the strictly analogous phraseology and dependent argument of St. Paul in the passage now under consideration. In the fiftieth Psalm, Jehovah, according to our common English translation, is introduced as saying: Gather my saints together unto me, those that have made a covenant with me by sacrifice'. Now this version, though it expresses the general sense of the passage, does not express, what is most carefully set forth in the Hebrew original and what is most accurately preserved in the Greek version of the Seventy, the minutely specific mode in which covenants of old were ratified. The literal and the genuine translation of the text runs, as follows. Gather unto me my saints, who have ratified my covenant OVER a sacrifice'. Here we have the exact ceremonial set forth before our very eyes. When a covenant was made, a victim was devoted as a sacrifice: and, OVER the dead victim thus devoted as a sacrifice, the covenant, not otherwise deemed firm and valid, was wont to be formally ratified. The sum, therefore, of what has been said is this. In the making of an ancient covenant between two or more contracting parties, a vic 1.Psalm 1. 5. * The Hebrew reads at by, which the Seventy accurately render by επι θυσίαις. Dr. Spencer, with equal accuracy, translates the whole passage: congregate mihi sanctos meos, qui pepigerunt mecum super sacrificium. Spencer. de leg. Heb. rit. lib. iii. dissert. 2. cap. 3. sect. 2. p. 145. tim was solemnly devoted. The victim, thus devoted, was esteemed a sacrifice. Over the dead victim, thus sacrificed, the covenant was ratified. And, without this ceremonial, that is to say, without the death of the victim and the rites concomitant, the covenant itself was not deemed firm and valid. IV. These matters having been premised, I may now set forth what I conceive to be the proper version of that portion of the entire passage, throughout which our English translators, departing from their previous mode of interpretation without the slightest warrant from the original, have rendered the Greek word Diatheke by the English word Testament. And, on this account, he is the mediator of the new Covenant; in order that, death having taken place for the redemption of the transgressions which were under the first Covenant, the called might receive the promise of eternal inheritance. For, where there is a covenant, there also it is necessary that the death of the ratifier should be'. For a covenant 1 Gr. pɛpɛσ0ɑι, literally, should be produced or proved or made apparent in open court. Elsner, says Dr. Doddridge, hath shewn, that the word pepeola is used in a forensic sense, for what is produced and proved and made apparent in a court of judicature. Observ. vol. ii. p. 361. See also Parkhurst's Greek Lex. vox pepoμal. Hence it is said of Christ; Him God raised up on the third day, and shewed him openly: and again; Having spoiled principalities and powers, he made a shew of them openly, triumphing over them in his cross. Acts x. 40. Col. ii. 15. over dead victims is valid: since it is of no strength, while the ratifier is living. Whereupon, neither was the first Covenant inaugurated without blood, For, every commandment according to the Law having been spoken by Moses to all the people, having taken the blood of calves and of goats with water and scarlet wool and hyssop, he sprinkled both the book itself and all the people, saying: This is the blood of the Covenant, which God hath enjoined to you'. 1 Και δια τουτο διαθηκης καινης μεσιτης εστιν, όπως, θανατου γενομενου εις απολυτρωσιν των επι τη πρωτη διαθηκη παραβάσεων, την ευαγγελιαν λαβωσιν δι κεκλημενοι της αιωνιου κληρονομιας. Όπου γαρ διαθηκη, θανατον αναγκη φερεσθαι του διαθεμενου. Διαθηκη γαρ επι νεκροις βεβαια· επει μηποτε ισχυει, ότε ξῃ ὁ διαθεμενος. Οθεν ουδ ̓ ἡ πρωτη χωρις άίματος εγκεκαινισται. Λαληθείσης γαρ πασης εντολής κατα νομον ὑπο Μωυσέως παντι τῳ λαῳ, λαβων το αιμα των μοσχων και τραγων μετα ύδατος και εριου κοκκινου και ύσσωπου, αυτό τε το βιβλιον και παντα τον λαον ερῥαντισε, λεγων· Τουτο το αιμα της διαθηκης, ἧς ενετειλατο προς ὑμας ὁ Θεος. Heb. ix. 15-20. Mr. Wakefield translates the 16th and 17th verses nearly in the same manner with myself. For, where a covenant is, there must be necessarily introduced the death of that which establisheth the covenant: because a covenant is confirmed over dead things; and is of no force at all, whilst that, which establisheth the covenant, is alive. The sense brought out is the same according to either translation, but I prefer my own version of του διαθεμενου and ὁ διαθεμενος. There is an ambiguity in the original, which I have endeavoured to express by my translation the ratifier: for ὁ διαθέμενος and the ratifier may, in the abstract, denote, either one of the several parties who make the covenant or the victim which ratifies it by its death. In the present passage, ὁ διαθεμενος is doubtless the victim, the ταυρος or the μοσχος or Respecting this translation, it may be proper to make a few remarks. 1. The expression to make or ratify a covenant, and consequently the dependent expression the maker or ratifier of a covenant, are both, of necessity, ambiguous': and the ambiguity springs from the peculiarity of the form, by which the ancient covenants were wont to be made or ratified. As we have already seen, there were, in the first place, the contracting parties between whom the covenant was made: and, in the second place, there was the victim by which the covenant was made. Hence, either the contracting parties themselves, or the slaughtered victim, may be said to make the covenant: and hence, either each individual of the contracting parties, or the slaughtered victim, may be fitly styled the ratifier of the covenant". Instances of each application of the phrase may, without much difficulty, be produced. (1.) At the commencement of the apostolic argument which we are now discussing, we read: This is the Covenant that I will make with the payos, as Mr. Wakefield rightly judges: but his neuter translation, that which establisheth the covenant, does not seem to me quite grammatically to express the masculine participle ὁ διαθεμενος. 1 Gr. διαθηκην διαθεσθαι and ὁ διαθηκην διαθέμενος. * Gr. ὁ διαθεμενος. • Gr. άυτη ἡ διαθηκη ἣν διαθεσομαι. the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord'. Here the person, who makes the covenant, is Jehovah, one of the contracting parties: and, if we should fill up the sentence according to the exact formula, we should say, that the Lord made a covenant with his people Israel over the dead bodies of the slaughtered victims. (2.) In the fiftieth Psalm, we read: Gather unto me my saints, who have ratified my Covenant' over a sacrifice'. Here the ratifier of the covenant is Israel collectively, another of the contracting parties: and here we have the sentence ready filled up to our hands, according to the exact formula of ratifying a covenant. (3.) In the midst of the apostolic argument which we are now discussing, we read: Where there is a covenant, there also it is necessary that the death of the ratifier should be3. 4 Here the ratifier of the covenant is neither of the contracting parties, but the victim by which the covenant is made or ratified. For, that the victim is meant in the present passage by the ratifier of the Covenant, and not either of the two contracting parties, is abundantly plain from Heb. viii. 10. 2 Gr. τους διαθεμενους την διαθηκην. 4 Gr. του διαθεμενου. 5 Heb. ix. 16. |