1. Introduction. 2. The Cultural Roots of Covenant: The Ancient Near Eastern Sources. 3. Covenant as Dialectic. 4. Babel as Anti-Covenant. 5. Toward a Definition of Covenant 6. Distinguishing Between Contract and Covenant. 7. The Dynamism of Covenant. 8. Conclusion The search for an ethical framework for social relations not grounded in the modernity framework but in a transcendent one instead. Covenant is explored in its cultural and historic roots in the Middle East. It is traced in the biblical narrative, where a pre-structural ontology of relationality is argued for. Covenant is defined and explore as dialectic and as an alternative to the monism of Babel. Covenant distinguished from contract.