Verse 28
For this is my blood of the New Testament - This is the reading both here and in St. Mark; but St. Luke and St. Paul say, This cup is the New Testament in my blood. This passage has been strangely mistaken: by New Testament, many understand nothing more than the book commonly known by this name, containing the four Gospels, Acts of the Apostles, apostolical Epistles, and book of the Revelation; and they think that the cup of the New Testament means no more than merely that cup which the book called the New Testament enjoins in the sacrament of the Lord's Supper. As this is the case, it is highly necessary that this term should be explained. The original, Η Καινη Διαθηκη , which we translate, The New Testament, and which is the general title of all the contents of the book already described, simply means, the new Covenant. Covenant, from con , together, and venio , I come, signifies an agreement, contract, or compact, between two parties, by which both are mutually bound to do certain things, on certain conditions and penalties. It answers to the Hebrew ברית berith , which often signifies, not only the covenant or agreement, but also the sacrifice which was slain on the occasion, by the blood of which the covenant was ratified; and the contracting parties professed to subject themselves to such a death as that of the victim, in case of violating their engagements. An oath of this kind, on slaying the covenant sacrifice, was usual in ancient times: so in Homer, when a covenant was made between the Greeks and the Trojans, and the throats of lambs were cut, and their blood poured out, the following form of adjuration was used by the contracting parties: -
Ζευ κυδιϚε, μεγιϚε, και αθανατοι θεοι αλλοι,π
Οπποτεροι προτεροι υπερ ορκια πημηνειαν,π
Ωδε σφ ' εγκεφαλος χαμαδις ρεοι, ως οδε οινος,π
Αυτων, και τεκεων· αλοχοι δ ' αλλοισι μιγειεν .
All glorious Jove, and ye, the powers of heaven!
Whoso shall violate this contract first,
So be their blood, their children's and their own,
Poured out, as this libation, on the ground
And let their wives bring forth to other men!
Iliad l. iii. v. 298-301
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