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TESTAMENTUM DOMINI (" TESTAMENT OF OU...

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Originally appearing in Volume V26, Page 669 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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TESTAMENTUM DOMINI (" TESTAMENT OF OUR See also:

LORD ") . Extracts from the See also:book which bears this See also:title, contained in an 8th-See also:century MS. at See also:Paris, were published by See also:Lagarde in 1856 (Reliquiae iuris ecclesiastici antiquissimae 8o-89); and a Latin fragment, edited by Dr Montague See also:James, appeared in 1893 (Texts and Studies, i. 154). The whole book was first published in See also:Syriac in 1899, with a Latin See also:translation by Mgr Rahmani, the Uniat Syrian See also:Patriarch of See also:Antioch. His See also:text is that of a 17th-century MS. at See also:Mosul, the See also:colophon of which says that the Syriac text was translated from the See also:original See also:Greek " a Jacobo paupere, " evidently-James of See also:Edessa, in A.D. 687; but he makes use of other material, including an Arabic version made from a Coptic copy written in A.D. 927. The Mosul MS. contains the whole See also:Bible in the See also:Peshitto version, followed by the Syrian " Clementine Octateuch, i.e., the collection of ecclesiastical See also:law, in eight books, which was used by the See also:Nestorians and 1 § 14 of the Introduction to R. H. See also:Charles's The Greek Versions of the Testaments of the XII. Patriarchs. See also:Jacobites.

Of this the Testament forms the first two books; and according to the title (which, apparently by an See also:

error, is made to apply to the whole eight books) it contains the " testament, or words which Our Lord spake to His See also:holy Apostles when He See also:rose from the dead. " Plainly, it is one of that See also:series of writings, claiming to embody the fundamental rules of the See also:Church, which culminates in the See also:Apostolical Constitutions (q.v.). It falls into three distinct parts: an apocalyptic introduction (book i. chapters 1-18; the See also:division into books, however, is clearly not original) ; a " church See also:order " proper (i. 19-ii. 24) ; and a conclusion (ii. 25-27) of the same apocalyptic See also:character as the introduction. (a) The Introduction professes to contain the See also:record of the See also:revelation of Himself by the Lord to His Apostles, with whom are Martha, See also:Mary and See also:Salome, on the evening after His resurrection. He is represented as unfolding to them, at their See also:request, the signs of the end, and giving them instruction on various other topics. Incidentally, the fact becomes See also:plain that this See also:section is composed from the standpoint of See also:Asia See also:Minor and See also:Syria, that it See also:dates from soon after the See also:time of Maximin (235-38) and See also:Decius (249-51), and that it springs from a See also:Christian community of a strictly puritan type. (b) The Church Order follows the See also:general lines of the Canons of See also:Hippolytus and similar documents. It describes the Church and its buildings (i. 19) ; the See also:office of the See also:bishop and his functions (i.

19-27) : the mystagogic instruction (i. 28) See also:

common to this and the Arabic Didascalia, where it occurs in an earlier See also:form, and based in See also:part upon the Gnostic " Acts of See also:Peter "; the See also:presbyter (i. 29-32); the See also:deacon (i. 33-38); confessors (i. 39) ; the widows who have See also:precedence in sitting " (i. 40-43), apparently the same persons who are spoken of else-where as " presbyteresses " (i. 35, ii. 19) ; the subdeacon (i. 44) and the reader (1. 45), the order of whose offices seems to have been inverted; virgins of both sexes (i. 46); and those who possess charismata or spiritual gifts (i. 47).

Next come the regulations for the laity, including the whole course of preparation for and See also:

admission to See also:baptism (ii. i-8), See also:confirmation (ii. 9), and the See also:eucharist (ii. to) after which there follows a series of See also:miscellaneous regulations for See also:Easter and See also:Pentecost (ii. II-12), the See also:agape (ii. 13), the funds of the Church (ii. 17-20), the visitation of the sick (ii. 21), the use of psalmody (ii. 22), the See also:burial of the dead (ii. 23), and the See also:hours of See also:prayer (ii. 24). (c) The Conclusion (ii. 25-27) brings us back to the injunctions of the Lord as to the keeping of these precepts, a See also:special See also:charge to See also:John, See also:Andrew and Peter, and a statement that copies of the Testament were made by John, Peter and See also:Matthew, and sent to See also:Jerusalem by the hands of Dosithaeus, Sillas, See also:Magnus and See also:Aquila. In all this there is much that is See also:peculiar to or characteristic of the Testament.

