New Covenant and New Scripture in the New Testament

What is it about?

Chapter 5 of Levi S. Baker, Why a New Testament? Covenant as an Impetus for New Scripture in Early Christianity, Texts and Editions for New Testament Study 19 (Leiden: Brill, 2025). This chapter studies early Christianity by exploring four representative NT texts: 2 Corinthians 3, the Gospel of Matthew (GM), James 2, and the Epistle of Hebrews. This chapter traces the connection between the new covenant and new revelation in these texts and focuses extensively on the GM’s claim to be new covenant scripture.

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Photo by Tim Wildsmith on Unsplash

Photo by Tim Wildsmith on Unsplash

Why is it important?

Chapter 5 considers first-century Christianity by exploring four representative NT texts: 2 Corinthians 3, the Gospel of Matthew (GM), James 2, and the Epistle of Hebrews. After situating the concept of covenant amongst other theological beliefs of early Christians that produced observable literary, material/scribal, liturgical, and canonical effects related to canon-formation, chapter 5 examines these texts for an association of the new covenant with new revelation more broadly, a scripture-like reception of the teachings of Jesus connected to the new covenant, or scriptural-self presentation as new covenant scripture. Second Corinthians 3 reveals that Paul received the Torah as a covenant document, and, contrary to what has been asserted by some canon scholars, Paul’s letter/Spirit contrast does not suggest a termination of written revelation in the new covenant era. Rather, a contextual reading of 2 Corinthians 3––that considers Paul’s identity as a “minister of the new covenant” and other features of the letter––supports the high probability that Paul would have understood the new covenant as having a literary expression. In contrast to Paul, Matthew explicitly presents his Gospel as new covenant scripture. Matthew is concerned with narrating Jesus’s inauguration of the new covenant, evokes the new covenant promise at the beginning and end of his Gospel, and also connects a pronounced focus on Jesus’s unique teaching authority to the fulfillment of new covenant promises (Matt 23:8–10). Matthew shares similar features with other 2T authors in how he presents his readers with a scriptural claim. He presents the SM as a new covenant Torah delivered by a new Moses on a new Sinai. Matthew intends his Gospel to stand alongside Israel’s Scriptures as it completes Israel’s scriptural story, contains the revealed words of the One Teacher, and its text is essential to fulfilling Jesus’s final command. He also evokes the foundational Torah in significant ways, including the fivefold discourses, pervasive new Moses typology, the link between Moses’s final blessings in Deuteronomy 31 and the Beatitudes, the title βίβλος γενέσεως, and the parallels with Deuteronomy 31 and Joshua 1 in the concluding commissioning scene (Matt 28:16–20). In these and other ways, He presents the GM as new covenant torah to be read alongside the Torah of the old covenant. Although space limitations prevented extensive analysis of James 2 and Hebrews, these texts offer further suggestive evidence. James 2 reveals that other early Jewish-Christians authors received the teachings of Jesus (especially the SM) alongside the Torah of Moses as constituting the royal law of the kingdom of God. Furthermore, this reception is associated with Jeremiah’s new covenant promises. Hebrews repeatedly asserts the superiority of new covenant revelation. However, contrary to the claims of some canon scholars, there is no ground for asserting that the author envisions a textless medium for new covenant revelation. Rather, a plausible case was made that the author not only remained open to receiving written scriptures of the new covenant, but also apparently claimed this status for his work. Consequently, chapter 5 offers significant evidence for this study’s thesis.