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RABBI ARTHUR SEGAL: REASON FOR THE USAGE OF 'TESTAMENT' IN NAMES OF BIBLES
Reason for the word "testament" (?)
In the Septuagint, the forcedJewish translation of the Bible into Greek, made in third-and-second-century BCE Alexandria. Jeremiah's b'rit is translated as diatheke, a word generally meaning "last will and testament," but also signifying "covenant" in Alexandrian Greek. Apparently unaware of the Alexandrian usage, the anonymous translator of the Vetus Latina, who knew no Hebrew and was working solely from the Septuagint, rendered diatheke as testamentum, Latin for "last will and testament," while counting, so it would seem, on its closeness to testimonium, "witness" or "testimony," to give it a broader connotation. And although Jerome, who did know Hebrew, changed this to foedus in Jeremiah, he stuck with the Vetus Latina's testamentum in his translation of Paul's epistle. He did so because this fit Paul's understanding of diatheke, which was that of the "eternal inheritance" of redemption bequeathed by Jesus as his legacy to mankind. So eventually our TaNaK got named the "OLD" Testament. I refer to the so-called NEW Testament as the Christian Bible and if quoting from the earlier books in it will call it the Gospels.
