Definition
Covenant (Hebrew: בְּרִית berith; Greek: διαθήκη diathēkē) is the biblical term for the solemn, God-established saving relationship with his people. In the OT these are the covenants with Noah, Abraham, Moses, and David; the NT speaks of the New Covenant (Jer. 31:31-34; Luke 22:20). In the corpus covenant functions as a structuring category at various levels: as a numerical structure (Bullinger), as a legal redemption framework (Jones), as an experience of heart-inscription (Warnock), and as a pedagogical-processual movement (Noordzij).
Usage in the Corpus
E.W. Bullinger
Bullinger analyzes the Abrahamic covenant through the number structure 14: the covenant is confirmed 14 times in Gen. 15 and 17 (7 each) — “14 × berith” as the foundation of the certainty of the salvation promise. The covenant is the numerical confirmation of God’s unshakable legal ground for justification. [Bullinger, Number in Scripture]
Stephen Jones
Jones develops a five-covenant schema: Noah (universal covenant with all flesh), Abraham (promise of inheritance), Moses (pedagogical intermediate covenant), David (royal inheritance right), and the New Covenant (eschatological completion). The Noah covenant functions in Jones as the legal basis for universal redemption: God binds himself to the entire human race as his covenant people. [Jones, The Restoration of All Things, Ch. 8]
George Warnock
Warnock emphasizes the New Covenant as heart-inscription reality (Jer. 31:33-34): not an external law book but God’s law in the heart. The church still lives in the tension of Old and New Covenant — the full reality of the New Covenant is the still-unrealized destination of the Feast of Tabernacles phase. [Warnock, The Feast of Tabernacles]
Cees Noordzij
Noordzij treats the law as a guardian leading to the New Covenant (Gal. 3:24). The covenant structure is pedagogical-processual: the law reveals the impossibility of self-justification and thereby opens the way to grace and sonship.