作者：Meredith G. Kline 译者：王一
学者们已经集中研究并讨论了圣经里的约以及古代国家条约领域的课题，因此，在这里我们对这些在圣经出现的“约”进行一些介绍性的讨论。我们的主要讨论的是有上帝作为立约方的约。
Because
the subject of biblical covenants and ancient treaties has been under intensive
investigation and lively dispute, some introductory observations are in order
here about the nature of those biblical arrangements we call
"covenants." Our chief interest in these comments is in those
covenantal arrangements in which God was one party.
“约”在旧约圣经里最主要的是用希伯来字בְּרִית（berith，中文音译过来为“比利土”），这个字在新约圣经里被新约圣经的作者们翻译成διαθήκη （diatheke）。 这个berith有什么特殊的地方，为什么要用这个字？
Of
the biblical words usually rendered "covenant" the primary one in the
Old Testament is the Hebrew berith, for which the Greek diatheke was the
translation choice of the New Testament writers. What is it that constitutes
the peculiar berith-character of that which is so denominated?
我们在圣经里经常看到有berith被建立。建立berith的过程常常伴随着庄严的仪式来使其生效。一般来说，整个过程的重点是起誓，其中包括了有制裁力的咒诅。很明显， berith是一种法律性的安排，是有约束力的正式规定。在berith的核心是承诺或保证，而承诺通常是以起誓的形式给出，这就体现了berith的宗教性质。Berith不是世俗合同，而是神圣的事，有上帝的见证和强制力。
Repeatedly
we read of a berith being "made." The berith-making is accomplished
through a solemn process of ratification. Characteristically this transaction
centers in the swearing of an oath, with its sanctioning curse. Clearly a
berith is a legal kind of arrangement, a formal disposition of a binding
nature. At the heart of a berith is an act of commitment and the customary
oath-form of this commitment reveals the religious nature of the transaction.
The berith arrangement is no mere secular contract but rather belongs to the
sacred sphere of divine witness and enforcement.
因此，这种被称为berith的法律性规定是指上帝附加奖惩条款的承诺。在上帝与人之间所立的约里，不论是上帝亲自赐下承诺，还是当人类奉其名在他面前许下承诺时做他们的见证人，上帝的参与本身就包含了神圣制裁力。
The
kind of legal disposition called berith consists then in a divinely sanctioned
commitment. In the case of divine-human covenants the divine sanctioning is
entailed in God's participation either as the one who himself makes the commitment
or as the divine witness of the human commitment made in his name and presence.
圣经多处提到遵守、纪念berith，或者背弃、违背berith。这就证明了berith的基本含义就是带有责任的承诺并履行承诺。事实上，这两种对待berith的方式，即遵守或违反它，是最引人注目也是最具说服力的概念。并且，berith的常见同义词חֶסֶד （chesed ）有忠诚或守信的含义，有时与另一个词אֶמֶת（’emeth“真理”）连用表示强调。
A
good indication that the act of commitment with the obligations thus undertaken
is basic to the meaning of berith is provided by the numerous statements about
keeping and remembering the berith or being false to it and transgressing it.
In fact, the two possible ways of treating a berith, by observing or violating
it, are the most conspicuous and pervasive ideas found in immediate association
with that term in the Bible. Also, a common synonym for berith is chesed with
its connotation, if not primary force, of loyalty and fidelity, underscored at
times by its combination with the term, 'emeth, "truth."
此外，一些表示誓言（或咒诅）的词常被用作berith的近义词，指出承诺在berith里的中心地位，尤其是起誓而立的承诺。例如，摩西把以色列民聚集在摩押平原教导他们说：“你们站在这里为要进入耶和华你们的神今日与你们所立的约，进入他的誓言咒诅里。”（申29:12，作者重译）。在《以西结书》15章里，上帝用婚姻寓指西奈山之约，他说：“我向你起誓，与你立约”（8节，新译本）。Berith也可以用作起誓动作的直接宾语（参申4:31; 7:12; 8:18）。也参考《创世记》26:28。Further, pointing to the centrality of commitment and
specifically oath-commitment in the berith arrangement is the common use of
words for oath (or curse) as synonyms for berith. For example, Moses instructs
Israel assembled in the plains of Moab: "(You stand here) to enter into
the covenant of Yahweh your God and into his oath-curse which Yahweh your God
is making with you this day" (Deut 29:12[11]). In the marriage allegory of
the Sinaitic Covenant in Ezekiel 16 the Lord says: "I sware unto you and
entered into a covenant with you" (v. 8). Berith may also be the direct
object of the verb of swearing (cf. Deut 4:31; 7:12; 8:18). See also Genesis
26:28.
