Concept
SoteriologyCovenant Sign
Every covenant is given something you can see: a rainbow, a circumcision, a sabbath, a cup: so the oath can be remembered.
#covenant#sign
- 5passages
- 37original words
- 2approved connections
- 61cross-references
The words behind it
Hebrew and Greek standing in the 5 passages listed below, not a lexicon of "covenant sign" itself. The number on each word is how often it occurs in those passages; the connecting words the languages use everywhere are set aside so the words that carry meaning can be seen.
Hebrew17
The passages
Every passage this site attaches to the concept, in canon order. Each row says where it came from.
Old Testament3
- Genesis 9:13listed key text
I have set My rainbow in the clouds, and it will be a sign of the covenant between Me and the earth.(opening verse of the passage)
Commentary on Genesis 9:132 voices
I do set my bow in the cloud--set, that is, constitute or appoint. This common and familiar phenomenon being made the pledge of peace, its appearance when showers began to fall would be welcomed with the liveliest feelings of joy.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible, 1871Reformed
I do set my bow in the cloud - On the origin and nature of the rainbow there had been a great variety of conjectures, till Anthony de Dominis, bishop of Spalatro, in a treatise of his published by Bartholus in 1611, partly suggested the true cause of this phenomenon, which was afterwards fully explained and demonstrated by Sir Isaac Newton. To enter into this subject here in detail would be improper; and therefore the less informed reader must have recourse to treatises on Optics for its full explanation.
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible, 1832Evangelical
- Genesis 17:11listed key text
You are to circumcise the flesh of your foreskin, and this will be a sign of the covenant between Me and you.(opening verse of the passage)
Commentary on Genesis 17:112 voices
I know that this part of the text is disturbing to many. Indeed, if circumcision is a good thing, it should be maintained today as well. If it is useless, it never should have been mandated in the first place, particularly not by divine precept. But, inasmuch as the apostle said, "Abraham received the sign of circumcision," certainly the sign is not the reality itself but points to another reality. That is, it is not the truth but points to the truth.
Ambrose of Milan· On Abraham, 397Patristic
And it shall be a token - לאות leoth, for a sign of spiritual things; for the circumcision made in the flesh was designed to signify the purification of the heart from all unrighteousness, as God particularly showed in the law itself. See Deu 10:16; see also Rom 2:25-29;Col 2:11. And it was a seal of that righteousness or justification that comes by faith, Rom 4:11. That some of the Jews had a just notion of its spiritual intention, is plain from many passages in the Chaldee paraphrases and in the Jewish writers.
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible, 1832Evangelical
- Exodus 31:13listed key text
“Tell the Israelites, ‘Surely you must keep My Sabbaths, for this will be a sign between Me and you for the generations to come, so that you may know that I am the LORD who sanctifies you.(opening verse of the passage)
Commentary on Exodus 31:132 voices
Note, If God by his grace incline our hearts to keep the law of the fourth commandment, it will be an evidence of a good work wrought in us by his Spirit. If we sanctify God's day, it is a sign between him and us that he has sanctified our hearts: hence it is the character of the blessed man that he keepeth the sabbath from polluting it, Isa. lvi.
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible, 1710Puritan
They might suppose that the erection of the tabernacle was a sacred work, and that it would be a high merit, an acceptable tribute, to prosecute the undertaking without the interruption of a day's repose; and therefore the caution here given, at the commencement of the undertaking, was a seasonable admonition.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible, 1871Reformed
New Testament2
- Luke 22:19listed key text
And He took the bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to them, saying, “This is My body, given for you; do this in remembrance of Me.”(opening verse of the passage)
Commentary on Luke 22:192 voices
Israel ate the meat of a dumb lamb to complete the Passover. Having done so, they smeared their doorposts with blood and laughed at the destroyer. We eat of the Word of the Father, the Son, our Savior. We have the lintels of our hearts sealed with the blood of the new covenant.
Athanasius of Alexandria· FESTAL LETTER 4, 373Patristic
Took bread - See the nature and design of the Lord’s Supper explained in the notes on Mat 26:26-29 (note). This do in remembrance of me - That the Jews, in eating the passover, did it to represent the sufferings of the Messiah, as evident from the tract Pesachim, fol. 119, quoted by Schoettgen. Why do we call this the great hallel? (i.e. the hymn composed of several psalms, which they sung after the paschal supper). Ans. Because in it these five things are contained: 1. The exodus from Egypt. 2. The dividing of the Red Sea.
