Erasmus’ Greek New Testament

Erasmus’ Greek New Testament was far from perfect, and it was based on late Byzantine manuscripts rather than earlier textual traditions.

Erasmus relied primarily on two inferior twelfth-century manuscripts from the University of Basel—one for the Gospels and another for Acts and the Epistles[1]. This represents a fundamental problem: he was working with relatively late medieval copies rather than the earlier manuscripts that would have been closer to the originals. His final edition remained based on the Byzantine text-type and contained readings from very late manuscripts[1].

The practical consequences were severe. Since Erasmus lacked a complete Greek manuscript of the New Testament, he borrowed a twelfth-century manuscript of Revelation from a friend, but it was missing its final leaf containing the last six verses. For these verses and numerous other passages where the Greek text and commentary were indistinguishable, Erasmus translated the Latin Vulgate back into Greek[1]. This procedure produced readings that have never been found in any known Greek manuscript but persist today in the Textus Receptus[1].

His first edition contained hundreds of typographical and mechanical errors[1], and he prepared the edition with great rapidity, hurrying it through the press without due revision, resulting in a text that, although substantially correct, was full of errors and imperfections in detail[2].

The irony is that VPP treats this hastily-compiled, error-filled edition based on late medieval manuscripts as providentially preserved Scripture—when in reality it represents the limitations of Renaissance scholarship working with inadequate resources.

[1] Norman L. Geisler and William E. Nix, A General Introduction to the Bible (Chicago: Moody Press, 1986), 450–451.
[2] H. D. M. Spence-Jones, ed., Revelation, The Pulpit Commentary (London; New York: Funk & Wagnalls Company, 1909), xx.