Testamentum Domini
Encyclopedia
Testamentum Domini is a Christian
Christian
A Christian is a person who adheres to Christianity, an Abrahamic, monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth as recorded in the Canonical gospels and the letters of the New Testament...

 treatise which belongs to genre
Genre
Genre , Greek: genos, γένος) is the term for any category of literature or other forms of art or culture, e.g. music, and in general, any type of discourse, whether written or spoken, audial or visual, based on some set of stylistic criteria. Genres are formed by conventions that change over time...

of the Church Orders
Ancient Church Orders
Ancient Church Orders is a genre of early Christian literature, ranging from 1st to 5th century, which has the aim to offer authoritative "apostolic" prescriptions on matters of moral conduct, liturgy and Church organization....

. The work can be dated about the 5th century CE even if a 4th century date is sometime proposed. The provenience is regarded as Syria
Syria
Syria , officially the Syrian Arab Republic , is a country in Western Asia, bordering Lebanon and the Mediterranean Sea to the West, Turkey to the north, Iraq to the east, Jordan to the south, and Israel to the southwest....

, even if also Egypt
Egypt
Egypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...

 or Asia Minor
Asia Minor
Asia Minor is a geographical location at the westernmost protrusion of Asia, also called Anatolia, and corresponds to the western two thirds of the Asian part of Turkey...

 are possible origins.

Author and date

The author is unknown, even if the work declares to be the legacy left by Jesus Christ himself to his Apostles before the Ascension, and to give his own words and commands as to the government of the Church
Christian Church
The Christian Church is the assembly or association of followers of Jesus Christ. The Greek term ἐκκλησία that in its appearances in the New Testament is usually translated as "church" basically means "assembly"...

.

The late dating, to the 4th or more likely the 5th century CE, may be discerned in the interpolations in the prayers, possibly in the reference to the chief deacon, for elsewhere no single deacon is distinguished by name until the close of the 4th century, in the reference to the Epiphany, which is first heard of elsewhere at the beginning of the 4th century. The suggestion has been hazarded that the last revision was due to the school of Apollinaris of Laodicea
Apollinaris of Laodicea
Apollinaris "the Younger" was a bishop of Laodicea in Syria. He collaborated with his father Apollinaris the Elder in reproducing the Old Testament in the form of Homeric and Pindaric poetry, and the New Testament after the fashion of Platonic dialogues, when the emperor Julian had forbidden...

 (died about 390 CE).

Manuscript Tradition

The Testamentum was originally written in Greek
Koine Greek
Koine Greek is the universal dialect of the Greek language spoken throughout post-Classical antiquity , developing from the Attic dialect, with admixture of elements especially from Ionic....

, but this original is lost, although a small fragment has been identified in 2011. Extracts were published by Paul de Lagarde
Paul de Lagarde
Paul Anton de Lagarde was a polymath German biblical scholar and orientalist. He also took some part in politics. He belonged to the Prussian Conservative party, and was a violent antisemite. The bitterness which he felt appeared in his writings...

 in 1856, and a Latin fragment, edited by Montague James, appeared in 1893.

The whole book was first published in Syriac in 1899, with a Latin translation by Ephrem Rahmani, the Syrian Catholic Patriarch of Antioch
Patriarch of Antioch
Patriarch of Antioch is a traditional title held by the Bishop of Antioch. As the traditional "overseer" of the first gentile Christian community, the position has been of prime importance in the church from its earliest period...

. His text is that of a 17th-century MS. at Mosul
Mosul
Mosul , is a city in northern Iraq and the capital of the Ninawa Governorate, some northwest of Baghdad. The original city stands on the west bank of the Tigris River, opposite the ancient Assyrian city of Nineveh on the east bank, but the metropolitan area has now grown to encompass substantial...

, the colophon of which says that the Syriac text was translated from the original Greek "a Jacobo paupere," evidently James of Edessa, in A.D. 687; but he makes use of other material, including an Arabic version made from a Coptic
Coptic language
Coptic or Coptic Egyptian is the current stage of the Egyptian language, a northern Afro-Asiatic language spoken in Egypt until at least the 17th century. Egyptian began to be written using the Greek alphabet in the 1st century...

 copy written in A.D. 927. The Mosul MS. contains the whole Bible
Bible
The Bible refers to any one of the collections of the primary religious texts of Judaism and Christianity. There is no common version of the Bible, as the individual books , their contents and their order vary among denominations...

 in the Peshitto version, followed by the Syrian Clementine Octateuch. An English translation followed in 1902 by Cooper and Maclean.

