Covenant
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Diatheke names a covenant, testament, or enacted arrangement that binds promise, obligation, inheritance, and relationship. In the New Testament it reaches from God's remembered covenant mercy to Abraham, through Jesus' blood of the covenant, into apostolic teaching about the new covenant and Hebrews' sustained contrast between old and new.
Reader summary
Full entry for διαθήκη (G1242) · Open the biblical lexicon
Diatheke names a covenant, testament, or enacted arrangement that binds promise, obligation, inheritance, and relationship. In the New Testament it reaches from God's remembered covenant mercy to Abraham, through Jesus' blood of the covenant, into apostolic teaching about the new covenant and Hebrews' sustained contrast between old and new.
The BSB source-word alignment has 33 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include covenant (24), covenants (3), [the] covenant (2), [a] will (1), a human covenant (1).
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Matthew 26:28. Its strongest book concentrations include Hebrews (17), Galatians (3), 2 Corinthians (2), Acts (2).
This entry includes 1 verse guide that explain exact original-language forms in context.
Diatheke names a covenant, testament, or enacted arrangement that binds promise, obligation, inheritance, and relationship. In the New Testament it reaches from God's remembered covenant mercy to Abraham, through Jesus' blood of the covenant, into apostolic teaching about the new covenant and Hebrews' sustained contrast between old and new. The word should not be reduced to a modern contract, because Scripture uses it to speak of God's pledged initiative and saving administration.
Nor should every occurrence be flattened into one setting. Diatheke helps readers trace how God's promises move toward Christ, how His blood secures the new covenant, and how His people receive mercy, forgiveness, and inheritance by divine promise.
Diatheke follows God's covenant promise from Israel's story to Christ's blood, new-covenant ministry, and the eternal inheritance secured by the risen Shepherd.
This is My blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.
Jesus identifies the cup with His blood of the covenant, poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.
To show mercy to our fathers and to remember His holy covenant,
Zechariah praises God for remembering His holy covenant, placing the coming salvation within covenant mercy.
In the same way, after supper He took the cup, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in My blood, which is poured out for you.
Jesus names the cup the new covenant in His blood, making His death the anchor for new-covenant hope.
And you are sons of the prophets and of the covenant God made with your fathers when He said to Abraham, ‘Through your offspring all the families of the earth will be blessed.’
Peter addresses Israel as sons of the covenant God made with the fathers, tying gospel summons to Abrahamic promise.
And He has qualified us as ministers of a new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.
Paul says God qualified ministers of a new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit.
What I mean is this: The law that came 430 years later does not revoke the covenant previously established by God, so as to nullify the promise.
Paul argues that the later law does not revoke the covenant previously established by God.
Therefore Christ is the mediator of a new covenant, so that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance, now that He has died to redeem them from the transgressions committed under the first covenant.
Hebrews presents Christ as mediator of a new covenant whose death secures the promised eternal inheritance.
Now may the God of peace, who through the blood of the eternal covenant brought back from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great Shepherd of the sheep,
The blessing closes with the blood of the eternal covenant and the resurrection of the great Shepherd.
BSB source-word alignment connects this entry to exact verse rows, English rendering, source form, transliteration, and parsing.
How English Renders ItA compact distribution from source-word alignment before the full evidence tables.
Verse-level guides showing how this original-language form works in its specific context, including grammar, verse function, and guarded interpretation.
Greek word. God's unilateral binding arrangement with his people, not a mutual contract between equals.
Textus Receptus witness, full corpusGreek token appearances from Scrivener 1894 Textus Receptus in the full New Testament corpus.
16 of 33 Greek text appearances shown. Linked morphology labels have verse guides.
a covenant, will, testament
Read versea covenant, will, testament
Read versea covenant, will, testament
Read versea covenant, will, testament
Read versea covenant, will, testament
Read versea covenant, will, testament
Read versea covenant, will, testament
Read versea covenant, will, testament
Read versea covenant, will, testament
Read versea covenant, will, testament
Read versea covenant, will, testament
Read versea covenant, will, testament
Read versea covenant, will, testament
Read versea covenant, will, testament
Read versea covenant, will, testament
Read versea covenant, will, testament
Read verseFull New Testament corpus: 260 chapters, 7,957 verses, 140,628 tokens. Data source: honza/textus-receptus (data only), with authority check against byztxt/greektext-textus-receptus.
How this word appears across different grammatical cases and numbers.
This word appears as a noun across 6 case and number patterns. The form changes show how the word functions in a sentence; they do not change the basic lexical meaning by themselves.
Selected passage-level study witnesses for this word. This section is not the full occurrence list.
Showing 8 selected witnesses from 33 lexical occurrence verses.
διαθήκη is built from this root:
Identifies Christ’s death as covenant-ratifying.Acts 7:1-16
Identifies the new covenant established by Christ’s blood.Hebrews 8:7-13
Describes binding divine arrangement fulfilled in Christ.Hebrews 9:15-22
Explains the necessity of death for covenant activation.Luke 22:7–23
The covenant frames the unfolding promises that culminate in Christ.Mark 14:17–25
Compound and idiomatic phrases that include this word. Follow a link to study the phrase and how its parts work together.
The core insight of diatheke is that God's saving relationship with His people rests on His pledged promise and is fulfilled in Christ. The word can refer to remembered covenant mercy, the covenant with the fathers, the old covenant, the new covenant, a human covenant used as analogy, or a will in Hebrews' argument. That range requires care. Yet the New Testament's center is clear: Jesus gives the cup as the new covenant in His blood, Paul ministers the new covenant by the Spirit, and Hebrews proclaims Christ as mediator whose death secures eternal inheritance.
Diatheke therefore helps teachers proclaim continuity in God's promises, finality in Christ's sacrifice, and assurance grounded in God's own covenant faithfulness.
Luke.22.20
Diatheke is a feminine noun used for covenant and, in Hebrews 9, for a will or testament within the author's argument. Context must decide whether promise, covenant administration, or testamentary force is foregrounded.
Old Testament covenant promises to Abraham, Israel, David, and the announced new covenant shape the New Testament's use of diatheke. The New Testament presents Christ as the fulfillment and mediator of God's covenant faithfulness.