The source of this word is ceremonial and it has two explanations.
The first is learned from the complete expression ‘to make a covenant.’ Actually, in Hebrew it is ‘to cut a covenant.’ The Hebrew root is ‘ba•ter’ (B.T.R) which means ‘to cut.’ That has to do with cutting the flesh of an animal that was a part of covenant ceremony. The first cutting/covenant in the Bible is described with much detail in Genesis 15:7-21:
“In the same day the Lord made a covenant with Abram”
The word Hebrew uses here for ‘made’ is ‘ka•rat,’ which means ‘cut off.’
We see the same ritual much later in the Bible:
“And I will give the men who have transgressed my covenant, which have not kept the words of the covenant which they had made before me, when they cut the calf in two, and passed between its parts”
The circumcision which also involves cutting is called in Hebrew ‘be•rit mi•la’ and in its short version, simply ‘be•rit,’ which is the same word for ‘covenant.’
For those of you who have not seen our discussion regarding the New Testament, the first part of the word is the same: ‘brit’ (also ‘be•rit’), and the whole expression is ‘ha•be•rit ha•cha•da•sha.’ The positioning of adjectives in Hebrew is more logical than in English, and unlike in English, they come after the noun they describe.
Perhaps this sheds a clearer light on the meaning of the New Covenant following the customs of the Old Covenant. Here, too, the covenant is connected to Jesus’ blood, whose flesh was cut when he was crucified.