Unsure if this has been raised before, but it would be interesting to get some forum speculation on this.
The dictionary definition of 'covenant' is broadly 'an agreement'. Given the previous film in this cycle, and all the themes Ridley is repeatedly quoted as favouring in his autumn years, it's a no-brainer that it's a continuation of the established Biblical overtones:
"An agreement which brings about a relationship of commitment between God and his people."Aside from the mass-marketing sop of the 'Alien' prefix (which I'd be surprised if Ridley had always intended), I think that like
Prometheus the title has multiple applications. Whereas in that story, David opportunistically grabbed the flame of creation ("the trick, William Potter, is not minding that it hurts"), outwitting his masters as they were punished for their hubris, perhaps here the Covenant refers to a deal between David and the Engineers of Paradise? If so it would surely be one that asserts a perverse supremacy over them. Or perhaps the 'Alien' prefix is actually not as clumsy as it seems, and it is David's covenant with his creations? Either way, it's sinister.
One angle I'm looking forward to seeing revealed is David's final intent - what is the driving motivation behind his actions? I can't believe he is simply an villainous nihilist bent on destroying the destroyers with a 'perfect organism', or a deluded megalomaniac (although the Juggernaut's alpine mountaintop placement ingeniously suggests a Dracula's castle or Frankenstein's laboratory)... Maybe he is all of these things, an avenging angel, a Colonel Kurtz, but it seems a bit short-sighted. I
liked that David, supposedly a slave in body and soul, was paralleled with Lawrence as a kind of liberator of his race (disregarding the general dodginess of the Lean film in its history and racial politics). I wonder if any trace of this will be left in Covenant, but based on what we know so far it looks like thing have escalated a few notches. Maybe he has become more of a Lucifer, lashing out against his Father.
... And speaking of covenants-as-God's law, this mural that decayed in the head-room's changing atmosphere has never left my mind. Are we any closer to determining if the figure on the left perhaps depicts the 'black goo gene' race?
More detailed breakdown of covenants ('often include the slaughter of animals as a symbol of their significance'):
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Covenant_(biblical)#Meaning_of_the_term