inquiringmind Posted February 13, 2012 Posted February 13, 2012 What is a Testament?Is it the same as a covenant?
LeSellers Posted February 13, 2012 Posted February 13, 2012 (edited) What is a Testament?Is it the same as a covenant?There are at least two definitions of "testament". One, as in "Last Will and Testament" is a formal declaration of belief that the soon-to-be deceased wrote to affirm that he was "in the faith" (typically the established church whereever he lived/died) so he could be buried in the churchyard. Strictly, this was not a necessity, but it did make things easier in many cases.The related usage, as we have in our Bible today, is the witness of Jesus Christ by those who knew Him whether by personal knowledge of his life or by revelation. (A secondary witness might also have been included, as, for instance, Mark's gospel. Mark was a disciple of Christ who learned of Him through Peter.)A covenant is a promise offered by one holding power to a (potential) subordinate. The subordinate has the option of accepting the terms of the covenant or rejecting it entirely, but he cannot (except rarely) alter any of its provisions. God gave Israel a covenant at Sinai, fulfilled it at the Garden of the Empty Tomb, and replaced it with a new and everlasting covenant that covered more than just literal Israel or the Jews. The Old Covenant is contained in the Old Testament, but it include much more than the terms of the contract He estabished with His people through Moses. We find the New Covenant, forged in Gethsemane, tempered on Golgotha, and honed at the empty tomb in the New Testament, but there is more there, too. In either case, however, the focus of the Testament is the Covenant it contains.In the case of the Old and the New Testaments, the meaning of the word is a bit forced. They are, as Joseph Smith said in the Joseph Smith Translation, documents of the covenants God made with His people: Israel in the early case, and all the converted world in the later one. So, the two words are not identical. Testament is less correct than covenant here. But tradition is a very harsh mistresss, and, like Tevia in Fiddler on the Roof, following the tradition is possible without understanding why it happened originally, and it gives us a framework to hang much of our lives upon.Lehi Edited February 13, 2012 by LeSellers
zerinus Posted February 14, 2012 Posted February 14, 2012 What is a Testament?Is it the same as a covenant?Yes. The etymology dictionary is probably most useful in helping us with a definition:late 13c., "last will disposing of property," from L. testamentum "a will, publication of a will," from testari "make a will, be witness to," from testis "witness," from PIE *tris- "three," on the notion of "third person, disinterested witness." Use in reference to the two divisions of the Bible (c.1300) is from L.L. vetus testamentum and novum testamentum, loan-translations of Gk. palaia diatheke and kaine diatheke. L.L. testamentum in this case was a mistranslation of Gk. diatheke, which meant both "covenant, dispensation" and "will, testament," and was used in the former sense in the account of the Last Supper but subsequently was interpreted as Christ's "last will." Source
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