Editions  of  the  Bible

In the present article we understand by editions of the

Bible the printed reproductions of its original texts. We

are not concerned with copies of the versions of the

Bible, whether printed or written; nor do we purpose to

consider the manuscript copies of the original text. The

written reproductions are described under CODEX

ALEXANDRINUS and similar articles. See also

BIBLICAL CRITICISM in the latter part of which article

will be found an explanation of the critical nomenclature

of Bible codices and the symbols by which they are

denoted. The translations of the Bible will be treated

under the title VERSIONS OF THE BIBLE. Since the

original text of the Bible was written in Hebrew or Greek

(the original Aramaic portions can for the present

purpose be considered as coincident with the Hebrew), our study of its printed

reproductions naturally considers first the editions of the Hebrew text, and

secondly those of the Greek.

I. EDITIONS OF THE HEBREW TEXT OF THE BIBLE

Roughly speaking, there are three classes of editions of the Hebrew text:

1.The so-called Incunabula (Lat. cunabula, pl., "cradle")

2.The common editions

3.The critical editions.

The reader will see that this division has an historical as well as a logical basis.

1. THE INCUNABULA

Technically speaking, the Incunabula are the editions issued before the year

1500. From our present critical standpoint, they are very defective; but since they

represent manuscripts now lost, they are important even for critical purposes.

The following publications constitute the main body of the Incunabula:

1.The quarto edition of the Hebrew Psalter with the commentary of Rabbi

David Kimchi, printed in 1477, probably at Bologna. Vowels and accents

are wanting, except in the first four psalms. The volume is noted for its

omissions, abbreviations, and general lack of accuracy.

2.The folio edition of the Pentateuch, with vowels and accents, containing

the Targum of Onkelos and the commentary of Rabbi Samuel Jarchi,

printed at Bologna, 1482. This publication is much more perfect and

correct than the foregoing.

3.The so-called Earlier Prophets, i. e. the Books of Josue, Judges, Samuel,

and Kings, printed in 1488 at Soncino, near Cremona, in Italy.

4.The folio edition of the Later Prophets, i. e. Isaias, Jeremias, Ezechiel,

and the twelve Minor Prophets, printed soon after the preceding

publication, without accents and vowels, but interlined with the text of

Kimchi's commentary.

5.The Psalter and the Megilloth, or "Rolls", i. e. the Canticle of Canticles,

Ruth, Lamentations, Ecclesiastes, and Esther, printed in the same year

as the preceding publication, at Soncino and Casale, in Italy, in a quarto

volume.

6.Three folio volumes containing the Hagiographa with several rabbinic

commentaries, printed at Naples in 1487; the text is accompanied by the

vowels, but not by the accents.

7.A complete Hebrew Bible, in folio, printed in 1488 at Soncino, without any

commentary. Its text, accompanied by both vowels and accents, is based

partly on the previously printed portions of the Hebrew Bible, partly on

Hebrew manuscripts, but it lacks accuracy.

8.A folio containing the Hebrew and Chaldee Pentateuch with Rashi's

commentary, printed in 1490 in Isola del Liri.

9.A most accurate and highly esteemed quarto edition of the Pentateuch,

printed at Lisbon in 1491.

10.A second complete edition of the Hebrew text, in quarto, printed in 1494

at Brescia. The editor calls himself Gerson ben Mose of Soncino. The

text, which is accompanied by its vowels and accents, exhibits many

peculiar readings not found in any other edition. The type is small and

indistinct, the proofreading most slovenly; in a word, the edition is utterly

defective. Luther based his translation on it.

11.The foregoing text is repeated in an octave edition printed at Pisa in 1494.

12.A folio edition of the Hebrew Bible, printed on parchment, bears no

indication of its date or place of printing; it probably appeared in

Constantinople about 1500.

13.To these may be added Seb. Münster's Hebrew-Latin Bible, printed in folio

at Basle, 1534 and 1546, since its text is based on that of the 1488 and

1494 editions. Here also belong, for the same reason, the "Biblia

Rabbinica Bombergiana", first edition (see below), the editions of R.

Stephanus (1539-44, 1546), and the manual editions of Bomberg.

2. COMMON EDITIONS

By these we understand editions of the Bible reproduced either from manuscripts

or previous printed editions without the aid of critical apparatus and the

application of critical principles. While the editions of the Hebrew text thus far

enumerated owed their publication to Jewish enterprise, those that follow were, at

least in part, due to Christian scholarship. For practical purposes we may divide

the common editions into two classes: (1) those not depending on other printed

editions (independent editions); (2) those depending, at least partly, on a

previously printed text (dependent, or mixed, editions).

(1) Independent editions

This class of editions comprises two principal ones: (a) the "Biblia Polyglotta

Complutensia"; (b) the "Biblia Rabbinica Bombergiana", second edition. Here we

can give only a summary of their principal features.

(a) "Biblia Polyglotta Complutensia"

In the year 1502, Cardinal Ximenes engaged several

learned scholars to prepare the edition of a polyglot

Bible called variously after the name of its

ecclesiastical patron and the place of its publication

(Alcalá, in Lat. Complutum). The editors of the

Hebrew text were Jewish converts. Ancient

manuscripts, estimated at the value of 4000 florins,

and probably also the best extant printed copies of

the Hebrew text, were placed at their disposal. Thus

the cardinal's scholars produced a text quite different

from the other printed texts of his time. They marked

the vowels, but not the accents. The Polyglot was

finished in 1517, but was published only in 1520 or

1522, according to Gregory (Canon and Text of the

New Testament, New York, 1907). The pure form of

its text was only once reprinted in the so-called "Biblia Polyglotta Vatabli", or

"Polyglotta Sanctandreana'', or again, "Bertram's Polyglot" (Heidelberg, 1586,

1599, 1616).

