1. Introduction to the Covenant
2. The Covenant Identified

At the Last Supper God the Son said to His disciples, “Just as My Father has granted Me a kingdom, I grant you that you may eat and drink at My table in My kingdom” (Luke 22:29-30). Here the Greek word translated “grant” is diatithēmi, the verbal form of diathēkē, the Greek word for “covenant.” Thus, in this passage we have the next thing to applying the word “covenant” to the relationship between the Father and the Son.[2] In the Biblical record it will be seen that all the features of a covenant are present in the interrelationship of the persons of the Trinity.[3]

1. The Type of Covenant

In addition to the suzerainty treaties discussed in Chapter One, in the ancient world there also were two other major types of treaties. The first of these was the parity treaty. This was a treaty between equals, such as between Abraham and Abimelech (Gen 21:22-34), between Isaac and Abimelech (Gen 26:26-33) and between Jacob and Laban (Gen 31:43-54).

The second type of treaty was called the royal grant. In a royal grant an ancient ruler would reward individuals for their faithful service by giving them special status, bestowing title over a specified territory with its revenue or exempting a territory under someone’s authority from its customary obligations.[4]

One way of distinguishing between suzerainty treaties, parity treaties and royal grants is to note who takes the oath. In a suzerainty treaty, only the vassal takes the oath. In a parity treaty, both parties take the oath, whereas in a royal grant only the suzerain takes the oath. One further combination in the ancient world was a suzerainty treaty with an accompanying royal grant. The Abrahamic Covenant appears to be of this type as both God (Gen 15:9-18) and Abraham (Gen 17:10-14) go through oath rituals and it is obviously not a parity treaty between equals.

The Messianic Covenant appears, like the later Abrahamic Covenant, to be a suzerainty treaty with an accompanying royal grant. Clearly by this covenant, God the Father is making God the Son his vassal king over creation. He is totally under the authority of God the Father (Ps 40:7-8; Matt 26:39; John 4:34; 5:19, 30, 36; 6:38; 7:16; 8:26, 28-29; 10:18; 12:49; 14:10, 24, 31; 17:4, 8; Rom 5:19; Phil 2:8; Heb 5:8; 10:17). As vassal king he had commandments to obey (Deut 18:18; John 10:18; 12:49; 14:31; 15:10). But there is also a royal grant… Jesus said, “All things have been handed over to Me by My Father” (Matt 11:27; cf. Dan 7:13-14; John 3:35; 10:22; 17:2). The Father granted to the Son a kingdom (Luke 22:29) as well as the citizens of that kingdom. The elect, chosen “in Him (the vassal king) before the foundation of the world” (Eph 1:4) were given from the Father to the Son (John 6:37, 39; 17:2, 6, 9, 24) as a royal grant.[5] The citizens of Christ’s kingdom are those whose names were “written in the book of life from the foundation of the world” (Rev 17:8; cf. 13:8). The book of life is no doubt the census book of the new Jerusalem where God will dwell with his people forever.[6]

Jesus is thus described as The Vassal King. The Messianic Covenant has the features of a suzerainty treaty. God would pattern not only the covenants of the Bible but also the treaties of history after the Messianic Covenant.

1. The Time of the Making of the Covenant

If God the Father made a covenant granting God the Son a kingdom, the question must be asked, when did this happen? In Matthew 25:34, Jesus tells us when the preparation for this covenantal kingdom began. In the parable of the sheep and the goats, Jesus states, “Then the king will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.’” Romans 8:16-17 tells us who these are who are God’s heirs. Paul writes, “The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God and if children, heirs also, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ…” Just as we make our children our heirs, so God makes his children his heirs.

Paul tells us in Ephesians 1:4 when God chose those who were to become his children. “…He (God the Father, Eph 1:3a) chose us in Him (the Lord Jesus Christ, Eph 1:3b) before the foundation of the world…” (cf. Rev 13:8; 17:8). In 2 Timothy 1:9 Paul writes, “Who (God, 2 Tim 1:8) saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace which was granted us in Christ Jesus from all eternity.” In Titus 1:1-2 Paul begins his epistle by saying, “Paul, a servant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ for the sake of God’s elect … in hope of eternal life which God, who never lies, promised before the ages began” (ESV) (cf. 1 Pet 1:18-20).