Berith很明确是通过起誓而许的承诺，所以起誓仪式通常可以表示设立berith。典型的立约仪式是杀死动物并把动物劈开，这象征着咒诅将会落到违背誓言的一方，因此“切一个berith”就成为立约的惯用语。
So
much was oath-commitment definitive of the berith that the act of making a
berith was denoted by the imagery of the oath ritual performed when ratifying a
berith. Thus, since the characteristic ratification rite was one of slaying and
cutting up animals to symbolize the curse that would befall the breaker of the
oath, "cut a berith" became the idiom for this transaction.
语源学的研究或许也表明beirth一词里起誓承诺的含义，因为它原本的含义是“约束”（bond）。用这个词来表达旧约圣经里的各约，意味着其中起誓所产生的具有约束力的义务。把约视为约束的概念，可以参考《民数记》30:2起，特别是“约束性的起誓”（13节）。另外，约束和berith之间的联系，请留意“盟约的约束”这个短语（结20:37，新译本；参考耶27:2；但6:8）。但不论berith的词源到底是什么（这依旧有争议），这个词的意思通过新约圣经里的翻译就很明显。Diatheke意味着一种财产处理（disposition），特别是指遗嘱（在圣经之外的文献使用），而使用这个词来翻译berith就表示新约作者认为berith是一种庄严的许下承诺（solemnly transacted commitment）。
Etymology
possibly affords another indication of the oath-commitment significance of
berith, for its original meaning may well be "bond". Use of this term
for the Old Testament covenants would then have in view the binding obligation
undertaken in the ratificatory oath. For the idea of the oath as a bond see,
for example, Numbers 30:2ff. (3ff.), especially the expression "binding
oath" (v. 13[14]). And for the association of bond and berith note the phrase
"bond of the covenant" (Ezek 20:37; cf. Jer 27:2; Dan 6:8). But
whatever the etymology of berith (and this is still under debate), the proper
meaning of the word used to translate it in the New Testament is clear.
Diatheke means a disposition, especially (in extra-biblical usage) a testament,
and its use as a rendering for berith points to an understanding of the latter
as a solemnly transacted commitment.
圣经之外的古代文献证据也支持这种对berith的理解，特别是一些国家政治条约，这些条约与圣经里出现的圣约的形式对应建立在二者的立约仪式、文字记录以及执行程序上惊人的、全面的相似度上。这些相似的条约也常常被称为“约束（即义务）和誓言”。此外，建立这些约的过程也被称为切一个约，或者用其他的表达方式来描述某个特定的誓言咒诅的仪式上把某种特定的动物切开。
This
understanding of the meaning of berith is confirmed by the extra-biblical
evidence of analogous phenomena in the ancient world, particularly certain
political arrangements whose formal equivalence to the divine covenants in the
Bible is established by striking and extensive parallels in their ratificatory
rituals and documents and in their administrative procedures. For these similar
covenantal arrangements are regularly called "bonds (i.e., obligations)
and oaths." Moreover, the making of these covenants too is referred to as
a cutting of the covenant, or it is denoted by some expression descriptive of a
particular oath-curse ritual consisting in the dismemberment of some specific
animal.