(b) "Biblia Rabbinica Bombergiana", second edition

Daniel Bomberg, of Antwerp, who had established a printing-office for Hebrew and

rabbinic literature in Venice, published, in 1518, two important editions of the

Hebrew text: (a) an edition for Christian readers, in quarto, which was reprinted in

1521, 1525-28, 1533, 1544; (b) an edition for Jewish readers, edited by the

Jewish convert Felix Pratensis. It contained the Targumim, the Massorah, and

many Jewish commentaries, but did not satisfy the Jews. Hence Bomberg found

it advisable to publish another edition under the editorship of R. Jacob ben

Chayim, the most celebrated Jewish scholar of his time. He brought the text into

closer agreement with the Massorah, and added several more Jewish

commentaries. The work appeared in Venice, in four folio volumes, 1525-26, and

was justly regarded as the first Massoretic Bible. It won the approbation of both

Jewish and Christian scholars, so that it had to be republished in 1547-49, and

1568; the- last edition was brought out under the direction of John de Gara. In

spite of the great merits of the work, it is not wholly free from defects; Ben

Chayim paid too much attention to the Massorah and too little to reliable old

manuscripts. The principal codex he followed fell afterwards into the hands of de

Rossi, who testifies that it is quite defective and has not been carefully edited.

Chayim printed it without correcting its most glaring mistakes.

The subsequent editions were influenced principally by Ben Chayim's text, and

only secondarily by the Complutensian Polyglot. Thus the former text was

repeated by Bragadin (Venice, 1617), and, in a slightly modified form, by

Justiniani (Venice, 1551, 1552, 1563, 1573), the editors of Geneva (1618), John

de Gara (Venice, 1566, 1568, 1582), Plantin (Antwerp, 1566), Hartmann

(Frankfort, 1595, 1598), the editors of Wittenberg (1586, 1587), and Tores

(Amsterdam, 1705). Long before the last publication appeared, John Buxtorf

edited first the Hebrew text in manual form (Basle, 1611), then Chayim's rabbinic

Bible in four folio volumes (Basle, 1618, 1619). Though he corrected some of Ben

Chayim's mistakes, he allowed others to remain and even introduced some new

ones. He ought not to have regulated the vocalization of the Targumim according

to the vowels in the Chaldee fragments of the Bible, and it was at least

inconsistent to change the Massorah according to the Hebrew text, seeing that

Ben Chayim, whose text he professed to follow, had modified the Hebrew text

according to the Massorah.

(2) Dependent, or mixed, editions

In the editions thus far mentioned the text of one or the other of the two principal

forms of the Hebrew Bible was reproduced without any notable change. We have

now to consider the attempts made to correct the text either according to the

reading of other editions or according to that of ancient manuscripts.

(a) Texts Corrected according to Printed Texts

The first mixed text of the Hebrew Bible appeared in the Antwerp Polyglot

(1569-72); the same text was repeated in the Paris Polyglot (1629-45), in the

London Polyglot (1657), in that of Reineccius (Leipzig, 1750-51), the smaller

Plantin editions (Antwerp, 1580, 1582; Burgos, 1581; Leyden, 1613), the manual

edition of Reineccius (Leipzig, 1725, 1739, 1756), and in the Vienna Bible (1743).

The beautifully printed Bible of Hutter (Hamburg, 1588) presents a peculiarly

mixed text. Here may be added the names of a few editors who published a

Hebrew text without vowels and without pretence to critical accuracy: Plantin

(Antwerp, 1573, 8vo and 12mo; Leyden, 1595, 16mo; 1610, 12mo; Hanau, 1610,

24mo); Menasse ben Israel (Amsterdam, 1630, 1639, 8vo); Leusden (1694, 8vo);

Maresius (1701, 8vo); Jablonsky (Berlin, 1711, 24mo); Forster (Oxford, 1750,

4to).

(b) Texts Corrected according to Codices and Printed Texts

The mixture of Chayim's text with the Complutensian could not give permanent

satisfaction. Every comparison of the mixed text with that of any good

manuscript brought to light many discrepancies and suggested the idea that a

better Hebrew text might be obtained by the help of good codices. The first

attempt to publish a Hebrew text thus corrected was made by John Leusden with

the cooperation of the printer Jos. Athias (Amsterdam, 1661, 1667). The editor

revised Chayim's text according to the readings of two codices, one of which was

said to be about 900 years old. This edition, printed by Athias, was revised by

George Nissel according to the readings of Hutter's Bible (Leyden, 1662). Nissel

makes no pretence of having collated any codices, so that his work is noted for

its scarcity rather than its critical value. Clodius, too, endeavoured to correct

Athias's text according to earlier editions, but was not always successful

(Frankfort, 1677, 1692, 1716). Jablonsky corrected the second edition of Athias

according to the readings of several codices and of the better previous editions,

paying special attention to the vowels and accents (Berlin, 1699, 1712); his first

edition is commonly regarded as being one of the best. Van der Hooght

corrected the second edition of Athias according to the Massorah and the

previously printed editions (Amsterdam and Utrecht, 1705); his attention to the

smallest details and the printer's care account for the general favour with which

the edition was received. A still more perfect reprint of the edition was published

by Props (Amsterdam, 1724). Simonis, too, published correct and cheap reprints

of Van der Hooght's Bible. Opitz corrected the edition of Athias according to the

readings of seventeen of the best previous editions and of several manuscripts

(Kiel, 1709; Züllichau, 1741). He supervised the proof in person, and even the

type was remarkable for its size and clearness, so that the edition was

considered the most accurate extant. J. H. Michaelis edited the first Hebrew text

with variants (Halle, 1720). He based it on the text of Jablonsky which he

compared with twenty-four earlier editions and with five manuscripts preserved in

Erfurt. The more important variants he added at the bottom of the page. It has

been found that the comparison was made rather superficially as far as the

printed editions were concerned, and there is no good reason for supposing that

more care was taken in the comparison of the manuscript text. Still, the edition

remains valuable, because it is the first of its kind, and some of its variants

deserve attention even to-day. The Oratorian Father Houbigant tried to produce a

text far superior to the commonly received one. Taking Van der Hooght's text for

his basis, he added his own corrections and conjectures in critical notes. His

apparatus consisted of a number of manuscripts, the ancient versions, and the

Hebrew context. The precipitancy of his inferences and the rashness of his

conjectures did much to create a prejudice against his method, though the merit

of his work has been duly appreciated by scholars. His "Notæ Criticæ" were

printed in separate form in Frankfort (1777), after the full edition had appeared in

Paris (1753).

