By Jill Szoo Wilson
This infographic emerged from my ongoing study of the covenantal structure of Scripture and the Jewish foundations of the New Testament.
The deeper I study the Tanakh, the writings of Paul, and the world of Second Temple Judaism, the more unified the biblical narrative becomes. The New Testament presents itself not as a fundamentally new story detached from Israel’s Scriptures, but as the ongoing fulfillment of Israel’s covenantal and messianic story. It reaches back constantly into the Torah, the Prophets, and the Writings, drawing upon covenantal themes already embedded within Israel’s history, worship, kingdom expectations, sacrificial system, and prophetic imagination.
The covenant with Noah establishes God’s preservation of creation after the flood. The Abrahamic Covenant becomes the foundational redemptive covenant through which God promises land, descendants, and blessing to the nations through Abraham’s offspring. The Mosaic Covenant forms Israel into a covenant people at Sinai, while the Davidic Covenant establishes the promise of an enduring kingdom through the line of David. The New Covenant, foretold most explicitly in Jeremiah 31, introduces the promise of forgiveness, internal transformation, and the writing of God’s law upon the heart.
This covenantal continuity remains central to the writings of Paul the Apostle. In Romans 11, Gentile believers are described as branches grafted into the olive tree of Israel, sharing in promises that do not originate with them. Galatians likewise returns repeatedly to Abrahamic covenant language to explain how the nations participate in God’s covenantal promises through Israel’s Messiah.
Taken together, the biblical covenants reveal one unfolding story stretching from Genesis to Revelation: one covenantal narrative, one redemptive movement, and one Messiah bringing that story toward its appointed fulfillment.
Jill Szoo Wilson 