The Printed Greek first printed Greek Testaments were those of Erasmus, pub lished at Basel, by Froben, in 1516-35. five editions in all, and that included in the Com plutensian Polyglot, printed 1514-1517 but not published until 1521, at Alcali1, Spain. These were followed by the beautiful Regius editions of Robert Stephens (Etienne), of Paris (1546 51, four editions), of which the third, that of 1550, is the mast famous; and of Theodore Beza, of Geneva (1565-1611, ten editions). The text of all these earliest editions was practically the same, not based on early or good MSS., or constructed on true critical principles. In 1624 a Greek Testament was issued from the Elzevir Press, of Leyden, based on the editions just men tioned, which informed the reader that he had therein the mine ab omnibus receptum." This edition gained great currency, and its 'textus receptus' became commonly used through out Protestant circles.
The continuous discovery of Greek MSS., and the more careful study of the versions and fathers, showed only too plainly that the received text was far from identical with that of the more ancient witnesses. It now became the task of scholarship to seek to ascertain, if possible, the correct text. Soon the so-called critical edi tions began to make their appearance. The first great work of this kind was the New Testament of John Mill (Oxford, 1707), a large folio volume with prolegomena containing a mine of information. This was followed by the editions of J. A. Bengel (Tubingen, 1734), of J. J. Wetstein (Amsterdam, 1751-52), and of C. F. Matthaei (1782-88). and others of less im portance. The next step in advance was taken by J. J. Griesbaeh, in his two-volume edition of 1786 and 180G, and his Symboke Critiem (1785 and 1793). In his printed text the readings of the received text were often supplanted by those which seemed more strongly supported. Gries bach, like Bengel, followed clearly defined crit ical principles. In 1840-50 the philologist. Carl Lachman, published a New Testament in which the received text was altogether discarded. In its place was a text constructed by the critic on the basis of evidence. This method has been followed in all subsequent critical editions.
The work of all these men was used and more than supplemented by the gigantic labors of Tischendorf in his great eighth edition, pub lished in 1865-72, containing a critical text and an apparatus exhibiting all the more important variants then known. Similar in character, and also the monument of the labor of a lifetime, was the Greek Testament of S. P. Tregelles, which appeared in 1857-72. In 1881, after twenty-five years' joint study, the edition of Westcott and Hurt was published at Cambridge and London— the text in one volume, an introduction and ap pendix in another, written by Dr. Ilort. The veteran German exegete. Bernhard Weiss, has also crowned his lifelong study of the New Testament by an edition of its text (1900). Of these four great critical editions, those of Tisehendorf and of \Vesteott and Hort are in moat common use.
(2) The Textual Criticism of the New Testa snent.—Sinee the autographs of the New Testa ment have long since perished, the existing wit nesses to the text must be carefully studied, their variations noted, and a decision reached, if possible, as to which variants are to be pre ferred as more nearly representing the readings of the autograph. This is textual criticism.
(a) The witnesses to the text of the New Testament are: (1) Greek MSS.; (2) Ancient versions; (3) New-Testament citations found in the writings of ecclesiastical writers, espe cially of the first tire centuries. (1) Greek are of two kinds—uncial and cursive. The uncials are those written in capitals or semi capitals, the letters being unconnected with each other. Some of the uncial MSS. contain the whole or large portions of the New Testa ment, while others are only fragments. stray leaves of lost codices. They are all earlier than the Tenth Century. In the Ninth Century the cursive or running style of handwriting came into use. MSS. written in this are called cur sives. No eursives are earlier than the Ninth Century. but many of them preserve ancient and valuable texts. While there are less than a hundred uncials. the known eursives number over 1400 for the Gospels alone. Among all these MSS. live uncials deserve special men tion: (1) The Codex Sinaitieus, now in Saint Petersburg, containing the whole New Testa ment. with the Epistle of Barnabas and a part of Hernias, was discovered by Tischendorf in the Monastery of Saint Catharine at Mount Sinai, in February, 1 S59. was written in the Fourth or Fifth Century. Its leaves are of fine parch ment, or vellum. inches wide by 141, inches high. The text is in four columns of 48 lines each. The codex once contained the whole Bible. (2) The codex A/c.randrinus, one of the treas ures of the British Museum, was written in the Fifth Century. it is also a 111S. of the entire Bible. To the New Testament were added I. and II. Clement. The 10101e :IS. contains 773 leaves, of which 631) belong to the 01(1 Testa ment. The pages pleasure by inches, with two columns on each. The text is divided into sections. or paragraphs, instead of being without a break (except at the end of a hook), as in the Sinaitieus and Vaticanus. (3) The Codex l'aticanus, in the Vatican Library at Home, is probably the best New-Testament .Ms, in existence. It is of about the same age as the Sinaiticus, and, like it, is a MS. of the whole Bible. Its pages measure 10 by inches. Its vellum is of the finest quality: 142 of its 759 leaves belong to the New Testament. The last part of the volume is missing. The New Testament text is written in three eolumns on a page. (4) The Codex Ephraemi Reseriptus. This is a palimpsest—i.e. a MS. whose original writing has been erased in order to use the parchment for another work. In this case a part of a Greek Bible was used on which to write sonic of the works of the Syrian father Ephraim. By means of chemicals, the original writing has been partially restored. The MS. has but one broad column on a page. It was written in the Fifth Century. At present it contains only about two-thirds of the New Testament, many parts having been lost. The Codex is in the Na tional Library in Paris. (5) The Codex Bez.a• is a MS. of the Gospels and Acts, written in the Sixth Century. It is a bilingual codex, the Greek text being on the left, the Latin on the right, page of the open book. There is but one column on a page. This MS. was presented to the University of Cambridge, by Theodore Beza, in 1551.