Idea of the Covenant in the Jewish Torah

In The Jewish Torah, the idea of the covenant recurs several times, and three covenants are detailed, those between God and Noah, between God and Abraham, and between God and Israel at Mt. Sinai. Each of the covenants builds on what went before and so can be seen as developing a relationship over time.

The covenant with Noah represents a new beginning for mankind as God wipes out most of Creation and returns Noah, his family, and the animals Noah has collected to a cleansed world. This is the real beginning of the relationship between God and the Jewish people:

Moreover, not only is Noah the first real man in Jewish history: his story foreshadows important elements in Jewish religion. There is the Jewish god's obsession with detail, in the construction and loading of the ark. There is the notion of the one righteous man. Even more important, there is the Jewish stress on the supreme importance of human life, because of the imaginative relationship of man to God . . . This might be termed the central tenet of Jewish belief and it is significant that it occurs in conjunction with the Flood, the first historic event for which there is non-Biblical confirmation (Johnson 10).

Johnson further notes that the passages in the torah dealing with the Flood "also contain the first mention of a covenant and the earliest reference to the land of Canaan" (Johnson 10).

Abraham is a descendant of Noah (Johnson 10), specifically descended from Shem, and Abraham first encountered "Je

Related Essays

Three Covenants in the Jewish Torah In The Jewish Torah, the idea of the covenant recurs several times, and three covenants are detailed, those between God and Noah, between God and Abraham, and .... (2400 10 )

A Feminist Judaism .... Plaskow indicates how this idea that men are superior to women is .... the central event that established the Jewish people, the entry into the covenant at Sinai .... (2049 8 )

The Jewish Way in Love and Marriage .... knowing about the ceremony and the covenant it celebrates .... the philosopher Maimonides opposed the idea of rewards .... This shows the Jewish dedication not only to .... (1849 7 )

e Book of Deuteronomy .... are known as 'Former Prophets' in Jewish tradition because .... a clear explanation of the covenant laws and .... but Deuteronomic theology added the idea that obedience .... (1715 7 )

Book of Deuteronomy of the Old Testament .... are known as 'Former Prophets' in Jewish tradition because .... a clear explanation of the covenant laws and .... but Deuteronomic theology added the idea that obedience .... (1715 7 )

Jews are thus the only people in the world today who possess a historical record, however obscure in places, which allows them to trace their origins back into very remote times. The Jews who worked the bible into something approaching its present shape evidently thought that their race, though founded by Abraham, could trace forebears even further and called the ultimate human progenitor Adam (Johnson 7). The stories of the patriarchs and matriarchs are intended as a connected historical record. Even though much of this record cannot be verified independently, it clearly has importance in the way it has shaped the Hebrew people throughout history and in the way it continues to this day to tell them who they are by connecting them to a different era, an era in which traditions were formed and a community created. The patriarchs and matriarchs are indeed the fathers and mothers of the Jewish people of today, and just as we might trace genealogical roots or ask questions about genetics and parental influence, so may we look to the stories of the patriarchs and matriarchs for an understanding of the people who have succeeded them. 3. Maimonides connected the two civilizations of Islam and Christianity, and he also restored "Proph

Category: Philosophy - I