When was the covenant made between God the Father and God the Son? It was in eternity past “before the foundation of the world” (Eph 1:3).

III.    The Features of the Covenant

Although we do not have the text of the covenant between God the Father and God the Son, the features of later suzerainty treaties can be identified.

1. Preamble

God the Father and God the Son hardly needed an introduction. Yet in the ancient Near East the relationship between a great king and his vassal was expressed in terms of “father” and “son.”[7] Thus the terminology “God the Father” and “God the Son” are an accurate description of their roles in the covenant. God the Son became a vassal king under the great king, God the Father.

1. Historical Prologue

The purpose of the historical prologue of a covenant was to summarize the past benefits which the vassal king had received from the great king. The Bible describes what God the Son received from God the Father throughout the ages of eternity. The New Testament repeatedly describes God the Father’s love for God the Son (Matt 3:17; 17:5; Mark 9:7; Luke 3:22; John 3:35; 5:20; 10:17; 17:23, 24; 2 Pet 1:17). God the Son received from the Father both honor (2 Pet 1:17) and glory (John 17:5; 2 Pet 1:17).

1. Stipulations
2. Major Stipulation: Allegiance

There is no greater unity than the oneness between God the Father and God the Son (John 10:30). The Son did not come into the world on his own imitative (John 7:28). In fact he did nothing on his own initiative (John 5:30).He was totally dependent upon the Father (John 8:28-29) and loved him with perfect divine love (John 14:31).

2. Minor Stipulations

The messianic mission of God the Son is stated prophetically in Psalm 40:7-8, “Then I said, ‘Behold I come; in the scroll of the book it is written of me. I delighted to do thy will, O my God; Thy law is within my heart.’”[8]   Christ was sent on a mission by the Father with a commandment to obey (John 10:18), a righteousness to fulfill (Matt. 3:15) a baptism of death to undergo (Luke 12:50) and a work to finish (John 17:4). Jesus was sent as a Second Adam to be obedient where the First Adam would be disobedient. The messianic mission which Christ performed on earth had been designed in heaven (John 6:38).[9] The Son covenanted to become a man, to live under the Mosaic Covenant (Gal. 4:4; Heb. 2:14-18) and to obey all the commandments of the Father (Heb. 10:7-9) “becoming obedient to the point of death, even on the cross” (Phil. 2:8). He was to do nothing on his own initiative nor to seek his own will but only the will of him who sent him (John 5:30; 6:38).[10] His commission was to gather for Himself a people and guard them, that none of them should be lost (John 17:12).[11]

3. Probation

Throughout the Bible God the Father continually has put his people though Throughout the Bible God the Father continually has put his people though testing. An excellent example of this is when “God tested Abraham” (Gen 22:1) by commanding Abraham to sacrifice his son Isaac. This testing was an anticipation of the crucifixion, where although God spared Abraham’s son (Gen 22:11-12), he did not spare his own Son (Rom 8:32). It was also a test for Isaac to allow himself to be bound on top of the altar (Gen 22:9). Correspondingly, all of Christ’s life leading to the cross was a test for him.

Coming as the second federal head representing his people, Christ, the Second Adam, underwent a similar probation to that of the first Adam who was also the federal head over all of his later seed (Rom 5:12-19). It is in Christ’s temptation that the parallelism is particularly pronounced. Satan was present with the same strategies he used in the garden of Eden. He attempted to switch the Son’s allegiance from the Father to himself (Luke 4:7). The probation of Jesus not only involved the responsibility of being victorious over Satan in the temptation (Luke 4:1-13) but also of being victorious over him through death (Heb. 2:14-15). The probation had to be undergone successfully in historical time to gain the reward of the covenanted kingdom (Rev. 5:9-10) promised in Genesis 1:28.[12] By His obedience in His probation, the champion of the woman’s seed would bring salvation to the rest of her seed and bestow on them the kingdom.[13]