Here may be mentioned the work of the Italian Jew, Salomo Norzi. He began in

the early years of the seventeenth century to compare Bomberg's text with the

best of the printed editions, with a number of good manuscripts of both Bible and

Massorah, with the Biblical citations found in the Talmud, the Midrashim, and in

other rabbinic writings, and with the critical annotations of the more notable

Jewish commentators; the results of his long study he summarized in a

Massoretico-critical commentary intended to accompany the text of the Hebrew

Bible, which had been rather scantily corrected. The title of the work was to be

"Repairer of the Breach" (Is., lviii, 12), but the author died before he could publish

his book. Nearly a century later, a Jewish physician named Raphael Chayim

Italia had Norzi's work printed at his own expense under the title "Offering of the

Gift" (Mantua, 1742-44). Among Christian scholars it appears to have remained

unnoticed until Bruns and Dresde drew attention to it. In spite of his best

intentions, Norzi at times rather corrupts than corrects the Hebrew text, because

he prefers the readings of the Massorah to those of the manuscripts.

3. CRITICAL EDITIONS

The editions thus far enumerated can hardly be called critical, since their editors

either lacked the necessary apparatus or did not consider it prudent to correct

the received Hebrew text according to the full light of their textual information.

Later on, two classes of scholars published really critical editions of the Hebrew

text; some endeavoured to restore critically the most correct Massoretic text

obtainable; others tried to find the most accurate pre-Massoretic text.

(1) Critical Editions of the Massoretic Text

In order to restore the correct Massoretic text it was necessary first to collect the

apparatus. About the middle of the eighteenth century this need was felt very

keenly by Benjamin Kennicott, a canon of Christ Church, Oxford, who

determined to remedy the evil. Beginning in 1759, he collated either in person or

through others as many as 615 Hebrew manuscripts, 52 printed editions, and the

Talmud, continuing this preparation until the year 1773. Then he began the

printing of the work (Vetus Testam. Hebr. cum var. lectionibus, 2 volumes,

Oxford, 1776-80) based on Van der Hooght's Hebrew text as edited by Simonis.

The variants, with their respective sources, were indicated below the text. In the

introductory dissertation of the second volume the author gives the history of his

enterprise and justifies its methods. He found this necessary because, after the

appearance of the first volume, his critics had charged him with lack of care and

discernment in the choice of the manuscripts used, of the variants noticed, and

in the treatment of the Massorah.

Bernardo de Rossi, professor at Parma, tried to construct an apparatus that

should not be open to the exceptions taken against Kennicott's work. The

material on which de Rossi worked exceeded that of Kennicott by 731

manuscripts, 300 printed editions, and several ancient versions. In his work

(Variæ lectiones Vet. Testam., 4 volumes, Parma, 1784-88) and its subsequent

supplement (Supplementa ad varias s. text. lectiones, 1798) he noted the more

important variants, gave a brief appreciation of their respective sources and their

values, and paid due attention to the Massorah. He follows Van der Hooght's text

as his basis, but considers it known, and so does not print it. All of de Rossi's

critics are at one in admiring the laboriousness of his work, but they deny that its

importance bears any proportion to the labour it implies. Perhaps the author

himself, in his "Dissertatio præliminaris" to vol. IV, gives a fairer opinion of his

work than his critics do. It can hardly be denied that de Rossi at least showed

what can be done by a study of the manuscripts and of the old editions for the

correction of the received Hebrew text.

The apparatus of the textual, or lower, criticism of the Old Testament text (see

BIBLICAL CRITICISM) is not limited to the works of Kennicott and de Rossi; it

comprises also the above-mentioned work of Salomo Norzi, re-edited in Vienna,

1813; the writings of Wolf ben Simson Heidenhaim; Frensdorff's "Ochla W'

Ochlah" (1864), and "Massora Magna" (Hanover, 1876); the prophetic "Codex of

St. Petersburg", dating back to 916, phototyped by Strack in 1876; all the

recently discovered or recently studied codices and fragments, together with the

works of the ancient Jewish grammarians and lexicographers.

But even with these means at their command, the editors of the Hebrew text did

not at once produce an edition that could be called satisfactory from a critical

point of view. The editions of Döderlein-Meisner (Leipzig, 1793) and Jahn (Vienna,

1807) only popularized the variants of Kennicott and de Rossi without utilizing

them properly. The edition published under the name of Hahn and prefaced by

Rosenmüller (Leipzig, 1834) is anything but critical. The stereotype editions of

Hahn (Leipzig, 1839) and Theile (Leipzig, 1849) remained for many years the

best manual texts extant. More recently the apparatus has been used to better

advantage in the edition of Ginsburg (The New Massoretico-Critical Text of the

Hebrew Bible, 1894) and in that of Baer and Delitzsch. The last-named appeared

in single books, beginning with the year 1861. The Books of Exodus, Leviticus,

Numbers, and Deuteronomy are still wanting; both editors are dead, so that their

work will have to be completed by other hands.

(2) Critical Editions of the Pre-Massoretic Text

The editors whose work we have thus far noticed endeavoured to restore as far as

possible the text of the Massorah. However valuable such an edition may be in

itself, it cannot pretend to be the last word which textual criticism has to say

concerning the Hebrew text of the Old Testament. After all, the Massoretic text

attained to its fixed form in the early centuries of the Christian Era; before that

period there were found many text-forms which differed considerably from the

Massoretic, and which nevertheless may represent the original text with fair

accuracy. The most ancient and reliable witness for the pre-Massoretic text-form

of the Hebrew Bible is found in the Septuagint. But it is practically certain that,

even at the time of the Septuagint, the original text had suffered considerable

corruptions; these can be corrected only by comparing parallel passages of the

context, or again by conjectural criticism; a critical edition of this kind

presupposes, therefore, a critical edition of the Septuagint text.

