Textus Receptus
The Textus Receptus, Latin for "received text," is a family of Greek New Testament editions printed from the early 1500s onward. It began with Erasmus’s 1516 edition, and later editions were produced by Robert Stephanus (Estienne), Theodore Beza, the Elzevirs, Colinaeus, and Scrivener. This line of texts became the main Greek base for many early Bible translations, including the Luther Bible, William Tyndale’s English New Testament, the King James Version, the Reina-Valera (Spanish), the Czech Bible, the Portuguese Almeida, the Dutch Statenvertaling, the Russian Synodal Bible, and other Reformation-era translations.
Today many textual critics view the Textus Receptus as a late Byzantine text, not the original Greek of the New Testament. Some conservative Christians still defend it as the most authentic text, often on the belief that God has providentially preserved Scripture. The Textus Receptus most closely resembles the Byzantine text-type because Erasmus mainly used Byzantine manuscripts. In a few places he followed other sources, including the Latin Vulgate and a Caesarean-text-type manuscript in the Gospels, and in Revelation he leaned toward the Andreas text-type.
Erasmus’s first edition (1516) was created with access to about eight Greek manuscripts in Basel, plus notes drawn from others he had studied over years. He later expanded his sources for revised editions and used collaborators in different countries. He also used the Complutensian Polyglot (a multilingual Bible) to improve Revelation in a later edition. Stephanus and Beza had access to even more manuscripts, including Codex Bezae and Codex Claromontanus, though Beza did not rely heavily on all of them.
The name Textus Receptus comes from a 1633 edition by the Elzevirs in Leiden. Their preface said that the text which follows was “received by all,” and the term stuck to describe this line of editions. The Textus Receptus became the standard base for many later translations, particularly the King James Version, which drew on Erasmus, Stephanus, and Beza, as well as other sources like the Complutensian Polyglot and the Latin Vulgate.
The Textus Receptus is not without controversial readings. It includes the Comma Johanneum (a key Trinitarian clause in 1 John 5:7), which most modern Greek manuscripts do not contain. It also contains readings found in the Latin Vulgate and some later manuscripts that most scholars do not consider original. Other well-known TR readings include the Ethiopian eunuch confession in Acts 8:37, the longer ending of Mark (Mark 16:9–20), and the “book of life” reading in Revelation 22:19 (instead of “tree of life” found in many critical Greek texts).
Over time, scholars developed new methods and used older and more diverse manuscripts. Figures like Griesbach, Lachmann, Tischendorf, and Westcott and Hort helped move Bible editing toward texts based on the oldest and most diverse evidence. Some critics argued that the Textus Receptus should be corrected toward the older manuscripts, while defenders like Frederick Scrivener and later proponents of the Textus Receptus argued that it represented a faithful transmission of Scripture. Modern scholars like Edward Hills argued for a providential line of transmission that would make the Textus Receptus especially trustworthy, a view that is debated today.
In practice, the Textus Receptus remains influential mainly because of its historical role in early Bible translations, especially the King James Version. Most modern translations now rely on critical or Majority Text-type editions, which incorporate a broader range of manuscripts and scholarly methods. Still, the Textus Receptus is part of the history of how the Greek New Testament was read, copied, and translated in the Reformation era.
This page was last edited on 3 February 2026, at 08:05 (CET).