New or Renewed?

Kainos, Greek word meaning new or unprecedented

2 Cor. 5:17 “Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come.”

Rev. 21:1 “Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth passed away…”

Rev. 3:12 “….the new Jerusalem, which comes down out of heaven…”

Heb. 8:8. “Finding fault with them, He says, “BEHOLD, DAYS ARE COMING, SAYS THE LORD, WHEN I WILL EFFECT A NEW COVENANT…NOT LIKE THE COVENANT WHICH I MADE WITH THEIR FATHERS ON THE DAY WHEN I TOOK THEM BY THE HAND TO LEAD THEM OUT OF THE LAND OF EGYPT…”

Some teach that when Jesus spoke of a new covenant as in Luke 22:20b, “…This cup which is poured out for you is the new covenant in My blood,” that He meant renewed, similar to a new moon. The moon never actually goes away, it simply renews itself each month. They need it to mean renewed to nullify the idea that Jesus was somehow doing away with the old covenant. If Jesus were doing away with the old covenant, then that would mean the terms of the old covenant were no longer guaranteed and likewise the requirements of fulfilling the covenant were also subject to change.

If Jesus were renewing the old covenant, then we are all subject to fulfilling its requirements.

However, the Greek word kainos is always used to mean brand new. Or else we are only renewed creatures with renewed things having come, there is coming only a renewed heaven & renewed earth, and only a renewed Jerusalem. Other uses would mean putting renewed wine in renewed wineskins (yuck!), Jesus was laid in a renewed tomb. In Mark 1:27, it would read, “What is this? A renewed teaching with authority! He commands even unclean spirits, and they obey Him.”

It doesn’t fit in any instances. Even the Greek word for renewing as used in biblical sense means renovation, complete change for the better.

Finally, even the prophet Jeremiah before Jesus was even born, spoke of this special new covenant. The word used in Hebrew in this case is chadash. Surely it means renewed? Nope. It means new, fresh. And in other Hebrew passages it would have to say a renewed king over Egypt, renewed grain offering, renewed wife, renewed ropes to bind Sampson, and singing renewed songs, to name a few. But, it doesn’t.

There is simply no getting around the fact that Jesus said and meant “New” and all the implications therein. We must read what Scripture says, not what we want it to say.