1. Promise

Jesus was sent from heaven with divine commitments from the Father. The messianic Psalms give the content of these oath commitments from the Father to the Son. The Father committed to the Son a kingship on earth over the entire earth (Ps. 2:6-9) and an eternal royal priesthood (Ps. 110:4; cf. Heb. 5:6; 7:17, 21).[14] The earthly kingdom and everlasting priesthood were the same as the promise made later to Adam of a world-wide kingdom (Gen. 1:28) and his role as a servant-king (Gen. 2:15a) and guardian-priest (Gen. 2:15b).[15]

The Father promised in addition to prepare a physical body within which the Son would dwell (Col. 2:9; Heb. 10:5), to deliver Him from the power of death (Ps. 16:8-11; Acts 2:25-28), to give to the Son a people whom He would redeem for His own possession (Ps. 22:27-28; John 17:2, 6, 24), to send the Son to be their representative (Rom. 5:18-19) and finally to reward Him with the glory He shared with the Father before creation (John 17:4).[16]

1. Blessings and Curses
2. Blessings

In John 17, God the Son recalled the commitment of God the Father to grant to Him, the obedient Messianic Servant, the glory He had with the Father before the world was (John 17:5, 24). He presented His claim as the obedient Servant who had met the conditions of the eternal covenant by faithfully fulfilling His mission (John 17:4). As so, He then made His request that the grant of glory be conferred (John 17:5). Jesus, the second Adam, could stand before His judgment tree and declare that He had overcome temptation and that He had accomplished His charge to defeat Satan.[17] Because God the Son was “obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross… God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

2. Curses

The curse of the later Kingdom Covenant was death for the covenant breaker (Gen. 2:17). Yet Christ, though He was sinless (Heb. 4:15), suffered the curse vicariously for God’s people (Gal. 3:13).

The first Adam was disobedient by his eating of the tree. The second Adam obediently went to his tree and therefore bore the curse of all those for whom He is Champion, the curse brought about by the first Adam’s eating from his tree. As a result the way is opened up to the tree of life (Rev. 2:7).

1. The Deposit of the Text of the Covenant
2. The Text Itself

The document of the covenant between the Father and the Son is the “book. . . sealed with seven seals” of Revelation 5:1ff.[18] In the Roman Empire a book sealed with seven seals was a diathēkē, a last will and testament,[19] the same Greek word translated “covenant” throughout the New Testament.

Seven witnesses were required to sign and seal the testament.[20] The seven seals were attached to the threads with which the document was tied together, so that all seven seals had to be broken before the will could be read.[21] After the death of a testator, a testament could not be opened until the surviving witnesses had been brought together and had acknowledged their seals.[22] It would then be opened and executed.

That the seven sealed book is a testament is noteworthy in that the primary meaning of diathēkē, the word usually translated “covenant” in the New Testament, is “testament.”[23] A secondary meaning from Aristophanes (427 B.C.) was “compact” or “covenant.”[24] However, the translators of the Septuagint, the Greek translation of the Hebrew Old Testament made beginning about 250 B.C., chose diathēkē to translate berith the Hebrew word for covenant instead of suntheke, the normal Greek word for “contract” or “covenant.” [25] (Specifically the Hebrew word for “covenant,” berith, is translated by diathēkē 268 times and by sunthēkē once.[26])

The testamentary nature of the Old Testament covenants is particularly evident in the covenants dealing with dynastic succession. A ratification of the covenant was undertaken when there was a change of leaders in Israel.[27] The great king in the ancient Near East appointed his successor while he was still alive and then obligated his vassals by a treaty to recognize his successor.[28] This same form was followed in Israel as in Deuteronomy 31-Joshua 1, Joshua 23-24, I Samuel 12, I Chronicles 22-29, II Kings 11.[29] From the viewpoint of the subject people, the treaty of a suzerain guaranteeing loyalty to his successor was an expression of their covenantal relationship to their king. However, from the viewpoint of the royal son(s), the treaty was testamentary. It was not in force until the testator died.

