NT Text: Luke 22:20
OT Source(s):
Source: Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Reference Type: Allusion
Connection Method(s): Typology + Contrast + Longitudinal Theme
Anchor Text: Exod 24:8 — The Blood of the Covenant
Significance: At the Last Supper Jesus deliberately invokes the Sinai covenant ratification. In Exodus 24:8 Moses sprinkles sacrificial blood on the people and declares, "This is the blood of the covenant that the LORD has made with you." Jesus echoes that formula precisely over the cup: "This cup is the new covenant in My blood, which is poured out for you" (Luke 22:20). The shared phrase "blood of the covenant" makes the dependence unmistakable, and the recorded triad of methods all operate at once. Typology: the Sinai blood-rite is the institution that the cross fulfills, the blood that inaugurates a covenant. Contrast: the old covenant's blood was of animals, sprinkled externally and powerless to perfect the conscience, whereas Jesus' is his own blood, and he names it the new covenant — the covenant promised in Jeremiah 31:31 (cited in this pair) that would write the law on the heart and forgive sin once for all. Longitudinal Theme: this is the climax of the canon-wide covenant trajectory. The escalation is from the blood of bulls binding Israel to law at the mountain, to the blood of the Son "poured out for you" securing forgiveness and inward renewal. The savoring is in the cup itself — Christ does not merely mediate the covenant, he is the sacrifice that establishes it, giving his own life-blood so that his people might be his own.