A covenant binds two parties by oath and often blood, and does not require them to be equals or to have negotiated anything.
Hebrew berith covers a huge range: a treaty between kings, a friendship pact between Jonathan and David, a marriage, God's promise to Noah never to flood the earth again. What holds these together isn't equality of the parties but the oath and ceremony sealing them. Genesis 15 shows the ritual behind the word literally - animals cut in half, the parties passing between the pieces, as if saying "may this happen to me if I break faith."
Greek diatheke, the word behind the New Testament's "covenant," is sharper. Ordinary Greek for a mutual agreement between equals was syntheke. Diatheke meant something closer to a will - one person's binding disposition, taking effect on their death, with no negotiation involved. Septuagint translators reached for diatheke to render berith anyway, and New Testament writers kept it, tilting the word toward God's initiative rather than a bargain struck between two sides.
On that day the LORD made a covenant with Abram, saying, “To your descendants I have given this land—from the river of Egypt to the great River Euphrates—
The cutting ceremony behind the word, with God alone passing between the pieces.
So Moses took the blood, splattered it on the people, and said, “This is the blood of the covenant that the LORD has made with you in accordance with all these words.”
Blood is thrown on the people to seal the covenant at Sinai.
Behold, the days are coming, declares the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah.
God promises a new covenant, unlike the one broken at Sinai.
In the case of a will, it is necessary to establish the death of the one who made it, because a will does not take effect until the one who made it has died; it cannot be executed while he is still alive.
The writer trades on diatheke meaning both covenant and will, which takes effect at death.
English splits one Greek word into two: "covenant" for God's dealings with people, "testament" (from Latin testamentum) for naming the Bible's two halves. That hides the fact that Old and New Testament and Old and New Covenant translate the identical Greek word, diatheke, and that Hebrews plays deliberately on its double sense of covenant and will.
People hear "covenant" and picture a contract, two sides negotiating terms they both agreed to. Most biblical covenants aren't that. God commits himself to Abraham unilaterally while Abraham is asleep, and the promise to David runs the same way - a grant, not a deal struck between equal partners.
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