Sinai Covenant

Text and Content

The account appears in Exodus 19–24. In the third month after leaving Egypt, Israel arrived at Mount Sinai. Deuteronomy generally refers to this mountain as "Horeb." Through Moses, God declares that "if ye will obey my voice indeed, and keep my covenant," Israel will be "a kingdom of priests, and an holy nation" (Exodus 19:5-6).

In chapter 20 the Ten Commandments are given, followed by a series of legal provisions commonly called the "Book of the Covenant" (20:22–23:33). When the people respond, "All the words which the LORD hath said will we do," Moses sprinkles blood on the altar and on the people and declares it "the blood of the covenant" (Exodus 24:8). After the tablets are broken in the golden calf incident, the covenant is reestablished in chapter 34. Deuteronomy records the next generation recalling and renewing this covenant on the plains of Moab.

Background

The Hebrew word for "covenant" is berit. It denotes a solemn agreement in which the parties take on mutual obligations. A number of scholars explain the structure of the Sinai Covenant by comparison with ancient Near Eastern treaty forms, noting that the Ten Commandments first identify the party making the covenant, then recall past benefits, and then set out stipulations.

The exact location of Mount Sinai has not been determined. Christian tradition has long identified it with Jebel Musa in the southern Sinai Peninsula, though other views propose alternative sites.

Significance in Scripture as a Whole

The Sinai Covenant carries forward at the national level the promises given in the Abrahamic Covenant. The Ten Commandments open with the words "I am the LORD thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage" (Exodus 20:2). For this reason it is often emphasized that God's act of salvation precedes the law.

Jeremiah prophesied a new covenant, "not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt" (Jeremiah 31:31-34). Hebrews 8:6-13 quotes this prophecy in full. At the Last Supper, Jesus spoke of "the new testament in my blood" (Luke 22:19-20), words that recall the "blood of the covenant" at Sinai. Paul called the Sinai Covenant the "old covenant" and contrasted it with the new covenant (2 Corinthians 3:3-6; Galatians 4:24-25). First Peter 2:9 applies the language of Exodus 19:6 to the church.

Interpretations and Issues

• Reformed: Reformed covenant theology and the Westminster Confession of Faith hold that the covenant of grace was administered differently in the time of the law and in the time of the gospel. This tradition divides the law into moral, ceremonial, and civil law, and teaches that the moral law remains binding on Christians. The Anglican Thirty-Nine Articles and the Methodist Articles of Religion contain a similar distinction.
• Dispensationalist: Dispensationalism regards the Sinai Covenant as the covenant of the dispensation of law given to Israel and distinguishes it sharply from the church age.
• Lutheran: Lutheranism reads this covenant chiefly through the distinction between law and gospel.
• Sabbath: Exodus 31:16-17 describes the Sabbath as the sign of the covenant. The Seventh-day Adventist Church holds that this commandment is still to be kept as a Saturday Sabbath. Most Protestants observe Sunday as the Lord's Day (see Sabbath and Lord's Day).
• Numbering of the Ten Commandments: Traditions differ in how they divide the Ten Commandments. Presbyterians, Methodists, and others count the prohibition against making images separately as the second commandment. Lutherans include it within the first commandment and divide the prohibition of coveting into two.
• Later traditions: In Jewish tradition, the Feast of Weeks came to be regarded as a festival commemorating the giving of the law. The biblical text, however, does not make this connection explicitly. Some interpreters also contrast this tradition with the outpouring of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, though this too is only one line of interpretation.

In the Korean Church

The Ten Commandments are taught alongside the Apostles' Creed and the Lord's Prayer as basic texts of Christian instruction. Some churches recite the Ten Commandments during worship. The Maekchu (Wheat Harvest) Thanksgiving observed by Korean churches is based on the provision for the feast of harvest in the Book of the Covenant (Exodus 23:16).