Some theologians teach that there are two additional covenants which are not included on the diagram in part 17 of this study. Because I have received questions about them, I have included this addendum to put forward my stand concerning them. It is my conviction that these are not covenants at all. I ask not that you agree with me, only that you prayerfully consider my point-of-view and study it out for yourself.

The ingredients of covenant

As we know, two parties in relationship with each other become one when they cut covenant with each other. There is mutual love, devotion, agreement, and a complete giving of themselves to the other. During the covenant ceremony blood or a blood substitute like salt or wine is blended and shared. 

1. The Edenic Covenant

The Scripture that is given for this ‘covenant’ is: 

Genesis 1:26-30 (NKJV) Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. Then God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” 

And God said, “See, I have given you every herb that yields seed which is on the face of all the earth, and every tree whose fruit yields seed; to you it shall be for food. Also, to every beast of the earth, to every bird of the air, and to everything that creeps on the earth, in which there is life, I have given every green herb for food”; and it was so.

Genesis 2:16-17 (NKJV) And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, “Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”

As I have examined these Scriptures, I have searched for the necessary ingredients of covenant and been unable to find any. There is no sign of agreement from Adam or Eve; quite the contrary, in fact, because their disobedience would imply disagreement with God’s command. There is no indication of a mutual relationship between them and God in these verses. There is no cutting of covenant or sharing of anything, no blending together and becoming one with God.

2. The Adamic Covenant

The Scripture that is given for this ‘covenant’ is: 

Genesis 3:16-19 (NKJV) To the woman He said: “I will greatly multiply your sorrow and your conception; In pain you shall bring forth children; Your desire shall be for your husband, And he shall rule over you.” Then to Adam He said, “Because you have heeded the voice of your wife, and have eaten from the tree of which I commanded you, saying, ‘You shall not eat of it’: “Cursed is the ground for your sake; In toil you shall eat of it All the days of your life. Both thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you, And you shall eat the herb of the field. In the sweat of your face you shall eat bread Till you return to the ground, For out of it you were taken; For dust you are, And to dust you shall return.” 

These verses certainly do not outline any covenant either. Once again, there is no sign of agreement from Adam or Eve. There is no indication of a mutual relationship between them and God in these verses. There is no cutting of covenant or sharing of anything, no blending together and becoming one with God. Instead, these verses describe the consequences of mankind’s disobedience to God’s command. 

As we read further in Genesis 3, verse 21 tells us that God made tunics of skin for Adam and Eve to wear as clothing. Many great Bible teachers teach that the blood that was shed for these animals to die to provide those skins is the blood of the covenant. I respectfully disagree because the blood of a covenant is never shed after the covenant is already broken. Instead, the blood is always shed when the two parties become one. If the covenant is broken then blood has to be shed again, this time by the offender as he dies the death penalty for breaking the covenant. 

Adam broke the law (God’s command), not a covenant. Death was the penalty for breaking that law but his death was postponed 930 years because innocent animals died in his place (atonement). The blood of those animals that were killed for Adam and Eve’s tunics is indeed a beautiful picture of atonement, but not of covenant. Atonement is a subject that we will study when we look at the covenant with Noah.

Furthermore, as we know, the Bible itself does not call any of these events “covenants”. The Bible first introduces covenant over a thousand years later: in the days of Noah. That, combined with the fact that the patterns, rituals, and ingredients of covenant are simply not found in either of these two so-called covenants, convinces me that neither of these qualifies as a covenant.