Hebrews9:18

The play on words here between “will” and “covenant” is necessary because Jesus did something unheard of – He inaugurated His New Covenant with His own blood, His own death, rather than symbolically using the blood of animals (verses 12 and 14 of this chapter are making the same point). In order to highlight how absurd that was, the author must bring to mind a totally different situation that does indeed require the death of the one establishing it, i.e. a will. It was convenient that the same word could mean “will” or “covenant”.

It is also convenient that the dual meaning desired was true in both Greek and Hebrew, although possible more rare in Hebrew than in Greek. I believe the Epistle to the Hebrews was originally written in Hebrew and later translated into a high level of Greek. For that to be the case, this play on words had to be possible in both Hebrew and Greek, not just Greek. While some scholar may say that it is only possible in Greek, the reality seems to be that it was possible in both languages, but in Hebrew it was more forced. However, the fact that it was forced or stretched gives more power to the illustration. By using His own death to ratify His New Covenant, Jesus did something so radical that coming up with a way to illustrate it required stretching the play on words to its outer limits. All readers in either language would have known that, when the author was referring to the death of the one who established the arrangement was required, that was a will, not a covenant, but Jesus did that with a covenant as well.

We could summarize by saying that verses 11-14 of Hebrews chapter 9 are making the point that Jesus is a better High Priest because He died for us, rather than using the symbolic death of animals, verse 15 ties the death of Christ to the New Covenant (which stretched the understanding of how covenants were established), verses 16-17 use a will as an example that does necessitate the death of the one establishing it, verses 18-22 show how key the shedding of blood was in the inauguration of the covenant at Sinai, and verses 22 and following bring the reader back to the way Jesus used His own death to inaugurate a New Covenant.