（略译关于如何翻译Berith的问题。）
The
evidence for berith as an obligation solemnly undertaken or imposed has
increasingly impressed investigators of the matter and a vigorous case has been
made opposing as unwarranted the translating of berith by "covenant,"
with its connotation of relationship. It is even suggested that
"command" would be a suitable rendering, and in support of that is
the fact that "law" and various terms for commandment are employed as
synonyms for berith (cf. Jer 33:25). Those who defend the continued use of the
translation "covenant" have to acknowledge that berith is in the
first instance a matter of commitment (given or exacted). They contend,
however, that berith-arrangements are bilateral in that they involve negotiations
(even if one party sovereignly proclaims or imposes the terms) and that the
berith-making occurs in the context of an existing relationship or mutual
understanding, often a cordial relationship, which the berith then further
defines. It should be observed, too, that berith is not always used in its
simple primary and proper sense and that some justification for rendering it by
"covenant" can be found in the secondary extensions of its meaning.
For the idea of the act of oath-commitment, which may be obvious enough in
passages that deal with berith-making or ratification, shades off in other
passages into the idea of the contents of the commitment. And we can think of
those contents per se, or as written down as the text of a berith-document (we
find references in the Bible to the "words of the covenant,"
"the tables of the covenant," "the book of the covenant")
or as embodied in the order of life or the relationship that they promise or
stipulate. These nuances are so interrelated that it is difficult to say which
one is dominant in some passages. For possible examples of berith referring to
the contents, whether promissory or obligatory, see Exodus 31:16; Numbers 25:13
(cf. Neh 13:29; Mal 2:8); 2 Samuel 23:5 (cf. Ps 89:39); 1 Kings 20:34; and
Psalm 50:16. For possible examples of berith used for the resultant alliance or
relationship or order, see Genesis 17:4; Exodus 23:32; Job 5:23; Psalm 83:5(6);
Isaiah 28:15, 18; Ezekiel 30:5 and Hosea 12:1. In view of these secondary uses
of berith and because of the long and firmly established place of the word
"covenant" in English versions of the Bible and in theological
formulations it would seem expedient to continue to make use of
"covenant" in translating berith and diatheke.
上帝的圣约与上帝的国之间有着紧密的联系。约既然被视为通过仪式、文献、规定执行的承诺，那么约也是上帝执行君王统治的管理工具。实际上，二者的联系不止于此。我们已经看到，在一些经文里berith用来指约里的规定和奖惩在历史上真正的实现。因此约成为上帝执行其王权的一种方式，不论是作为君王的赏赐，赐下他的神圣国度给约民作他们的产业，还是治理世界秩序使所有人得到普遍的恩惠（如同创9章洪水后的普遍恩典之约）。从这个角度来看，约可以被用来命名圣约神学里的主要划分。
It
was stated earlier that there is a close connection between divine covenant and
divine kingdom. Viewed as commitment transactions with their rituals,
documents, and stipulated terms and procedures, covenants function as
administrative instruments of God's kingly rule. Indeed, the connection is
sometimes closer than this. As we have observed, berith in some passages
denotes the actual historical realization of the arrangement defined in the
covenantal stipulations and sanctions. Covenant thus becomes a particular
administration of God's kingship, whether in the bestowal of his holy kingdom
as a royal grant on a special covenant people as their peculiar inheritance or
in the sovereign government of a temporal world order whose benefits are common
to all alike (as in the postdiluvian common grace covenant of Gen 9). It is in
this sense that covenant is used to designate the major divisions of covenant
theology.
把不同的论证汇总起来，表明了berith首先是法律性，特别是指通过起誓建立，其中的规定由誓言约束，是有神圣制裁力的承诺。我们也看到，上帝的berith都有功能性的层面，这也使我们可以用约这个词来表达上帝国度的治理。
Converging
lines of evidence have indicated that what is designated berith is primarily a
legal disposition, characteristically established by oath and defined by the
terms specified in oath-bound, divinely sanctioned commitments. We have also
found that there is a functional aspect common to the divine berith transactions
which provides warrant for those engaged in theological analysis to employ the
term covenant in the sense of kingdom administration.
