diathēkē

Semantic range

1. 1a disposition of property; a will
2. 2a covenant, in Septuagint usage translating bərît
3. 3the two dispensations: old and new covenant

Greek had a word for a negotiated agreement between equals — synthēkē — and the Septuagint translators pointedly did not use it. They chose diathēkē, which in ordinary Greek meant a will: a document in which one party disposes of what is his, on his terms, taking effect through a death. That choice is a theological statement about who sets the terms of covenant.

Hebrews 9:16–17 plays on both senses, arguing that a testament requires the death of the testator. And the drift from covenant to testament is why the two halves of the Bible carry the names they do — a translation decision, made in Latin, that has quietly shaped how English readers imagine the relationship between them.

The Restoration recovers the covenant sense wholesale: "the new and everlasting covenant" (D&C 22:1; 132:6), the covenant renewed weekly in the sacrament, and the covenant path as the organising image of a disciple's life.

See also

• בְּרִיתbərît
• εὐαγγέλιονeuangelion
• ἱλαστήριονhilastērion