The Covenant Established With The Whole Cosmos at Creation



Taken from: http://www.salvationhistory.com/documents/scripture/LSJ3%20Hahn.pdf



Christ, Kingdom, and Creation: Davidic Christology and Ecclesiology in Luke-Acts
By Dr. Scott Hahn

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Already in the infancy narratives, Simeon speaks of Jesus



as “a light of revelation to the nations” (2:32). Luke traces his



genealogy back to Adam, the father of all mankind (3:38). As



precedent for his ministry, Jesus cites the healing of Gentiles



by the prophets Elijah and Elisha (4:25–27), and he himself



heals the servant of a Roman (7:1–10), while praising his faith



above that of Israel (7:9). He predicts that “men will come



from east and west, and from north and south” to sit at table



38 Isa. 2:1–4; 56:6–8; 60:3–16; 66:18–21; Jer. 33:11; Ezek. 40–44; Dan. 9:24–27; Joel 3:18; Hag. 2:1–9;



Mic. 4:1–4; Zech. 6:12–14; 8:20–23; 14:16.



39 On the importance of the Temple in Luke 1–2, see Green, Luke, 61–62 and Nicholas Taylor,



“Luke-Acts and the Temple,” in The Unity of Luke-Acts, 709–21, at 709.



40 On the importance of the Temple in Luke-Acts generally, see James B. Chance, Jerusalem, the



Temple, and the New Age in Luke-Acts (Macon, GA: Mercer University, 1988); and Andrew C.



Clark “The Role of the Apostles,” in Witness to the Gospel: The Theology of Acts, eds. I. Howard



Marshall and David Peterson (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1998), 169–90, esp. 175–76.



41 2 Sam. 8:11–12; 10:19; 12:30; 1 Kings 3:1; 4:20–21; 10:15. See Carol Meyers, “The Israelite Empire:



In Defense of King Solomon,” in Backgrounds for the Bible, eds. Michael Patrick O’Connor and



David Noll Freedman (Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbrauns, 1987), 181–97.



42 See Pss. 2:8; 18:43, 47; 22:27; 47:1, 9; 66:8; 67:2–5; 72:8, 11; 86:9; 89:27; 96:7, 99:1.



43 Isa. 2:3–4; 42:1–6; 49:1–7, 22–26; 51:4–6; 55:3–5; 56:3–8; 60:1–16; 66:18–19; Amos 9:11–12; Mic.



4:2–3; Zech. 14:16–19.



122 Scott Hahn



in the kingdom of God (13:29), and finally and most explicitly,



Jesus teaches the disciples that “forgiveness of sins should be



preached in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem”



(24:47).



7. Everlasting Rule. The Davidic monarchy was to be everlasting.



Throughout the psalms and historical books identified by



scholars as the work of the Deuteronomist, there is a recurrent



theme: that the Davidic dynasty is to be everlasting (2 Sam.



7:16; 23:5; Ps. 89:35–36). Indeed, not only the dynasty but the



lifespan of the reigning monarch himself was described as



everlasting (Pss. 21:4; 72:5, 110:4).44



In Luke, the angel Gabriel promises to Mary that Jesus “will



reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom



there will be no end.”45 Jesus’ everlasting reign is mentioned



frequently elsewhere in Luke, for example, in passages where



Jesus is the mediator of eternal life (18:18–30).



Thus it is clear that all seven major characteristics of the Davidic monarchy



are manifested in Jesus and his ministry. In Luke, Jesus is the royal son of David



who journeys to the city of David as part of his mission to restore the kingdom of



David. In sum, Luke’s christology is strongly Davidic and royal.



The Davidic Kingdom and the Covenant with Creation



Already in the Old Testament, the Davidic kingdom was viewed as a recapitulation



or renewal of God’s plan for creation. In what follows, I will pursue three lines of



argument which show that certain Old Testament texts understand the Davidic



covenant as a fulfillment of the creation covenant. In the first line of argument,



we will trace the temple concept in the Old Testament in order to show that the



Temple built by Solomon, so closely integrated into the Davidic covenant, was



understood as a microcosm and embodiment of the very creation itself. In the



second line of argument, I will show that Adam is portrayed in biblical texts as



king over all creation, and similar language and imagery is also applied to David.



In the third line of argument, I will show that the Chronicler, by tracing David’s



lineage back to Adam, means to suggest that David and his covenantal kingdom



holds significance for all Adam’s descendants, that is, for all humanity, and indeed



is the climax and fulfillment of God’s purpose in creating humanity.