得出这些结论之后，我们要拒绝一些不合理缩减约的概念的做法。这些做法把一些特征当作约的必要核心部分，但这些特征并没有出现在所有berith里，这些特征或者涉及到立约承诺的本质或者是约所产生的秩序。
In
adopting these conclusions we are rejecting certain counterproposals in which
the covenant concept gets unduly restricted. These would make essential to the
definition of covenant as a biblical theological category features that are not
present in all berith arrangements, features pertaining to the substance of the
covenantal commitment or to the resultant covenantal order.
因此，关于立约承诺的本质，有人认为约必须是恩典和应许的施行（sovereign
administration of grace and promise）。但是，圣经里有一些berith不是以恩典的原则，而是以行为的原则执行的。例如在伊甸园里起初创世的秩序就是如此。在堕落后的人类历史中，我们看到既有行为之约也有恩典之约。我们需要从起生效誓言（ratification oath）一方的身份来判断某个约到底是哪一种类型。这里必须注意，不是所有立约承诺的誓言都是使约生效的誓言。例如，割礼的起誓仪式（创17）的角色是在亚伯拉罕之约上附加上一个封印，而亚伯拉罕之约本身已经在之前通过上帝的誓言生效了（创15）。更准确的讲，在堕落之后，判断一个约的治理原则是要看是否有人类起生效誓言，因为在所有上帝与人类之间的约中，不论是行为之约还是恩典之约，都暗含了上帝的誓言。然而，如果一个约是单独凭着上帝的誓言而生效的话，那它就是恩典之约，不论是救赎性的，还是普遍性的。而如果立约过程中包括了人类起生效誓言，例如在西奈山之约中以色列人的起誓（出24），这个约则是依据行为原则而立的。人起点生效誓言承诺自己会履行主加在他身上的责任义务，而在这种行为之约里，上帝的誓言则是承诺将要正确的实施奖励或制裁，用应许的祝福奖励顺服，用咒诅报应悖逆。限于当下所讨论的，我们只需要简单看出，有些圣经里的约是多样的，在定义约的时候，它们的根本特征，即带有上帝奖惩的承诺，不能以恩典和应许的承诺这样的定义来加以限制。
Thus,
with respect to the substance of the covenant commitment it has been held that
nothing is properly called covenant except sovereign administration of grace
and promise. However, as will be argued below, there are berith arrangements in
the Bible that are informed by the principle of works, the opposite of grace.
One of these is the original order in Eden. In postlapsarian history, where we
encounter covenants both of works and grace, the identity of the party who
takes the ratification oath is an indicator of which kind of covenant it is in
a particular case. It must be noted here that not all oaths of covenantal
commitment function as ratification oaths. For example, the role played by the
oath ritual of circumcision (Gen 17) is that of a supplementary seal added to
the Abrahamic Covenant, which had been ratified by God's oath on an earlier
occasion (Gen 15). More precisely, in the situation after the Fall it is the
presence or absence of a human oath of ratification that provides the clue as
to the governing principle, for divine oath is at least implicit in the
ratification of all divine-human covenants, whether of works or grace. If the
covenant is ratified by divine oath alone, it is a covenant of grace, either
saving or common. But when the covenant-making includes a human oath of
ratification, as in the case of Israel's oath in the Sinaitic Covenant (Exod
24), the arrangement is informed by the works principle. (On the complex
relation of works and grace in the old covenant, see further below.) Man's
ratificatory oath is a commitment to perform the obligations imposed by his
Lord, while the divine oath in such a works covenant is a commitment to enforce
the sanctions appropriately, rewarding obedience with the promised blessing and
recompensing disobedience with the threatened curse. But our immediate concern
is simply to observe that in view of the data indicating that some biblical
covenants are of the works variety, the fundamental feature of divinely
sanctioned commitment in our definition of covenant may not be restricted to
commitment of sovereign grace and promise.
