Featured A Fact Sheet on the Greek NT

Thanks to everyone who has contributed so far. Right now I'm in Greek 102. My students are translating 1 John in four committees, a setup designed to simulate a missionary Bible translation effort. Occasionally I "fly" to their countries to be their translation consultant. In the meantime I'm adding my proofreader Furukawa's corrections to our Japanese Mark. So, everyone is having a blast!

 

Thanks, I'll make that correction. That's what I get for depending on Metzger & Ehrman too much.

 

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4. Robert Estienne (1503-1559), a famous printer and publisher in Paris who was also named Stephanus, then printed his own version of the Greek NT of Erasmus. Stephanus produced four editions of the TR. He is the source of the verse divisions in our Bible. The vast majority of Greek mss are from the Byzantine family.

 

5. The next TR was edited by Theodore Beza (1519-1605), and this Greek NT was reprinted by the Elziver brothers, Bonaventure and Abraham, in 1624. This is the edition said to be used by the translators of the KJV. There have been other editions down through the centuries. They all differ in a few places. These brothers are said to have invented the term “Textus Receptus” (TR), which comes from the Latin language and means, “Received Text.” They chose this term since it was edited from the Byzantine family of mss, which was handed down in mss form from ancient times in the Eastern part of the Roman Empire at first, and then throughout Europe, and thus “received” by the churches.

 

The Word of God is perfectly preserved in Heaven. On earth, it is our job as believers to preserve it, based on the doctrine of the priesthood of the believers. One way we do that is by textual criticism. I have great respect for genuine, trained, working textual critics.

 

Can anyone tell me if a Western family Greek NT has ever been printed? Or did I go out on a limb with this next point?

6. The Byzantine Textform and the TR Greek New Testament that we use were both edited from the Byzantine family of mss. The United Bible Societies (UBS) Greek NT and the Nestle’s Greek NT were edited mostly from the Alexandrian family of mss. There is one more family of mss called the Western, but no one prints Greek NTs from that family.

 

No, I had not heard about that. I can somewhat see the point since to my knowledge there are many mss said to be mixed types. But in the long run I think the text family designations are helpful and show reality.

 

Aha. Thank you. So, still no Western Greek NT per se, but work being done in that area.

 

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7. In the meantime, during the 19th century other scholars began to edit Greek NTs that were based more on the Alexandrian family of mss. These men included Constantin von Tischendorf (1815-1874), and a scholar named Samuel Tregelles (1813-1875), but the most influential one was edited by Brooke Foss Westcott (1825-1901) and Fenton John Anthony Hort (1828-1892), published in 1886. The various UBS and Nestle Greek NT have followed Westcott and Hort to a large degree. Nowadays this method of textual criticism is called “eclectic.” Our main disagreement with the eclectic method is their “canon” that “shortest is best.” Not only human experience, but careful examination of the mss proves this rule to be mistaken.

 

Great. Thanks much. IMO, absent this rule and maybe the "oldest ms is best' canon, textual criticism becomes Byz. priority