A manuscript of a different family than the one used by Rahmani, the MS 8/11 of the Syrian Orthodox Patriarchate in Damascus
Damascus
Damascus , commonly known in Syria as Al Sham , and as the City of Jasmine , is the capital and the second largest city of Syria after Aleppo, both are part of the country's 14 governorates. In addition to being one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world, Damascus is a major...

 dated 1204, was published in 1975 by Arthur Vööbus. In 1984 Robert Beylot published the first critical edition of the Ge'ez
Ge'ez language
Ge'ez is an ancient South Semitic language that developed in the northern region of Ethiopia and southern Eritrea in the Horn of Africa...

 translation.

Content

The Testamentum is usually incorporated in the collection of Church Orders
Ancient Church Orders
Ancient Church Orders is a genre of early Christian literature, ranging from 1st to 5th century, which has the aim to offer authoritative "apostolic" prescriptions on matters of moral conduct, liturgy and Church organization....

 named Clementine Octateuch. Of this the Testament forms the first two books; and according to the title it contains the "testament, or words which Our Lord spake to His holy Apostles when He rose from the dead". The division into books, however, is clearly not original.

It falls into three distinct parts: an apocalyptic introduction, a "church order" proper, and a conclusion of the same apocalyptic character as the introduction.
  • The Introduction (book 1:1-18) professes to contain the record of the revelation of Himself by the Lord
    Jesus
    Jesus of Nazareth , commonly referred to as Jesus Christ or simply as Jesus or Christ, is the central figure of Christianity...

     to his Apostles, with whom are Martha
    Martha
    Martha of Bethany is a biblical figure described in the Gospels of Luke and John. Together with her siblings Lazarus and Mary, she is described as living in the village of Bethany near Jerusalem...

    , Mary
    Mary (mother of Jesus)
    Mary , commonly referred to as "Saint Mary", "Mother Mary", the "Virgin Mary", the "Blessed Virgin Mary", or "Mary, Mother of God", was a Jewish woman of Nazareth in Galilee...

     and Salome
    Salome
    Salome , the Daughter of Herodias , is known from the New Testament...

    , on the evening after his resurrection
    Resurrection of Jesus
    The Christian belief in the resurrection of Jesus states that Jesus returned to bodily life on the third day following his death by crucifixion. It is a key element of Christian faith and theology and part of the Nicene Creed: "On the third day he rose again in fulfillment of the Scriptures"...

    . He is represented as unfolding to them, at their request, the signs of the end, and giving them instruction on various other topics. Incidentally, the fact becomes plain that this section is composed from the standpoint of Asia Minor
    Asia Minor
    Asia Minor is a geographical location at the westernmost protrusion of Asia, also called Anatolia, and corresponds to the western two thirds of the Asian part of Turkey...

     and Syria
    Syria
    Syria , officially the Syrian Arab Republic , is a country in Western Asia, bordering Lebanon and the Mediterranean Sea to the West, Turkey to the north, Iraq to the east, Jordan to the south, and Israel to the southwest....

    , that it dates from soon after the time of Maximin
    Maximinus Thrax
    Maximinus Thrax , also known as Maximinus I, was Roman Emperor from 235 to 238.Maximinus is described by several ancient sources, though none are contemporary except Herodian's Roman History. Maximinus was the first emperor never to set foot in Rome...

     (235-38) and Decius
    Decius
    Trajan Decius , was Roman Emperor from 249 to 251. In the last year of his reign, he co-ruled with his son Herennius Etruscus until they were both killed in the Battle of Abrittus.-Early life and rise to power:...

     (249-51), and that it springs from a Christian community of a strictly morally rigorous type.
  • The Church Order (book 1:19 - book 2:24) follows the general lines of the Canons of Hippolytus
    Canons of Hippolytus
    The Canons of Hippolytus is a Christian text composed by 38 decrees and belongs to genre of the Church Orders. The work can be dated on about 336 to 340 CE even if a slightly later date is sometime proposed...

     and similar documents. It describes the Church and its buildings (1:19) ; the office of the bishop
    Bishop
    A bishop is an ordained or consecrated member of the Christian clergy who is generally entrusted with a position of authority and oversight. Within the Catholic Church, Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox Churches, in the Assyrian Church of the East, in the Independent Catholic Churches, and in the...

     and his functions (1:19-27) : the mystagogic instruction (1:28) common to this and the Arabic
    Arabic language
    Arabic is a name applied to the descendants of the Classical Arabic language of the 6th century AD, used most prominently in the Quran, the Islamic Holy Book...

