establishment of a New Covenant, by which the fulfilment of the whole of God's purpose is assured, when trial has done its work. Under this Covenant, grace not law is the foundation of fellowship. God comes to man as giving and not as requiring.
The whole situation is Messianic no less than the special words. The time of national humiliation is the time of ardent hope. The fall of the Kingdom, which was of man's will, is the occasion of a greater promise. And nowhere else in the O. T. is the contrast between the Law and the Gospel so definitely traced back to its essential principle.
The promises of the New Covenant are developed in due order.
1. The wide range of the Covenant:
It includes all the Old Covenant people:
Israel and Judah (Heb. 8:8).
2. Its character: (
a
) Negatively:
Not after the type of that on which the people was first established (9).
(
b
) Positively:
Internal (10). Uniformly efficacious (11).
Resting on complete forgiveness (12).
8:8 b. ijdou; hJm. e[rc .] Behold days come ...The phrase ( : yaiB; : ymiy: hNEhi ) is singularly frequent in Jeremiah. Jer. 7:32; 9:25; 16:14;
19:6; 23:5, 7; 30:3; 31:27; 48:12 (31:12); 49:2 (30:2); 51:47.
Comp. Amos 8:11; 9:13; Is. 39:6. So Philo, as has been already noticed, dwells with special emphasis on the prophetic gifts of Jeremiah.
These last days mark a period of trial and judgment. At the close of them the Divine Covenant is established in its glory.
For the construction
hJm. e[rc.
...
kai; suntelevsw
see Luke 19:43.
suntelevsw
] Vulg.
consummabo
, O. L.
disponam
(
confirmabo
). So LXX.
Jer. 34:8, 15 ( yTir"K; ... tyrIB ).
Perhaps, as Augustine suggests (
de spir. et lit.
19 Quid est
Consummabo
nisi
Implebo
?), this rendering is chosen to emphasise the efficacy of the Covenant.
ejpi; t. oi\. jIsr. kai; ejpi; t. o. jIouv.
] Once again the divided and exiled people shall be brought together (comp. Heb. 8:10). The schism which had brought ruin on the kingdom is to have no existence under the new order.
To this issue the other great prophets point: Is. 43 ff.; Ezek. 16:60 ff. diaq. k. ] Latt. testamentum novum. The epithet ( kainhvn ) is quoted specially in Heb. 8:13.
The phrase diaqhvkh kainhv occurs 1 Cor. 11:25; 2 Cor. 3:6; Heb. 9:15. The reading in Lk. 22:20 is very doubtful; and the phrase is not found in the true text of Matt. 26:28 and Mark 14:24 ( to; ai|mav mou, to; th'" diaqhvkh" ).