The history of Textus Receptus

Erasmus of Rotterdam published the first printed Greek New Testament on March 1, 1516, in Basel, followed by four additional editions[1]. His second edition appeared in 1519 with approximately 400 improvements[1], and his fourth (1527) and fifth (1535) editions incorporated hundreds of changes drawn from the superior Ximenes text[2], though these later editions saw limited distribution.

Robert Estienne published his first Greek New Testament edition in 1546, with his third edition—the “Regia”—released in 1550 and becoming the standard text for the Textus Receptus[1]. Estienne’s fourth edition (1551) incorporated readings from the Complutensian Polyglot and Codex Bezae[2].

Theodore Beza, Calvin’s successor, produced nine editions between 1565 and 1604, essentially using Stephanus’ fourth edition[1]. The King James Version translators had access to both the Beza edition of 1589 and the Estienne edition of 1550[3].

The Elzevier family of Holland published seven editions between 1624 and 1678, primarily using Beza’s first edition. In 1633, their second edition’s foreword declared “So you hold the text, now received by all” (“textum ergo habes, nunc ab omnibus receptum”), from which the term Textus Receptus was derived[1].

Importantly, all these editions essentially trace back to Erasmus’s first edition, meaning in reality one single Textus Receptus does not exist[1]. Both Stephanus’s 1550 edition and the Elzevirs’ text of 1624 are known as the Textus Receptus[4], reflecting how the term encompasses a family of related printed texts rather than a single, fixed version.

[1] Johannes Kovar, “The Textus Receptus and Modern Bible Translations,” in Perplexing Doctrinal Questions Answered (Bellingham, WA: Faithlife, 2020). [See here, here, here, here, here, here.]
[2] Charles W. Draper, “Textus Receptus,” in Holman Illustrated Bible Dictionary, ed. Chad Brand et al. (Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers, 2003), 1577.
[3] Elliot Ritzema and S. Michael Kraeger, “Textus Receptus,” in The Lexham Bible Dictionary, ed. John D. Barry et al. (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2016). [See here.]
[4] Philip Comfort, Encountering the Manuscripts: An Introduction to New Testament Paleography & Textual Criticism (Nashville, TN: Broadman & Holman, 2005), 98.