paleotestamentary

English

Etymology

Mostly from French paléotestamentaire; equivalent to paleo- +‎ testamentary.

Adjective

paleotestamentary (not comparable)

1. (rare) Synonym of vetero-testamentary
   • 1954 January, Samuel Lucien Terrien, “A Currently Neglected Aspect of Biblical Theology”, in Union Seminary Quarterly Review, page 7:

     There was a time when biblical religion (paleotestamentary and neotestamentary alike) was studied almost exclusively in terms of individual faith.

   • 1957, “The Futurists”, in Willard R[opes] Trask, transl., Man at the Crossroads, Boston, Mass.: Beacon Press, translation of El hombre en la encrucijada by José Ferrater Mora, →LCCN, part I (Philosophy, Anxiety, and Renewal), page 64:

     We have also consulted the sources themselves. For our purpose, these were the works of Josephus (the Jewish War, the Jewish Antiquities, and the Life), the New Testament, and certain sections of the palaeotestamentary literature—partly apocalyptic in nature—not included in the Canon.

   • 1958, “The Transition from the Old Testament to the New”, in J. R. Foster, transl., edited by Henri Daniel-Rops, Biblical Criticism (The Twentieth Century Encyclopedia of Catholicism; volume 63 (8th by publication), section VI (The Word of God)), fifth printing, New York, N.Y.: Hawthorn Books, translation of La critique devant la Bible by Jean Steinmann, published 1963, →LCCN, part II (The Present State of Biblical Criticism), page 107:

     PALAEO-TESTAMENTARY LITERATURE

   • 1982, “Metropolitan Museum of Art”, in Studio Sandonà, transl., Siena: Its Art, Its Palio, Siena: Editions R.I.S., Italo Romboni, translation of Siena: son art, son palio by Sandro Chierichetti, section “Ground floor”, page 62, column 1:

     In the floor, funeral slabs by Tommaso Pecci (XIV cent.) and broken fragments of the original floor of the Duomo (notably the Age of man by [Antonio] Federighi, 1475, and the Paleotestamentary episodes by [Domenico] Beccafumi).

   • 1987, “Envois”, in Alan Bass, transl., The Post Card: From Socrates to Freud and Beyond, Chicago, Ill., London: The University of Chicago Press, translation of La carte postale: De Socrate à Freud et au-delà by Jacques Derrida, →ISBN, section “7 September 1977”, page 75:

     Tomorrow, if I want to write this preface, I will set myself to running down all the paleo- and neo-testamentary courriers.

   • 1993, Pascale-Anne Brault, Michael Naas, transl., Memoirs of the Blind: The Self-Portrait and Other Ruins (Parti-pris series from the Louvre), Chicago, Ill., London: The University of Chicago Press, translation of Mémoires d’aveugle: L’autoportrait et autres ruines by Jacques Derrida, →ISBN, page 21:

     But I am headed rather toward the testament. Specifically, toward the stories of legacy or delegation on the inside, as en abyme, of what is called the neo- or the paleo-testamentary.

   • 1997, “He Who Accompanies Me”, in George Collins, transl., The Politics of Friendship, London, New York, N.Y.: Verso, translation of Politiques de l’amitié by Jacques Derrida, published 2005, →ISBN, page 185:

     In each feature of this sovereign friendship (exception, improbable and random unicity, metapolitical transcendence, disproportion, infinite dissymmetry, denaturalization, etc.), it might be tempting to recognize a rupture with Greek philía – a testamentary rupture, as some would hasten to conclude, a palaeo- or neo-testamentary rupture.

   • 2002, Jonathan F. Krell, transl., Eleazar, Exodus to the West, Lincoln, Neb., London: University of Nebraska Press, translation of Éléazar ou La Source et le Buisson by Michel Tournier, →ISBN, chapter II, page 8:

     Probably because he had been born and raised in a Catholic country, though from a Protestant family, Eleazar felt less affinity for the Old than for the New Testament – its miracles, parables, and above all the presence of Jesus. The serpents of Paradise and of Moses took him back to the dawn of man, to the prophets, to Yahweh, a world that seemed brutal and archaic to him. But his Lutheran teachers in Downpatrick disapproved of this view. They taught a return to the paleotestamentary source.

   • 2014, David Engels, “Historising Religion between Spiritual Continuity and Friendly Takeover. Salvation History and Religious Competition during the First Millenium^[sic] AD.”, in David Engels, Peter Van Nuffelen, editors, Religion and Competition in Antiquity (Collection Latomus; volume 343), Brussels: Éditions Latomus, page 251:

     Persistence to cling to these texts, however valuable they may be, hence signifies to grasp only small parts of the truth, as only the embracing of Christianity can guarantee a return to the unspoiled and oldest sources of wisdom; an argumentation also to be found somewhat later in Tertullian (150-230), who, in his Apologeticum (197), refered^[sic] to the old age of paleotestamentary revelation as evidence for their truthfulness by stating ‘Their high antiquity, first of all, claims authority for these writings’, but also included the Jews themselves into the list of the peoples in possession of parts of the divine revelation, but unable to grasp their complete meaning: […]

   • 2017, “The Ci-Devant God”, in Philippe Lynes, transl., Advances, Minneapolis, Minn.: Univocal, the University of Minnesota Press, translation of Avances by Jacques Derrida, →ISBN, →LCCN:

     We will decidedly have to resist the Christian or more generally testamentary (paleo- or neotestamentary) slant of this discourse.

   • 2017, “Tenth Session: March 28, 2001”, in Elizabeth Rottenberg, transl., edited by Geoffrey Bennington and Marc Crépon, The Death Penalty, volume II, Chicago, Ill., London: The University of Chicago Press, translation of Séminaire: La peine de mort by Jacques Derrida, →DOI, →ISBN, section 346, page 259:

     Hence the Catholic dogmas, in the end, are not essentially evangelical: they are primarily paleo-testamentary; they go back to Genesis.