New testament (Hastings' Dictionary)

The name ‘testament’ is derived from the Latin testamentum, which was erroneously adopted in the Old Latin Version as the equivalent for the Gr. word διαθήκη employed in the LXX to represent the Heb. πη ‘ covenant.’ It is in this sense that διαθήκη is used in the NT to designate the old or the new Dispensation, and has come to be applied, in accordance with Heb.

usage (Ex 247, 2 K 293,1 Mac 157, Sir 24%), to the literature in which the respective history and principles of the two Dispensations are autho- ritatively set forth. (Cf. Mt 26%, Lk 22”, 1 Co 11%, 2Co 3515, and Gn 174, Ex 248, Jer 315 et supra).

In the OT Jerome usually took care to employ fadus or φαρένηι as the Latin equivalent for n>3; but in his revision of the NT tr® he unfortunately adhered to the old expression, the consequence being that the false meaning thus imported into the Latin passed into the EV, whose ‘testament’ is as misleading as testamentum, and has rightly been altered to ‘covenant’ in the RV, except in one doubtful passage, He 915 }7 (see Westcott, ad loc.) i. RELATION OF THE NT TO THE OT AND TO THE