Commentary on Hebrews and the Catholic Epistles John Calvin
CHAPTER 8
brother, saying, Know the Lord: for all shall know me, from the least to the greatest.
11. Et non docebunt unusquisque civem suum et unusquisque fratrem suum, dicendo, Cognosce Dominum; quia omnes me scient a parvo inter vos usque ad magnum.
12. For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more.
12. Quoniam propitius ero injustitiis, et peccatorum eorum et iniquitatum non recordabor amplius.
13. In that he saith, A new covenant, he hath made the first old. Now that which decayeth and waxeth old is ready to vanish away.
13. Dicende novum antiquavit prius; quod autem antiquatur et veterascit prope est ut evanescat.
7. For if that first, etc. He confirms what he had said of the excellency of the covenant which God has made with us through Christ; and he confirms it on this ground, because the covenant of the Law was neither valid nor permanent; for if nothing was wanting in it, why was another substituted for it? But another has been substituted; and from this it is evident that the old covenant was not in every respect perfect. To prove this he adduces the testimony of Jeremiah, which we shall presently examine.
But it seems hardly consistent to say, that after having said that no place would have been sought for the second covenant, had the first been faultless, he should then say that the people were at fault, and that for this cause the new covenant was introduced as a remedy; and thus it appears unjust, that if the blame was in the people it should be transferred to God's covenant. Then the argument seems not valid, for though God might have a hundred times blamed the people, yet the covenant could not on that account be deemed faulty. The answer to this objection may be easily given. Though the crime of violating the covenant was justly imputed to the people, who had through their own perfidy departed from God, yet the weakness of the covenant is also pointed out, because it was not written in their hearts. Then, to render it perfect and valid, God declares that it needed an amendment. It was not, therefore, without reason that the Apostle contended that a place was to be sought for a second. 134
8. Behold, the days come, etc. (Jeremiah 31:31-34.) The Prophet speaks of future time; he arraigns the people of perfidy, because they continued not faithful after having received the Law. The Law, then, was the covenant which was broken, as God complains, by the people. To remedy this evil, he promised a new and a different covenant, the fulfillment of which prophecy was the ab-
134This apparent inconsistency is avoided by some by rendering the 8th verse differently, "But finding fault," that is, with the first covenant, "he" Chrysostom, Beza, Doddridge, our own version, as well as Calvin and the Vulgate, connect "them" with "finding fault with," and more correctly too; for the Israelites are blamed in the very passage that is quoted. There was a double fault or defect, which is explained in Romans 8:3, "For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh," etc. This double fault or weakness more fully sets forth the excellency of the new covenant. —Ed.