What and Where are the Terms of the New Covenant?

I completed a precept Bible Study on the covenants.The covenants, defined as contracts in the study, in the OT listed what was expected of each side in the agreement (i.e. Abraham and God, Moses and God, Israel and God etc.). It also told the length of the contract. The parties involved knew what they were agreeing to.Unfortunately when we got to the NT, the study lost its focus. This study did not bring out terms of the new covenant, that Jesus supposedly ushered in, as precisely as the OT covenants. (The book of Luke is the only gospel, I noticed, that called the covenant new) The study referred back to the new covenant reference in Jeremiah, but the study didn’t show where these terms were spoken by Jesus or who agreed to them.The other reference used is the book of Hebrews, which I have a problem with because it is not quoting Jesus and the author is unknown. (Non-Christians: Yes I know the gospel authors are unknown also, but they are the books that carry the quotes of Jesus and necessary for the question I’m asking.)I’ve noticed in several threads, comments containing the phrase under the new covenant ..I would like learned people who have actually read and studied the Christian Bible, to point out to me where the terms of the new covenant are spoken by Jesus (not Paul or an unknown author) and what the terms are and who verbally agreed to those terms.I don’t want dogma and tradition (DT). I got enough of that during the Bible study. I truly want to know what Jesus said in black and white or red and white depending on your Bible.What and where are the terms of the new covenant spelled out by Jesus?

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A gentle answer turns away wrath, But a harsh word stirs up anger.

God to Noah
Genesis 6:18 I will establish my covenant with youGod to Noah
Genesis 9:8 I now establish my covenant with you and your descendants after youWhat God won’t do again.
Genesis 9:11 I establish my covenant with you: Never again will all life be cut off by the waters of a floodA sign
Genesis 9:12-13 This is the sign of the covenant I am making between me and you and every living creature with you, a covenant for all generations to come. I have set my rainbowIn this covenant no requirements are required from the creatures or mankind and the covenant is forever. Easy to see the parts of the contract.I don’t see the same detail in the NT for the new covenant.Was a new covenant actually presented by Jesus?If yes, where are the conditions stated?

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A gentle answer turns away wrath, But a harsh word stirs up anger.

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Hebrews 10 :
16"This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, says the LORD: I will put My laws into their hearts, and in their minds I will write them,"

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What laws will be put into our hearts and our minds?

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A gentle answer turns away wrath, But a harsh word stirs up anger.

Exodus 24:7-8 (terms)
Then he took the Book of the Covenant and read it to the people. They responded, "We will do everything the Lord has said; we will obey." Moses then took the blood, sprinkled it on the people and said, "This is the blood of the covenant that the Lord has made with you in accordance with all these words."Deut 29:12-14 (duration)
You are standing here in order to enter into a covenant with the Lord your God as he promised you and as he swore to your fathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. I am making this covenant, with its oath, not only with you who are standing here with us today in the presence of the Lord our God but also with those who are not here today.This is just an example of what I'm looking for.In the NT Jesus doesn't clearly lay out the terms of a new covenant so that people know what they are getting into.

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A gentle answer turns away wrath, But a harsh word stirs up anger.

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For me the basic Covenant in the New Testament revolves around Jesus reduction of the vast host of Laws in the OT to two.

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The LAWs mentioned in the NT boil down to two. The first is what is needed for you to fulfill your half of the Covenant, "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God". The second is how you should lead your life and exist in the kinship of man, "Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself".

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Mark 12:28-31
One of the scribes came and heard them arguing, and recognizing that He had answered them well, asked Him, "What commandment is the foremost of all ?" Jesus answered, "The foremost is, 'Hear, O Israel! The Lord your God is one lord; and you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.' "The second is this, 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' There is no other commandment greater than these."
Matthew 22:36-40
Luke 10:26-28In saying that these are foremost and no other is greater, I don't see how this reduces or negates the rest of the laws. This wasn't a new teaching.Lev 19:18 Love neighbor as self..
Deut 6:5 Love God with all your heart...

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Hillel
To a pagan who said he would become a Jew if he could be taught the Torah while standing on one foot, Hillel is said to have replied, "What is hateful to you, do not unto your neighbor: this is the entire Torah. (A History of the Jews, by Paul Johnson)

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Our own legal system could be summarized the same way, but it doesn't reduce the number of laws.Hillel was known for his more humane and universalistic interpretation of the Torah. Hillel was a contemporary of Shammai (c. 50BCE - c. 30CE)

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John 3:16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

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And yet Matthew 19:16, Luke 10:25 and Mark have a few more requirements.

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Mark 10:17
As He was setting out on a journey, a man ran up to Him and knelt before Him, and asked Him, "Good Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?"

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Mark 10:19
"You know the commandments, 'Do not murder, do not commit adultery, do not steal, do not bear false witness, do not defraud, honor your mother and father.' "

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If the "Him" in 3:16 is God, then weren't the Jews already believing? Can you love God with all your heart etc., if you don't believe in him?So could the "New Covenant" really be a summary of the old and not a replacement? More of a renewal and not really different.BTW what is YMMV?

