Testament

Occurs twelve times in the New Testament (Heb. 9:15, etc.) as the rendering of the Gr. diatheke, which is twenty times rendered “covenant” in the Authorized Version, and always so in the Revised Version. The Vulgate translates incorrectly by testamentum, whence the names “Old” and “New Testament,” by which we now designate the two sections into which the Bible is divided. (See BIBLE.)

TES'TAMENT. Heb 9:15. The word "testament," when applied to our Scriptures (as "the Old and New Testaments"), is used in the same sense with "covenant." The old covenant is spoken of in Ex 24:8, and the new in Matt 26:28. The former was ratified by the blood of sacrifices, and the latter (of which the other was a type) was ratified by the blood of Christ.

TES'TAMENT, OLD, NEW. 2 Cor 3:6. See Bible.

Part of speech: noun (n.)

1. A solemn, authentic instrument in writing, by which a person declares his will as to disposal of his estate and effects after his death.

2. One of the two distinct revelations of God's purposes toward man; a covenant; also, one of the two general divisions of the canonical books of the sacred Scriptures, in which the covenants are respectively revealed; as, the Old Testament; the New Testament; -- often limited, in colloquial language, to the latter. He is the mediator of the new testament . . . for the redemption of the transgressions that were under the first testament. Heb. ix. 15. Holographic testament, a testament written wholly by the testator himself. Bouvier.