     Didascalia, where it occurs in an earlier form, and based in part upon the Gnostic Acts of Peter
    Acts of Peter
    The Acts of Peter is one of the earliest of the apocryphal Acts of the Apostles. The majority of the text has survived only in the Latin translation of the Vercelli manuscript. It is mainly notable for a description of a miracle contest between Saint Peter and Simon Magus, and as the first record...

    ; the presbyter
    Presbyter
    Presbyter in the New Testament refers to a leader in local Christian congregations, then a synonym of episkopos...

     (1:29-32); the deacon (1:33-38); confessors (1:39); the “widows who have precedence in sitting" (1:40-43), apparently the same persons who are spoken of else-where as "presbyteresses" (1:35,2:19); the subdeacon
    Subdeacon
    -Subdeacons in the Orthodox Church:A subdeacon or hypodeacon is the highest of the minor orders of clergy in the Orthodox Church. This order is higher than the reader and lower than the deacon.-Canonical Discipline:...

     (1:44) and the reader (liturgy) (1:45), the order of whose offices seems to have been inverted; virgins of both sexes (1:46); and those who possess charismata or spiritual gifts (1:47). Next come the regulations for the laity, including the whole course of preparation for and admission to baptism
    Baptism
    In Christianity, baptism is for the majority the rite of admission , almost invariably with the use of water, into the Christian Church generally and also membership of a particular church tradition...

     (2:1-8), confirmation (2:9), and the Eucharist
    Eucharist
    The Eucharist , also called Holy Communion, the Sacrament of the Altar, the Blessed Sacrament, the Lord's Supper, and other names, is a Christian sacrament or ordinance...

     (2:10) after which there follows a series of miscellaneous regulations for Easter
    Easter
    Easter is the central feast in the Christian liturgical year. According to the Canonical gospels, Jesus rose from the dead on the third day after his crucifixion. His resurrection is celebrated on Easter Day or Easter Sunday...

     and Pentecost
    Pentecost
    Pentecost is a prominent feast in the calendar of Ancient Israel celebrating the giving of the Law on Sinai, and also later in the Christian liturgical year commemorating the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the disciples of Christ after the Resurrection of Jesus...

     (2:11-12), the agape (2:13), the funds of the Church (2:17-20), the visitation of the sick (2:21), the use of psalmody (2:22), the burial
    Burial
    Burial is the act of placing a person or object into the ground. This is accomplished by excavating a pit or trench, placing an object in it, and covering it over.-History:...

     of the dead (2:23), and the hours of prayer
    Canonical hours
    Canonical hours are divisions of time which serve as increments between the prescribed prayers of the daily round. A Book of Hours contains such a set of prayers....

     (2:24).
  • The Conclusion (book 2:25-27) brings us back to the injunctions of the Lord as to the keeping of these precepts, a special charge to John
    John the Apostle
    John the Apostle, John the Apostle, John the Apostle, (Aramaic Yoħanna, (c. 6 - c. 100) was one of the Twelve Apostles of Jesus. He was the son of Zebedee and Salome, and brother of James, another of the Twelve Apostles...

    , Andrew and Peter, and a statement that copies of the Testament were made by John, Peter and Matthew
    Matthew the Evangelist
    Matthew the Evangelist was, according to the Bible, one of the twelve Apostles of Jesus and one of the four Evangelists.-Identity:...

    , and sent to Jerusalem by the hands of Dosithaeus, Sillas
    Sillas
    Sillas is a commune in the Gironde department in Aquitaine in southwestern France.-Population:...

    , Magnus
    Magnus
    Magnus, meaning "Great" in Latin, was sometimes used as a first name among Romans but was not particularly common among them. The best-known Roman bearing the name was the third-century usurper. The name gained wider popularity in the Middle Ages, various European peoples, and their royal houses,...

     and Aquila.