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A gentle answer turns away wrath, But a harsh word stirs up anger.

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Is this the "Covenant" you're looking for?
Mat 5:17 "Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.

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I don't know.That's what disappointed me about the class. They went to such pains to make us understand that a covenant is a contract and that in those days it was consecrated by blood.They stressed the end of the Mosaic Covenant and the start of the New Covenant, but couldn't define the conditions of the new covenant.Of course the above scripture is a favorite, but it doesn't make sense. Even today, if I fulfill a law (guideline, suggestion, etc.), it means I have done it correctly. It doesn't mean that it now ends once I have completed the task. The law is still there. (I pay my taxes by April 15. I fulfilled that law, but I have to do it again next year.)From what I have found in Judaism the term to abolish the Torah means to interpret it incorrectly and to fulfill it is to interpret it correctly.The Mosaic Covenant didn't show an end date. If the new covenant is something different than the Mosaic, then I feel there should be some record in the NT describing the new terms.Maybe I was expecting too much.

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A gentle answer turns away wrath, But a harsh word stirs up anger.

YMMV, cute!When I first signed up it took a bit before I grasped the IMO, IMHO, JMHO, etc.Thanks for clarifying.

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A gentle answer turns away wrath, But a harsh word stirs up anger.

I agree. Their fence around the Torah became unreasonably restrictive. From what I've read the post-temple group attracted the less fortunate of various religions before Rome adopted it.I'm not a fan of dogma and tradition; and I could not see an actual New Covenant that came about through Jesus or his teachings.I was curious if anyone in this forum could show me what I couldn't see, but apparently not.People will have different ideas of what the new covenant is, just as people will have different ideas of what a true Christian is.Unfortunately I'm trying to be objective in a subjective environment.Interesting! Have a great day.

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A gentle answer turns away wrath, But a harsh word stirs up anger.

Fascinating links!Thanks

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A gentle answer turns away wrath, But a harsh word stirs up anger.

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"I did not come to abolish the Law, but to make it complete (Gr. pleroo)."

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But not to end it, correct?Another meaning to pleroo is: to carry into effect, bring to realization, realize. To fulfill, i.e. to cause God's will (as made known in the law) to be obeyed as it should be. (This is from Strong’s concordance). This goes along with the Jewish meaning, that to fulfill the Torah means to interpret it correctly.

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This was the new law.

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Matthew 5 states he was teaching. When I read about Judasim I find that Yeshua wasn’t really teaching anything new. See Yeshua and the Talmud.How much time passed between this teaching and the last supper?

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It's unfortunate, though, in my opinion, that you want that covenant from the mouth of Yeshua, unless you just are looking for proof. He gave the message of the covenant to those apostles, and he said that those who receive his messengers received him and those who rejected his messengers rejected him. The description of the covenant was left with them, and they gave the Lord's Supper to the church so that it would confirm the covenant week by week, remembering it until he came again.

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Why wouldn't I want the conditions from the originator? I don't see that the apostles passed on the conditions very clearly and the Lord’s Supper ritual doesn’t say anything about what the new covenant contains. So, all we have is what Yeshua supposedly said and did.Neither Mark nor Matthew specifies a new covenant.Mark 14:24
And He said to them, "This is My blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many.

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Matt 26:28
for this is My blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for forgiveness of sins.

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Luke 22:20
And in the same way He took the cup after they had eaten, saying, "This cup which is poured out for you is the new covenant in My bloodOnly Matthew mentions sins. Plus any communion service I’ve been a part of sounds more like Corinthians below.

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1 Corinthians 11:23 -25
For I received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus in the night in which He was betrayed took bread; and when He had given thanks, He broke it and said, "This is My body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of Me."
In the same way He took the cup also after supper, saying, "This cup is the new covenant in My blood; do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me."

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I don’t see Yeshua specifying any change from what already was.What is new?

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A gentle answer turns away wrath, But a harsh word stirs up anger.

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but it doesn't go very well with the rest of Matthew 5

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I feel it totally does. He didn't add anything, but was interpreting the Jewish teachings of the time. His teachings came from the Talmud. This excerpt from the link I put in Message 21.

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And those Gospels say he sent his apostles with the statement that people received or rejected him based on whether they received or rejected the apostles.

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Receive the apostles personally or their message?
So that we are on the same page, which scripture are you working from on this one?

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Why are you ignoring the one that contradicts your position, anyway?

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Why do you ignore the two that contradict yours?
Two out of three don't say "new", plus I haven't seen anything new presented yet.

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See the rest of Matthew 5 (he purposely contradicts Moses' statements about divorce, and later he says those statements were only given for the hardness of the Jews' hearts;

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Again a teaching of the time.

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See his behavior concerning the Sabbath. See his statements about being Lord of the Sabbath.

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His behavior concerning the Sabbath wasn't new either. Again see the link in message 21."The Son of Man is the Lord of the Sabbath" which means what?
As Lord of the Sabbath, what did he do or change?

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A gentle answer turns away wrath, But a harsh word stirs up anger.

Thanks for supplying the dates.That was a paragraph from the Yashanet page, so I left it as is.