另外，把一些因为立约而产生的东西纳入到约本身的做法也会导致不合理的限定约定神学定义。有人认为约的定义里主要元素应该是产生某种宗教关系，或者更精确一些，约就是上帝与选民在爱中的圣洁团契。如果我们把研究范围限制在那些上帝把他神圣国度赐给圣洁团体的那些约，那么我们可以合理的把这种神与人之间的联合相交纳入到约的扩展定义中来，并意识到这是在这些约中向我们保证的蒙福状态的顶点，所考虑是在上帝的荣耀下这些约的主要目的。然而，如果我们的定义是要囊括圣经里全部的圣约，这种特殊关系的特征就必须去掉，因为圣经里还包括普遍恩典之约（如创9），上帝承诺要维持生命秩序，但这个约中他并没有把国度赐给选民并与他们相交。
Improper
restriction of the biblical theological definition of the berith concept has
also occurred by inclusion of what is effected by the covenantal transaction.
Some suggest that the main component in this definition should be the effecting
of a religious relationship, more specifically, a holy fellowship in love
between God and a chosen people. If we were limiting our analysis to those
covenants in which God bestows his holy kingdom on a sanctified community, we
might properly include in an expanded definition of covenant this feature of
the union and communion of God and man in recognition that this is the acme of
blessedness secured in these covenants and the chief end in view, under the
glory of God. However, if our definition is intended to cover all the divine
covenants in Scripture, this feature of special relationship must be omitted,
for there is also the common grace covenant (cf. Gen 9) in which God commits
himself to maintain a certain order of life but does not therein bestow his
holy kingdom and communion on an elect people.
我们已经得到“约”的合理的定义，并意识到各圣约的次序是圣经神学的总体架构，现在的问题是，我们是否可以把圣经里没有被特定标注为berith或diatheke的关系称为约呢？这个问题有不同的形式。其中之一是传统的处理圣约神学的步骤，就是把救赎历史中每个单独的berith结合成一个综合的“约”，这个综合性的约常被称为恩典之约，其中包括从堕落到末了所有的救赎性的施行。一般公认在所有的独立的约中有一个根本的统一性，把这些约都囊括在综合性的恩典之约以下，因此辨识高层次的圣约统一性是非常合理的，因为甚至连圣经的作者们也这样系统化了各个约。例如，在《诗篇》105:9,10中（参王下13:23；代上16:16,17）作者实际上是说上帝分别与亚伯拉罕、以撒、雅各所立的各个约是一致的。另外，摩西在西奈山颁布的约，在摩押平原颁布的约以及后来在《约书亚记》24章和其他地方被多次重新颁布，在后来的旧约作者以及新约作者都把它们说成是耶和华与以色列之间的一个约，这个约被《希伯来书》的作者称为“前约”，与“新约”或“后约”作以对比（来8:6-8）。总的来说，系统的把各个约组织起来，用恩典之约这个词来表达各救赎性圣约之间的总体统一性，这种做法是有圣经先例的。
Once
we are satisfied that we have arrived at a proper concept of covenant and have
in mind employing the succession of divine covenants as a general scheme for a
biblical theology, the question arises whether we should classify as covenants
various arrangements that are not specifically labelled berith or diatheke in
the Bible. This problem takes a couple of different forms. One involves the
traditional procedure of covenant theology whereby the individual
berith-diatheke transactions of redemptive history are combined into ever more
comprehensive "covenant" entities, culminating in what is usually
called the Covenant of Grace, which encompasses all the redemptive
administrations from the Fall to the Consummation. If it is recognized that
there is a fundamental unity among all the individual covenants brought under
the overarching Covenant of Grace, the process of identifying higher levels of
covenantal unity is surely proper, for the biblical authors themselves already
did that kind of systematizing of the covenants. For example, in Psalm 105:9,10
(cf. 2 Kgs 13:23; 1 Chr 16:16,17) there is a virtual identifying of God's separate
covenantal transactions with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. And the separate
covenants enacted by Moses at Sinai and in Moab and the later renewals of this
arrangement in Joshua 24 and elsewhere in the Old Testament are repeatedly
spoken of by later Old Testament authors and by New Testament authors as one
covenant of the Lord with Israel, which the Book of Hebrews refers to as the
"first" over against the "new" or "second"
covenant (Heb 8:6-8). In principle then there is biblical precedent for the systematic
organizer of the covenants to identify the over-all unity of the redemptive
covenants by some such term as the Covenant of Grace.