44 For a discussion of the tension between these texts and others which imply the Davidic covenant



can be or has been broken, see Bruce C. Waltke, “The Phenomenon of Conditionality within



Unconditional Covenants,” in Israel’s Apostasy and Restoration: Essays in Honor of Roland K.



Harrison, ed. Avraham Gileadi (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker, 1988), 123–40.



45 See Bock, Luke 1:1–9:50, 116–17.



Christ, Kingdom, and Creation 123



Many scholars see in the first two chapters of Genesis the description of a



covenant between God and creation, in which the creation itself forms a cosmic



temple.46 However, since neither the term “covenant” nor “temple” is to be found in



Genesis 1 or 2, I must explain the exegetical basis for this view.



The Genesis creation account cannot be fully appreciated without comparison



with several other texts in the Pentateuch which, like Genesis 1, reflect the



priestly traditions of Israel. One such text is Genesis 9, the account of the covenant



between God and Noah. The language of this chapter so obviously reflects the



language of Genesis 1 (“be fruitful and multiply,” “birds of the air, fish of the sea,



and every creeping thing,” etc.) that it is not necessary to demonstrate the point.



God forms a covenant with Noah, and through him with all creation. However,



the Hebrew terms for enacting this covenant are not the usual combination tyrb



trk (literally, “to cut a covenant”) but tyrb myqh (“to confirm a covenant”).



It has often been argued that tyrb trk and tyrb myqh are synonymous



expressions that merely reflect the linguistic preferences of their presumably different



documentary sources (so-called Yahwist and Priestly sources, respectively).



However, William Dumbrell and Jacob Milgrom have both argued independently



of one another that tyrb myqh has a distinct nuance: outside of Genesis 6–9 it



is consistently used in contexts where a preexistent covenant is being confirmed



or, perhaps better, reaffirmed. The clearest examples are Genesis 17 (vv. 7, 19, 21),



where the Abrahamic covenant reaffirmed with his “seed.”47 By contrast, tyrb trk



generally indicates the initiation of a new covenant.



The question arises, how could tyrb myqh function in Genesis 9 to indicate a



confirmation of an existing covenant when no prior covenant is explicitly mentioned



in Genesis? Where could a covenant previously have been established? The heavy



repetition of the very language of Genesis 1 provides the clues and the answer. In



Genesis 9 God is reaffirming and perhaps restoring the covenant established with



the whole cosmos at creation.



Other texts seem to confirm an implicit covenant at creation. For example,



the exposition of the third commandment found in Exodus 31 sheds light on the



creation account:



Six days shall work be done, but the seventh day is a sabbath of



solemn rest, holy to the Lord; whoever does any work on the



sabbath day shall be put to death. Therefore the people of Israel



46 For a discussion of the relationship between creation and the covenant(s), see Santiago Sanz



Sánchez, La relación entre creación y alianza en la teologia contemporánea: status quaestionis y



reflexiones filosófico-teológicas [The Relation Between Creation and Covenant in Contemporary



Theology: The Status of the Question and Philosophical-Theological Reflections], Dissertationes



Series Theologica 11 (Rome: Edizioni Università della Santa Croce, 2003); William J. Dumbrell,



Covenant and Creation: A Theology of Old Testament Covenants (Nashville: Thomas Nelson,



1984).



47 Compare Lev. 26:9; Deut. 8:18; and Ezek. 16:60, 62.



124 Scott Hahn



shall keep the sabbath, observing the sabbath throughout their



generations, as a perpetual covenant. It is a sign for ever between



me and the people of Israel that in six days the Lord made



heaven and earth, and on the seventh day he rested, and was



refreshed. (Exod. 31:15–17)



Then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, now Pope Benedict XVI, commented on



this passage vis-à-vis Genesis 1:



To understand the account of creation properly, one has to read



the Sabbath ordinances of the Torah. Then everything becomes



clear. The Sabbath is the sign of the covenant between God and



man; it sums up the inward essence of the covenant. If this is so,



then we can now define the intention of the account of creation



as follows: creation exists to be a place for the covenant that God



wants to make with man. The goal of creation is the covenant,



the love story of God and man. . . . If, then, everything is directed



to the covenant, it is important to see that the covenant



is a relationship: God’s gift of himself to man, but also man’s



response to God. Man’s response to the God who is good to him



is love, and loving God means worshipping him. If creation is



meant to be a space for the covenant, the place where God and



man meet one another, then it must be thought of as a space for



worship.48



The fact that the creation account culminates on the Sabbath—which the



pious Israelite would recognize as the “sign” of the covenant (Ezek. 20:12, 20)—suggests



not only that creation is ordered to covenant, but that the covenant between



God and man is already present at creation.



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