ABSTRACT
A language informed by a covenantal vocabulary should indicate a covenantal culture and political tradition. Thus the exploration of the language of covenant has two primary purposes: to serve as a tracer to help determine the extent to which a particular culture, people or polity is covenantal and to help probe the deeper structure and meaning of the concept as it works in human society. A language with a proper covenantal vocabulary will have a widely used root term, several synonyms or parallel terms, and an extensive number of related terms and idioms. The Bible is rich in political terminology, as any close reading of the text in context reveals. Indeed it remains the prime source of Hebrew political terms, many of which have been transmitted with minimum change in meaning over the millennia. The great world languages such as Arabic, Chinese, French, and Spanish should also be examined for their treatment of the concept of covenant.
