Abstract: Although much has been taught about covenants in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, little attention has been given to the witnesses of those covenants. In this paper I focus on the importance of witnessing the covenants that we make with God — especially the gospel covenant — rather than on the process of making them. Instead of emphasizing the teachings of Latter-day Saint leaders and authors, I prioritize the standard works of the Church in my analysis of this topic. I begin with a discussion of covenants and witnesses in the Hebrew Bible, and then proceed with an examination of the same from the Book of Mormon. I identify the ordinances of baptism and the sacrament as witnesses of the gospel covenant and clarify that it is through the blood of Christ that we are cleansed from sin rather than through the waters of baptism. I conclude by observing the importance of faithfully witnessing the gospel covenant to serve God and keep his commandments.

From the earliest of times, God has established a pattern of covenant making with his people. Some Jewish scholars have even postulated that the first use of the word covenant in the Bible occurs in the very first word of the book of Genesis, בראשית (bereshit), translated as “In the beginning” in most English Bibles.1 Following this theory, the word אש (esh), or fire, is sandwiched between the four letters of the word for covenant ברית (brit). The result is בר-אש-ית (br-esh-it), which when rendered ברית אש (brit esh) means covenant of fire.

In antiquity, witnesses and testimonies (עדים, edim) or signs and tokens (אתת, otot) always accompanied and served as public evidences [Page 128]of these divine covenants. In fact, it is interesting that in the Book of Mormon only the secret combinations had secret signs:

And it came to pass that they did have their signs, yea, their secret signs and their secret words — and this that they might distinguish a brother who had entered into the covenant, that whatsoever wickedness his brother should do, he should not be injured by his brother, nor by those who did belong to his band who had taken this covenant. (Helaman 6:22)2

For the sake of simplicity, throughout this paper I refer to עדים (edim, witnesses or testimonies) and אתת (otot, signs or tokens) using the collective term witnesses of the covenant. These witnesses often served as reminders or as warnings to the people to be faithful to the covenantal agreement. In this paper, I discuss the principal covenants in the Hebrew Bible and the Book of Mormon, correlated with their associated witnesses.

While Latter-day Saint authors and Church leaders have written and spoken much about covenants, covenant-making, and covenant-keeping, the topic of covenantal witnesses has been largely overlooked. Hence, this paper will focus mainly on the witnesses of the covenant and will primarily rely on scriptural sources rather than on the sermons or writings of Latter-day Saint Church leaders or authors.

Old Testament Covenants and Witnesses

The Old Testament contains accounts of many covenants and witnesses to those covenants. These include Noah, Abraham, Sinai, Moab, the Transjordan witness, Shechem, and Nehemiah. Each of these are discussed in the following sections.

Noah

The first time that the word covenant (ברית, brit) is used explicitly in the Bible is when God, speaking to Noah prior to the flood, said,