Various attempts have been made to restore the pre-Massoretic text of single

books of the Old Testament: thus Olshausen worked at the reconstruction of the

Book of Genesis (Beiträge zur Kritik des überlieferten Textes im Buche Genesis,

1870); Wellhausen (Text der Bücher Samuelis, 1871), Driver (Notes on the

Hebrew Text of the Books of Samuel, 1890), and Klostermann (Die Bücher

Samuelis und der Könige, 1887) at the correction of the Books of Samuel; Cornill

at the correction of the Book of Ezechiel (Das Buch des Propheten Ezechiel,

1886). To these might be added various other publications; e. g., several recent

commentaries, some of the works published by Bickell, etc. But all these works

concern only part of the Old Testament text. "The Sacred Books of the Old

Testament", edited by Paul Haupt (see CRITICISM, BIBLICAL, s. v. Textual), is a

series intended to embrace the whole Hebrew text, though the value of its

criticism is in many instances questionable; Kittel's "Biblia Hebraica" (Leipzig,

1905), too, deserves a mention among the critical editions which attempt to

restore the pre-Massoretic Hebrew text.

II. EDITIONS OF THE GREEK TEXT OF THE BIBLE

Before speaking of the Greek text of the New Testament, we shall have to give a

brief account of the editions of the Greek books of the Old Testament. They

appear partly in separate editions, partly in conjunction with the Septuagint.

1. SEPARATE EDITIONS

The principal separate editions of the deuterocanonical books appeared at

Antwerp, 1566 (Plantin), 1584, and with Latin text taken from Ximenes' Polyglot,

1612; at Frankfort, 1694; Halle, 1749, 1766 (Kircher); Leipzig, 1757 (Reineccius),

1804 (Augusti), 1837 (Apel), 1871 (Fritzsche); Oxford, 1805; London, 1871

(Greek and English); Frankfort and Leipzig, 1691 (partial edition); Book of Tobias,

Franeker, 1591 (Drusius), and Freiburg, 1870 (Reusch); Book of Judith,

Würzburg, 1887 (Scholz, Commentar); Book of Wisdom, 1586 (Holkoth's

"Prælectiones" edited by Ryterus); Coburg, 1601 (Faber); Venice, 1827 (Greek,

Latin, and Armenian); Freiburg, 1858 (Reusch); Oxford, 1881 (Deane);

Ecclesiasticus, 1551, '55, '68, '70, '89, '90 (Drusius), 1804 (Bretschneider);

Books of Machabees, Franeker, 1600 (Drusius); I Mach., Helmstädt, 1784

(Bruns).

2. EDITIONS JOINED TO THE SEPTUAGINT

The history of these editions of the deuterocanonical books of the Old Testament

is connected with that of the Septuagint editions. The reader will find full

information on this question in the article SEPTUAGINT.

The newly invented art of printing had flourished for more than half a century

before an attempt was made to publish an edition of the Greek New Testament.

The Canticles, Magnificat, and Benedictus were printed at Milan, 1481; at

Venice, 1486 and 1496, as an appendix to the Greek Psalter; John, i, 1, to vi, 58,

appeared in Venice, 1495 and 1504, together with the poems of St. Gregory

Nazianzen; the beginning of the Fourth Gospel, John, i, 1-14, was published at

Venice, 1495, and at Tübingen, 1511. Not that the reading public of that age did

not feel interested in the other parts of the New Testament; but it did not show

any desire for the Greek text of the Bible. After the beginning of the sixteenth

century the world's attitude with regard to the Greek text of the New Testament

changed considerably. Not counting the publication of codices, mere stereotype

reprints, or the issue of parts of the Testament, the number of editions of the

complete Greek text has been estimated at about 550; in other words, since the

beginning of the sixteenth century, every year has witnessed the publication of,

roughly speaking, two new editions of the complete Greek text. For our present

purpose, we may consider the principal editions under the four headings of the

Complutensian, the Erasmian, the Received, and the Critical text.

(1) The Complutensian Text

It was the Archbishop of Toledo, Cardinal Ximenes de Cisneros, who began at

Alcalá, in 1502, the preparation of the edition of the Old Testament in Hebrew,

Greek, and Latin, and of the New Testament in Greek and Latin. It has been thus

far impossible to ascertain what codices served as the basis of the work called

the Complutensian Polyglot. Though Leo X sent from the Vatican Library some

manuscripts venerandoe vetustatis for the use of the scholars engaged in the

work at Alcalá, it is quite certain that the well-known Codex Vaticanus was not

among them. It appears that the Greek New Testament text of the Polyglot rests

on the readings of a few manuscripts only, belonging to the so-called Byzantine

family (see CRITICISM, BIBLICAL, s. v. Textual). The charge that the

Complutensian text was corrected according to the evidence of the Latin Vulgate,

is now generally abandoned, excepting with regard to I John, v, 7. The

New-Testament text is contained in the fifth or, according to other arrangements,

in the last of the six folios of the Polyglot; it was finished 10 Jan., 1514, and

though the rest of the work was ready 10 July, 1517, four months before the great

cardinal's death (8 Nov., 1517), it was not published until Leo X had given his

permission proprio motu, 22 March, 1520.

The Complutensian text, corrected according to certain readings of the Erasmian

and of that of Stephanus, was repeated in the Antwerp Polyglot published, under

the auspices of King Philip II, by the Spanish theologian Benedict Arias

Montanus and his companions, and printed by the celebrated typographer,

Christopher Plantin, of Antwerp, 1569-72. The Greek New Testament text occurs

in the fifth and in the last of the eight folios which make up the Antwerp Polyglot;

in the fifth it is accompanied by the Syriac text (both in Hebrew and Syriac

letters), its Latin version, and the Latin Vulgate; in the eighth volume, the Greek

text has been corrected in a few passages, and is accompanied by the

interlinear Latin Vulgate text. The text of the fifth volume of the Antwerp Polyglot

was repeated only in the fifth volume of the Paris Polyglot, 1630-33, while that of

the eighth volume reappears in a number of editions: Antwerp 1573-84 (four

editions, Christopher Plantin); Leyden, 1591-1613 (four editions, Rapheleng);

Paris, 1584 (Syriac, Latin, and Greek text; Prevosteau); Heidelberg, 1599, 1602

(Commelin); Lyons, 1599 (Vincent); Geneva, 1599; Geneva, 1609-27 (eight very

different editions; Pierre de la Rouière, Sam. Crispin, James Stoer); Leipzig,

1657 (with the interlinear version of Arias Montanus; Kirchner); Vienna, 1740

(edited by Debiel, published by Kaliwoda); Mainz, 1753 (edited by Goldhagen;

published by Varrentrapp); Liège, 1839 (Kersten). To these editions, containing

the Plantinian, or the modified Complutensian, text, the following may be added,

which represent a mixture of the text of Plantin and that of Stephanus: Cologne,

1592 (Amold Mylius; Greek and Latin text); Nuremberg, 1599-1600 (Hutter's

Polyglot, twelve languages); 1602 (the same, four languages); Amsterdam, 1615

(the same, Welschaert); Geneva, 1628 (Jean de Tournes; one edition gives only

the Greek text, another gives Beza's Latin version and a French translation).

