IN THE MIDDLE OF THE 20TH century, a small monograph was published by George Mendenhall of the University of Michigan. The title of the work was The Law and the Covenant in the Ancient Near East. The book was provoked by archaeological discoveries that revealed the structure of treaties from the Hittite civilization. These suzerain treaties followed a format that was similar to the form and structure of biblical covenants. Further elucidation of the covenant structure was given by Dr. Meredith Kline,