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A gentle answer turns away wrath, But a harsh word stirs up anger.

Matthew 10 is when Yeshua sent the twelve out to the lost sheep of Israel, not the Gentiles. So the directives he gave were for a specific situation in time. Today we don't have the "twelve" to accept or reject.

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I don't think the other two contradict me. When Yeshua says, "This is the covenant in my blood," there is no necessary reason for him to say new, even if he meant new.

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If you want to assume that the disciples were privy to his plans. But since one has the word "new" and two don't, we don't know what was intended. Maybe Luke's writer made a mistake. Bottom line, we don't know what was intended by Yeshua or the writers and we still don't have clear details of a new covenant to show it was different.

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These two sentences do not contradict:
1. This is a covenant.
2. This is a new covenant.

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Other than we are talking about about "the" covenant not "a" covenant.Think of it this way.
1. This is the government.
2. This is the new government.
For Jewish society, the covenant was more than just the religious rituals and social behavior.For someone to come along and say that "the covenant" or the "Mosaic Laws" are no longer valid, is like someone coming to a city and saying your laws and regulations are no longer valid and then not putting anything in their place.Why wouldn't the teachings of the time be relevant? If Yeshua is presenting his interpretations of their current teachings, how is that different than the various Christian denominations we have today with their own interpretations?A new twist on an old teaching doesn't rewrite a covenant.

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It was new enough to get him killed!

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If you believe Yeshua foretold what was to happen to him, then the people had no choice. It was part of the plan, God's will.

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This, combined with the ultimate point of the New Covenant, that God would give his Spirit to all his followers, makes plenty of explanation for why it is a New Covenant, and fits quite well with both Ezekiel and Jeremiah's descriptions of the coming New Covenant.

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The book of Hebrews refers back to this passage.
My question here is: What law will be put in their minds and on their hearts?
They are still teaching and still saying know the Lord.Where is Ezekiel's description?

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A gentle answer turns away wrath, But a harsh word stirs up anger.

Here is my attempt at a summary without making this post extremely long. A lot of good points were made throughout this thread, so don't miss out on reading them.Answers offered:1. Wherever Jesus says "believe in Me" or any variation of this option IS the terms of the New Covenant.
2. The New Covenant is Galatians 2:20
3. The gospel/way of faith.
4. Hebrews 10:15-18
5. For me the basic Covenant in the New Testament revolves around Jesus reduction of the vast host of Laws in the OT to two, and in the fact that the Covenant is in reality, Bilateral.
6. John 3:16
7. Matthew 5:17-20
8. Jeremiah 31:31-34 (which is what Hebrews 10:15-18 pulls from)Thoughts offered:The LAWs mentioned in the NT boil down to two. The first is what is needed for you to fulfill your half of the Covenant, "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God". The second is how you should lead your life and exist in the kinship of man, "Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself". Message 8Personally, I think the entire post-Temple "Christian" movement was a revolutionary movement in reaction to Pharisiacal/Rabbinical Judaism; and that there is no specific "Contract" between the parties to the agreement, rather the terms continue to evolve at the whimsy of the "Church." Message 15The New Law is found in Matthew 5. You mentioned that maybe it was sort of a "renewal." Very good. That is exactly what Yeshua said. "I did not come to abolish the Law, but to make it complete (Gr. pleroo)." He used the word pleroo as though it meant expand... Message 20There is no contract as seen in the OT.
The OT contract is between GOD and a people. It seperates that People from all others. The Covenant in the NT however is between God and the individual, a personal relationship. It is not with a people, it is not with a place, it is not even with a religion or sect. Message 8My thoughts:A. The covenants of God in the OT had no end dates.B. Matthew 5 - Contained teachings of Jesus which reflected the Talmud teachings of the age. Since these teachings were already present, there wouldn't be a need for a new contract.C. Boiled down to two: These existed before Jesus.
Lev 19:18 Love neighbor as self..
Deut 6:5 Love God with all your heart...Hillel summarized Torah as "What is hateful to you, do not unto your neighbor: this is the entire Torah." (A History of the Jews, by Paul Johnson)Our own legal system can be summarized the same way, but that doesn't negate the laws.D. Hebrews 10 and Jeremiah 31"I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts..."This is the one most people refer back to for the "new covenant", but when I ask what law will be put in their minds and on their hearts, no one answers.E. The Jewish fence around the Torah was stifling, especially to the poor classes. I can understand rebeling against the excessive additions.This is my best effort at a summary. It is still long, but it was much longer. Don't miss reading the complete thread though.

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A gentle answer turns away wrath, But a harsh word stirs up anger.

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There was ONE O.T. covenant: The Law of God from Genesis to Malachi.
This covenant promised eternal life to anyone who fulfilled it perfectly.

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Scripture please. I don't see eternal life mentioned in the OT.

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But Jesus Himself validated these two laws in the N.T. so there is no descrepancy here.

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Didn't say there was a descrepancy. Said it wasn't new. How did he validate?

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This Spirit will propel the christian to conform to God's laws by miracle power of God.

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What are God's laws? Not the summary version please.

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A gentle answer turns away wrath, But a harsh word stirs up anger.