Hebrews 7:22

of a better testament A clearer rendering would be "By so much better was the covenant of which Jesus has been made surety." The words which might be taken as the keynote of the whole Epistle should undoubtedly be rendered "of a better covenant" The Greek word diathçkçis the rendering of the Hebrew Berîth, which means a covenant. Of "testaments" the Hebrews knew nothing until they learnt the custom of "making a will" from the Romans. So completely was this the case that there is no word in Hebrew which means "a will," and when a writer in the Talmud wants to speak of a "will," he has to put the Greek word diathçkçin Hebrew letters. The Hebrew berîthis rendered diathçkçin the LXX., and "covenant" by our translators at least 200 times. When we speak of the "Old" or the "New Testament" we have borrowed the word from the Vulgate or Latin translation of St Jerome in 2 Corinthians 3:6. The only exception to this meaning of diathçkçis in Hebrews 9:15-17. Of the way in which Jesus is "a pledge of this "better covenant," see Hebrews 7:25 and Hebrews 8:1; Hebrews 8:6; Hebrews 9:15; Hebrews 12:24. The word for "pledge" (ἔγγυος) occurs here alone in the N.T., but is found in Sir 29:15.