The identification of the seven-sealed book as a testament is consonant with the rest of Scripture. The New Testament frequently speaks of the church as gaining possession of its future blessings under the figure of an inheritance and, accordingly, uses the language of a testamentary disposition. In Roman law the appointment of an heir was the primary element in a testament.[30] Therefore, Hebrews 1:1-2 tells us that God has appointed His Son “heir of all things.” Just as the Roman father made his children his heirs so Romans 8:16-17 states, “The Spirit bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, heirs also, heirs of God and fellow-heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him that we may also be glorified with Him” Paul adds in Galatians 4:7, “Therefore you are no longer a slave, but a son; and if a son, then an heir through God.” As a matter of fact, every New Testament writer with the exception of Jude uses this figure of speech.[31]

What is the inheritance which God’s people will receive? In Daniel 7, the parallel passage to Revelation 4-5, the specific parallel to Christ’s receiving the book from God the Father (Rev. 5:8) is His receiving a kingdom[32] (Dan. 7:14) which in turn is given to the saints (Dan. 7:27). In Matthew 25:34 Christ says, “Come, you who are blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world”[33] (cf. also Matt. 21:33-44; Luke 22:29-30; I Cor. 6:9-10; 15:50; Gal. 5:21; Eph. 1:14; 5:5; Col. 1:5, 12-13; 3:24; Heb. 6:12; 9:15;[34] James 2:15; I Peter 1:3-4; Rev. 21:7). Thus, the inheritance contained in the testament is the kingdom.[35] This inheritance is still laid up in heaven (I Peter 1:4) and therefore the testament has not yet been opened and executed.[36]

When the seventh seal of the testament is opened in Revelation 8:1 one would expect to read about the inheritance of the kingdom. Instead John writes, “And I saw the seven angels who stand before God; and seven trumpets were given to them” (Rev. 8:2). As indicated above, these seven angels were no doubt the witnesses to the covenant/testament. Then in Revelation 8:5 we read, “And the angel took the censer; and filled it with the fire of the altar and threw it to the earth.” This fire thrown to the earth was a fire ordeal to determine who is worthy to inherit the kingdom. As will be discussed later, fire ordeals were a common judicial procedure in the Ancient Near East to identify the guilty and to vindicate the innocent.[37] The seven witness-angels announce the results of the fire ordeal. The first six angels announce that each of God’s enemies is found unworthy to inherit the kingdom. The “the seventh angel sounded; and there arose loud voices in heaven saying, ‘The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ; and He will reign forever and ever’” (Rev. 11:5). Then will commence the millennial reign of Christ when in fulfillment of the promise of Genesis 1:28, the earth will be filled with the children of God, the earth will be subdued and God’s people will exercise dominion over the earth and its creatures. The Messianic Second Adam will have fulfilled the promise of Genesis 1:28 in history.[38]

Because it pleased God to make both the first and second Adams the federal representatives of corporate humanity, the obedient performance of the covenant obligation would have the result that all whom they represented would share the proposed grant of kingdom glory. In the case of the first Adam all the predestined mankind that should descend from him were represented by him in his covenant and would have shared the blessing of the kingdom if he had been obedient. In the case of the second Adam, the Lord Jesus, not all mankind is elect in Him and represented by Him in His covenant. Therefore only those elect through sovereign grace will be the beneficiaries of the eternal glory bestowed through His obedience.[39]

2. The Deposit of the Text

Just as ancient treaties were deposited with the nation’s gods in their temple, so God is the one who keeps possession of the covenant in His temple/throne room (Rev. 5:1). When at last “the kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our God and of His Christ. . . the temple of God which is in heaven was opened and the ark of his covenant appeared in his temple” (Rev. 11:15-19). God will have fulfilled every covenant promise.

