TESTAMENT
530
TESTAMENT
textual emendation, which ought nevertheless, to be
used with great prudence, especially where the MSS.
seem disarranged.
We must, however, beware of comparing the Sept. as a unit with the Massorah. In textual criticism we must distinguish between the questions: What is the relation of the Greek Version of the Scriptures in general to the Hebrew? and. How far in a particular case may one text be corrected by the other? The Sept. may on the whole differ considerably from the M. T., and yet often clear up an obscure passage in the Hebrew, while the reverse happens just as fre- quently. Apart from the Sept. there is but little to assist us. The Samaritan Text throws light on the Pentateuch, at least up to the fourth century, per- haps up to the time before Esdras. Yet until the critical edition, announced a couple of years ago, appears it must remain an open question whether the Samaritan Text was not influenced by the Sept. at a later period. Regarding shorter passages, the parallel texts allow of comparison. The deviations observed in them show that changes have taken place, which betray carelessness or intentional or accidental variations. Jewish tradition tells of a restoration of the Sacred Scriptures by Esdras. Underlying this narrative may be the recollection of historical events that proved disastrous both to the political and reli- gious life of the people of Israel and to its Sacred Books. The consequences do not evervwhere mani- fest themselves as much as in the books of Samuel and Jeremias, for instance, but often enough are such that the application of all critical means is needed to come to a readable text. Sometimes in spite of all nothing can be done and the passage is irremediably disfigured. It will be impossible to make the M. T. agree entirely with the Sept. until we are favoured by some unexpected discoveries. However, all these discrepancies do not alter the Sacred Texts to such a degree as to affect in any way the religious content of the Old Testament.
MoBixus, Eicrcitat. hiblicarum de hehrmi grtEcigue texlus sincerilaie lib. duo {Paria, 1669) ; Cappellus, Cridca sacra (Halle, 1775-86); Hodt, De Bibl. texlibus original, version grac. el lot. viUeula libri IV (Oxford, 1705); Geiger, Urschrif. und Ubersetzungen der Bibel (Brealau, 1867); Stback, Proleg. crit. in V'e^ Test. hebr. (Leipzig, 1873); Buhl, Kanon und Text des AUen Test. (Leipzig, 1891), tr. Macphehson (Edinburgh. 1892); GiNSBURG, Irttrod. to the Massoretico-criticat Edit, of the Hebr. Bib. (London, 1897); Kittel, Uber die Nolwendigkeit und Moglickkeit einer netien Ausgabe der hebr. Bibel (Leipzig, 1902); Blau, Masoretische Unlersuchungen (Straaburg. 1891); Idem, ZuT Einleitung in die hi. Schrift (Straaburg. 1894) ; Idem, Studien zum althebraischen Buchwesen (Strasburg, 1902); Bible Dic- tionaries and Introductions to the Old Testament, as Cornely, Hislorica et critica inlroductio in utriusque Tcstamenti libros sacros, I (Paris, 1894, 2nd ed.); Gigot, Gen. Introd. to the Study of the Holy Scripture (New York, 1905); Stback. Einleitung in das A. T. (Munich, 1906); Konig, Einleitung in das .1. T. (Bonn, 1893); Fell, Lehrbucb der allgemeinen Einleitung in das A. T. (Paderborn, 1906).
Aug. Merk.
Testament, The New. — I. Name; II. Description; III. Origin; IV. Transmission of the Text; V. Con- tents, History, and Doctrine.
I. Name. — Testament comes from leslamenlum, the word by which the Latin ecclesiastical writers trans- lated the Greek Siad-fiKrj. With the profane authors this latter term means always, one passage of Aris- tophanes perhaps excepted, the legal disposition a man makes of his goods for after his death. However, at an early date, the Alexandrian translators of the Scrinture, known as the Septuagint, emjjloyed the word as the equivalent of the Hebrew berilh, which means a pact, an alliance, more especially the alliance of Yahweh with Israel. In St. Paul (I Cor., xi, 25) Jesus Christ uses the words "new testament" as meaning the alliance estal)lished by Himself between God and the world, and this is called new" as opposed to that of which Moses was the mediator. Later on, the name of testament was given to the collection of sacred texts containing the history and
the doctrine of the two alliances; here again and for
the same reason we meet the distinction between the
Old and the New Testaments. In this meaning the ex-
pression Old Testament (.v TraXaid SiadiiKT)) is found for
the first time in Melito of Sardis, towards the year
170. There are reasons for thinking that at this date
the corresponding word " testamentum" was already
in use amongst the Latins. In any case it was com-
mon in the time of TertulUan.
II. Description. — The New Testament, as usu- ally received in the Christian Churches, is made up of twenty-seven different books attributed to eight dif- ferent authors, six of whom are numbered among the Apostles (Matthew, John, Paul, James, Peter, Jude) and two among their immediate disciples (Mark, Luke). If we consider only the contents and the literary form of these writings they may be divided into historical books (Gospels and Acts), didactic books (Epistles), a prophetical book (Apocalypse). Before the name of New Testament had come into use the writers of the latter half of the second cen- tury used to say "Gospel and Apostolic writings" or simply "the Gospel and the Apostle", meaning the Apostle St. Paul. The Gospels are subdivided into two groups, those which are commonly called syn- optic (Matthew, Mark, Luke), because their narra- tives are parallel, and the fourth Gospel (that of St. John), which to a certain extent completes the first three. They relate the life and personal teaching of Jesus Christ. The Acts of the Apostles, as is suffi- ciently indicated by the title, relates the preaching and the labours of the Apostles. It narrates the foundation of the Churches of Palestine and Syria only; in it mention is made of Peter, John, James, Paul, and Barnabas; afterwards, the author devotes sixteen chapters out of the twenty-eight to the mis- sions of St. Paul to the Greco-Romans. There are thirteen Epistles of St. Paul, and ))erhaps fourteen, if, with the Council of Trent, we consider him the author of the Epistle to the Hebrews. They are, with the exception of this last-mentioned, addressed to particu- lar Churches (Rom.; I, II Cor.; Gal.; Ephes. ; Philip.; Colos.; I, II Thess.) or to individuals (I, II Tim. ; Tit.; Philem.). The seven Epistles that follow (James; I, II Peter; I, II, III John; Jude) are called "CathoUc", because most of them are addressed to the faithful in general. The Apocalypse addressed to the seven Churches of Asia Minor (Ejihesus. Smyrna, Pergamus, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadcljihia, Laodicea) resembles in some ways a collective letter. It contains a vision which St. John had at Patmos concerning the interior state of the above-mentioned communities, the strug- gle of the Church with pagan Rome, and the final des- tiny of the New Jerusalem.
III. Origin. — The New Testament was not writ- ten all at once. The books that compose it appeared one after another in the space of fifty years, i. e. in the second half of the first century. W'ritten in differ- ent and distant countries and addressed to particular Churches, they took some time to spread throughout the whole of Christ endom , and a much longer t ime t o be- come accepted. The unification of the canon was not accomplished without much oontrovcrsj- (see Canon OF THE Holy Scriptures). Still it can be said that from the third century, or perhaps earUer, the exist- ence of all the books that to-day form our New Testa- ment was everywhere known, although they were not all universally admitted, at least as certainly canoni- cal. However, uniformity existed in the West from the fourth century. TlieEasI had to await the sev- enth century to see an end to all doubts on the subject. In early times the questions of canonicity and au- thent icity were not discussed .separately and independ- ently of each other, the latter being n-adily brought forward as a reason for the former; but in the fourth century, the canonicity was held, especially by St. Jerome, on account of ecclesiastical prescription and,
