Hagar [the old covenant]. Now Hagar [the old covenant] is Mount Sinai in Arabia [the whole Mosaic system] she corresponds to the present Jerusalem [the entire Torah based system of Paul�s day], for she is in slavery with her children [the Jews were enslaved by sin]. But the Jerusalem above [the Church of God, spiritual Israel] is free [from sin], and she [the Church of God] is our mother" (Galatians 4:24-26 RSV). Paul then quoted Isaiah 54:1 and Genesis 21:10 to support his contention.

Paul wrote:

But what does the scripture [the Tanak] say? �Cast out [get rid of] the slave [the Old Covenant] and her son, for the son of the slave [non-Christians of Jewish ethnicity] shall not inherit with the son of the free woman [the Church of God]. So, brethren, we [members of the Church of God] are not children of the slave [the Old Covenant], but of the free woman [the New Covenant]. (Galatians 4:30-31 RSV.)

This teaching is consistent with Jesus� words preserved in Matthew�s gospel, where he stated:

Therefore I say to you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you, and be given to a nation producing the fruit of it" (Matthew 21:43 NASB.)

The apostles� doctrine was that at Jesus� death the right to the kingdom of God, the legitimate government of Israel, passed from the physical nation to the possession of spiritual Israel�the Church of God. The death of the Messiah permanently and conclusively closed the Old Covenant.

The Sinaitic Covenant, construed as a form of marriage agreement, also made it possible for God to divorce the house of Israel (Jeremiah 3:8).^F4 This dissolution of the marriage was sufficient in itself to discontinue the Old Covenant as to the house of Israel. As to the house of Judah, the death of Jesus of Nazareth as a party to the Old Covenant brought the agreement to a permanent end.

While the Old Covenant completely terminated at Jesus� death, its archaic and obsolete forms did not cease until the fall of Jerusalem in CE 70; hence, the language of Hebrews 8:13. The final destruction of the Temple resulted in the abandonment of the Levitical system and the Aaronic priesthood. These systems, forms and vestiges of the former way, became invalidated when the Old Covenant terminated, but remained in place until the destruction of the Temple. The letter to the Hebrews had been written prior to the destruction of Jerusalem and the Second Temple which contextually explains the expression "ready to vanish" reflecting the circumstances at the time of writing.

An example of the cessation of the Old and the commencement of the New Covenant was the change of the priesthood as illustrated in the tithing law. With the end of the Old Covenant, and under the terms and conditions of the New Covenant, the priesthood changed. This required a revision of the tithing law as well (Hebrews 7:11-12). The right of the Levities, and the Aaronic priesthood, to receive tithes ceased with Jesus� death and the founding of the Church.

The ministry formed the accredited representatives of Jesus of Nazareth, the high priest after the order of Melchizedek (Hebrews 7:11-24). The Levities became disfranchised along with every other form of the Old Covenant. The Old Covenant had provided a theocratic governmental structure for the nation of Israel wherein the Eternal, YHWH, would be king and the legitimizing authority. With the death of Jesus of Nazareth and the subsequent destruction of the Temple there was no longer a nation-state, headed by YHWH as a legitimizing authority. There was simply a people in transition between "Jews as a population" primarily made up of the descendants of the tribes of Judah, Levi, and Benjamin, marked by religious diversity to "Jews as a rabbinic faith." The theocracy, or government of God, continued exclusively through the Church of God.

By means of the New Covenant, God admitted diverse individuals to the Church as the community of spiritual Israel. God extended the New Covenant to all peoples including Jews and Gentiles, all races, and all classes. Entry into this New Covenant relationship with God made a person a part of this distinctive set, or class, of individuals. God sanctified these individuals, that is, he set them apart for a holy purpose as God�s own people.