(2) The Erasmian Text

On 17 April, 1515, the well known humanist, Beatus Rhenanus, invited

Desiderius Erasmus, who lived at the time in England, to edit the Greek New

Testament which John Froben, a celebrated printer of Basle, was anxious to

publish before Pope Leo X should give his permission to put forth the

Complutensian text printed more than a year before. Erasmus hastened to

Basle, and printed almost bodily the text of the manuscripts that happened to fall

into his hands: the Gospels according to a manuscript of Basle (Evv. 2); the

Book of Acts and the Epistles according to another manuscript of Basle (Act. 2);

the Apocalypse according to a manuscript named after Reuchlin "Codex

Reuchlini" (Apoc. 1). He made a few corrections after superficially collating some

other Basle manuscripts, Evv. 1 among the rest. Since Reuchlin's manuscript did

not contain the end of the Apocalypse, Erasmus translated Apoc., xxii, 16b-21,

from the Vulgate. The printing began in Sept., 1515, and the whole New

Testament text was finished in the beginning of March, 1516. Under these

circumstances satisfactory work could hardly be expected; Erasmus himself, in

a letter to Pirkheimer, confesses that the first New Testament edition is

"præcipitatum verius quam editum". In 1519 appeared the second Erasmus

edition, in which the text of the first was almost entirely repeated, though several

hundred mistakes were corrected. Luther followed this edition in his German

translation of the New Testament. Urged by the importunities of his critics,

Erasmus admitted into his third edition (1522) the passage I John, v, 7, according

to the reading of the Codex Montfort. (Evv. 61). In his fourth edition (1527) he

changed his text, especially in Apoc., in several passages according to the

readings of the Complutensian Polyglot; in the fifth edition (1535) he repeated the

text of the fourth with very few changes.

The Erasmian text was frequently reprinted: Venice, 1518; Hagenau, 1521;

Basle, 1524, 31, etc.; Strasburg, 1524; Antwerp, 1571, etc.; Paris, 1546 and

1549 (Robertus Stephanus introduced corrections from the Complutensian

Polyglot); in his third edition, R. Stephanus repeats the fifth Erasmian with

variants from fifteen manuscripts and the Complutensian Polyglot (Paris, 1550).

This edition is called Regia, and is the basis of the English Authorized Version

(1611). Stephanus's fourth edition (Geneva, 1551) adds the Latin to the Greek

text, the latter of which is for the first time divided into verses, a contrivance

which was introduced into the Latin Vulgate in 1555, and then became general.

The last edition of R. Stephanus was reprinted with slight modifications a great

number of times; its principal repetitions were those supervised by Theodore

Beta (Geneva, 1565, 1582, 1589, 1598 in folio; 1565, 1567, 1580, 1590, 1604 in

octavo) and the brothers Bonaventure and Abraham Elzevir (Leyden, 1624, 1633,

1641; Amsterdam, 1656, 1662, 1670, 1678). In the preface of the second Elzevir

edition (Leyden, 1633) we read the words: "Textum ergo habes nunc ab omnibus

receptum." Hence this Elzevir text became known as the textus receptus, or the

Received Text.

(3) The Received Text

From what has been said it follows that the Received Text is that of the second

Elzevir edition, which is practically identical with the text of Theodore Beza, or

the fourth edition of Robertus Stephanus corrected in about one hundred and fifty

passages according to the readings of the Codex Claromontanus, the Codex

Cantabrigiensis, the Latin, Syriac, and Arabic versions, and certain critical notes

of Henry Stephanus. In its turn, the fourth edition of Robertus Stephanus is

almost identical with the fifth Erasmian edition which exhibits the text of five

rather recent manuscripts corrected in about a hundred passages according to

the reading of the Complutensian Polyglot. Still, it can hardly be denied that the

readings peculiar to the text can be traced at least as far back as the fourth

century. For about a century the Received Text held undisputed sway; its

editions numbered about one hundred and seventy, some of the more important

being the following:

The fifth volume of Brian Walton's "Biblia Polyglotta" (London, 1657)

contains the New Testament in Greek, Latin, Syria, Arabic, Ethiopia; a

learned apparatus is added in the sixth volume.

John Fell edited the text anonymously (Oxford, 1675) with variants

collected "ex plus centime mss. codicils et antiques versionibus".

John Mill reprinted the text of Stephanus, 1550, together with valuable

prolegomena and a critical apparatus (Oxford, 1707), and L. Kuster

published an enlarged and corrected edition of Mill's work (Amsterdam,

1710).

Not to speak of Richard Bentley's "Proposals for Printing", published in

1720, we must mention Wetstein's edition, the prolegomena to which

appeared anonymously in 1730, and were followed by the body of the

work in two folios: (Amsterdam, 1751-1752) with an apparatus collected

from codices, versions, readings of the Fathers, printed editions, and

works of Biblical scholars. He also laid down principles for the use of

variants, but did not put them into practice consistently enough.

Principles advocated by Wetstein were more faithfully followed in W.

Bowyer's edition of the Greek New Testament (London, 1763).

When the foregoing scholars had collected an almost unmanageable

number of variants, John Albert Bengel endeavoured to simplify their use

by dividing them into two families, an Asiatic and an African; besides, he

constructed a Greek text based on the readings of previous editions,

excepting that of the Apocalypse, which was based also on the readings

of manuscripts (Tübingen, 1734).

This edition was enlarged add amended by Burck (Tübingen 1763).

(4) The Critical Text

In the last paragraph we have enumerated a list of editions of the Greek New

Testament which contain, besides the text, a more or less complete apparatus

for the critical reconstruction of the true reading. We shall now mention a number

of editions in which such a reconstruction was attempted.