1. Witnesses

Elsewhere in Scripture the Holy Spirit is frequently pictured in the role of covenant witness.[40] The witnesses to international treaties typically included all of the gods of both the suzerain and the vassal. Here the Holy Spirit was the divine witness to the covenant. It was the responsibility of the witnesses to ensure that the blessings and curses contained in the treaty were carried out.[41] Therefore it is significant that it is the Holy Spirit who applies the benefits of salvation to God’s people. When Hebrews 9:14 speaks of “the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit, offered Himself without blemish to God,” this is a reference to the Holy Spirit’s role as a witness to the covenant ensuring that the covenantal curses deserved by all of God’s people were laid upon the Messianic Lamb of God. It will be shown later, for example, that the Holy Spirit was the witness to the covenant between God and Adam and Eve before the Fall.[42]

“The seven angels who stand before God” (Rev. 8:2) were no doubt the seven witnesses required by later Roman law.[43] Beginning with the intertestamental book I Enoch, angels are identified as covenant witnesses.[44] Later in the Dead Sea Scroll documents of the Manual of Discipline and the Damascus Document, angels have the role of witnesses and guarantors of the covenant, executing its curses on those who have broken their oath.[45] John mentions the angel-witnesses at this point to indicate that all legal requirements for the opening of the testament/covenant have been met. Since the covenant was composed by God, it would be only natural that the seven witnesses would be “the seven angels who stand before God” (Rev. 8:2).[46] These were the natural available witnesses in addition to the divine witness of the Holy Spirit.

1. The Oath and Sacrifice

In a suzerainty treaty the vassal king took an oath of allegiance to the great king. In the ancient Near East, the oath often took the form of a ritual[47] frequently involving cutting.[48] Cutting was so central to covenant making in the Bible that the Hebrew verb for “making” a covenant is the word “cut.” In Jesus’ death “He was cut off out of the land of the living, for the transgression of [his] people to whom the stroke was due” (Isa 53:8). Other oath rituals were symbolic. In the Abrahamic Covenant God took the oath by passing between the divided (cut) carcasses of sacrificial animals. By so doing, God was symbolically swearing, “If I am not faithful of this covenant, may I experience the curse of being cut apart like these animals.” In the oath ritual of the cross, Christ was not simply saying, “May I experience the curse of death if I am unfaithful to my covenant with my Father.” He vicariously experienced the curse of death for all his people. In Christ’s oath ritual, he demonstrated his total allegiance to God the Father by being obedient unto death on the cross (Phil 2:8). This ratified his covenant with his Father and was foundational to all God’s covenants of grace with his people.[49] It is because of his perfect obedience unto death that “God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him, the name which is above every name” (Phil 2:9) and that one day “every tongue [will] confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father (Phil 2:11). It was by this sacrificial death that he “purchase[d] for God with [His] blood men from every tribe and tongue and people and nation…and…made them to be a kingdom and priests to our God” (Rev 5:10).

[1] Charles Hodge, Systematic Theology (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1952), II: 359-62; William G. T. Shedd, Dogmatic Theology (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, n.d.), II:359-63; L. Berkhof, Systematic Theology (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1959), 265-71.

[2]Meredith G. Kline, Kingdom Prologue (published by the author, 1993), 87.

[3] Kline, Kingdom Prologue, 139.

[4] Kline, Kingdom Prologue, 234-35.

[5] Cf. Michael Horton, Introducing Covenant Theology (Grand Rapids: Baker, 2009), 45.

[6] G. K. Beale, The Book of Revelation: A Commentary on the Greek Text (The New International Greek Testament Commentary. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1999), 701-2.

[7] The NIV Study Bible, 788.

[8] Hodge, Systematic Theology, 2:360-61.

[9] Kline, Kingdom Prologue, 86-87.

[10] Berkhof, Systematic Theology, 266.

[11] Wayne Grudem, Systematic Theology (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1994), 518.

[12] See the discussion in Chapter 3.

[13] Cf. Kline, Kingdom Prologue, 89-90.

[14] Kline, Kingdom Prologue, 87.

[15] See the discussion in Chapter 3.

[16] Grudem, Systematic Theology, p. 518; L. Berkhof, Systematic Theology, 270.

[17] Kline, Kingdom Prologue, 87.

[18] E. Michael Rusten, “A Critical Evaluation of Dispensational Interpretations of the Book of Revelation, (unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, New York University, 1977), 278-85.

