Page 31 - Yahwehs Book

Scriptures in parallel with the Latin. The inclusion of a Greek text of the Bible proved to be quite
valuable, causing Erasmus’ Bible to be highly sought after. For many, the Greek portion of Erasmus’
Bible became far more valuable than the Latin. Erasmus’ Greek New Testament would eventually
become known as the “Textus Receptus,” meaning “Received Text,” though Erasmus himself never
referred to it as such. More will be mentioned about this in the next chapter.

Undoubtedly, the great prominence attained by Erasmus’ Greek and Latin text was due to the fact
that it was the first Greek New Testament to be published in Europe. Note the emphasis on the word
“published.” There were many extant Greek New Testaments at the time, but none had ever been
published using the relatively new invention of the printing press. The printing press made books
much more financially accessible to the general population. To have a book copied by a scribe was
prohibitively expensive. A great many Bible scholars and students rejoiced to find a printed copy of
the Greek New Testament that they could afford.

Erasmus’ Textus Receptus
(Latin and Greek Text Side by Side)

Erasmus’ Greek New Testament has been criticized due to the fact that he had access to only six
Greek manuscripts, none of them of great antiquity, and there was a portion of the New Testament
missing from the manuscripts (specifically the last six verses of the book of Revelation). It is
suggested by numerous scholars that Erasmus was under some pressure to quickly produce his
Latin/Greek translation, which led to hasty, and somewhat sloppy work. Rather than seeking out a
Greek manuscript with the missing verses from Revelation, Erasmus re-created the missing verses
by translating backwards from Latin into the original Greek, a process whereby he was forced to
guess what Greek words were originally used by the New Testament writers. There were also
numerous spelling errors in his translation, and many other corrections that needed to be made.
Erasmus would eventually publish five versions of his Greek New Testament, making corrections
and improvements with each edition.