Testament
Easton’s Bible Dictionary (1897) · International Standard Bible Encyclopedia (1915)
THE DICTIONARY — Easton’s Bible Dictionary (1897)
occurs twelve times in the New Testament (Hebrews 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.)
THE FULL ARTICLE — from the International Standard Bible Encyclopedia
The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia (1915), general editor James Orr — public domain, printed whole.
tes'-ta-ment: The word diatheke, almost invariably rendered "covenant," was rendered in the King James Version "testament" in Heb 9:16,17, in the sense of a will to dispose of property after the maker's death. It is not easy to find justification for the retention of this translation in the Revised Version (British and American), "especially in a book which is so impregnated with the language of the Septuagint as the Epistle to the Hebrews" (Hatch).
See COVENANT, IN THE NEW TESTAMENT.