(1) Griesbach developed Bengel's method of grouping the variants into a formal

system. He admitted three textual recensions: the Occidental, the Alexandrian

(or Oriental), and the Constantinopolitan (or Byzantine). The first two he derived

from the middle of the second century, and the third he considered as a mixture

of the two, belonging to the fourth century, though subsequently modified. After

laving down his principles of textual criticism, he tried to reconstruct the text best

known in the ancient Church of both East and West. In 1774 he published the

text of the synoptic Gospels; in 1796-1806, the text of the New Testament,

called "Editio secunda"; in 1827 David Schulz added the first volume of a third

edition. Griesbach is not always faithful to his principles, being too much under

the sway of the Received Text; moreover, he did not sufficiently utilize the

codices most important for his purpose. His text has been followed by Schott,

Knapp, Tittmann, Hahn, and Theile.

(2) It suffices to mention the editions of Mace (London, 1729), Harwood (London,

1776), Matthaei (Riga, 1782-1788), Alter (Vienna, 1786), and Scholz (Leipzig,

1830-1836); the last named scholar (a Catholic, and professor of exegesis in the

University of Bonn) reduced Griesbach's first two recensions to one,

distinguishing it only from the Constantinopolitan textform, which he derived from

the more correct copies circulating in Asia Minor, Syria, and Greece during the

first centuries. Scholz himself had industriously collected manuscripts in the

East. The labours of Hug and Eichhorn may also be mentioned briefly. The

former substituted his so-called Common Edition, and the latter the uncorrected

text of Asia and Africa, for Griesbach's Occidental class. Both Hug and Eichhorn

assign the Alexandrian text-form to Hesychius, and the Byzantine to Lucian;

finally, Hug assigns to the labours of Origen in his old age a fourth text-form

identical with a middle class favoured by Griesbach and Eichhorn. Rinck (1830)

divided the Occidental manuscripts into African and Latin, both of which are

surpassed in purity by the Oriental.

(3) Carl Lachmann was the first critic who tried to reconstruct a New Testament

text independent of the Received. Believing that the autograph text could not be

found, he endeavoured to restore the text-form most common in the Oriental

Church during the course of the fourth century. He published his small stereotype

edition in 1831 (Berlin), and his large Latin-Greek text in 1842-50 (Berlin); this

latter is accompanied by P. Buttmann's list of authorities for the Greek readings.

Though Lachmann's text is preferable to the Received, his apparatus and the use

he made of it are hardly satisfactory in the light of our present-day methods.

(4) Among the editors of the New Testament text, Tischendorf deserves a place

of honour. During the thirty years which he devoted exclusively to textual studies,

he published twenty or twenty-one editions of the Greek Testament; the most

noteworthy among them belong to one or another of the following five recensions:

In 1841 (Leipzig) he issued an edition in which he surpassed even

Lachmann in his departure from the Received Text; the ancient

manuscripts, the early versions, and the citations of the Fathers were

regarded as the highest authorities in the selection of his reading. In 1842

Tischendorf published in Paris an edition destined for the French

Protestants (Didot), and in the same year and place, at the instance of

the Abbé I.M. Jager, another for the French Catholics, which he dedicated

to Archbishop Affre. In this he received the Greek readings most in

keeping with the Latin Vulgate.

The second recension consists of four stereotype editions (12mo,

1842-59) containing the Greek text brought into agreement with the Latin

Vulgate.

Tischendorf's third recension is represented by his fourth (Lipsiensis

secunda, 1849; Winter), his fifth (stereotype; Leipzig, 1850, Tauchnitz),

and his sixth edition (with corrected Latin Vulgate and Luther's translation;

Leipzig, 1854, Avenarius and Mendelssohn). A separate print of the Greek

text of this last edition (1855) constitutes the first of Tischendorf's

so-called "academic" editions. In the seventh reprint of the academic

edition, as well as in the third of Tauchnitz's stereotype text, the readings

were changed according to Tischendorf's fifth recension.

The fourth recension is found in Tischendorf's "Editio Septima Critica

Maior" (Leipzig, 1856-59; Winter). The work contains valuable

prolegomena and a detailed critical apparatus.

Tischendorf's fifth recension is found in his "Editio Octava Critica Maior"

(Leipzig, 1864-72, Giesecke and Devrient). In his first recension

Tischendorf is further removed than Lachmann from the Received Text; in

his second he favours the Latin Vulgate; in the third, and still more in the

fourth, he returns to the readings of the Received Text of Elzevir and

Griesbach; but in the fifth he again follows the principles of Lachmann and

favours the readings of his first recension rather than those of his third and

fourth. Tischendorf will always occupy a high rank among the editors of

the Greek text; but he is rather a student of the text than a textual critic.

The "Prolegomena" to the eighth edition had to be supplied by C.R.

Gregory on account of the great editor's untimely death (7 Dec., 1874).

Gregory published these "Prolegomena" in three instalments (Leipzig,

1884, 1890, 1894), giving the reader a most satisfactory and complete

summary of the information necessary or useful for the better

understanding of the Greek text and its apparatus.

(5) The discrepancy between the text of Scholz's edition (Leipzig, 1830-36) and

the readings of the early documents stimulated Tregelles to study the textual

questions more thoroughly in order to relieve the existing uncertainty. The

favourable reception of his "Book of Revelation in Greek . . . with a, new English

Version" published with a "Prospectus of a Critical Edition of the Greek New

Testament, now in Preparation" encouraged him to continue the arduous course

of studies he had begun. After collating all the more important manuscripts which

were to be found in England, he visited the libraries of Rome, Florence, Modena,

Venice, Munich, Basle, Paris, Hamburg, Dresden, Wolfenbüttel, and Utrecht for

an accurate study of their respective codices. It has been noted that when the

results of Tregelles differ from those of Tischendorf, the former are usually

correct. He was enabled to publish the Gospels of St. Matthew and St. Mark in

1857; those of St. Luke and St. John in 1861; the Acts and the Catholic Epistles

in 1865; the Pauline Epistles in 1869-70. While engaged on the last chapters of

the Apocalypse, he had a stroke of apoplexy, so that this part had to be finished

by the hand of a friend (1872). Seven years later, Hort and Streane added

"Prolegomena" to the work of Tregelles. A reprint of the text without its critical

apparatus appeared in 1887. The character of the work is well described by its

title, "The Greek New Testament, Edited from Ancient Authorities, with their

Various Readings in full, and the Latin Version of Jerome" (London, 1857-79).

