Old and new covenant

The Mosaic or “old” covenant is enacted in Exodus 19–24: Israel arrives at Sinai, Moses ascends, the Decalogue is given, and the covenant is ratified at the foot of the mountain by sprinkled blood from sacrificed bulls (Exo.24.6–8). Its sign is the Sabbath (Exo.31.16–17), its tangible witness the two stone tablets stored in the ark. Centuries later, in the wreckage of the kingdom, the prophet Jeremiah announces a new covenant: “not like the covenant that I made with their fathers … I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts” (Jer.31.31–33). At the Last Supper Jesus identifies the cup as the new covenant in his blood (Luk.22.20, 1Co.11.25); the letter to the Hebrews develops the contrast at length — a better covenant, better promises, a once-for-all sacrifice — and reads the old as a shadow now fulfilled (Heb.8–10). Christian interpreters from Paul through Augustine and the Reformers debate the relationship of the two: continuity (one people of God, one moral law) and discontinuity (mediator, sacrifice, scope) both have textual support.