ἡ καινὴ διαθήκη. Hence the name of the New Testament. The word διαθήκη (Heb. Berîth) means both a will, and an agreement or covenant, see Jeremiah 31:31. “It contains all the absolute elements of the one, with the conditional elements of the other. Hence the New Testament (καινὴ διαθήκη) is the revelation of a new relation on God’s part with the conditions necessary to its realisation on man’s part.” Fairbairn.

ἐν τῷ αἵματί μου. I.e. ratified by my blood shed for you. The best comment is Hebrews 9:15; Hebrews 9:18-22; 1 Corinthians 11:25. The other Synoptists have “my blood of the New Testament.”

τὸ ὑπὲρ ὑμῶν ἐκχυννόμενον. The participle (by what is called hypallage or the abnormal relation of words in a sentence) agrees with the αἶμα in αἵματι. Otherwise we must suppose that by metonymy it agrees with ποτήριον, ‘cup,’ in the sense of ‘the contents of the cup.’ See Winer, p. 791.

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Old Testament