Liturgical origin of the title New Testament – Καινὴ Διαθήκη

The title New Testament - Καινὴ Διαθήκη – Novum Testamentum, normally used in catalogues of manuscripts to indicate the whole corpus of writings (for instance Lavra E 157 with summary title Καινὴ Διαθήκη, and short content indication Ἅπαντα τῆς Καινῆς Διαθήκης, cf. Lavra catalogue, ed. Spyridon/Eustratiades), is of liturgical origin and coinage. Evidence for this can be found in the concordances to the Greek New Testament (Moulton) and to the Septuagint (Hatch/Redpath), if one searches for the word ‘Καινὴ Διαθήκη’.

The ‘New Testament’ in the Gospels & Epistles

The title was introduced by the prophets and employed by Jesus Christ with respect to His sacrifice.

Words spoken by Christ at the Last Supper ‘…this do in remembrance of me. Likewise also the cup after supper, saying: This cup is the n e w t e s t a m e n t in my blood, which is shed for you’. ‘...τοῦτο ποιεῖτε εἰς τὴν ἐμην ἀνάμνησιν. Ὡσαύτως καὶ τὸ ποτήριον μετὰ τὸ δειπνῆσαι λέγων · Τοῦτο τὸ ποτήριον, ἡ καινὴ διαθήκη ἐν τῷ Αἵματί μου, τὸ ὑπὲρ ὑμῶν ἐκχυνόμενον’. Luke 22, 15-20 (cf. Matthew 26, 26-29, Mark 14, 24-25, 1 Kor. 11, 23-26, Hebr. 12, 24)

These words concerning the sacrifice of the Lord were received as christian lore (see the apostle Paul in 1 Kor. 23- 26) and became the heart of the liturgy (Anaphora, Eucharist, Synaxis). They are transmitted in manuscripts containing the three Byzantine liturgies (attributed to Chrysostomos, Basil the Great, and the Presanctified Gifts) and in Euchologion codices. In the Letter to the Hebrews one finds a clear liturgical interpretation of ‘New Testament’ in an early Christian sense.

Transformation of meaning

One observes that the title ‘New Testament’ was initially not used to refer to letters or books (‘you are servants of the new testament, not of the letter, but of the spirit’ [διακόνους καινῆς διαθήκης, οὐ γράμματος, ἀλλὰ πνεύματος] 2 Kor. 3, 6), although very soon the reading from the book of the law became associated with the term and subsequently the apostle Paul spoke of the ‘the same veil in the reading of the old testament’ [τὸ αὐτὸ κάλυμμα ἐπὶ τῇ ἀναγνώσει τῆς παλαιᾶς διαθήκης] (2 Kor. 3, 14), indicating a shift in understanding concerning the law. One could say that the unwritten epistles (‘written not with ink’) and unwritten books (‘not in tables of stone’) of christian interpretation (2 Cor. 3, 3), which were born in the period of the early church, gradually became written testimonies of the New Testament. In the early christian church the expression ‘New Testament’ received new meaning when the apostolic epistles and books were written down and collected, now denoting the corpus of writings belonging to the New Testament. The liturgical connotation was transferred to the corpus of books, which was understood in the early church, as well as in the whole of Byzantine tradition, as a liturgical corpus. Only since the Renaissance did the New Testament come to be seen as a classical corpus of texts, a literary unit.

The corpus of the liturgical New Testament

The liturgical connotation of the New Testament is found in, for example: - The Philokalia of Origen by Gregory the Theologian and Basil the Great - A Pinax at the head of codex Alexandrinus (f. 4), in which all the included books of this pandect bible are listed (‘the books of the New Testament’, see Portal II) - The Catecheses of Cyril of Jerusalem - The Pascha festival letter of Athanasius the Great - Eusebius of Caesarea, Historia Ekklesiastica - Canon lists of local synods

The New Testament was not an early christian and Byzantine codex type and not used as codex title

The title Καινὴ Διαθήκη was, as far as we know, not used in Byzantine manuscripts as a codex title, nor to indicate a codex type. The NT was considered to be composed of: Evangelion (four Gospels), Apostolos (Acts, 7 Catholic and 14 Pauline epistles) and supplemented by the Apocalypse. See, for instance, Lavra Γ 80 with summary title Ἡ Καινὴ Διαθήκη, and content indication as follows: 1. Τὰ τέσσαρα Εὐαγγέλια. 2. Αἱ Πράξεις ἀποστόλων, αἱ ἐπιστολαὶ αἱ καθολικαὶ καὶ αἱ ιδ’ τοῦ Παύλου. 3. Ἀποκάλυψις Ἰωάννου τοῦ Θεολόγου.

The Evangelion and Apostolos became the two central liturgical codices used in communal (church and monastery) and private worship (at home, kellion); the Apocalypse was not read in public, but privately. The same scheme of catalogue description is followed in Lavra A 99 (1317 AD) and in the beginning of that codex a scribal note is found in which the codex type is indicated ‘Praxapostolos and Tetraevangelion’ (cf. Lavra catalogue of Spyridon/Eustratiades, p. 11: ὁ πραξαπόστολος οὕτος σὺν τῷ τετραευαγγέλῳ), whereby the Apocalypse is passed over. It was not the intention of the scribe to provide a complete overview of the included writings. Only the most central codex units, in so far as they functioned in liturgical context, are mentioned and the added Apocalypse was tacitly implied (as in many other examples of cataloguing practice). The Lavra catalogue itself has the remarkable summary title Εὐαγγέλιον here (the first codex unit was taken as pars pro toto for the whole codex). It is followed by the same three-partite short indication of the content as in Lavra Γ 80. In this way and with this (presupposed) understanding of the New Testament, the three basic codex units (T + P +Ap) were incorporated in the large pandect bibles (OT + NT) of the 4th and 5th centuries AD.