First and foremost is its ascription to the Lord Himself, which we can hardly be mistaken in regarding as an See also:

attempt to claim yet higher See also:sanction than was claimed by the various compilations which were styled " apostolic. " This fact alone would See also:lead us to infer the pre-existence of certain of the latter. Again, the whole See also:tone of the Testamentum is one of highly strung See also:asceticism, and the regulations are such as point by their severity to a small and strictly organized See also:body. They are " the See also:wise," " the perfect," " sons of See also:light "; but this somewhat Gnostic phraseology is not accompanied with any signs of Gnostic See also:doctrine, and the See also: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 See also:duty of " bearing the See also:cross." There appears to be no See also:locus poenitentiae for serious sins excepting in the See also:case of catechumens, and there is a notable "perfectionist " tone in many of the prayers. Charismata, and above all exorcisms, occupy a very important See also:place: there is a vivid realization of the See also:ministry of angels, and the angelic See also:hierarchy is very See also:complete. See also:Great stress is laid upon virginity (although there is not a sign of See also:monasticism), upon See also:fasting (especially for the bishop), upon the See also:regular attendance of the whole clerical body and the " more perfect " of the laity at the hours of prayer. The church buildings are very elaborate, and the See also:baptistery is oblong, a form found apparently only here and in the Arabic Didascalia. Amongst the festivals mentioned are the See also:Epiphany, Easter and Pentecost. 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 See also:kind. The bishop appears to See also:rank far above the presbyters (more conspicuously so, for example, than in the Canons of Hippolytus), and the presbyters are still divided into two classes, those who are more learned am :1 those who are of mature See also:age. The deacons have functions in the Eucharist and about the See also:altar which point to an See also: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 " See also:

chief deacon " (protodiaconus, i. 19, cf. i. 34), and is charged with the care of pilgrims. There are no doorkeepers or singers, who begin to appear circ. A.D. 340. The See also:honour given to confessors is very conspicuous, and points back to an early date. But remarkable above all is the position given to See also:women. We have " widows having precedence " or presbyteresses, three in number, deaconesses, virgins, and widows who are in See also:receipt of the See also:alms of the Church; and the first-named occupy a place of very great dignity, which is almost unequalled elsewhere (excepting in the earlier form of the apocryphal and Montanistic Acts and Martyrdom of Matthew, where the relation of the lrpevf3vrt and See also:deaconess corresponds with that of the Testament), and which was formally condemned by the See also:Council of See also:Laodicea in See also:Phrygia. What conclusion is to be See also:drawn, then, as to the age and character of the Testament? Mgr Rahmani's view, that it is a work of the end century, is universally discredited; nor has Funk's contention found See also:acceptance, that it and the Canons of Hippolytus are alike derived ultimately from the eighth book of the Apostolic Constitutions. Some scholars think that the See also:Apocalypse at the beginning is pre-Nicene (A.D.

250-325), and that it originates from Asia Minor, probably from Montanistic circles. See also:

Harnack formerly contended that this was an See also:independent work, upon which the Church Order had been grafted, and that as a whole it dated from circ. A.D. 400. But the unity of thought and See also:atmosphere is such as to show that the work is one whole (subject no doubt to a certain amount of redaction and See also:interpolation), and that the apocalyptic part was composed as an introduction to the See also:rest. As to the central portion (i. 19-n. 24) it is a Church Order of the same kind as the Canons of Hippolytus (c. 220) and the See also:Egyptian (c. 310) and Ethiopic (c. 335) Church Orders, See also:standing nearer to the two latter than to the former, and especially to the See also:Verona Latin Fragments, part iii. (c.

34o), published in 1900 by Dr Hauler. The precise relation in which these documents stand to one another still remains in a measure doubtful, but it seems probable that they are based upon a lost Church Order, to which the Canons of Hippolytus stands nearest. [The Greek original of the Testamentum would seem to date from the See also:

middle of the 4th century, not See also:long after 350. This is the view of T. Zahn and Dom See also:Morin and also of Profs. See also:Cooper and Maclean. It is possible that about 400 a later, editor added a few paragraphs.] Such redaction was indeed inevitable in the case of a work which has had a living See also:history as part of a codex of-Church law. It may be discerned in the interpolations iri the prayers; possibly in the reference to the chief deacon, for elsewhere no single deacon is distinguished by name until the See also: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 See also:suggestion has been hazarded that this revision was due to the school of See also:Apollinaris of Laodicea (died circ. A.D. 390).

End of Article: TESTAMENTUM DOMINI (" TESTAMENT OF OUR LORD ")

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