[19] Ulpian, Fragm. Vatic. 23.6; 28.6; Gaius Inst. 2.119, 147; Justinian, Inst. 2.10. 1-14; Ferdinand Mackeldey, Handbook of Roman Law (Philadelphia: T. and J. W. Johnson and Co., 1883), 514-17, Theodore Zahn, Die Offenbarung des Johannes (2 vols., Leipzig: A. Deichertsche Verbuchhandlung Dr. Werner Scholl, 1924-26), I:340-42; Theodor Zahn, Introduction to the New Testament, 3 vols.; (Grand Rapids: Kregel, 1953), III:393-96; Ethelbert Stauffer, Christ and the Caesars (Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1955), 181-83, G. R. Beasley-Murray, “The Revelation,” The New Bible Commentary Revised (Ed. by D. Guthrie and J. A. Motyer (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1970), 1288; George E. Ladd, A Theology of the New Testament (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1974), 623; Emmet Russell, “A Roman Law Parallel to Revelation Five,” Bibliotheca Sacra CXV (July, 1958), 258-64. Cf. Glenn W. Barker, William L. Lane and J. Ramsey Michaels, The New Testament Speaks (New York: Harper and Row, 1969), 371; G. K. Beale, The Book of Revelation (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1989) 339-48.

[20] Mackeldey, Handbook of Roman Law, 516; Adolph Berger “Encyclopedic Dictionary of Roman Law,” Transactions of the American Philosophical Society, New Series, LXIII Part 2: (1953), 707.

[21] Zahn, Introduction to the New Testament, III, 406; George E. Ladd, A Commentary on the Book of Revelation (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1963), 80. Cf. Gaii Institutionum Iuris Civilis Comentarii Quattor or Gaius, Elements of Roman Law, trans. and ed. by Edward Poste (Oxford: Clarenden Press, 1890), 293.

[22] Berger, “Encyclopedic Dictionary of Roman Law,” 707.

[23] Liddell and Scott, A Greek-English Lexicon, 394.

[24] Liddell and Scott, A Greek-English Lexicon, 395.

[25] J. Barton Payne, “Covenant (In the New Testament),” Zondervan Pictorial Dictionary of the Bible, I: 995-96; Liddell and Scott, A Greek- English Dictionary, 1717.

[26] Hatch and Redpath, A Concordance to the Septuagint and the Other Greek Versions of the Old Testament, I:300-302:II:1316.

[27] Klaus Baltzer, The Covenant Formulary, (Oxford, Basil Blackwell, 1971), 97.

[28] Baltzer, Covenant Formulary, 81-82.

[29] Baltzer, Covenant Formulary, 63-83; Kline, Treaty of the Great King (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1963) 27-44.

[30] Ibid., 733.

[31] Cf. Zahn, New Testament Introduction, III, 394.

[32] Cf. Psalm 2:8.

[33] In Matthew 25:46 inheriting the kingdom is equated with eternal life. Cf. Mark 10:17, 23.

[34] Note that in Hebrews 9:15 Israel inherits the kingdom.

[35] James D. Hester, Paul’s Concept of Inheritance: A Contribution to the Understanding of Heilsgeschichte, Scottish Journal of Theology Occasional Papers, No. 14 (Edinburgh: Oliver and Boyd, 1968), 36-104.

[36] Zahn, Introduction to the New Testament, 394.

[37] Tikva S. Frymer-Krensky, “The Judicial Ordeal in the Ancient Near East” (PhD diss., Yale University, 1977).

[38] Rusten, “Revelation,” 366-437.

[39] Kline, Kingdom Prologue, 87-88.

[40] Cf. Meredith M. Kline, “The Holy Spirit as Covenant Witness,” (Th.M. Thesis, Westminster Theological Seminary, Philadelphia, 1972); Kline, Kingdom Prologue, 128-29.

[41] George E. Mendenhall and Gary A. Herion, “Covenant,” Anchor Bible Dictionary, 1:1181.

[42] See Chapter 4.

[43] Rusten, “Revelation,” 359.

[44] Baltzer, Covenant Formulary, 24

[45] Baltzer, Covenant Formulary, 105-13.

[46] Rusten, “Revelation,” 360.

[47] Hugenberger, Marriage, 194.

[48] Hillers, Covenant, 40-41.

[49] Kline, Covenant, 153.