The Eternal Covenant in the Hebrew Bible and Beyond

Marvin A. Sweeney's The Eternal Covenant in the Hebrew Bible and Beyond is a study of the Berit Olam, "The Eternal Covenant" or "The Covenant of the Creation of the World" in the Hebrew Bible and post-biblical Jewish thought. Although the concept of the Berit Olam is generally overlooked in most studies of Biblical Theology, Sweeney points to the Berit Olam as a foundational concept in the Hebrew Bible and post-biblical Jewish thought. The book studies the function of the Berit Olam in both the synchronic and diachronic dimensions of the Tanak, the Jewish form of the Hebrew Bible, including the Torah or Pentateuch, the Nevi'im or the Prophets, and the Ketuvim or the Writings. Within the Pentateuch, the Berit Olam expresses the ideals of ancient Israel and Judah; the Prophets point to the debate among the prophetic books of the Bible concerning the meaning of the disruption of those ideals; and the Writings express the restoration of those ideals in the aftermath of the Babylonian Exile. In the post-monarchic period, the Berit Olam emerges as a foundational concept of post-biblical Judaism that defines Judaism's understanding of its covenant with G-d and its relationship with the other nations and religions of the world, especially through the Talmudic Laws of Noah, the work of Moses Mendelssohn, and the emergence of modern Zionism.