Doctrine

There is much that is peculiar to or characteristic of the Testament. First and foremost is its ascription to the Jesus
Jesus
Jesus of Nazareth , commonly referred to as Jesus Christ or simply as Jesus or Christ, is the central figure of Christianity...

 himself, which we can hardly be mistaken in regarding as an attempt to claim yet higher sanction than was claimed by the various compilations which were styled "apostolic", the so-called Church Orders
Ancient Church Orders
Ancient Church Orders is a genre of early Christian literature, ranging from 1st to 5th century, which has the aim to offer authoritative "apostolic" prescriptions on matters of moral conduct, liturgy and Church organization....

. The whole tone of the Testamentum is one of highly-strung asceticism
Asceticism
Asceticism describes a lifestyle characterized by abstinence from various sorts of worldly pleasures often with the aim of pursuing religious and spiritual goals...

, and the regulations are such as point by their severity to a small and strictly organized body. They are "the wise", " the perfect", "sons of light"; but this somewhat Gnostic phraseology is not accompanied with any signs of Gnostic doctrine, and the work as a whole is orthodox in tone. They are set in the midst of "wolves", despised and slighted by the careless and worldly: there is frequent mention of "the persecuted," and of the duty of "bearing the cross" There appears to be no place for penitence for serious sin
Sin
In religion, sin is the violation or deviation of an eternal divine law or standard. The term sin may also refer to the state of having committed such a violation. Christians believe the moral code of conduct is decreed by God In religion, sin (also called peccancy) is the violation or deviation...

s excepting in the case of catechumens, and there is a notable "perfectionist" tone in many of the prayers.

Charismata, and above all exorcism
Exorcism
Exorcism is the religious practice of evicting demons or other spiritual entities from a person or place which they are believed to have possessed...

s, occupy a very important place: there is a vivid realization of the ministry of angels, and the angelic hierarchy is very complete. Great stress is laid upon virginity
Virginity
Virginity refers to the state of a person who has never engaged in sexual intercourse. There are cultural and religious traditions which place special value and significance on this state, especially in the case of unmarried females, associated with notions of personal purity, honor and worth...

 (although there is not a sign of monasticism
Monasticism
Monasticism is a religious way of life characterized by the practice of renouncing worldly pursuits to fully devote one's self to spiritual work...

), upon fasting
Fasting
Fasting is primarily the act of willingly abstaining from some or all food, drink, or both, for a period of time. An absolute fast is normally defined as abstinence from all food and liquid for a defined period, usually a single day , or several days. Other fasts may be only partially restrictive,...

 (especially for the bishop
Bishop
A bishop is an ordained or consecrated member of the Christian clergy who is generally entrusted with a position of authority and oversight. Within the Catholic Church, Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox Churches, in the Assyrian Church of the East, in the Independent Catholic Churches, and in the...

), upon the regular attendance of the whole clerical body and the "more perfect” of the laity at the hours of prayer
Canonical hours
Canonical hours are divisions of time which serve as increments between the prescribed prayers of the daily round. A Book of Hours contains such a set of prayers....

. The Church building
Church Building
The Church Building is located at the corner of Main and Market Streets in downtown Poughkeepsie, New York, United States, just across Market Street from the Dutchess County Court House, and north of the Bardavon Theater...

s are very elaborate, and the baptistery
Baptistery
In Christian architecture the baptistry or baptistery is the separate centrally-planned structure surrounding the baptismal font. The baptistry may be incorporated within the body of a church or cathedral and be provided with an altar as a chapel...

 is oblong, a form found apparently only here and in the Arabic Didascalia. Amongst the festivals mentioned are the Epiphany, Easter
Easter
Easter is the central feast in the Christian liturgical year. According to the Canonical gospels, Jesus rose from the dead on the third day after his crucifixion. His resurrection is celebrated on Easter Day or Easter Sunday...

 and Pentecost
Pentecost
Pentecost is a prominent feast in the calendar of Ancient Israel celebrating the giving of the Law on Sinai, and also later in the Christian liturgical year commemorating the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the disciples of Christ after the Resurrection of Jesus...

.

