Page 6 - Yahwehs Book

II Corinthians 3:14-15
For to this day, when they read the old covenant, that same veil remains unlifted, because only
through Christ is it taken away.

We see that the apostle Paul used the phrase “old covenant” to contrast the covenant of Law
established under Moses with the “new covenant” established by Yahshua. In the Greek, the words
“old covenant” appear as “palaia diatheke.” We see then that there is a solid justification for using
the terms “Old Covenant” and “New Covenant” when referring to the two divisions of the holy
Scriptures.

When the original Greek manuscripts which Paul and the gospel evangelists wrote were translated
into Latin, these phrases became “Vetus Testamentum” and Novus Testamentum.” From there,
somewhere around the year 1300 A.D. the Bible was again translated, this time from Latin to
English. There were no ancient Greek manuscripts known, or available, to the English translators
at the time. They had only Latin manuscripts, especially that which is called the Latin Vulgate, a
translation attributed to Jerome who was commissioned by Pope Damasus I in 382 A.D. to create
a revision of the Vetus Latina, which is an older Latin translation of the Bible. Thus, the first English
translators were working from a translation of the Bible, rather than from the original manuscripts
in their native languages. They were essentially translating a translation.

The Latin word Testamentum holds different meanings. One definition refers to a covenant, which
is what the Greek word diatheke means. Another definition of Testamentum is “a will, or witness.”
A will is also called a testament in English. A will provides a witness, or testimony, of a person’s
final instructions to his heirs. When the Bible was first translated from Latin into English, the
translators adopted the latter meaning, and adopted the English word Testament instead of the more
accurate word Covenant.

There is some overlap between these English words, as one of the definitions of the word Testament
is “covenant.” The word Testament, however, remains somewhat ambiguous, whereas the word
Covenant conveys a greater clarity of meaning. To avoid confusion in the minds of the readers, I will
be using the widely accepted word Testament when referring to the divisions of the Bible, rather than
the word Covenant which I prefer. However, in this chapter I will use both terms in order to
demonstrate the original use of the words.

Designating the two divisions of the Bible as the Old Covenant and the New Covenant is solidly
supported in the Scriptures themselves. The apostle Paul gives further testimony in this matter.

Hebrews 8:8-9
“Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will establish a new covenant with the
house of Israel and with the house of Judah, not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on
the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt.”

Paul is quoting the Old Testament prophet Jeremiah here (Jeremiah 31:31). We see that even the Old
Testament writings made reference to a day when a New Covenant would be established between
God and man. Paul additionally refers to the two covenants as the “first” and the “second” covenants.