NOTES for Heb 8:7-13

From the theme of the Messiah-High Priest the author of the letter turns to the theme of the old and new union-covenant. He quotes, though rather freely, Jeremiah's well-known words about the new, messianic union-covenant which, according to the prophet, was to replace the covenant concluded at Sinai in the days of Moses (vv. 8-12; compare Jer. 31:31-33). At the same time, the author of the letter speaks of the incompleteness, the "insufficiency," of the former covenant, which led to the need for its renewal with the coming of the Messiah (v. 7). Of course, incompleteness by itself does not devalue a covenant once concluded, but it does require further development, a deepening of relationship with God, without which the former covenant falls apart and loses its meaning.

It is no accident that Jeremiah pays special attention to the fact that the former covenant concluded at Sinai was broken by the descendants of those who had once sworn to keep it, while the new one that replaces it must not simply restore the people's broken relationship with God, but also deepen it, giving it a new quality. If this does not happen, the former covenant will not stand either: by itself it is doomed (v. 13). Here the author of the letter expresses the essence of the Kingdom's nature: it is never static; its very existence is dynamism, development, expansion. And he considers the union-covenant above all in the context of the history of the Kingdom, or of its prehistory if one has the pre-Christian period in mind. The whole history of God's relationship with His people, as well as with individual representatives of that people, presupposed a path into the Kingdom. With the coming of the Messiah, a very important and very long stage of this path came to an end, a stage that may be called preparatory, the stage that began at Sinai on the day the covenant was concluded and the Torah was given.

But the coming of the Messiah also meant the beginning of a new stage, one that presupposed the participation of seekers in the life of the Kingdom and the revelation of the Kingdom in our transforming, but not yet transformed, world. The union-covenant itself has meaning only in the context of this spiritual process, which does not allow for stopping: both the approach of the Kingdom and its revelation in our still not fully transformed world are a continuous process. To stop means to fall out of this process, to cease being part of it, and then no previously concluded covenants will save. The Kingdom is life, life in all its fullness, which cannot stop halfway. Just as one who seeks the Kingdom cannot stop halfway.

Continuing the discussion of Christ as High Priest, the author of the letter recalls Jeremiah's words about the new, messianic covenant that God will make with His people when the Messiah comes.

The distinctive feature of every newly established covenant is some quality of the relationship between God and His people. Judging by Jeremiah's words, the messianic covenant will differ in this: each person will become a living Torah. Each person's life will then be determined only by his relationship with God, by living revelation, and by the inner spiritual and moral imperative bound up with them, which in the post-exilic period was called the inner Torah. And now, in the author's understanding, the time the prophet spoke about has arrived. The former covenant gives way to the new one.

But the author is far from understanding the covenant as a merely legally binding contract, even though the Greek word used in the text, and the corresponding Hebrew word, mean exactly such a contract. He is speaking precisely of a covenant, of the dynamic relationship between God and His people, where there is no room for simply replacing one algorithm with another. In fact, every relationship with God, whether of an individual, a community, or even an entire people, always changes a person's spiritual life, or the spiritual life of a human community, giving it a new quality. And when the time comes for new relationships, they do not cancel these changes: a person, a community, or even an entire people enter the new covenant as they have become during the previous stage. But that previous stage itself ends; it exhausts itself, "grows old" and "wears out," as the author of the letter says. The old covenant, the old dynamic of relationship, is replaced by the new covenant, and the spiritual dynamic of the new relationship is now inseparable from Christ as the new High Priest.