Nevertheless, God did not write the descendants of Israel out of God�s plan at Jesus� death. The apostles taught that the time would come when the physical descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the national people of Israel consisting of the house of Israel and the house of Judah in the Diaspora, would repent and accept Jesus of Nazareth as the Messiah.^F5 This would bring about a great realization of the New Covenant following Jesus Christ of Nazareth�s Second Coming to the earth when, just prior to the beginning of the Millennium, he delivers the descendants of Israel from captivity.

Jesus the Messiah would then enter into the New Covenant with the vast majority of the physical people of Israel and Judah individually through repentance, belief in Jesus as the Messiah, baptism, and conversion. Hence, Israel and Judah would in the process of salvation become part of God�s spiritual Israel (Hosea 2, Ezekiel 36, and Zechariah 12-14) to become immortal members of the kingdom of God at the end of their physical, human life.

During their period of physical life the people of Israel, that is, the house of Israel and the house of Judah united as a single nation, would form a Christian nation elected to help carry out God�s work in that age (Hebrews 8:8-10; Jeremiah 31:31-33; 50:4-5), and all Israel would be saved (Romans 11:26).^F6 Further, according to the apostles Jesus of Nazareth made it possible for ancient Israel to repent of her sins in the resurrection through his death and once again be married to God but through the New Covenant. However, the physical Israel of that day is to be only one of the physical nations electing to obey God. Writing of that time the prophet Isaiah recorded that:

In that day Israel will be the third party with Egypt and Assyria, a blessing in the midst of the earth, whom the LORD of hosts has blessed, saying "Blessed is Egypt My people, and Assyria the work of My hands, and Israel My inheritance." (Isaiah 19:23-24 NASB.)

Notice Isaiah places Israel last. God refers to Egypt as his people. 

Although the Old Covenant ended once and for all at Jesus� death, the apostles doctrine was that the descendants of Israel should not despair for all Israel will be saved through the New Covenant which God the Father and YHWH offer to all humanity in this age and the next.

^F1The Messiah Jesus of Nazareth, the Lamb of God, at the Second Coming is to marry a bride who has made herself ready (Revelation 19:7-9). See also Revelation 21:2, 21:9; 22:7. This marriage is to be permanent and eternal.

^F2The early church believed that God came down from Heaven to be born of a woman and to partake of flesh and blood. Confirmation of this teaching was Paul�s comments at Galatians 4:4 (NASB) wherein he taught the preexistence of Jesus ("God sent forth his son"), that he was human ("born of a woman" literally "becoming of a woman"), and that he was a Jew subject to the Torah ("born under law" literally "becoming under law"). See NASB-NIV Parallel New Testament in Greek and English. Interlinear translation by Alfred Marshall (Marshall 1986:551).

^F3The apostle Paul contended at Colossians 1:17 that Jesus "has existed prior to" the creation of the universe. See marginal reference in the NASB at Colossians 1:17 for the alternate rendering, which reads "And He is before [has existed prior to] all things, and in Him all things hold together" (Colossians 1:17 NASB). The early Church understood Jesus to have existed from all eternity.

^F4The early Church perceived that the God of Israel experienced a divorce. Under the Law of Moses a marriage agreement could be set aside by a "certificate of divorce" or a "writ of divorce" for cause (Deuteronomy 24:1, 24:3 NASB). The prophet Ezekiel wrote of Israel as an adulterous wife (Ezekiel 16:32, 16:46-47). Isaiah quoted YHWH as asking where is the "certificate of divorce by which I sent you [Israel] away?" (Isaiah 50:1 NASB). This divorce relates to the "implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing" inherent in the marriage contractual relationship. Here Israel as a party to the marriage contract acted in such a manner to prevent YHWH from obtaining the benefits that YHWH had the right to expect from the marriage.

^F5This was a point made by the author of Hebrews in a lengthy quotation and comment at Hebrews 8:7-13.

^F6See Ezekiel 16 for the account of what happens to all those who died of the house of Israel and the house of Judah and Ezekiel 38 for the opportunities extended to Israel in the Great White Throne Judgment.

Page last edited: 01/26/06 07:12 PM

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