Covenant as Promise
This initial analysis of the meaning of berith and diatheke is both more exegetically sophisticated and more linguistically refined than indicated by the studies of Torrance and Poole, which attempt to argue that the translation of berith and diatheke as foedus (or, in German, as Bund) misunderstand and misrepresent the biblical concept as a legal contract rather than as a promise, an oath, a pledge, or a command.
Richard Muller, The Covenant of Works and the Stability of Divine Law in Seventeenth-Century Reformed Orthodoxy: A Study in the Theology of Herman Witsius and Wilhelmus à Brakel, CTJ 29 (1994): 82-83