Old Testament
16
4.0
- noun
- /oʊld ˈtɛstəmənt/
:
Antiguo Testamento
- It's based on the first two books of the Old Testament.
- Old Testament prophets
- Old Testament imagery
- passages from the Old Testament
Examples
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"How many books in the Old Testament?"
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We are following the teachings of God in the Old Testament.
Academic text (2009) -
I believe in the Old Testament, sir.
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All this had led pretty directly to the Old Testament.
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It's from the Old Testament.
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How about a musical based on the first two books of the Old Testament?
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The great prophets of the Old Testament.
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It is a passage from the Old Testament.
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This is Noah's Ark from the Old Testament.
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The story of the Exodus is described in the Old Testament.
Synonyms
4
3.8
The Jewish holy books that include the Torah, the Prophets, and the Writings
1
9.9
A group of Jewish holy books, including the Torah, the Prophets and the Writings
1
7.0
A set of Jewish sacred writings in three parts: the Torah, the Prophets, and the Writings
A collection of Jewish holy books, including the Torah, the Prophets, and the Writings
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning is directly compositional: 'old' (earlier/not new) combined with 'testament' (a division of scripture) yields the notion of the earlier/division part of the Bible. This structure is cross-linguistically common (e.g. Spanish 'Antiguo Testamento'), so a B1 learner who knows both constituents would readily infer the MWE's meaning.
Etymology
Old Testament gets its name from calling these books the old 'testament' or agreement that came before Jesus. That's why Old Testament now means the collection of Bible books that form the first part of the Christian Bible.