(6) The textual labours of Tregelles and Tischendorf were, to a certain extent,

overshadowed by the work achieved by the two eminent Cambridge scholars,

Brook Foss Westcott and Fenton John Anthony Hort. Like their predecessors,

they acknowledged and followed the principles of Lachmann; but they differed

from Lachmann as well as from Tischendorf and Tregelles in utilizing and

systematizing the genealogical grouping of the ancient readings, thus connecting

their labours with the views of Bengel and Criesbach. They distinguished four

branches of textual tradition.

The Western has a tendency to paraphrase the text and to interpolate it

from parallel passages and other sources. It is found mainly in Codex D,

the old Latin Version, and partly in Cureton's Syriac manuscript.

The Alexandrian is purer than the Western, but contains changes of a

grammatical character. It is found in the oldest uncial codices, except in

B (and part of N), a number of cursive manuscripts, and the Egyptian

versions.

The Syrian is a mixture of all the other texts, or at least it contains some

of the characteristics of all the others. It is found in the later uncials, and

in most of the cursive manuscripts and versions.

The neutral text comes nearest to the original text, being almost identical

with it. Its pure form is found nowhere, but the readings of N and some of

the oldest uncials, especially of B, give us the nearest approach to it.

As to the value of the several classes of readings, Hort believes that most of the

Western and Alexandrian, and all the Syrian must be rejected; these latter he

finds nowhere before the middle of the third century. All the necessary

explanations have been collected in a volume accompanying Westcott and Hort's

"New Testament in the Original Greek" (Cambridge and London, 1881). The

volume contains an introduction (324 pages) and an appendix (173 pages). The

introduction treats of the necessity of Textual New-Testament Criticism (pp.

4-18), of its various methods (19-72), of the application of its principles to the

restoration of the New-Testament text (73-287), and finally of the character, the

aim, and the arrangement of the new edition (288-324). The appendix contains

critical comments on difficult passages (pp. 1-140), notes on certain orthographic

and grammatical discrepancies between the ancient codices (pp. 141-173), and

finally a complete list of the Old-Testament passages employed in the New (pp.

174-188). The volume containing the text of Westcott and Hort's edition was

printed also separately in the year of the first appearance. In 1885 (1887, etc.)

the text appeared separately in a volume of smaller size, and in 1895-96 both

volumes of the original work were published anew in their larger form.

(7) Westcott and Hort's Greek New Testament, though hailed with delight by a

great number of textual critics, did not meet with unchallenged praise. Among

the dissenters were Godet, Wunderlich, Dobschütz, Jülicher, Bousset, and

Burgon (The Revision Revised; The Quarterly Review, 1881-82; 2nd edit., London,

1885). Of these, some object to Westcott and Hort's method, others to their

appreciation of Codex B, others to their attitude towards the so-called Western

readings, others, finally, uphold the claims of the Received Text. In the third and

fourth editions of his "Plain Introduction to the Criticism of the New Testament",

F. H. Scrivener writes against the views of Tischendorf, Treffelles, and

Westcott-Hort; he favours the readings of the later manuscripts in the

reconstruction of the Greek New-Testament text, and advocates the return to a

text-form similar to the Received Text. Among his various publications we may

notice "The New Testament in the Original Greek, together with the Variations

Adopted in the Revised Version'' (New Edition, London, 1894) and his various

collations of texts (Twenty Manuscripts of the Gospels, London, 1853; Collation

of Codex Sinaiticus with the Received Text, Cambridge and London, 1863, 1867).

Here may be mentioned also "The Greek Testament with a critically revised text,

a digest of various readings, marginal references to verbal and idiomatic usage,

prolegomena, and a critical and exegetical commentary'' edited by Henry Alford,

afterwards Dean of Canterbury (London, 1849-1857; sixth edition, 1871).

Tischendorf was of opinion that Alford's revision of the text was not satisfactory.

Again "The New Testament in the Original Greek, with Notes and Introduction''

(London, 1856-60; newly edited with index, 1867), by Christopher Wordsworth,

Canon of Westminster, is a mixture of the texts of Griesbach, Lachmann,

Tischendorf, and Elzevir. Finally, in connexion with the Revised Edition,

Professor C. Palmer, of Oxford, published "The Greek Testament, with the

Readings adopted by the Revisers of the Authorised Version" (Oxford, 1881;

Clarendon Press).

(8) Among the chief works dealing with the textual restoration of the Greek New

Testament which have appeared in recent years, we must mention the edition of

B. Weiss: Part 1, Acts, Catholic Epistles, Apocalypse (Leipzig, 1894, Hinrichs);

Part II, The Pauline Epistles together with Hebr. (1896); Part III, The Gospels

(1900). A manual edition of this text appeared 1902-05, in three volumes; the

mistakes of the first issue were corrected as far as possible. Richard Francis

Weymouth edited in a handy form "The Resultant Greek Testament" (London,

1886, Elliot Stock; cheap edition, 1892 and 1896; third edition, 1905); in it he

gives us the text on which the majority of modern editors are agreed, together

with all the readings of Stephens (1550), Lachmann, Tregelles, Lightfoot, Ellicott,

Alford, Weiss, the Bale Edition (1880), Westcott-Hort, and the Revision

Committee, with an introduction by J. J. St. Perowne. The editor may not give the

reader anything of his own, but he furnishes an amount of textual erudition which

the Bible student can hardly afford to neglect. Dr. E. Nestle has edited a "Novum

Testamentum Græce cum apparatu critico", (Stuttgart, 1898, 1899, 1901, 1903,

1904, 1906) based on the four most prominent of the recent texts: Tischendorf,

Westcott-Hort, Weymouth, and Weiss. All the variants of the four editions,

excepting as to minor details, are noted, so that the reader obtains at a glance

the results of the foremost textual criticism on any given text. It would be difficult

indeed to contrive a handier and more complete edition of the Greek text than

this of Nestle's, which seems likely to become the Received Text of the twentieth

century.

