The term ''Old Testament'' itself is a translation of the Latin Vetus Testamentum, from the Greek η Παλαια Διαθηκη (hē Palaia Diathēkē), all meaning "The Old Covenant (or Testament)". The Latin rendered testament in English originally came from the Latin for "witness " and from there expanded to mean "to make a will"; thus, though it is purported to be synonymous with "covenant," it has a distinct legal flavoring. Further semantic extentions extensions in English have distorted made the word even English term more: see testament on ambiguous[http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/testament www.dictionary.com].

The Orthodox Church also numbers among the genuine books of the Old Testament the so-called ''apocryphal '' books, meaning literally the meaningthe "secret " or "hidden " writings. A less Protestant-biased term for these parts of Scripture is the ''[[deuterocanonicalwritings]] writings''.