It is remarkable that o{ti causal is not found in the Epistle except in the quotations in this Chapter. It occurs in all the other writers of the N. T.
oujk ejnevmeinan ejn ] Heb. Wrpehe . The same original word is used of the
Lord annulling His Covenant: Jer. 14:21. The LXX. rendering expresses forcibly the idea of the constraining, disciplining, power of the Law: Deut. 27:26 (Gal. 3:10).
kajgw; hjmevlhsa aujtw'n ] Heb. : b; ytil]['B; ykinOa;w . See Ges. Thes. s. v.
l['B; , H1249, and Additional Note.
Heb. 8:10-12. The positive characteristics of the New Covenant, the better promises on which it rests, are to be found in (1) its spirituality (v. 10),
(2) its universal efficacy (v. 11), (3) its assurance of free forgiveness (v. 12). 8:10.
o{ti au{th
...
ejpigravyw aujtouv"
]
Because this is the covenant that I will covenant with the house of Israel...even putting my laws...and upon their heart will I write them.
Under the Mosaic system the law was fixed and external: the new laws enter into the understanding as active principles to be realised and embodied by progressive thought. The old law was written on tables of stone: the new laws are written on the heart and become, so to speak, part of the personality of the believer. The image is universal. Comp. 2 Cor. 3:3.
Philo speaks of the revelation of God Himself as being the highest form of Divine Covenant:
deivxa" eJauto;n wJ" ejnh'n deicqh'nai to;n a[deikton dia; tou' favnai &lsquo
kai; ejgwv
(Gen. 17:4),
ejpilevgei
ijdou; hJ diaqhvkh mou,
hJ pasw'n carivtwn ajrchv te kai; phgh; aujtov" eijmi ejgwv
(
De mut. nom.
§ 8; 1.587
M.).
The use of the simple dative ( diaq. tw'/ oi[kw/ jIsr. ) here as in Heb. 8:9 ( ejpoivhsa toi'" p. ) presents God as the disposer, framer, of the Covenant.
The people of God is now again called by its one name the house of Israel. The division of Israel and Judah (8:8) has ceased to be. Compare Acts 2:36; Rom. 11:26; Gal. 6:16; Heb. 4:9; 13:12 note.
meta; ta;" hJm. ejk
.] Those days from the point of view of the prophet correspond with what the writer of the Epistle has spoken of as the end of these days (1:2). The phrase is used peculiarly to mark the period of conflict which immediately precedes the final triumph of Messiah. Comp. Matt. 24:19.
didouv"
...
aujtw'n
] The participle
didouv"
may go with
diaqhvsomai
:
I will make a covenant even by putting
(Latt.
dando
)...
and I will
...; or it may be taken with
kai; ejpigravyw
:
I will make a covenant
even thus,
putting my laws...I will also write them
.... On the whole the former construction is the
more natural. For the transition from the participle to the finite verb compare Moulton-Winer p. 717.
The rendering of ytir:/TAta, by the plural novmou" is remarkable. It may
have been chosen to dissociate the general idea of the divine instruction from the special Mosaic code with which it had been identified.
The plural occurs again in the same quotation Heb. 10:16, but not elsewhere in the N. T.; nor does the plural appear to be found in any other
place of the LXX. as a translation of hr:/T . It is found for the (Heb.) plural in
Dan. 9:10. Conversely oJ novmo" is used to express the plural; Ex. 18:20; Lev.
26:46 ( t/r/Th' ).
The construction didouv" ... eij" ...is found in classical writers, e.g., Xen.