(9) It is, therefore, all the more to be regretted that Nestle's text cannot be

recommended to the general Catholic reader. Not to mention other shortcomings,

it places John, v, 4, and vii, 53-viii, 11, among the foot-notes, and represents

Mark, xvi, 9-20, together with an alternative ending of the Second Gospel, as a

"Western non-interpolation", suggesting that it is an ancient Eastern interpolation

of the sacred text. The rules of the new Index enumerate with precision those

classes of Catholics who may read texts like that of Nestle; others must content

themselves with one or another of the following editions: P.A. Gratz reedited the

Complutensian text (Tübingen, 1821; Füs); L. Van Ess published a combination

of the Complutensian and the Erasmian text (Tübingen, 1827; Füs); Jaumann

adheres closely to the edition of Tittmann (Munich, 1832; Lindauer); we have

already mentioned Tischendorf's text prepared for Catholic readers under the

influence of I.M. Jager (Paris, 1847, 1851, 1859); Reithmayr produced a

combination of this latter edition and that of Lachmann (Munich, 1847; Ratisbon,

1851); V. Loch derived his text, as far as possible, from the Codex Vaticanus

(Ratisbon, 1862); Tauchnitz published, with the approbation of the proper

ecclesiastical authority of Dresden, Theile's text almost without change, together

with the text of the Latin Vulgate; Brandseheid edited the Greek text and the

Latin Vulgate of the New Testament in such a way as to bring the former as

much as possible into agreement with the latter (Freiburg, 1901, etc.); finally, M.

Hetzenauer published his "Novum Testamentum Græce" (Innsbruck, 1904,

Wagner), reproducing in separate form the Greek text of his Greek-Latin edition

(1896-98). He is more independent of the Vulgate text than Brandscheid, and he

adds the more important variants in the margin, or in footnotes, or again in an

appendix critica.

(10) It must not be imagined that the textual criticism of the New Testament has

arrived at a state that can be regarded as final. Without doing injustice to the

splendid results attained by the labours of the scholars enumerated in this

article, it must be confessed that the condition of the textual criticism of the New

Testament is more uncertain to-day than it was twenty years ago. The

uncertainty springs mainly from the doubts of our critics as to the real value of

the Western readings. Professor Blass may exaggerate the importance of these

Western readings, at least with regard to the Book of Acts, when he considers

them as the transcript of the inspired writer's first or rough copy, while he

identifies the Eastern with the copy actually sent out to Antioch. Even if students

repudiate Blass's view, they will be influenced by the conservative work of H. von

Soden, which is now (1908) in course of publication (Die Schriften des NT. in

ihrer ältesten erreichbaren Textgestalt hergestellt auf Grund ihrer Textgeschichte,

Berlin, Duncker). The writer distinguishes three groups of readings: most

manuscripts present the Antiochene text, which is probably the recension of

Lucian, called K; about fifty witnesses represent the Egyptian text, probably the

recension of Hesychius, denoted by H; the third group, denoted by I, is the

Vulgate of Palestine. An investigation of the original form and the development of

each of these recensions gives rise to a number of subdivisions. The problem for

the textual critic is to discover the archetype which lies in each case at the

bottom of the three recensions. If von Soden's method should eventually prove to

be false, it may at least contribute to the improvement of our Greek

New-Testament editions.

SWETE; An Introduction to the Old Testament in Greek (Cambridge, 1902), 171 sqq.; Urtext und

Uebersetzungen der Bibel (Leipzig, 1897) 64 sqq.; NESTLE in HAST., Dictionary of the Bible (New

York, 1903), IV, 437 sqq.; KAULEN in Kirchenlex., II. 596 sq.; MASCH, Bibliotheca sacra (Halle,

1778), I, 427-436

Several sources have been mentioned in the course of the article. We might refer the reader for a

list of the other principal authors to KAULEN-WELTE-HUNDHAUSEN in Kirchenlex., s. v.

Bibelausgaben, or to VON GEBHARDT in Realencyclopädie; LE LONG, Bibliotheca sacra, ed.

MASCH (Halle, 1778), I, 187 sqq.; ROSENMÜLLER, Handbuch für die Literatur der biblischen Kritik

und Exegese (Göttingen, l797), I, 278 sqq.; HUG, Einleitung in die Schriften des Neuen Testaments

(4th ed., Stuttgart, 1847), I, 268 sqq.; TREGELLES, An Account of the Printed Text of the Greek

New Testament (London, 1854); HORNE AND TREGELLES, An Introduction to the Textual Criticism

of the New Testament (London, 1856), 116 sqq., 648 sqq.; O'CALLAGHAN, A List Of Editions of the

Holy Scriptures and parts thereof printed in America previous to 1860 (Albany, 1861); REUSS,

Bibliotheca Novi Testamenti Groeci (Brunswick, 1872); HALL, A Critical Bibliography of the Greek

New Testament as Published in America (Philadelphia, 1883); HUNDHAUSEN, Editionen des

neutestamentlichen Textes und Schriften zur neutestamentlichen Textkritik seit Lachmann in Literar

Handweiser (1882), 321 sqq.; SCHAFF, A Companion to the Greek Testament and the English

Version (3rd ed., New York, 1888), 497 sqq.; RÜGG, Die neutestamentliche Textkritik seit Lachmann

(Zürich, 1892); LUCAS, Textual Criticism and the Acts of the Apostles in Dublin Review (1894), 30

sqq.; BLASS, Acta Apostolorum etc. (Göttingen, 1895); ID., Acta Apostolorum, etc. (Leipzig, 1896);

Id., Evangelium sec. Johannem (Leipzig, 1902); GREGORY, Textkritik des Neuen Testamentes

(Leipzig, 1902); GREGORY, Canon and Text of the N.T. (New York, 1907); VON SODEN, Dir

Schriften des NT. in ihrer ältesten erreichbaren Textgestalt etc. (Berlin, 1902, 1906).

A. J. MAAS

Transcribed by Douglas J. Potter

Dedicated to the Sacred Heart of Jesus Christ

The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume V

Copyright © 1909 by Robert Appleton Company

Online Edition Copyright © 1999 by Kevin Knight

Nihil Obstat, May 1, 1909. Remy Lafort, Censor

Imprimatur. +John M. Farley, Archbishop of New York

The Catholic Encyclopedia:  newadvent.org