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible, 1832Evangelical
- 1 Corinthians 11:25listed key text
In the same way, after supper He took the cup, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in My blood; do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me.”(opening verse of the passage)
Commentary on 1 Corinthians 11:252 voices
After the same manner - In like manner; likewise. With the same circumstances, and ceremonies, and designs. The purpose was the same. When he had supped - That is, all this occurred after the observance of the usual paschal supper. It could not, therefore, be a part of it, nor could it have been designed to be a festival or feast merely. The apostle introduces this evidently in order to show them that it could not be, as they seemed to have supposed, an occasion of feasting.
Albert Barnes· Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)Evangelical
The cup is put for what was in it, without once specifying what the liquor was, in the words of the institution. [2.] The things signified by these outward signs; they are Christ's body and blood, his body broken, his blood shed, together with all the benefits which flow from his death and sacrifice: it is the New Testament in his blood.
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible, 1710Puritan
Approved connections
2 links an editor approved, each with the reason it was kept.
- covenant signExodus 31:13
Mosaic covenant sign: the Sabbath, 'a sign between me and you throughout your generations' (Exod 31:12-17). Arc 3 sign = the sabbath.
text (Exod 31:13, PD)
- covenant signGenesis 9:13
Noahic covenant sign: 'I do set my bow in the cloud' (Gen 9:8-17) - the token of God's promise to all flesh never again to flood the earth. Arc 1 sign = the bow.
text (Gen 9:13, PD)
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Where this concept leads
2- Exodus 31:13ThematicMosaic covenant sign: the Sabbath, 'a sign between me and you throughout your generations' (Exod 31:12-17). Arc 3 sign = the sabbath.
- Genesis 9:13ThematicNoahic covenant sign: 'I do set my bow in the cloud' (Gen 9:8-17) - the token of God's promise to all flesh never again to flood the earth. Arc 1 sign = the bow.
Voices on these passages
Commentary matched to the verses above, each named with its source: the full pool sits on each verse page.
I do set my bow in the cloud--set, that is, constitute or appoint. This common and familiar phenomenon being made the pledge of peace, its appearance when showers began to fall would be welcomed with the liveliest feelings of joy.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole BibleReformed
Genesis 9:13
I know that this part of the text is disturbing to many. Indeed, if circumcision is a good thing, it should be maintained today as well. If it is useless, it never should have been mandated in the first place, particularly not by divine precept. But, inasmuch as the apostle said, "Abraham received the sign of circumcision," certainly the sign is not the reality itself but points to another reality. That is, it is not the truth but points to the truth.
Ambrose of Milan· On AbrahamPatristic
Genesis 17:11
Note, If God by his grace incline our hearts to keep the law of the fourth commandment, it will be an evidence of a good work wrought in us by his Spirit. If we sanctify God's day, it is a sign between him and us that he has sanctified our hearts: hence it is the character of the blessed man that he keepeth the sabbath from polluting it, Isa. lvi.
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole BiblePuritan
Exodus 31:13
Study it deeper
5 moves a student can make from here. Every one opens a tool on this site.
Trace one word to every place it stands
A word page lists every verse that word occurs in, with its definition and its range of meaning. Start with the roots that occur most under the passages above.
Walk out from the passages
The passages above carry 61 cross-references between them, links from the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, the great 1830s reference work, together with the reader-voted index at OpenBible.info. The most-linked destinations:
1 Corinthians 11:23→1 Corinthians 10:16→Mark 14:22→Luke 22:20→
Read it in both testaments
Set the earliest passage beside the New Testament one and ask what changed and what did not, the shape of covenant sign before Christ and after him.
Read the whole chapter around it
A verse quoted alone can mean almost anything. Open Genesis 9 in the reader, where the Hebrew or Greek sits under every line.
See everywhere else it appears
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Where this comes from
God attaches a visible token to his sworn promises: the bow in the cloud after the flood, circumcision cut into Abraham's household, the sabbath as the sign of Sinai, and the bread and cup of the new covenant.
The sign is never the covenant; it is the reminder of it, and Scripture says whom it reminds: "I will look upon it, that I may remember the everlasting covenant" (Genesis 9:16).