Oikonomia = "Covenant"; Terms for Heilsgeschichte in Early Christian Usage

Abstract

OLxovouioc is a rare but important New Testament word denoting God's plan of salvation 1). It appears in Paul, at I Cor. ix I7 and Col. i 25, with reference to commission or or office granted to him in God's program. In Ephesians term means not only the stewardship of God's grace (iii 2) given to Apostle to Gentiles, but also, in an application which goes beyond any earlier Pauline nuance, refers to plan itself of God, set forth in Christ... for fulness of time (i io), the plan of mystery hidden for ages in God ... which he has realized in Christ Jesus our Lord (iii 9), what C. LESLIE MITTON has called God's planned economy, statesmanship, generalship, or strategy for man's salvation 2). This use of oikonomia for divine plan of salvation occurs much more frequently in early Christian literature outside canon. Ignatius, for instance, in his letter to Ephesians (20, I; cf. 18, 2), speaks of economy relating to new man Jesus Christ, new covenantal relationship which he has initiated 3). Thereafter, in writings of church fathers, oikonomia becomes increasingly common, especially employed with reference to covenants through which God has worked out his plan of salvation for first Old, then New, Israel. To take one example, Irenaeus is fond of speaking about human history in terms