Covenant (biblical) in the context of "New Covenant"

Abrahamic religions believe in the Mosaic covenant (named after Moses), also known as the Sinaitic covenant (after the biblical Mount Sinai), which refers to a covenant between the Israelite tribes and God, including their proselytes, not limited to the ten commandments, nor the event when they were given, but including the entirety of laws that their patriarch Moses delivered from God in the five books of Torah.

According to the biblical narrative, the Book of the Covenant, recording all the commands of the LORD, was written by Moses in the desert and read to the people, and to seal the covenant, the blood of sacrificial oxen was then sprinkled, half on an altar and half on the people.

Abraham (originally Abram) is the common Hebrew patriarch of the Abrahamic religions, including Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. In Judaism, he is the founding father who began the covenantal relationship between the Jewish people and God; in Christianity, he is the spiritual progenitor of all believers, whether Jewish or non-Jewish; and in Islam, he is a link in the chain of Islamic prophets that begins with Adam and culminates in Muhammad. Abraham is also revered in other Abrahamic religions such as the Baháʼí Faith and the Druze faith.

The story of the life of Abraham, as told in the narrative of the Book of Genesis in the Hebrew Bible, revolves around the themes of posterity and land. He is said to have been called by God to leave the house of his father Terah and settle in the land of Canaan, which God now promises to Abraham and his progeny. This promise is subsequently inherited by Isaac, Abraham's son by his wife Sarah, while Isaac's half-brother Ishmael is also promised that he will be the founder of a great nation. Abraham purchases a tomb (the Cave of the Patriarchs) at Hebron to be Sarah's grave, thus establishing his right to the land; and, in the second generation, his heir Isaac is married to a woman from his own kin to earn his parents' approval. Abraham later marries Keturah and has six more sons; but, on his death, when he is buried beside Sarah, it is Isaac who receives "all Abraham's goods" while the other sons receive only "gifts".

In religion, a covenant is a formal alliance or agreement made by God with a religious community or with humanity in general. The concept, central to the Abrahamic religions, is derived from the biblical covenants, notably from the Abrahamic covenant. Christianity asserts that God made an additional covenant through Jesus Christ, called the "New Covenant".

A covenant in its most general sense and historical sense, is a solemn promise to engage in or refrain from a specified action. A covenant is a type of agreement analogous to a contractual condition. The covenantor makes a promise to a covenantee to do (affirmative covenant) or not do some action (negative covenant).

Jeremiah (c. 650 – c. 570 BC), also called Jeremias, was one of the major prophets of the Hebrew Bible. According to Jewish tradition, Jeremiah authored the book that bears his name, the Books of Kings, and the Book of Lamentations, with the assistance and under the editorship of Baruch ben Neriah, his scribe and disciple.

According to the narrative of the Book of Jeremiah, the prophet emerged as a significant figure in the Kingdom of Judah in the late 7th and early 6th centuries BC. Born into a priestly lineage, Jeremiah reluctantly accepted his call to prophethood, embarking on a tumultuous ministry more than five decades long. His life was marked by opposition, imprisonment, and personal struggles, according to Jeremiah 32 and 37. Central to Jeremiah's message were prophecies of impending divine judgment, forewarning of the nation's idolatry, social injustices, and moral decay. According to the Bible, he prophesied the siege of Jerusalem and Babylonian captivity as consequences for disobedience. Jeremiah's teachings encompassed lamentations, oracles, and symbolic acts, emphasising the urgency of repentance and the restoration of a covenant relationship with God.

Noah (/ˈnoʊə/; Hebrew: נֹחַ, romanized: Nōaḥ, lit. 'rest' or 'consolation', also Noach) appears as the last of the Antediluvian patriarchs in the traditions of Abrahamic religions. His story appears in the Hebrew Bible (Book of Genesis, chapters 5–9), the Quran and Baha'i writings, and extracanonically.

The Genesis flood narrative is among the best-known stories of the Bible. In this account, God "regrets" making mankind because they filled the world with evil. Noah then labors faithfully to build the Ark at God's command, ultimately saving not only his own family, but mankind itself and all land animals, from extinction during the Flood. Afterwards, God makes a covenant with Noah and promises never again to destroy the earth with a flood. Noah is also portrayed as a "tiller of the soil" who is the first to cultivate the vine. After the flood, God commands Noah and his sons to "be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth."

The concept of Jews as the chosen people is the belief that the Jewish people, via the Mosaic and Abrahamic covenants, are selected to be in a covenant with God. It is a core element of Judaism, although its meaning has been interpreted in different ways and has varied over time.

Much has been written about these topics in rabbinic literature.

The Epistle of Barnabas (Ancient Greek: Βαρναβᾶ Ἐπιστολή) is an early Christian Greek epistle written between AD 70 and AD 135. The complete text is preserved in the 4th-century Codex Sinaiticus, where it appears at the end of the New Testament, following the Book of Revelation and before the Shepherd of Hermas. For several centuries, it was one of the "antilegomena" ("disputed") writings that some Christians looked at as sacred scripture, while others excluded them. Eusebius of Caesarea classified it with excluded texts. It is mentioned in a perhaps third-century list in the sixth-century Codex Claromontanus and in the later Stichometry of Nicephorus appended to the ninth-century Chronography of Nikephoros I of Constantinople. Some early Fathers of the Church ascribed it to the Barnabas mentioned in the Acts of the Apostles, but it is now generally attributed to an otherwise unknown early Christian teacher (though some scholars do defend the traditional attribution). It is distinct from the Gospel of Barnabas.

The central message of the Epistle of Barnabas is that the writings comprising the Hebrew Bible—what would become the Old Testament of the Christian Bible—were, from even their times of authorship, written for use by Christians rather than the Israelites and, by extension, the Jews. According to the epistle, the Jews had misinterpreted their own law (i.e., halakha) by applying it literally; the true meaning was to be found in its symbolic prophecies foreshadowing the coming of Jesus of Nazareth, whom Christians believe to be the messiah. Furthermore, the author posits that the Jews broke their covenant from the very beginning and were misled by an evil angel. After explaining its Christian interpretations of the Jewish scriptures, the epistle concludes by discussing the "Two Ways", also seen in the Didache: a "Way of Light" and a "Way of Darkness".