De Jager
Puritan Board Junior
The thrust of this passage is that the priesthood of Christ is better than the Levitical priesthood. Yes, the author proves this by showing that Abraham (the father of Levi) was blessed by Melchizedek. However, the comparison is clearly between the New Covenant and that of Sinai. In no way is the author using this reasoning to disparage the covenant of circumcision.Thanks for sharing your thoughts Ethan. Note an important point that you just made: The Abrahamic and New Covenants are not the same covenants. The ratification/establishment of the Abrahamic Covenant was not the ratification/establishment of the New Covenant. Importantly, the ratification/establishment of the New Covenant meant the end of the Old (Mosaic) Covenant, while the ratification/establishment of the Abrahamic Covenant of Circumcision did not. The author of Hebrews says this is because the New Covenant was established on better promises than the Old (regeneration and justification). The author of Hebrews also says that Jesus is the guarantor of a better covenant specifically because His priesthood is not derived from Abraham (7:1-21). Abraham ("him who had the promises") was inferior to Melchizedek. The New Covenant is "better" because Jesus' priesthood is superior to Abraham (7:6-7). Jesus is not the guarantor of the Covenant of Circumcision, but of the New "better" Covenant.
Concerning Galatians (and I would say the same applies to Hebrews), T. David Gordon argues
I believe Paul's argument in Galatians is much more nuanced than saying Christians are part of the Abrahamic Covenant of Circumcision. Rather, I believe Paul is making an intra-Abrahamic argument, distinguishing between the different promises to the different seed (Gal 3:16), demonstrating that the promise to bless all nations in Abraham refers to Christ, not to his numerous offspring (Jews). Receiving the blessing of the nations comes through Christ, not by being a circumcised offspring of Abraham (as the land promise required).
The Abrahamic Covenant of Circumcision and the New Covenant relate, not as two phases of the same covenant, but as historia salutis and ordo salutis. The Covenant of Circumcision promised that the Christ would come from Abraham (and the Davidic narrowed that down, promising that the Christ would be a Jew from the line of David) and that he would bless the nations. However, the actual blessing (ordo salutis) comes through union with Christ (the New Covenant). The Judaizers erred in believing that in order to receive the blessing of the nations one had to become a Jew by being circumcised like the physical offspring of Abraham because 430 years prior to the law (which circumcision obligates one to obey and which conditioned reception of the Abrahamic land promise) God promised that salvation would come through the New Covenant.
The Abrahamic inheritance of the land of Canaan by his physical offspring (what the Covenant of Circumcision promised, in part) was typological of the eschatological inheritance through Christ. Thus Paul argues with the heirs of the sub-eschatological promise to Abraham that the heirs of the eschatological promise are those who are in Christ.
Furthermore, the Covenant of Circumcision promised a lot more than just the fact that the Christ would physically come from Abraham's loins. Again, the very fact that circumcision is called a sign and seal of the righteousness of faith by Paul in Romans 4 emphasizes this. Moreover, the Jews are admonished to "circumcise their hearts" by Moses, which is clearly picked up on by Paul in Romans 2:29 - "a Jew is one inwardly, and circumcision is a matter of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the letter. His praise is not from man but from God.". Therefore, the sign of circumcision pointed also to regeneration and justification - which means that the covenant of circumcision also promised these things, for the sign always points to spiritual realities beyond itself. I believe that you are espousing a very reductionistic view to the covenant of circumcision which is not warranted by the biblical data.