‘That it might lead and direct men unto Christ’: John Owen’s View of the Mosaic Covenant

In this essay, I will examine John Owen’s (1616-1683) thought on the Mosaic covenant, which is generally understood as a bilateral covenant between God and Israel at the time when Moses was the human leader of the Israelites, thus termed the Mosaic covenant. Sometimes it is called Sinaitic covenant because this covenant was given at Mount Sinai. Owen however calls this covenant the old covenant in contrast to the new or better covenant of Hebrews eight.[2] This sometimes confuses readers because Owen also uses the same term to refer to the covenant of works.[3] However, while the designations Mosaic, Sinaitic, and old covenants may be synonymous, I will employ the former.

To continue reading the article, see Brian G. Najapfour, “‘[T]hat it might lead and direct men unto Christ’: John Owen’s View of the Mosaic Covenant,” Scottish Bulletin of Evangelical Theology 29, no. 2 (2011): 196-204.