With regard to the prayers, they are based upon forms common to this and other Church Orders, but have many lengthy interpolations of an inflated and rhapsodic kind. The bishop appears to rank far above the presbyter
Presbyter
Presbyter in the New Testament refers to a leader in local Christian congregations, then a synonym of episkopos...

s (more conspicuously so, for example, than in the Canons of Hippolytus
Canons of Hippolytus
The Canons of Hippolytus is a Christian text composed by 38 decrees and belongs to genre of the Church Orders. The work can be dated on about 336 to 340 CE even if a slightly later date is sometime proposed...

), and the presbyters are still divided into two classes, those who are more learned and those who are of mature age. The deacon
Deacon
Deacon is a ministry in the Christian Church that is generally associated with service of some kind, but which varies among theological and denominational traditions...

s have functions in the Eucharist
Eucharist
The Eucharist , also called Holy Communion, the Sacrament of the Altar, the Blessed Sacrament, the Lord's Supper, and other names, is a Christian sacrament or ordinance...

 and about the altar
Altar
An altar is any structure upon which offerings such as sacrifices are made for religious purposes. Altars are usually found at shrines, and they can be located in temples, churches and other places of worship...

 which point to an early date; they have also much administrative work of an important kind, and especial provisions are made for the care of the sick and the dead, and the burial of those who perish by shipwreck.

One of the deacons is to be chosen as "chief deacon" (Protodeacon
Protodeacon
Protodeacon derives from the Greek proto- meaning 'first' and diakonos, which is a standard ancient Greek word meaning "servant", "waiting-man," "minister" or "messenger." The word in English may refer to various clergymen, depending upon the usage of the particular church in question.-Eastern...

, 1:19, 1:34), and is charged with the care of pilgrim
Pilgrim
A pilgrim is a traveler who is on a journey to a holy place. Typically, this is a physical journeying to some place of special significance to the adherent of a particular religious belief system...

s. There are no doorkeepers or singers, who begin to appear about 340 CE. The honour given to confessors
Confessor of the Faith
The title Confessor, the short form of Confessor of the Faith, is a title given by the Christian Church to a type of saint.-Western Christianity:...

 is very conspicuous, and points back to an early date. But remarkable above all is the position given to women. We have "widows having precedence" or presbyteresses, three in number, deaconess
Deaconess
Deaconess is a non-clerical order in some Christian denominations which sees to the care of women in the community. That word comes from a Greek word diakonos as well as deacon, which means a servant or helper and occurs frequently in the Christian New Testament of the Bible. Deaconesses trace...

es, virgins, and widows who are in receipt of the alms of the Church; and the first-named occupy a place of very great dignity, which is almost unequaled elsewhere (excepting in the earlier form of the apocryphal and Montanistic
Montanism
Montanism was an early Christian movement of the late 2nd century, later referred to by the name of its founder, Montanus, but originally known by its adherents as the New Prophecy...

 Acts and Martyrdom of Matthew), and which was formally condemned by the Council of Laodicea
Council of Laodicea
The Council of Laodicea was a regional synod of approximately thirty clerics from Asia Minor that assembled about 363–364 AD in Laodicea, Phrygia Pacatiana.-Historical context:...

.

Studies

  • Sperry-White, G. The Testamentum Domini. Cambridge, 1991, Joint Liturgical Studies. (English Translation)
  • Post, P., "La liturgie en tant qu'architecture? Remarques sur la relation entre le "Testamentum Domini Jesu Christi" et l'architecture des églises dans l'Illyricum oriental", Bijdragen, 42,4 (1981), 392-420.
  • Gain, B., "Fragments grecs inédits du "Testamentum Domini" attribués à Saint Basile", Augustinianum, 32,2 (1992), 261-277 [exorcism].
  • Sperry-White, G., "The imagery of angelic praise and heavenly topography in the Testament of our Lord", Ecclesia orans, 19,2 (2002), 315-332.
  • Kreider, A., "Military service in the church orders", Journal of religious ethics, 31,3 (2003), 415-442.
  • Troupeau, G., "Une version arabe de l'anaphore du "Testamentum Domini"," in C. Chartouni (éd.), Christianisme oriental: Kérygme et histoire: Mélanges offerts au père Michel Hayek (Paris, 2007), 247-256.
  • Chronz, T., H. Brakmann, "Fragmente des "Testamentum Domini" in georgischer Übersetzung", Zeitschrift für antikes Christentum, 13,3 (2009), 395-402 [Prayer on healing oil and water].


External links

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