Sophia Scriptura

The Testament of Our Lord

Testamentum Domini nostri Iesu Christi · Διαθήκη τοῦ Κυρίου ἡμῶν Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ

About the English. The Greek original is lost; the work survives in Syriac (the basis of this translation), Ethiopic, Arabic and Coptic versions. No original-language text is in hand, so the English here is the translation of the Syriac by James Cooper and Arthur John Maclean (Edinburgh, 1902), published as it stands; only OCR slips and non-text (their footnotes, running heads and footnote marks) were removed. Their bracketed words are their own insertions. Chapter titles are kept in the staged record. No original-language text is shown.

Read the whole work on one page

Contents

Reading pages: 1.0–1.20 · 1.21–1.25 · 1.26–1.30 · 1.31–1.39 · 1.40–2.4 · 2.5–2.19 · 2.20–2.27

  1. 1.0
  2. 1.1
  3. 1.2
  4. 1.3
  5. 1.4
  6. 1.5
  7. 1.6
  8. 1.7
  9. 1.8
  10. 1.9
  11. 1.10
  12. 1.11
  13. 1.12
  14. 1.13
  15. 1.14
  16. 1.15
  17. 1.16
  18. 1.17
  19. 1.18
  20. 1.19
  21. 1.20
  22. 1.21
  23. 1.22
  24. 1.23
  25. 1.24
  26. 1.25
  27. 1.26
  28. 1.27
  29. 1.28
  30. 1.29
  31. 1.30
  32. 1.31
  33. 1.32
  34. 1.33
  35. 1.34
  36. 1.35
  37. 1.36
  38. 1.37
  39. 1.38
  40. 1.39
  41. 1.40
  42. 1.41
  43. 1.42
  44. 1.43
  45. 1.44
  46. 1.45
  47. 1.46
  48. 1.47
  49. 2.0
  50. 2.1
  51. 2.2
  52. 2.3
  53. 2.4
  54. 2.5
  55. 2.6
  56. 2.7
  57. 2.8
  58. 2.9
  59. 2.10
  60. 2.11
  61. 2.12
  62. 2.13
  63. 2.14
  64. 2.15
  65. 2.16
  66. 2.17
  67. 2.18
  68. 2.19
  69. 2.20
  70. 2.21
  71. 2.22
  72. 2.23
  73. 2.24
  74. 2.25
  75. 2.26
  76. 2.27

About this work

Author
Anonymous
Attribution
pseudonymous · The work presents itself as the words of the risen Christ to the apostles, written down in eight books by Clement of Rome. It is a church order of unknown authorship (the editors, Cooper and Maclean, suggested Asia Minor as the most probable region of origin).
Standing
Not honoured as a saint or in a church calendar by the Catholic, Orthodox, or Protestant traditions. Anonymous or pseudonymous work read and used in the church of its time.
Date
ca. 350–500 (disputed) · Commonly dated to the fourth or fifth century; Cooper and Maclean (1902) placed it in the second half of the fourth century. Probably later than 325.
Written at
Asia Minor or Syria (disputed) (disputed)
Language
Greek
Genre
church order
Reference system
book.chapter, as in Cooper and Maclean (Book I: chapters 1–47; Book II: chapters 1–27). Section 0 of each book is its title and, for Book I, the opening narrative before chapter 1. Cooper and Maclean's footnotes (manuscript readings) are not reproduced.
SBL abbreviation
Test. Dom.Not yet checked
Text from
James Cooper and Arthur John Maclean, The Testament of Our Lord, translated into English from the Syriac, with Introduction and Notes (Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1902) (Printed translation in the public domain)
Critical editions
Ignatius Ephraem II Rahmani, Testamentum Domini nostri Iesu Christi (Mainz: Kirchheim, 1899) (Syriac with Latin translation); Paul de Lagarde, Reliquiae iuris ecclesiastici antiquissimae (Leipzig: Teubner, 1856) (Greek retranslation of parts) (cited, not reproduced)