Old Testament covenant: A survey of current opinions

by Dennis J. McCarthy

English, German (translation)

112 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1972

Reviews

[Anne Hamilton · Rating 5 out of 5]

Some very interesting points made in this survey.
p3 - The characteristic phrase about covenant is to "cut a covenant". However, the common phrase used with respect to God is "to raise a covenant".
p15 - The word "love" ('ahab) is borrowed from treaty tradition and is about the obedience and fidelity a vassal owed his overlord. Akkadian 'goodness, friendship' is also treaty terminology and parallels Hebrew "tobah".
p40 - the "rib" - the prophetic lawsuit - is connected with covenant; strongly evident in the invocation of heaven and earth.
p53 - The law does not earn God's grace. It is rather a result of grace and the definition of one's life as an actual relationship to God.
p59 - relationship of "berit" to similar words in other languages and showing it perhaps has a connotation of binding or fettering.
p66 - a treaty created family, brotherhood, fathers and sons.

[Josiah Richardson · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is now well-dated, but retains more than a few gems. McCarthy gives an overview of the popular views concerning the covenants made between the ancient near eastern countries and how Israel either mimicked or differentiated between them. No fault of the book, but there is a good bit of Hebrew in this book and Hebrew is all Greek to me. So I shuffled through several pages like a disgruntled penguin but the journey was enjoyable nonetheless.